To start off the Clear Out the Clutter project this month, I began at the front door and tackled the coat closet. I was excited to discover it wasn’t as cluttered as I’d thought.
In fact, it only took me around seven minutes to go through and I only found four items to get rid of. But hey, that’s a start!
Tomorrow, it’s onto the girl’s closet. I’m pretty near positive there’s going to be a lot more than four items to get rid of in there–provided I can gently convince the girls that it’s time to let go of some of the extra stuff (like that Happy Meal toy from two years ago!)
“But mom,” I can just hear my daughter protesting, “That Happy Meal toy is really special to me–it makes me think of Grandma because I got it the day Grandma took me to McDonald’s.”
Yup, my daughters are pros at figuring out a very good reason why they need to keep all of their items–including papers and toys with missing and broken parts. Cracks me up how different they are than me! They help to balance me out! 🙂
Did you do any clutter clearing this week? If you posted about it, link directly to your blog post below. We’d especially love to see before and after pictures, if you’re brave! 🙂
Update: decluttered under sink cabinet today. As soon as I figure out how to post a picture I will! One thought came to me today that has helped me and I wanted to share. I found it helped me get started to pick an area that could be completed in one hour or less.That gives a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue on to the next hot spot!
Are those really all of your family’s coats? 🙂 It looks like 1 per person? 🙂
I went through our coat closet last fall (YAY for hand-me-downs and GoodWill finds!) and limited each person to 3 items — 1 heavy coat and 2 lighter jackets/sweatshirts.
That is still EIGHTEEN things hanging in there!! 🙂
But, I am thankful for the warm clothes/coats we are blessed to have. 😀 And, considering that we often wear sweatshirts/light jackets for most of the year (including summer mornings/evenings), I know it’s good to keep that many things. 😀
This was actually over a week ago, but I’ve kept going from there & this is the post where I mention MoneySavingMom! 😉
http://monicaberry.blogspot.com/2012/01/saving-money.html
Dtr -in-law helping me declutter. We started this week and reorganized one kitchen cabinet and the microwave cart. Tomorrow more kitchen cabinets. I plan to use a rule I came across for kitchen counters -if it does not belong in the kitchen get it off the counter! Thanks for the inspiration. Your before closet does look like your after.
My daughters LOVE stuffed animals, but they breed like rabbits. So every now and then I have them go through and they decide which ones to keep and which ones to bless someone else with. They have a basket/tub that they must fit in since there simply isn’t much room in their room. Let’s just say what they pick and what I would pick are not the same and I have to remind myself that THEY get to make the decision, not me 😉 Letting them decide has really taken the “battle” out of weeding out the toys.
I’m waiting for a snow day!!! I never get much organizing done during the winter months, unless I get a snow day off from work. It seems like the weekends are so busy. I really have to pick one small area to get done and that will help me feel better.
I cleaned out my candy bin in the fridge – some I know must have been in there for years! Also found 2 cases of soda in the basement that expired 2 years ago! No fizz left so I poured them out and recycled the cans.
A good use for Happy Meal type toys that you want to get rid of is to donate them to a local preschool. My daughter’s preschool lets the kids choose a toy from the “treasure chest” when they’ve done something extra good like help clean up. The toys she brings home are almost always small donated happy meal toys and she’s thrilled!
Just another thought, my cousin is over seas and they love getting smaller items, beanie babies etc.. to give to the kids there. He says its their way of letting the kids know they are their friends, especially when some seem scared.
I enjoy doing a little Spring cleaning before Spring hits. 🙂
Crystal – my kids are a bit younger than yours, but if I think my daughter is going to be (temporarily) heartbroken over a toy, I will tell her we will put it away in storage. I try to rotate out toys this way, but we probably only have 1/4 of the toys in “storage” and the rest are out.
I periodically go through the stored toys. When I find something I think we should get rid of, I think about whether (a) we have anything similar or (b) my daughter has asked about it in the past few months. If she hasn’t asked about it and we have other stuff that’s similar – out it goes!
I started this year thinking that I would organize all parts of my house, but we have decided to move, so this has morphed into a purge/organize/pack adventure. I wonder how everything will turn out.
