What *do* I want?

I came across some pictures of uncluttered homes recently. There were no piles of stuff, no chairs overflowing with unfolded sheets, no bookshelves crammed with board games, no Scooby Doo books on the floor. The houses were very neat. The thing is, it made me realize what I *don't* want. Some of them were nice but some of the pictures made me uncomfortable. I couldn't imagine my kids running through those houses, having fun and making messes. I couldn't imagine *me* being comfortable visiting some of those houses. I want less stuff, sure, but I don't want a house that looks like no one lives there.

A friend of mine brought this up recently. Her house is far neater than mine, but it's still comfortably lived in and we love hanging out there. She was talking about having playdates in houses where you are afraid to let your kids play and I knew what she meant. I've been in houses like that too. Sure, no one wants to have a playdate in a house so cluttered there's no room to play, but on the other end of the spectrum, it's no fun having a playdate at a house where you feel you have to shadow your kid's every move for fear of getting a fingerprint on something.

I think I need to have a goal in mind. Up til now my goal has just been "no clutter" but I wasn't sure exactly what that meant. I think I have more of an idea now. The definition I'm going by is that "clutter" means things that aren't used or loved, it doesn't mean "stuff". I'm still going to have stuff, I'm just hoping to not have clutter. So I'm getting rid of all the things we don't use or love but we'll still have two dozen board games (my son in particular loves them), a dozen puzzles (again, my son's), tons of arts and crafts (both kids), my teapot collection (I'm going to cull a few but most I like), my old camera collection (I'm not parting with a single one), my dh's woodworking magazines (2 shelves full) and more stuffed animals than you can shake a stick at (I get rid of what I can but no, I'm not forcing my kids to give up things they actually like).

So I feel like I have more of a goal in mind now. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when the kids go to Grandma's and dh will be helping me with the front room. In the meantime, let's go see what clutter I can find to give away today :)