Why Game Systems Don't Last Long In Our House

Our Craigslist picture

Yesterday I was super busy getting our Xbox 360 Kinect ready to sell.  We had gotten rid of video games in the past but as time went on we had thought we'd give the a try again.  I regretted it almost immediately when we bought this system.  Before we got it, we were out doing a lot of adventures, homeschooling was much easier, getting them to do their chores wasn't so hard, and they got along better.  I hated all the negative changes and started to pray about how to fix it.  My family was just way too game crazy to easily get rid of it.  I started praying that God would just move on Charles' heart about it rather than me nag him.  Nagging never works and only drives guys crazy.  Not only that but I hated the one eyed TV sitting right in our living room.  It didn't stream TV but it just felt like it was the focus of the whole room.  Last week, 7 months from the time we bought it, Charles talked to me about getting rid of the system.  Whoa, really?  I couldn't believe it.  He loved it just as much as everyone else.  I wasn't gonna play around with that decision so I immediately posted it up on Craigslist and got a buyer for $400.  We sold the system with 30 games and lots of accessories.  It's gone and I feel free.  What surprised me more was the kids reaction to us selling it.  No one had a bad attitude about it at all and we immediately saw a positive chance in their behavior.  They were playing together again, being creative, riding bikes outside.

Almost as soon as the buyers came over our house I had to lay down from another massive headache.  I was so frustrated because I hate having to lay around in the middle of the day and do nothing.  I was excited about finishing up my Declutter One Room a Day project.  After my husband gave me some Tylenol, an hour later I was back on my feet and got right to work on the kitchen.  I took lots of stuff out of the cupboards and put in a donation bin.  Got rid of the all the miscellaneous donation bags that I had on the floor from working in other rooms.  It just got so late by the time I was finished I couldn't really do the extra work I wanted to do.  I still would like to wash down the cupboards and clean out the fridge but that's not so much my worry right now since it's about decluttering.  I did that so I went to bed happy knowing my cupboards weren't so full of unnecessary clutter.

Boys being boys and outside

I still have the bathrooms to declutter (under the sinks and reorganizing), the office, and then going to all the kids clothes to get rid of the excess.  I'm so close to finishing.  Waking up in the morning to a clean house has meant so much to me.  It's so easy to keep clean I'm crying as I type this.  I hated that my life was so centered around cleaning. Why did we need so much stuff?  Why wasn't I taking out the old as the new was brought it over the years?  It was like one day I woke up (two Saturdays ago) and saw how much stuff there really was.  The house wasn't dirty, just over cluttered and I was the one paying the price for it.  I was the one cleaning and cleaning every day to keep things put away.  Now, I can straighten up the whole house in a half hour.  OH MY GOSH.  That...is....wonderful.