I started with my bathrooms — removing expired medicines, culling towels that had become a little too threadbare, etc. Three kids accumulate so much stuff I feel like I’m drowning in it all. I’m committing to de-cluttering one small area a day until I get my whole apartment done.
I have been re-reading all my old Storage magazines and other magazines about de-cluttering and straightening up. I have been on a cleaning binge and have thrown away 3 garbage bags full of nonsense stuff and have 3 bags ready for the good will. I feel much better now and will still continue throughout my house.
When I put away all my Christmas things I took the extra time to reorganize the storage area of the basement and found to be able to get rid of very old Christmas items I haven’t used for quite some time. Feels great!
Ha, your “before” closet picture sure looks like an after to me! My husband is like you, an almost too ruthless de-clutterer. I am not, but I’ve committed to getting rid of one item every day this year and am keeping up so far!
Continuing to climb “Mt. Clutter”. Oh, what a long climb it is!
I laughed at what your daughter says to keep toys. She sounds like my girls. They have told me before ”I have to keep it. I want my kids to have this toy to play with.”
I linked up my quick kitchen shelf before and after pictures.
This year, I decided to keep track of the number of things we purge from our home. I’m keeping track on the sidebar of my blog. I’m sure that will keep me motivated to get rid of things. 🙂
Happy Meal toy overload? Just saw this yesterday!!http://andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com/2010/09/too-much-time-on-my-hands.html
Recently I went through my office and 95% of my paper. Now my desk area is easier to work in and the filing cabinet has space for the inevitable new additions and years of accumulated filing done. (Much of it could be shredded rather than filed, although it was important that I kept the paper till it was obsolete.) Surprisingly the hardest part was saved news articles. I had to read each one to decide if I still wanted it.
I’ve been busy de-cluttering several rooms since the first of the year. I did my coat closet and it was by far the easiest.
I used to be much more organized until I had kids. LOL. Now, not so much. I really need to declutter and organize our basement playroom and my master bedroom. Those are the two biggest clutter points in my house. I did go through all my shoes in my master bedroom and finally organize them in an over-the-door shoe organizer yesterday. I don’t own many shoes as it is (maybe 20 total, some which are for dressy occasions or for winter wear) but it was nice to get rid of the ones that are out-of-style or very worn.
I cleaned my dining room this past Saturday. Thanks to whoever posted the link for Bookscouter.com, I sold 2 books to a sight I’ve never heard of and it showed me the best prices for the others (6 to Amazon!) I made about $100 just by cleaning my dining room!
Today, I worked in my kitchen. I organized all my Tupperware, containers, etc. Made sure everything had a lid and if not, into the trash.
Organized my kitchen drawers! Thanks for the opportunity to link up.
The Happy meal toy problem is one I have with my husband…along with key chains, hot wheels…the list goes on. He is a complete hoarder! Trying to get him to part with anything is a major chore. He even has shirts he wore 20 years ago that are so holey and smelly, yet he won’t part with them. Oye-vay!
My kids give me the same excuse, so I try to clean out their toys when they’re not around. But if they are, I tell them I’m “sorting” and no one is the wiser 🙂
Last month I did an entire series on my blog about organizing your home called “21 Days to a More Organized Home.” I’m a very organized person and LOVE organizing!
I absolutely love to organize!! The post I linked is from last year as I haven’t yet started my spring cleaning, but I use my pocket organizer every day!!! Thanks for hosting this link up!
I would like to know what you do with your kids when you do a project like clean out a closet? Do you just have a babysitter watch them? I can’t get anything done like this because my daughter is under foot.
Recently, they’ve been loving playing with Legos and listening to audiobooks and they usually do that for quite a long while in the afternoon after we’re done with homeschooling and chores for the day.
My girls are the same way! I have to do some of my cleaning in their rooms when they are busy with something else and “sneak”out the old toys a little at a time! Of course if they don’t see me, they never notice they are gone!!! My 5 yr old also has many “collections” of random items she wants to keep on her dresser. It is driving me nuts to look at and I’m so glad to hear my child is not the only one!!!!
This weekend we spent ALL day Saturday cleaning out our home office. It was a mess! With baby #3 on the way, my nesting has kicked into full gear! We are tackling every closet, every room, every nook & cranny!
