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Alamb

Author/Television Reporter

Amanda Lamb is a professional television journalist and author. She covers murder trials by day and reads Dora the Explorer to her children at night. Somewhere in between all of that she writes about those parenting moments that catch each us off-guard in a crazy, chaotic, and wonderful way. Aman...

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Making Room

Amanda Lamb

For some reason when the temperatures get cold I start to feel suffocated by all of the stuff in my house.  While most people like to do “spring cleaning,” I am a winter cleaner.  I think it’s because I spend more time inside, nesting, and noticing the clutter.

I usually start with the bedrooms and then move throughout the house, emptying closets and drawers, filling up trash bags to take to Goodwill.  What I find always amazes me.  In my girls’ rooms I am likely to find lone tennis balls in a box with plastic junk from a birthday party, broken pencils and candy wrappers.  In the hall closet I am greeted by multiple flashlights without batteries, boots that fit no one, and long lost dog leashes.  As I move into the den there are assorted picture frames without glass, CD’s that we haven’t listened to in years, and borrowed books that I will likely never have time to read.

There is something about removing the clutter that opens your mind to the possibilities in your home.  Not unlike discarding emotional baggage, making room in your house gives you a sense of freedom that only space can truly do.

There’s no doubt the clutter will amass again, and I’ll be forced to have another go at it come spring.  But for now I am simply enjoying the fact that everything has a place, and there’s finally room for us to breathe.