Whittle Down Wednesday

I have decided to make decluttering a part of my daily routine.

My washer really has freed up some time in my day! :o)


I thought about doing one room/day and working through all the rooms my house a few times/month. The first time I declutter a room it might be a big job, each additional visit to the room will be easier and easier. I have worked a few rooms already but even with a HE machine I just can't commit to doing a whole room every day (I'm thinking closets, dresser drawers, toy bins, bookcases, etc). I still have little people that need feeding, diapering and play time not to mention errands to run.

I've decided to give myself a challenge each day, but to be realistic as well. I have a short 2-handled laundry basket that I bring to the room where I will be working. I empy the contents of the dresser/bookshelf/cupboard/closet and anything that doesn't go in the trash that needs to be returned to another room or be donated goes in the basket. I return all necessary items creating a home for them. Then, when I've finished the particular project, it is easy to carry the basket around the house placing lost items where they belong.

My project this morning was my bed side table.

I love to read. I don't have lots of time to read, but like to have a book (or ten) nearby when I do. I like to be inspired when I read. I read a lot of spiritual, self help, mothering, homeschooling and marriage books. If I do read fiction is is usually a read aloud to my kids.

When I purchased our bedroom set, I wanted a bedside table with drawers. My idea was that I'd always have a drawer to keep my books in so my table surface wouldn't look cluttered.

Here was the surface of my bedside table thismorning. For some reason 3 drawers weren't any help at keeping the table surface clear.

And here's why. Drawer 1 before.

Drawer 2 before. Drawer 3 before.
It took about to an hour sort through papers and remove the overflow from these three drawers and put items in new homes.

Surface after. Drawer 1 after. Drawer 2 after. Drawer 3 after. Just tissues, a folder of momentos and my booties and gloves for winter skin care. I decided to keep only one book on the table. I kept journals (8 of them! I can't part with them, though.), two Bibles and a few devotional books in my drawers. The rest I moved to a book shelf in my closet. (my old coupon inserts are stored in the 3 buckets on the bottom shelf).

WHITTLE DOWN WEDNESDAY

Our Whittle Down Wednesday posts are based on and inspired by Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living A Richer Life With Less Stuff. If you have cable you may be familiar with his TLC series Clean Sweep. I've never seen the show but the book is a great tool to motivate you to trasnsform your home & your life.

His tag line sums up the book: An Easy Plan for A Richer Life With Less Stuff. His book is a plan. He takes you through the processes of seeing your space ( home, room, drawer, etc.) as it is now and helping you to see what you really need/desire the space to be.

First, Walsh tells you to imagine the life you want to live. He leads you to think about the answers to the following questions:
What is the life you want?
How do you spend your time?
How do you feel at home?
How do you interact with your family?
What do you accomplish in your home?

Next, he asks you to imagine your ideal living space. What does your home look like?
Here are some questions he lists to help you envision your ideal space:
Does this house look the way I want it to?
Does this house feel like a home to me?
How do I feel when I come home to this place?
How do I want to feel when I come home to this place?
How do family members feel when they come home to this place?
How do they want to feel?
How do I feel when I enter this room?
What is this room's function now?
What is the function I want it to have?
In order to serve its function, what should the room contain in terms of furniture, contents, and open space?

These are the things I contemplate as I conquer one small space at a time. I'd love to have him come in and help me do a "Clean Sweep," but I don't have that luxury. Thankfully I have the accountability of this blog to see to it that I at least work on one space each week.

Here is this week's project. I tried to finish up the kitchen drawers. You must be so bored with my kitchen. I'm still not done, but I actually did more than one drawer this week.

I have a column of four drawers next to my oven. The first is my knife drawer I posted the transformation here last week.
I've labeled the rest of these drawers #2, #3 and #4.
Here is #2 before...


and after...I tossed sippy cup plugs, corn holders, broken measuring spoons. It looks much less cluttered.

Here is drawer #3 before...
Drawer #3 after...

This still looks pretty cluttered. I tossed out a few broken items, moved some items to other drawers and just tidied up. I just couldn't bring myself to toss any duplicate measuring cups. Sometimes I need 3 one-cup measuring cups!

Drawer #4 before... I keep potholders and towels here. You can see some of my rags have slipped into this drawer. I have a spot for rags under my kitchen sink. I also used to store bibs here, but pulled them out to donate. My 21 month old just pulls them off if I try to velcro one on him. I took this picture much later, you can see the evidence that we are out of paper towels, because now the drawer is nearly empty. :o)

The next two drawers are large and deep. They are below my silverware drawer. I don't load these drawers because, although they are deep, I'm afraid they may not be able to bear much weight. This is my foil, baggie and brown bag drawer before...
I also store phone books here, I tossed all the out of date phone books in the recycel bin, combined duplicate boxes andjust tidied up.

Here it is after...And this is my plastic bowl and plate drawer before...

and after... I store kid friendly bowls and plates that are within easy reach of my little ones. I also had my plain white wash cloths in here to clean up my son's face after meals. I am moving them to the pot holder drawer. I bagged the paper plate holders (they are green in the photo) to donate. I've had these for over 10 years and I know I haven't used them in more than five! Tucked in the far left corner is a collection of stainless I pull from when we have company and some plastic cuttlery.

