DeClutter 2014: Week One

I already feel better. Last week, I was hyperventilating.

The clutter, it was suffocating me.  It secretly lurked in the dark corners of my home. No one could see it, because I  don’t entertain in my storage areas or my closets.  As a rule.  But I knew it was there. And, now, because I posted pictures of it on The World Wide Internets, the rest of world knows it’s there, too.

My goal is to work on it for about an hour a day for as long as it takes to get through the entire house.  It hasn’t worked out exactly like that so far, but I’ve made significant progress. The first area I started on was the corner of the basement that held the stuff I intended to donate.  There are not a lot of decisions to be made there, except for what is going where, so I felt like I could make a huge dent and gain some momentum.

So far, I have 2 1/2 large bags of boy clothes set aside for my sister (not pictured), 1 large bag of school uniforms that I’m saving for the uniform sale at the end of the year (not pictured), and what I could fit into the back of my GMC to take to The Goodwill. I also had some extra room in the garbage bag so I secretly did a quick dump of all Polly Pockets and every bit of her stupid little rubbery clothing and accessories. (Does anyone know any child who is able to dress and undress a Polly Pocket without the assistance of a responsible adult?)

Saturday, I was watching my 7-year-old try to find something to color with in her craft cabinet. I wasn’t going to attack that area until I had the basement cleared out, but when a child says to you, “Mommy, can you please clean this out with me?” you must take action. The clutter was suffocating her, too.

I have to say, here, my Little Elliana is a force to be reckoned with in the decluttering and organization department. She’s ruthless. Over the course of about 2 hours, we were able to sort through every crayon, colored pencil, pen, coloring book and piece of paper. We even tested every single marker and only kept the juicy ones. (She was all, “MOMMY, THIS IS SO FUN!). (Seriously)

Then we went through every book on her shelf and only kept the ones she loved. The rest we immediately donated to a friend.

Here’s what her cabinet looked like before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

And here she is smiling because she is so very happy.

Today, I’m continuing in the basement. Though, the kids are home for a surprise snow day–so I probably shouldn’t plan on throwing away any toys, eh?

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Click here for the Intro to this series: Reduce Clutter