Category: Minimalism-ish

31 Day Decluttering Challenge

31 Day Decluttering Challenge

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

I don’t know about you, but after the holidays are over I have a huge urge to get my house back in order. For most of us, our house is a little cluttered to begin with. Then you add on all of the decorations and new items that you just acquired over Christmas and you are busting at the seams!

That’s why I plan on doing the 31 Day Decluttering Challenge starting on January 1st. Here’s how it works, starting on January 1st, you donate/ throw away one item. On January 2nd, you get rid of two items. On January 15th, you get rid of fifteen items, and so on until you get to January 31st where you get rid of, you guessed it, thirty one items!

Now, before you get overwhelmed with the thought of getting rid of thirty one things in one day, remember that it can be anything that is not useful. For example, it could be old make up you don’t use, clothing, knick knacks, expired condiments in the fridge, old spices from the cabinet, those hurricane rations from a few seasons back, toys your kids haven’t touched in years, all of those push pins that you have kept in your junk drawer even though you no longer have a cork board, literally ANYTHING.

I’m going to post in my story on Instagram daily to show what I am getting rid of and I encourage you to do the same. I think it will keep the momentum going throughout the month. I am so ready to be able to close a drawer without having to shove everything down in it or open a closet without being afraid that something is going to fall out on me. I’m even going to get the kids involved. I feel like telling Aiden that he needs to find five things in his room to get rid of will be more productive than just telling him to go clean up his room. Everyone works better with goals.

I’m ready to get my house back in order. Who’s with me?

Aubrey’s Closet Purge

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

Aubrey’s closet was completely out of control! When the nursery was Aiden’s, we painted the closet doors with chalkboard paint. It was fun but it was really dark and he hardly ever drew on it as he got older. Eventually, we took them down. Since we never put the doors back up, the messy closet was a constant eye sore. This is what it looked like…

Awful. I felt like no matter how tidy I kept her room, it always felt messy and I blamed the closet. I am really mad at myself for not taking a “during” picture. I can not believe the amount of stuff I got out of it!

Once she fell asleep for her morning nap, I took the same steps as I always do with anything I declutter:

  1. Take EVERYTHING out.
  2. Sort into three piles (Keep, Donate, & Trash)
  3. I immediately put the Donate pile in my car so that I will actually take it to Goodwill.
  4. Throw out the Trash pile.
  5. Look over the Keep pile again, and get rid of even more stuff.

This is when I would ordinary start putting everything back. But I thought it would be fun to add a pop of color by painting the closet walls. Once she woke up, we went and got the paint. I gave her a lot of options and let her pick. The paint color was Tide Pool by Behr. I got the primer and paint in one hoping to not have to do that many coats. I still ended up doing two coats. This is how it turned out…

I still need to paint the baseboard in the closet white but I really like how it turned out. It’s practically empty (which I love!). Notice the books on the ledges (to the right) have already been switched to Christmas books. I’m a little excited for the holidays this year.

Next, I’m going to find a really pretty, girly, Aubrey-sized mirror to mount on the wall in her closet. We have one in there temporarily leaning on the wall and she looks in it every morning when we get ready.

I just love her little room. It’s so cheerful and fun, just like our Wubby!

I hope this inspires you to tackle that closet, dresser, or anything else that is overflowing with stuff that you know you don’t need. Next up, Aiden’s room!

Nothing in my house is safe!

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

Except for maybe the people, as long as they keep cleaning up after themselves! I am literally going into each room, picking out an area that looks cluttered and going through everything (and tossing most of it). It’s addicting. I feel like my eyes are craving blank, empty space right now. For years, we have been saying that we need a bigger house, mainly because we need more storage to hold all of our stuff. Do we, though? Or do we have a lot of unnecessary stuff? It seems to me like it would be a lot more cost effective to purge the useless crap versus buying a bigger house to hold the crap.  Am I right?

In a previous post I talked about the playroom and how many toys we had that were never touched. And if they were, they were dumped out on the floor, rummaged through, and then left until a certain six year old was FORCED to clean them up. Tears were usually involved (Can you say drama?!). Well, I am happy to report that the playroom saga has been (dare I say) fixed! I am not even kidding. We had friends over for dinner with their kids last week. The kids played hard and destroyed that room. When they were done, it took maybe ten minutes for them (the kids, not me) to clean it all up. Remember, there are only four bins that things can go into: Weapons (Nerf guns, Nerf darts, targets for the Nerf guns, etc), Dinosaurs & Action Figures, Vehicles (mostly Hot Wheels cars and race tracks), and Sports. Of course, this will change as Aubrey grows. I’m sure we’ll be adding Barbies and Dress Up to the list (and I secretly can’t wait!).