I occassinally declutter my children’s rooms when they are not at home (they never notice whats missing 🙂 And my daughter at 4 saves EVERY piece of paper, old receipts, expired coupons….she has baskets, and bags filled with stuff. She says she can’t wait “to grow up and cut out coupons” and have lots of receipts of her very own. My husband and I can’t decide if she is going to grow up to a be a great frugal homemaker or an auditor for the IRS. 🙂
I do the decluttering of the children’s things without them. They are 4 and 2.5, so of course they want to keep everything! I put things away where they can’t find them for three months, and if they do not ask for the item during that time off to the daycare they go (where they end up getting to play with the stuff anyway!).
The Happy Meal comment is so TOTALLY my son!
I think coat closet cleaning is especially difficult. Mostly because coats are relatively specialized (winter coat versus raincoat versus dressy versus casual, etc.), big-ticket items. It makes a coat collection VERY difficult to prune, especially if you’ve got multiple kids who will eventually wear said coats/jackets/snowsuits/mittens/etc. Yours looks great!
I cleaned out the pantry (some of that stuff was really old!), organized it all, and tried to make it look pretty by adding ribbon trim and chalkboard contact paper. Now, on to the closets!!
I’ve been clearing out clothes, paper work, and unusable items. I’ve been a busy bee since I read the first two chapters of your book. Since my house is a total clutter station, I had to put the book down (at your suggestion) and get to decluttering. I really want to get back to reading your book soon! 🙂
Wait until the kids are out of the house, get a bag or box, and put some of their less desirable “treasures” in it. Place bag in attic or other out-of-sight place. You’ll be amazed how don’t notice the items are gone. But if they do, you can always go dig it out. Then in a few months, do it again. Gradually you’ll get rid of the clutter, and it won’t be painful for them.
I wouldn’t do this for older kids, but for young ones it works great. Involving them in the decision process at too young of an age is no fun!
Tell the girls you are going to donate the old toys to kids in need. I know your children are big into giving so this might help them part with these kind of useless toys 🙂
My mom was very into clothes and hair growing up and God gave her me, who am not into clothes at all! My daughter loves nothing more than to be fancy.
Lol! I love how our children help balance us out!
I’m de-cluttering my daughter’s clothes. The fewer extra clothes we have, the fewer get pulled out and put all over the floor and we do laundry so often it’s not like she needs a bunch anyway.
I cleaned out my dresser over the weekend and hubby cleaned out his headboard and his night stand:)
I cleaned out my boys’ clothes today. So glad it’s finally done! Now there are only clothes that will fit them in their drawers. 🙂
Ok, seriously? Your pre-clean closet looks better than mine. Guess I better get to de-cluttering it asap!
Due to the fact that my daughter decided to grace us with her presence two weeks early I did not get to finish nesting and so the last four months I have felt overwhelmed by tubs to go through piles in all our rooms…. however thanks to a day with Grandma I can say that I have finally begun the de-cluttering process – with our storage area – I went through and labeled and organized all our totes and put them in areas. Let’s just say you could not get through the door and now you can walk through the whole little house (it is a small house behind our house that is no longer liveable but great for storage). I will de-clutter as my little one naps! Or as Grandma comes to entertain! Thanks for the encouragement and the accountability!
Oh goodness! Your daughters sound like my daughter! It’s reassuring to hear that she’s not the only one. She also wants to keep every piece of paper she’s ever written on or that anyone else has ever written on, “I need that paper so that I can remember what my teacher’s handwriting looked like!”
Crystal, I wanted to let you know that through your clutter-free inspiration, I spent the entire month of January going through my whole house, getting rid of anything and everything we don’t need. It’s amazing how much stuff we have accumulated after only 4 1/2 years of marriage and with two children. I listed the larger items on Craigslist, took some to an adult and a children’s and resale shop, and the rest is boxed up in storage, ready for our annual neighborhood garage sale this June! I would have never thought of that idea if it weren’t for you, either. It feels so wonderful to be organized and free of the junk!
I’m SO proud of you! Way to go!!!
