Declutter and Simplify
Okay, I am no minimalist. However, I love to declutter and simplify! Clutter causes me a lot of stress so most of the time I begin simplifying without notice. My husband loves it. Ha!
The way I see it, if it hasn’t been used or worn in 6 months then it will never be used or worn. That is how I decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Some things I sell, others I donate. If I list something and it doesn’t sell within a few weeks, I donate it.
My sweet husband bought me a pair of accent chairs for Valentines Day when we were dating and I held onto them for 5 years because he bought them for me. After almost 5 years in the home we bought after we got married, and moving them from room to room because they didn’t really have a place, I convinced him that it was time to get rid of them. The sentiment was sweet, but it didn’t make sense to hold onto something for that reason alone.
The holidays are a great time to do this! I decluttered my clothes when I switched out the seasons, but my goal is to finish decluttering everything before Christmas. I made a list for each room to have decluttered, sold or donated, and organized.
Starting with our bedroom: I will start by going through our dresser drawers. Once my husband goes through his side of the closet I will go through my shoes and reorganize our shoe shelf for the cold season.
Onto my son’s bedroom: First, I will remove any clothes he grew out of by the end of the summer from his closet. Then, we will go through all of his toys to see if there are any baby toys left that he hasn’t played with since last Christmas.
Then my worst nightmare, the hall closet: This is the one closet I can never seem to keep organized because it has become our “catch all” closet. It holds games, medicine, towels, and works as a pantry since we have a small kitchen. My goal is to turn it into a pantry for kitchen items only, but that is something that won’t happen for a while, so I need to go through and declutter and reorganize it soon! Preferably on a day when my toddler isn’t home. Haha!
My favorite room to declutter is the kitchen: I start with the drawers and then work my way through the cabinets! It always feels good to have empty spaces on shelves and in drawers in our kitchen since it’s so small already! The kitchen is the most used room in the house, so the less clutter, the more accessible it is when preparing meals for my family. If you want to know what I use to keep our kitchen organized, check out my post on my favorite kitchen organizers!
The office/playroom: The playroom was something that we just got put together in the last month, so I won’t have much to do other than organize the toys and layout for better use. However, the desk is in the playroom, and it has become a catch all and is in desperate need of being decluttered and organized!
Our small laundry room: I barely have room to keep a basket in our laundry room. It is not on the main level so I never really have time to spend in it which means most laundry gets moved quickly and things I don’t wash right away ends up thrown in the floor and moved from one place to another. My goal is to solve this by the end of the year and have a better system going into the new year.
The old garage/now storage room: My dad framed in our garage for us so we would have an extra room. The goal was for it to be an organized storage room, but here we are 2 years later and it is definitely NOT organized and most of what is in it is not storage, but a pile of things I have yet to donate. If I could just have one Saturday to go through everything, load it up, and donate it, we could utilize that space for seasonal decor and large items we are saving for our growing family.
Now when I see all that I need and want to accomplish by Christmas, so in the next 2 months, it seems like a lot to get done with a toddler at home. However, he can help me with some of the process so it is something I can chip away at a day or so at a time.
If you are trying to decide whether you want to declutter or simplify things, my advice would be to do it one room or closet at a time. Start with one and see how much better you feel and then go from there! We have to start somewhere, right?!
So…….
Pick a room
Start with a drawer or a closet
Make 2 piles - Keep and Donate
Organize the space once you have decluttered it!
Let me know if you decide to simplify before the year is up, we can share in our progress!
Blessings, Friend!