This is the last drawer I'm blogging (I have a larege silverware drawer with two trays of stainless, but I can't toss anything here. We need all this stainless. I also have a small drawer that only holds appliance manuals). This is my baking drawer (named only because it is under my baking cabinet and I roll out dough on the counter above it).

before... after...

Stored here are: wooden skewers, the cord and drip cup to my griddle, a rolling pin, a dough mat, a small cutting board, a pie edge cover and some accessories to a food processor.

Although my de-cluttered areas are not exactly perfect all the time it is VERY easy to quickly tidy them up. As I have said before I have a 3 yo, a 5 yo and a 7 yo helping me unload the dishwasher 3 times a day, they have noticed the change and are making an effort to help me keep things tidied up.

Whittle Down Wednesday

Just a re-cap. The purpose of our Wednesday posts are to help us not just straighten things up but to remove unnecessary clutter and live simply with less. Frugal Momma and I were both inspired by Peter Walsh's book It's All Too Much. It's a great resource to give you a realistic picture of how our things rule us.


I cleaned up this drawer just a few minutes ago.

I've been enjoying out of town family this week and hadn't planned on posting anything. Looks great and it took me less than 10 minutes including photography.

Whittle Down Wednesday

I'm re-reading Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much. I was getting sidetracked into just "cleaning up" rather than "streamlining my spaces" by removing clutter (items that don't serve the function of the room or space) and keeping only items that serve me!

I hosted a High School Graduation party for my oldest this weekend and I was busy all last week (too busy to post anything on the blog!) getting my house ready for guests and planning our party meals.

I did plenty of cleaning & de-cluttering last week.

Our family moved into our home 4 years ago. We were blessed by the addition of two new babies to our family since we moved in. I think when you are always in "baby-mode" (pregnant and being so tired OR, nursing a little one and being so tired) it is especially difficult to keep your head above water let alone have the clarity to try and figure out the difference between an item that serves you and an item that you serve. My "baby" is 20 months old now. Idecided now was a great time to take a look at my spaces from an un-foggy perspective.

I spent some time in my kitchen re-organizing my cupboards. Before last week I hadn't changed what went where since I unpacked all my boxes 4 years ago. I have lots of cabinet space. I think all this space caused me to keep items that just cluttered up my cabinets.

Here is an upper cabinet between my stove and my sink.

BEFORE

I was keeping vitamins, medicines, and first aid items on the first shelf. Crafts, flashlights, grilling equipment, baby soap & lotion (for sink baths), matches, candles, pens, paper, 4 broken Christmas ornaments and two broken dishes I planned to one day glue together.

I decided I already have a place for medicines upstairs and that it was silly to have more than band-aids and pain relievers here with the vitamins. So when I'd gathered up all the medicine to bring upstairs it didn't all fit in a grocery bag! I needed a bag and 1/3 - and this didn't include all the expired meds that went in the trash! I moved all the vitamins up to the third shelf from the bottom shelf. I think this is safer.

I let myself off the hook and I threw away the broken ornaments and decorative pottery. I threw away any dried up paints and glue. I choose a shoebox sized plastic container to hold all my painting supplies and glue for the kids. Other craft supplies are somewhere more accessible to the children, in this cabinet I only keep what I need to supervise. All these crafts are now on the very top shelf.

Now I have a very large decorative pasta bowl on the bottom shelf, the second shelf up stores my cut glass cake pedestal plate (this gets a lot of use April - October!), my grilling basket fork and turner & matches.

On the third shelf are all vitamins on a lazy susan and some candles.

The top shelf holds the crafts I mentioned earlier.

AFTER

I will post my other cabinets in the weeks to come.

Whittle Down Wednesday

I didn't have a lot of free time this week. I tackled a small project, the 3 drawers in my Master Bath. It only took me 15-20 minutes!
Here are my "before" pictures.

Drawer #1
In this shallow top drawer I store make up, deodorant, facial cleansers & Moisturizers, tweezers, nail clippers, free samples, and more.
3







Drawer #2
This is a deeper drawer. In herer I store hair brushes, hairspray, my curling irons, clips, 3yo DD's bows & elastic bands.







Drawer # 3
This is also a deep drawer. In here I keep hair dryer and accessories, hair gels (these are for keeping bed head to a minimum when my boys are in dire need of a hairlcut!), white strips I haven't used in over a year, facial moisturizers and foot care, and JUNK




I took a good look at what products I really use regularly. I took out everything else. I threw out anything expired. For information on the shelf life of make up products go here. Here are my "after" pictures!

Drawer #1
I still store deodorant, make up and facial moisturizers and cleansers here. I simply removed what I wasn't using regularly and threw out anything old, or that I had no intention of using.





Drawer #2
This drawer only holds brushes and hair accessories now. It is so much easier to find everything!








Drawer #3
Now I keep all irons, dryers, and now my hot rollers fit in here too!
(I threw the white strips out!)






I find that my vanity counter stays cleaner now. Because there is room in the drawers for what I use, it is less likely to end up on the counter! My 15 minute investment has made my mornings go more smoothly. Also, because there is plenty of room in the drawers for what I use, I have found that I put them away! Less clutter on the counter means a neater bathroom!