I have a problem with my kitchen cabinets being too high for me to reach. Aside from keeping a stepstool right up under me while I work, there’s no other way. And there’s no pantry in my kitchen. So I am trying to make it work by prioritizing what has to be within reach. 🙂
Ha! We have the same hat in our closet 🙂 Go SHOX!
😉
I am busy cleaning out all my kids stuff this month getting ready for the Just Between Friends Sale in March! Can’t wait to have everything organzized and I love the check I get from the sale!
I feel your pain. I finally cleaned up my youngest son’s bedroom and he complained that he couldn’t find anything. He claimed he knew where everything was before I cleaned. This is the same child who couldn’t find his Nintendo DS for months because it was in box under his bed. I found it when I pulled the box out from under his bed. LOL
At first I thought your “before” picture was your “after” picture! You’re much more organized than I am.
I cleaned out our desk drawers!
We did our coat closet over the weekend!
I had to laugh at your description of what your daughter would say about the Happy Meal toy. My daughter is like that. I keep very few things for sentimental reasons and am a minimalist as well. My daughter, on the other hand, well, Everything is special, and she wants to keep everything. (She is 10) We kid around with her about it, saying she says things like “But Mom! I can’t throw that out! That was the piece of lint that was on my dress when daddy took me to the daddy-daughter dance!”
Too hilariously funny!
@Amy: Your daughter sounds just like my son! He is only 5, though, but thinks that scraps of paper from a cutting project are sacred. I had him watch 1 episode of “Hoarders” and that’s all it took. Now whenever he wants to keep something that I consider trash, I just tell him that the people on Hoarders used to keep (insert name of whatever is wanting to keep) and does he want to be on the show when he’s older? That cured him totally of his keeping everything problem, LOL.
Been cleaning out/ de cluttering/ selling it’s much more peaceful around here ( small apartment 3 little kids) plus we got to pay off one of my hubby’s student loans woot woot 🙂 only 1 more to go till debt free!! 🙂
Woohoo!!!
I was *not* a minimalist child, so I relate strongly to your daughters’ desire to keep the toy even though there is one to the pair/it’s made of rubberbands/broken, etc, lol! I am beginning to LOVE living simply and I am trying to get my 4yr old son on my board, but I have the same issues with him!! Good luck to you! 🙂
I LOVE the feeling of clearing things out! Maybe too much! My boys BEG me to leave thier “wounded” toys alone:)
Yeah, we have several “happy memories” of McDonalds and Grammie at our house! I’m working hard on convincing them that taking a picture of an item will bring about the happy memories just as much a having the item itself (had to do this with my adult sister too!). Also, letting them play with the stuff you dig out for 1 or two days (till the novelty wears off again) works well, because when they become bored after the brief reunion, I swoop in and take it away for good and it’s never missed again.
Oh, Crystal, I know it’s not a comparison game… but I simply must admit that I would be THRILLED if my “after” coat closet photo would resemble your “before.” 🙂
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking! Lol
Me too!
Me three. 🙂
Me four!
When I first looked at the post, I thought that was how organized it looked AFTER you went through it. You wouldn’t want to see my closets…ha! 🙂
I am cleaning out my mental closet, getting ready to de-clutter not just my house but my body too. Feels great!
Started cleaning out all of the old clothes to either donate and/or toss. Also started my daughter’s room, but she like to start playing with whatever item I start to put away. 🙂 I didn’t think about starting with the coat closet. That can be accomplished-and I will definitely have more than 4 items to toss. Thanks for the help.
Do they really only have 1 Happy Meal toy? If so, I guess they are healthier for it! 🙂
Well, it IS a better deal to buy a large fry and dollar menu burger! :p
Not in my area! Tuesdays Happy Meals are half price. I can feed the kiddo and myself for $3. I’m ashamed to admit how often we cruise the drive-thru.
Wow, both of you can eat for $3 at McDonald’s?! That’s impressive!
It’s about $4 for the two of us on Wednesday nights…1/2 price happy meal day in our area.
We don’t have half price happy meals-we have.49 cheeseburgers on tuesdays. Since the mcdonalds is about 500 feet away, it takes great restraint not to go on tuesdays!
I’d be curious to hear whether you were as minimalist as a child as you are now.
I did clean out my junk drawer. It is not photo worthy but it is done 🙂