How to REALLY Declutter Your Home

It is the beginning of January, so of course social media is flooded with diets, exercise plans, and tips to get organized. Everything promises fast results to make it more appealing. "How to Lose 25lbs in 6 Weeks!" "Get Toned Abs with This 5 Minute Workout!" "Declutter Your Entire House in 30 Days!"

No wonder people give up so easily on their New Year's resolutions. We can't expect instant results. We should, however, expect to put in a lot of time and effort to achieve goals.

I blogged about decluttering and organizing a few times early last year, but behind the scenes it was an ongoing process all year long. I keep a post-it note in my planner to tally up how many garbage bags of stuff I got rid of and by the end of the year I had purged 96 BAGS!

Stop and mentally picture that for a moment.

Honestly, my house is cluttered, but we don't live like extreme hoarders. I still don't feel like it made that much of a difference. Quite a bit of it came from our storage shed as I thinned out the amount of clothes and shoes that I save for hand me downs. I think I do see a lot of difference there (and a lot of empty totes!) I purged a lot of fabric and craft supplies, too. (GASP!)

Anyway, I did go through some really strong decluttering sprees, especially when it was time to switch out seasonal clothes, but mostly it was a slow, chipping away at one area or another. Sometimes I was intentional about working on one area per day, sometimes I followed a list, and sometimes it just depended on my mood and/or time constraints. I also participated in a Spring Fling where we worked on one room per day for 2 weeks. It was good to have motivation and accountability, but most of my friends fell behind schedule and didn't finish.

The popular 30 day decluttering lists are a nice way to start, but they don't leave much flexibility. Not everyone has the same problem areas in their home. Sometimes life happens and we need a little grace.

I have some different ideas...

 

1. Find something that works for you. If you can do it all in a month and be done- GREAT! In the past, I have tried to focus on one room per week, but as soon as I get to the kids' bedrooms I tend to fizzle out and quit. I need to give myself some grace, admit if something isn't working, and start again. This year, I plan to focus on one room per month. I am not sure how it will go, but I am trying it! I have also found that I need to pace myself a bit. I tend to get a bit carried away and rip everything apart. For example, today I am cleaning out the refrigerator. Just the inside. I am honestly procrastinating washing out the drawers by writing this blog post, but I did get all of the old food cleared out. :)
2. It is a continual process. I can declutter one area and a few months later it is a wreck. I have to continually revisit challenging areas and maybe even find a new way to store or organize things. It is OK to admit that the awesome idea I saw on Pinterest doesn't work well in my home. I may find that I didn't actually need something because I haven't used it since the last time I decluttered. Also, things keep creeping into my home and taking up more space. Which leads me to...
3. Limit the stuff. I am trying to be more intentional about the things I bring into my home. Do I really need this? Can I "make do" with something else? What is the quality like? Is it really going to last? Dropping off 2 bags and the thrift store and coming home with 3 more totally defeats the purpose! I think the biggest key to preventing clutter is to not let it into my house in the first place.
4. Build in some extra motivation. Maybe you are self motivated when it comes to cleaning. If so, disregard this one. I am not always feeling very industrious, so I need a little push at times. I keep my tally sheet post it in the inside of my planner cover. Seeing how much I have accomplished so far helps me to keep striving to up that number. I guess marking that little tally line is similar to putting stickers on a potty training chart! I also have some friends and family who appreciate decluttering as much as I do and we will text each other when we accomplish something awesome. Having people come alongside me to cheer me on is a big help. (Thank you!) If you need me to be that person, just send me a message and I will be glad to send you congratulatory gifs and stickers! Some people might like joining a facebook group for accountability. Some might want to buy a nice, new shirt to replace the 5 they threw out. Some might just want to take a nice bubble bath when they finish one dreaded area. I think is OK to reward yourself!

I am going to keep plugging away at my decluttering this year and I will probably share more about it on facebook, if you would like to follow along there. I know that I am not alone, so I want to try to check in with the rest of my fellow declutterers from time to time so that we can cheer each other on and lift one another up. (YOU CAN DO IT!!! The cheerleader in me never quits!)

Happy New Year!

Puzzle Organization

Hey there! I am still here. You can always assume that if I am not blogging it is because I am super busy with real life stuff. I tend to take on too much and end up getting really burned out. That usually results in getting sick, too. It is like my body is forcing me to slow down and take care of myself. Unfortunately, moms don't get sick days. Even though my 4yo was struggling with a nasty cold herself, she still had way more energy than I could handle. I have written before about utilizing busy bags, quiet books, or stashes of special toys/activities to keep little ones occupied. The past few days we have gone through quite a few of them.

At the beginning of the year I was on a major decluttering and organizing spree. One of the things I tackled was the puzzles. I decided to throw away any puzzles that did not have all of their pieces. Most of them are from the Dollar Tree so it was not a great loss. It made it easier to clean the rest of the house because I tossed any pieces I found instead of saving them and trying to put them in the right box later. Here is the before picture...