Can I just take a second to talk about Nerf guns? I hate them. Like, hate. There is nothing like an unexpected dart to the forehead to make you scream a cuss word in front of the kids and I know I’m not alone in this! I did implement a rule in the house that has actually been working pretty well. The rule is, if mommy finds a dart on the ground, it goes in the trash. Period. And no, we will not replace them when he runs out. If they are all over, as in him and a friend just finished having a Nerf war, I’ll give a five minute warning and Aiden runs around the house like a mad man trying to pick them all up. But under normal circumstances, if it’s on the floor, it’s in the trash. I even caught Aubrey throwing a dart away this morning.

I digress. The point of this is to say that since I have gotten a taste of this whole decluttering, organizing, minimalism thing, I want more. And the biggest issues we have in our house are our magic closets. That’s right, magic. Our closets are like Barney’s magic bag, you have no idea how much crap they can hold. (Please tell me I’m not the only one that remembers Barney’s magic bag.) I’ll show you what I mean.

The hallway closet is probably the worst. It is one of those that you have to close really fast to keep things from falling out of. All of my hung-up clothes were in there, seasonal decor, wrapping paper that I didn’t even know I had, scuba gear, everything.

I forgot to take a before picture so this was actually after I had taken some things out.

The pictures don’t do it justice.

Things were just shoved in everywhere.

I couldn’t believe how much stuff was just thrown on the floor.

When decluttering, I do the same steps every time.

Step 1 is take EVERYTHING out. You will always be surprised by how much stuff is crammed in there!

See?! All of that stuff was in one closet!

Step 2 is to create categories and sort: Keep (to return to the space), Keep (to find a more appropriate storage location), Throw Away, and Donate. I usually use index cards to designate the different categories. I get a little carried away and would hate to get mixed up and throw “Keep” things into the “Throw Away” pile.

Step 3 is to reorganize what you are putting back into the space. I always look over the “Keep to return to the space” again at this point. Most of the time I will remove another 25% of that pile. Take your time figuring out how the remaining items will best fit, look (because you have to like how it looks or you won’t keep it that way), and most importantly, work in that space. If it is something you need often like your vacuum, make sure it is easily accessible. You would think that is obvious but just know that if it isn’t a convenient space, you won’t make the conscious effort to keep it looking nice.

Step 4 is my favorite step! This is where you immediately pack up what you don’t want and get rid of it! Take it to Goodwill, or the Salvation Army that same day! If you put it in the garage to do at another time, you’ll never do it. The task isn’t complete until that junk is gone!

It’s definitely not a Pinterest finished product but it’s real life. I probably will get a bin for the seasonal decor but I will not be wasting the money on a bunch of cute matching baskets for the “after picture”. That’s just not realistic. You might notice the filing cabinet on the floor. We store our important papers and the top twenty best kids’ schoolwork/artwork/etc. filed by age. I’ll do another blog post on that soon. Good rule of thumb: You can’t keep everything!

Just for good measure:

And this doesn’t have to take all day. I did this whole project while Aubrey was taking her morning nap.

Then we went out for lunch, just us girls.

Next up: Aubrey’s closet!

The Great Playroom Overhaul of 2018

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

The playroom has always been an eye sore for me. The whole room just feels heavy. There is just so much stuff everywhere. This is what it typically looks like…

We have a projector, a screen and a couch so we can watch movies but the room is always over run with toys! And it’s not even toys that they are actively playing with. It’s all of the toys that were in the canvas bin that were dumped out so they could find that one toy they were looking for.

The shelves were properly organized at one point, but there was so much stuff that they weren’t able to keep any of it straight for long.

Look at the red bin at the bottom. It won’t even fit in it’s cubby space!

There was so much stuff that even when the room was “cleaned”, it didn’t look clean. Aiden always comes into the room, dumps out a few bins, gets totally overwhelmed and leaves. Complaining that he was bored and leaving a huge mess behind. Well, enough is enough. I’m over it. He honestly played with ten percent of what was in there.

Today, I decided it was time for an overhaul, so I started with dumping everything out in the middle of the floor…

It didn’t take long for me to get overwhelmed and want to quit.

I made a few piles and labeled them with index cards: Vehicles, Hotwheel Tracks, Legos, DinoTrux/ Transformers/ Dinosaurs, Sports. Then I had a huge box labeled Trash and one labeled Donate. Finally, I started sorting.

Anything broken, missing parts, or gross from being used as bath toys were thrown out. Everything that I haven’t seen Aiden play with in at least a few months, Happy Meal toys,  and things that he’s outgrown were donated. I was relentless!

