Summer heat has a way of making the house feel smaller, more congested, with less room for the air to circulate. And there’s nothing like the heat to make me want to strip down, cool off and lighten my load. So, motivation in three digits, now that school is back in, it’s time to do a purge.

Forget the spring clean —who has time for that? Those last few months of the school year are busier than the first. And summer’s warm weather entices our family outdoors on the weekends, which doesn’t leave much time for re-organizing.

So, I seize the opportunity when my kids are back in school to enter my zone.

I love throwing open every closet and cupboard door, pulling out anything and everything that doesn’t fit our bodies or our lives. Each joyless item purged peels off another oppressive layer of “not me” or “not us.”

Stuff can obscure what really makes us feel light, capable and competent.

Stuff can stem the flow of what makes our lives work .

With my kids back in school, I am energized, motivated by the thought that I have the space to be in my head with no interruptions. No refereeing. No snacks. No naps… I am tossing. I am folding. I am stacking. I am organizing . I don’t worry about having to stop. The neat-freak in me is having a field day.

Passing bedroom doors, ajar and flashing their naughty bits of chaos at me, it’s more than I can handle in terms of temptation. I have to be careful, though, because I can get on a roll. Taking to my kids’ rooms I tread carefully, always aware that what I think is junk can actually be their treasure.

But I usually have a good sense for what has been abandoned or invisible in plain sight for the lack of movement or the accumulation of dust. Anything that fits the description gets relegated to a box in the garage where it is on standby—in case its absence is noticed and a meltdown has ensued. Crisis averted. Either way, it’s a victory.

Oh, it’s quiet. So, so quiet. And I can think it all through…

Do we really need all this stuff ?

Will my son really notice if I toss all this stuff?

Will my daughter be heartbroken if I donate all this stuff?

Will I really miss this dress I wore three years ago that barely fit my waist then and had me holding in my tummy all night, and that I for sure cannot zip today?

Can we live without it all? All. This. Stuff ?

The fall purge always gets me wondering, where in the world does all this stuff come from? So with the beginning of the school year upon us, I vow to create a new mindset to evaluate everything that enters my home from now on, so that there will be so much less stuff.

I vow to really think about objects before they enter my home…

…to evaluate what is really useful,

…to consider when it would be useful,

…to imagine where it would be useful,

…to remember why it may be useful,

…to decide how to use it in more than one way,

… so that all this stuff won’t get in the way of what really matters—time and attention for my kids and our lives as a new year reveals more layers of the real stuff —what my kids are made of.

Bring it on.

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