Puzzle boxes take up a lot of space for the tiny pieces that they hold. They also come in all shapes and sizes, so the boxes do not stack neatly anywhere. I decided that it was easier to put them all in bags instead. All of the bags fit in one bin from the Dollar Tree. (Honestly, I don't shop there very often!) I cut the pictures off of the boxes so that they know what it is supposed to look like.

I can fit dozens of puzzles in that little bin!

It was a simple storage solution for us. Although, the puzzle my daughter chose to do was actually missing one piece. Figures!

Other posts that you may find helpful…

8 Tips that Help Me Declutter

Kitchen Decluttering and Organizing

Kitchen Organization for Lunchbox Stuff

Kitchen Drawer Organizing

Washi Tape Organization

My daughter has decided that she hates blogging today, so I am going to finish the post for her. It is all about getting organized with washi tape.

Washi tape can help to get things organized in a fun, cute way. My mom made her own tabs in journals to create sections by folding a little washi tape on the edge of the page.

My mom also uses washi tape in her planner, and I use it on my calendar to mark important dates.

My sisters and I also used washi tape to mark the phone/tablet chargers so that we know whose is whose. Charger theft is a very serious crime in our house.

I have my own little "classroom" and the freezer door is the dry erase board. Many real teachers also use washi tape to create sections on blackboards or dry erase boards.

I also made a bunch of washi tape clothespin magnets. If you have washi tape that is about the same size as the clothespins it doesn't get any easier than this! Just put a strip of washi tape on the front and an adhesive magnet or two on the back.

I also made these organizers out of one of my shotgun shell boxes. The animal print is actually duct tape, though.

Thanks for taking your time to read this post!

If you want to pin these ideas for later...

You can see all of the Washi Week 2017 posts HERE.

Kitchen Drawer Organizing

May is a crazy busy month for me! We have 4 different sports teams going right now so we are always on the go. I really don't have time for extra cleaning and organizing, but I know that I need to make it a priority because, let's face it, when the kids are home from school for the summer it will only get worse. Kathi Lipp is running a 10 day "Spring Fling" challenge over on her blog and I decided to join in. The first room was the same place where I always start- the kitchen. Since I organized and decluttered a lot back in January, it was not too bad. I got rid of some things that we aren't really using and some things that are in poor condition. If I find I really do need to replace them later, I will, but I would bet that we can made do. One area that I have decent organization is my drawers. Unfortunately, it is my 11yo's job to unload the dishwasher and she doesn't put things away correctly. We need some more lessons on that. I won't let them graduate to another job until they have learned to master the currently assigned chore. (Everyone really hates unloading the dishwasher.) I focused on decluttering and straightening the drawers today. So, this is what my drawers look like when things are put in the proper places (and to be fair there are some things in the dishwasher waiting to be washed).

Please excuse my terrible pictures; the lighting in my kitchen is really bad, especially on dreary days like today. 

I was given this handy tray for utensils. My rolling pin fits nicely beside it so that is where I keep it.

The drawer doesn't pull out all the way, but behind the tray I have a bag with extra utensils for when we host large gatherings, which is never, and the toddler and baby utensils in an old storage container that didn't have a lid.

Next I have the larger utensils that I use for cooking and serving. I use a tray from the Dollar Tree (came in a 3-pack) to hold the spatulas and create a sort of divider. This drawer is usually the messiest, but I didn't want all of those bulky items in a container on my counter anymore.

My kitchen gadget drawer is nicely organized with dollar store bins. Someone in the Spring Fling facebook group showed that she decluttered her vegetable peelers. Well, I had five but we use them all when we are canning and I put the girls to work. I still parted with two that were worn out so either I get more or we take shifts. LOL

Last stop is the junk drawer. Most of our junk is in baskets around the house (which I plan on revisiting soon) so it really just holds some miscellaneous items and extra things.

I feel like I am off to a good start, even if I got rid of a lot of small items.

 Other posts that you may find helpful...

8 Tips that Help Me Declutter

Kitchen Decluttering and Organizing

Kitchen Organization for Lunchbox Stuff

Kitchen Organization for Lunchbox Stuff

I must admit, I am slowing down a bit on my decluttering and organizing around here. Part of it is my ambition fizzling out and part of it is the kids being home more. Nothing ruins a good cleaning spree like a phone call about an early dismissal. Speaking of school, my kids go through little spurts where they like to pack their lunches. I used to encourage lunch packing quite a bit more, but frankly, I just got burned out. One year of packing three custom lunches and a snack every day wore me down. I have more of a "whatever" attitude about it now.

I still have a lot of lunch packing supplies- plastic containers, thermoses, etc. They can trash a cupboard pretty quickly. In a perfect world, I would have an entire area just designated to lunchbox stuff where everything is in one place, but my kitchen just isn't set up that way. I gotta' make do.

So, of course, I resorted to plastic bins from the Dollar Tree. They corral most of the plastic containers. I also sometimes use old food storage containers with missing lids. The white one holds my plastic mason jar lids.

