Decluttering Checklist: Week Five

May 6, 2018May 13, 2018 / Cheryl Wilcox / Leave a comment

This week I checked off:

Nothing again!

I continued to shop for items for the girls’ room. A wardrobe, some sheer curtain panels and cheap curtain rods, a lamp, and storage bins. I’ve set a deadline of next weekend to finish this project.

This was the first week of Becoming Minimalist’s Spring 2018 Uncluttered Course. I’ve had lifetime access to this course since I first registered for it (for free) by pre-ordering Joshua Becker’s book, The More of Less. So I’ve been through the course before. It hasn’t gotten me through my whole home, but I signed up again for extra inspiration. I joined the closed Facebook group, which I hadn’t done before. This week’s challenge was to list the reasons why you want to declutter your home and post it somewhere you will see it often. (And reduce it to one sentence and post it to the Facebook group.)

There are many reasons why I want to declutter. Maybe I’ll list them in another post, but here’s the sentence I wrote on a sticky note and posted on my bathroom mirror:

I want to declutter my entire home and practice a rule of life so that I may love God, others and myself better.

Decluttering Checklist: Week Four

May 1, 2018 / Cheryl Wilcox / Leave a comment

This week I checked off:

NOTHING!!

I’ve been working on the kids’ rooms project, which I wrote about last week. This has involved lots of shopping and acquiring new stuff, and getting rid of the large bunkbed/trundle/storage unit that used to be in the girls’ room. I’m happy to say that a young man picked it up this morning for his ten year old son. I posted it on Craigslist for free, and it took me a full three days to get rid of it. I had twenty people express interest in it, but they weren’t committing to a pick up time. Next time I’m going to try a Buy Nothing Facebook group that my friend told me about recently.

So I have purchased two beds, two nightstands and a dresser. I spent an evening putting Mary’s daybed together. I also let the girls get a waste basket, which they’ve been wanting for years. We found it for $5 at Target. And we purchased a picture, a picture frame, a candle (for decoration, not for burning), and a light up “H” for Hannah. I had 4 photos Joseph wanted framed, printed at Walgreen’s and I bought frames for them. New komono.

The girls and I have been discussing the goals of this project. Well, my goals of this project. (They might just want a pretty room.) They are simply to have a place for everything, and everything in its place.

More specifically, there are these three goals:

To assign a home for each item that we use and/or love. (Or that matches the room décor.)
To put things away when you are done using them.
To have certain times each day for putting things back where they belong. (Because let’s be real, some people are not going to accomplish goal #2)

I eventually plan to have room tours on this blog. But right now I am focused on finishing setting up their room, and then getting right back to the decluttering checklist.

Decluttering Checklist: Week Three

April 22, 2018April 23, 2018 / Cheryl Wilcox / 2 Comments

This week I checked off:

Joseph’s room
The girls’ room

I had expected to get much more decluttering done during the past week, which was school vacation, BUT…

I turned this into a major project. The girls room, which Rachel, Hannah, and Mary share, was very cluttered. Hannah and Mary slept on a used bunk bed/trundle/storage unit that we were given for free a few years ago. Hannah kept asking that they get their own beds, and Rachel really wanted to make some changes in their room. Here are some before pictures.

So we took every single item out and moved it into the hallway and the school room. It was crazy how much stuff was in that room.

Then I started to panic. It was overwhelming. We probably took a snack break.

Then we cleaned the room, and here’s where I made this into an even bigger project. I took down the bunk bed. We put all the pieces in my garage bay. (I still can’t park in there.) I moved the rest of the furniture out.

Ah!! The calm of an empty space. It was all ready to paint. But no, there wasn’t time for that. If it was summer, I would have done it, but we needed our school room back on the following Monday.

The next step was decluttering Joseph’s room. I moved the things he wanted to keep into the empty room. This took up most of Tuesday. He got rid of some clothes, books, komono and loads of paper. He kept every single Lego.

On Wednesday, we went through the girls’ stuff. They got rid of some, but on Wednesday night (and Thursday) we went shopping. We plan to replace the bunk bed with other furniture, but I haven’t made any decisions yet. We bought a new lamp, a comforter set for Rachel’s bed, and a set of plastic drawers. And then I had a very busy three days and now vacation is over. So this project will be continued…

Decluttering Checklist: Week Two

April 15, 2018 / Cheryl Wilcox / Leave a comment

This week I checked off:

kitchen desk
foyer closet
utility closet
pantry

For decluttering the kitchen desk, I tried something called the “Shock Treatment Declutter Method”. I read about it on Uncluttered Simplicity.

I took everything out of my desk and put it on my bed.

Then I sorted it into these categories:

Paper (in piles and files) and Product Manuals (in binders)
Cookbooks
Matthew’s paper tray
Electronics
Stationery
Office Supplies
Cash
Keys
Gift Cards
Library/Store Cards
Kids’ bank books and cash (in tin)
Decorations
Items to repair

2. I surveyed the damage. I observed that there was stuff with no assigned homes, too much paper, things I never use, and that my paper filing system was not simple enough. I decided to keep paper separate as it is listed on my checklist as a “Major Project”.

3. Step 3 is to ruthlessly eliminate. I don’t think I was ruthless, but I eliminated stuff and I was happy that most of the things I returned to my desk are things I use regularly. (I may not use the sticky tabs often, and I kept a few paper clips that I may not need.)

Next was the foyer closet. I removed 2 games with the kids’ permission, and 24 hangers.

I noticed I’d like to replace the ironing board cover. I started a wish list. (Maybe I’ll get one for Christmas.)

I took everything out of the utility closet. (See below.) I sorted into these categories:

cleaning supplies
children’s medicine
first aid
bandages & tape
aprons
sunscreen/bug spray

I got rid of old stuff, and reorganized.

The pantry was a mess. I forgot to take a before picture, and I’m glad I did. Here is the after picture.

It will be a little more filled up after our next food shopping trip. Those Easter pails will be stored in the basement with the Easter decorations after more candy is eaten. I am pleased that everything in here has a home. Most of the shelves are labeled with a category name and a little list of what goes on the shelf. This is school vacation week, so I am expecting to declutter for a block of time each day. I may even post more frequently.

Decluttering Checklist: Week One

April 9, 2018 / Cheryl Wilcox / Leave a comment

This week I checked off:

Cheryl’s clothing
Hannah’s clothing
living room
laundry room (1/2 bath)
upstairs bathroom

I purged quite a bit of girl’s size 10 hand-me-downs that we would not likely use. I also got rid of a few bath toys with Mary’s permission and some play make-up with Hannah’s permission. After years of decluttering, the bathrooms are really down to just items we use regularly.

I wrote about our purchasing new living room furniture in January. Back then we took away our old entertainment center cabinets where we stored DVD’s, and purchased a new TV console that had less storage space in it. I went through the DVD’s with most of the kids and purged several of them. Then I stored most of our DVD’s on a bookshelf in the nearby foyer closet. (See photo below.) My saints DVD’s, our Wii games and accessories, and electronic components are stored in the TV console, and Christmas DVD’s are stored elsewhere. The living room is also home to most of Sarah’s sheet music (near her piano) and the girls’ Kindle Fires, which are stored inside of the loveseat and in an end table drawer. In another end table drawer, we store all remote controls.