After everything was sorted, I immediately bagged up the trash and took it outside. The donate bin went directly in my car and was taken to Goodwill. I didn’t want to take a chance on him coming home and seeing anything I was getting rid of.

Sorting made it really easy to tell how many bins I’d need. Can you believe I got all of that mess down to just three bins and a basket?! I don’t love fabric bins but it’s what we had so they will do for now. I made make-shift labels. Eventually, I will get clear bins with lids and clearly label the outside.

Just a reminder of what we started with…

I was able to throw out that whole shelf system in the above picture. It was falling apart anyway.

This is what we were left with…

Consolidation at it’s finest! Once I started returning the items to the bins, I realized somethings could live together and were left with three bins: Weapons (Nerf guns, darts, and a slingshot- because boys), Dinosaurs/ DinoTrux/ Transformers, and Vehicles. The basket on the bottom are for sports items: baseball, batting gloves, jump rope, etc. The other two bottom cubbies are Aubrey’s toys. They are easily accessible for her and there’s nothing in the sports basket that she can get hurt with. The Legos are in a huge bin with a locking lid to keep her out. The green basket on top is a temporary thing. I’m really not sure if Aiden would miss those toys so I told him to look through them. If he hasn’t touched them in a month or so, they’re trash.

I must admit, I was a little nervous when Aiden came home. I am pretty confident that I only got rid of things that he wouldn’t miss but that momma guilt was still there in the back of my mind. What if he came home, ran into his playroom, and starting searching for that one red Power Ranger that was missing a leg because he had been thinking of playing with it all day?! Luckily, that did not happen. He came in, looked around, and said, “Wow. It looks a lot bigger in here.”

And then, something magical happened! He dumped out the bin with the dinosaurs, played for about twenty minutes, then picked up the dinosaurs, and returned the bin to the shelf. I didn’t even have to ask/yell/threaten him! I couldn’t believe it! Now, this may happen at your house all the time, and if so, kudos! But, it did not happen here. He even said that he thought it would be easier for him to keep the room clean. Well, that is the idea, kid!

Even Aubrey picked up her toys, after a LOT of coaxing.

I’m not in love with the two big bins that are against the wall. They are a his and hers pair to hold their big toys that won’t fit in the shelves. I might have to figure something else out in the near future. 

You do not know how long I have waited to see a bare wall that’s not completely lined with toys!

The very next project in our house will be our floors. I will finally get rid of the carpet in this room, which was here when we bought this house eight years ago. Before kids, this was our “pool table hang out” room so you can imagine the spilled drinks that this poor carpet had to endure.  I can not wait to replace it!

I hope this will inspire you to clean out/ purge/ organize a space in your home! The next one on my list is the hall closet. Ya’ll pray for me. It’s bad.

Minimalism? I’m not, not interested.

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

I have read a lot about minimalism lately. Everyone has their own interpretation of the word and every blog explains it differently. To me, it means to simply live without a whole bunch of extra crap. I find myself searching the word for house decorating inspirations. I would love for my home to look like a staged house everyday but with two kids (three if you include the husband) that’s not possible. My son is six so he will clean up after himself after some protesting and begging for help. And my daughter is one so she is no help at all. As a matter of fact, I typically wait until she’s asleep to clean up the toys. She thinks its a game to follow behind me and take everything back out as I put it away. Kids. Am I right?

So, looking at “Minimalism” on Pinterest has gotten me motivated to throw everything away. Like everything. The thought of having less toys to pick up is amazing. Less laundry to put away? Yes , please. I think I can get on board with this movement. According to all of those blogs I’ve read, there’s suppose to be a lot of other benefits as well. The thought is, if the kids have a lot of toys in their playroom they will walk in, dump a few buckets of toys out, get totally overwhelmed and then come to mom saying that they are bored. And then mom says, “How is that possible? You have a playroom full of toys!” I must admit, Aiden and I have this same conversation probably four to five times a week. It is believed that the kids will be forced to use their imagination and will even play with each other more. I want to try minimalism for selfish reasons (Hey, less cleaning!) but if I get imaginative, creative kids that enjoy playing together, I’ll take that too!

My plan is to go through everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in the house. Anything that hasn’t been touched, worn, or dusted in six months is out. I would like to sell a lot of the baby stuff if possible. I tried my hand at a yard sale last year and it was a colossal waste of time. I think I made ten bucks. I might try Facebook Marketplace.  Other than that, everything will be donated or thrown out. Then reorganized. I’ve started already. I went through my dresser and got rid of most of my clothes. Literally, probably 3/4 of them. I was holding onto things that I thought I might fit into after three kids. Ain’t gonna happen. I wear scrubs to work so it’s not like I need much variety anyway. There is a lot more to do but it’s a start.