I like to use the plastic sandwich boxes because their sandwiches don't get smashed. The XS size Glad containers are a perfect snack size for elementary lunches! Also, a friend of mine sent reusable pouches for applesauce when my daughter had sever poison ivy all over her face and lips and couldn't open her mouth wide enough to eat much.

The older girls conned me into buying some cute sectioned containers that they don't really use.

Some of the lunchbox goodies have to be stored in the fridge. I love the plastic baskets with the handles in front since I am short (they have them at our local Dollar Tree in cute colors right now!) It keeps everything in the fridge so much neater!

The pink basket holds little things for lunchboxes, like yogurt cups and snacks. They would be a mess left loose in the fridge and I keep them up high or they will be gobbled up really quickly in this house. Remember those little Glad containers from a few pictures up? Well, those make perfect DIY jello cups! I also like to make my own granola bars and put them in snack bags.

The white basket is for jelly. We always have an assortment. (See THIS post for jelly recipes!)

I keep the soup thermoses with the water bottles (see HERE), but maybe I should pitch some of those divided containers and move them. The water bottles need to be kept at a more convenient spot because we use them more often. The actual lunchboxes are stored on the bottom shelf of my bakers rack in a big wire basket. I keep them low so the kids can put them away easily- they are supposed to empty their lunchboxes as soon as they get home.

These are just a few practical things that have helped to corral the mess. You can see my other kitchen organizing posts HERE and HERE.

If you have any organizing tips, I would love to hear them! I am always trying to make things more efficient!

More Kitchen Organization

Last year, I put a lot of thought into better ways to organize my kitchen. We don't have the money to totally redo things and my husband doesn't want to make even small cosmetic changes if we hope to tear it all out one day. Soon after we moved here, I did get him to move the stove and install a dishwasher. Unfortunately, that left an awkward space where the stove hood used to be. It is the area that I use the most when cooking and baking, so I found some practical ways to make it work for me. On the side of the cupboard, I added mug hooks to hang my mixer attachments and measuring cups. I love being able to reach up and quickly grab what I need without having to dig through a drawer or cupboard!

On the wall behind the counter, I hung two metal spice racks, side by side. It keeps my spices handy and they look so pretty and organized.

I got the spice racks from Amazon and the jars came from the Target Dollar Spot. They didn't have any labels, so I painted the lids with chalkboard paint. I like having the option of changing it, but they tend to wipe off if I bump them a lot or get them wet.

It is still an awkward space, and it is not pretty, but at least it is functional and organized!

Kitchen Decluttering and Organizing

I generally like to break my decluttering up by focusing on one area of my home at a time. If I don't I will end up ripping everything apart and it will look like a bomb went off. Did you ever read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? Well, I am pretty sure that I inspired that book, even if I have never met the author. Yesterday morning the girls wanted to pack their lunches and I discovered that cupboard was a mess, so it just sort of spiraled from there. Before I knew it, I had decluttered a third of my kitchen cupboards. I had to cut myself off because there is still a lot of post-Christmas-recovery work to be done in the rest of my house.

Here is just a random list of things I decluttered in the last week or so...

I seem to always start in the kitchen. It seems to be the room that we use the most and it gets cluttered pretty easily.  Fortunately, it is also pretty easy to find better ways to organize in the kitchen. If something isn't working out, like my lunchbox stuff, I am not afraid to move things around and try something else.

I try to find ways to make do with what I already have and I can't afford to spend much money on my kitchen. The absolutely MOST helpful thing I have ever done to organize my kitchen was to start using plastic bins on the cupboard shelves. I got most of my bins at the Dollar Tree (it can be hit or miss there) or Walmart. I am super short, so I can't reach those upper cupboards and the ones with the handles mean I don't have to drag a chair over or climb up on the counter!

In these bins up above my stove I have some gadgets (immersion blender, electric knife, apple peeler), cupcake liners, decorating supplies (candles, sprinkles, food coloring, etc.), and spices.

Here I have more spices on top. The next shelf has a bin entirely dedicated to chocolate- cocoa powder, chocolate chips, etc. My husband thinks I have a problem. The other one has my baking supplies- cornstarch, baking soda, baking power, etc. The bottom shelf has been promoted from sippy cups to water bottles. (sniff sniff)

I also use bins in another area to store medicines. The adult medicines are in one bin and the kids' medicines and cough drops (which I am oddly stocked up on) are in the other. This was another huge help to me- especially when someone is sick and the last thing I want to do is climb up and look for the right medicine.

Besides my chocolate issue, I do have a bit of a problem with cupcake liners. It seems extreme, now that I am blogging about it, to have an entire bin full of cupcake liners. I use them a lot, probably more for freezer muffins than cupcakes, and I can't resist a good clearance deal on cute ones!

They get smashed really easy, so I had been looking for a pasta container to put them in like I saw on Pinterest. I never could find one and one day it occurred to me that I could just use some wide mouth pint mason jars.

I also seem to have a spice problem, so I plan on showing you what I have done to organize those later.

What are your best kitchen organization tips? Have you found anything that has worked really well? I am always looking for ways to make things more efficient around here.