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Decluttering The Physical And Virtual

How annoying is it to have so much stuff that you run out of room to house it or can’t even keep track of what you have? Very. You are constantly trying to figure out how to create more space for the stuff. Maybe if we get another dresser, put up some shelves. What if we move this to the office closet? What are we going to do when we have more kids? There’s just not enough storage space in this house!

Okay, maybe it’s just me.

Decluttering

Last week, Greg and I went through our closet and drawers and got rid of tons of clothes. I had so many “pjs” in the dresser it was ridiculous. Two drawers full. And I had a drawer stuffed full of socks. I was so tired of having so many, I just donated about 3/4 of them. Now my socks and undies comfortably reside in the same drawer. A whole drawer has been freed and all the rest of the drawers are filled, but not filled to capacity. We can find what we are looking for and everything is nice and neat.

lil' jeans

We went through Jayden’s wardrobe too because he has grown out of so much. We boxed up what we wanted to keep and donated the rest. I’m pretty sure we have more to purge, but I feel like the bulk of it has been taken care of.

So I’ve decluttered my home, what about my virtual home?

I can’t function in disorder. And I feel like this blog is disorderly. I’ve been wanting to use this place for what it was intended for; my personal blog. But I found skipping out on personal writings and focusing on my campaigns/reviews to be more rewarding. Yea, I said it. And they’ve been all I’ve had time and desire to write about anyway. Life has been so draining and it would have been even more draining writing about it. But everything’s okay now. Really. And I see nothing but greatness in the future.

I’m just tired of the seesaw effect I have with this blog. I haven’t posted anything personal, but I have this campaign due. My blog is full of sponsors. Ah who cares business comes first. Business supports family. I’m not trying to be the “perfect” blogger. I don’t want to post this until I give some kind of a life update. Oh forget it, I’ll blog later. Hiding out is much better. Here comes a follow up and another. Ugh, I better get to my obligations. Maybe I’ll have time to write a personal post. I start it… I don’t finish. It sits in drafts. I fail. Repeat.

I am so over it! It seems I can never get it together and I am ready to move on.

So.

I’ll be exporting all reviews to another location and setting up redirects to avoid 404 errors. I’ll continue to publish reviews/campaigns here in moderation if they are green, diy, health, beauty, and adult fashion related. Ideally, I’d like to stick with those categories for Sophistishe, but as always when starting a new site, I must build up traffic before certain items can be published at the other destination. So there will be a transition period. With this new plan in place, I can review what I want when I want without the guilt, while taking my online business to another level without burying my personal thoughts (when I decide to share them).

Done.

Some Lucky Dog

Tuesday 18th of January 2011

Sounds like you've made some liberating decisions, good for you!

I've had a personal blog for about 5 years. When I started entering giveaways I posted about a few on there and quickly realized I didn't want to go there. So I started Some Lucky Dog and that's where I post about giveaways and do a few reviews and giveaways. It's worked well. I also did the same with facebook and twitter. I do screen friend requests on both fb accounts, though, just to keep any "weirdos" out and I've blocked a few on twitter. I've enjoyed your personal posts a lot and will keep up with you on both blogs!

Cindy

Yakini

Tuesday 18th of January 2011

Really great comments from Jarmelia. I appreciate her sharing those insights.

Makes me think back to when I only had the one blog, and had started doing more and more reviews/giveaways. When I initially began blogging it was solely to share my parenting journey with family/friends... I was a new mom and blogging hobbyist, nothing more. I was SHOCKED when offers from PR companies started to roll in. I was like, whaaat?!! They want to give me stuff? And give stuff to my readers?!! BET! It became fun and exciting to share my thoughts and feedback on parenting and beauty products. And before long I was hooked.

But then something told me to ask my readers what they thought about the new turn my blog had taken. I figured they would be just as happy as me about the new PR spin I had placed on the blog. I posted an anonymous survey and also invited readers to leave comments about how they felt about it. I was stunned by the response. Folks were EXTREMELY passionate about how they felt my blog (and I) had changed, and how they did not like the changes. Similar to Jarmelia, they stated that they used to enjoy when I shared funny and cute and sometimes touching anecdotes about my family.... and how deeply disappointed they felt when my blog became "commercialized." They expressed their frustration with coming to my blog, expecting to read a personal account of something that had happened... only to find yet another giveaway or product review. Many stated that they had continued to stick with me out of loyalty, and hoped I would get back to my blogging from a personal place, but others admitted that it had turned them off and they had not been reading as regularly.

Of course, that was very sobering to hear. Sheena, as you so correctly stated, monetizing blogs has become an important, and necessary, source of income for many families. That's when I decided that it was time to separate the two. I still enjoyed doing both, and didn't want to sacrafice either. And I've found that to be extremely rewarding - because now there is a place for everyone. Some of my readers love all the family stuff, and there are others who only care about contest and giveaways. Maintaining two separate blogs is a bit of extra work but well-worth it, I think. I no longer have to worry about annoying one or the other group of readers. :-)

Laila @OnlyLaila

Tuesday 18th of January 2011

A couple of weeks ago I was on a mission to de-clutter my home. I LOVE Freecycle so it was fairly easy to get rid of stuff that I no longer used. I'm also going to pick up this book called, The 100 Thing Challenge. I have so much going on professionally and personally that I am trying to make life as simple as possible.

re: blogging, I am still a newbie and trying to figure out what I can and can't do.

tanyetta

Tuesday 18th of January 2011

Great Idea! :)

K. Rock

Tuesday 18th of January 2011

I totally agree with having to do what works for you. You are all you've got so that must be on the front burner. Decluttering you life is a great idea and I am in the midst of something like that too.

One thing I do for the clutter that accumulates with clothes, is everyone has a plastic bag in their closet. When you take something out and see its too small, it goes straight into the bag and not into the drawer, dirty clothes, or whever else it could end up. When the bag is full, we give it away and start over again.

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