Last week I told you about my goal to declutter, clean up, get back on track. And today is the day I am to report back to you, my readers, with a progress report. What have I accomplished this week? Did I tell you I was going to tackle the Master Bedroom first? Well, if not, that was my original plan. But when I stepped back and took stock of all that was going on around here ~ re-entry following a Christmas high, hubby home on vacation all week, a holiday mid-week, decorations still decking the halls ~ I changed course.
To tackle my decluttering projects, I am taking tips from an ebook I’ve been reading an eBook called Drowning in Clutter? Don’t Grab a Floatie! Drain the Ocean! by Dana White. This quote pretty much sums the whole declutter/organize dilemma for me:
“Organizing is problem-solving. Decluttering is decision-making. Each is daunting. Together they can be too much.” pg. 13, Drowning in Cutter?”
Last year I bought 2 of these terrific semi-transparent bins to help store my holiday decorations. They were even green for Christmas, that’s how ‘on top of things’ I was feeling. These bins would solve my problem. Ummm, not quite. I did utilize them, shoving this and that, randomly filling the bins. My usual tactic. Which hasn’t proven to be all that efficient. I used up more space than necessary and couldn’t find pieces and parts when I needed them.
This year, I decluttered the ornaments and decorations as we took them down and packed them away. If found things were actually getting more organized, without me even thinking about it, as I made decisions about what to toss, giveaway and keep. WooHoo!! Feels so good!! Can hardly wait till next year when I can pop open this one bin and totally trim the tree with out getting lost in mountains of paper and packaging.
My wrap up for this week: The tree is un-trimmed, the ornaments are tucked away, the garlands are stored in their appropriate and newly labeled bins, we said good-bye to the old year and welcomed the new, and I am PUMPED to get on with decluttering in 2014!!!
And this totally counted toward school hours for the kids – critical thinking and problem solving were definitely practiced this week as we sorted, sifted, stowed things away. Now that’s what I call multi-tasking!
Now it’s your turn. Please share in the comments your best declutter tips. How do you store your holiday items? I’d love to hear, I can use all the help I can get!
Edited to add: My current favorite decluttering resource is The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown (that’s my affil link.) This video course from Dana K White (A Slob Comes Clean.) She walks me through Decluttering Strategies for Real Life in a way the helps me make progress without getting overwhelmed.
Sharing this post at Much Ado About Monday and some of these wonderful places.
I tackled tupperware / plastic containers the other morning and what happens is that when I can’t find a lid, I just put tinfoil on the food and send it home with my sons that way. ( Because I usually stored the lids separately to save space ) Ha ! after sorting through all of this stuff in three different locations in my house I found a good 10 or more orphaned lids. I now have every plastic container stored with its lid on in one location, and was able to use several of them for sewing notions etc which also helped to organize a sewing basket! 🙂
oh, boy, do I understand the plastic container dilemma! I’ve been around that block more than once. Good for you, digging in and sorting out and finding a solution for the problem – and what a bonus, getting your sewing notions organized – love it! My daughter told me not long ago she learned to store her tupperware with the lids on, hinting not-so-gently that maybe I should consider doing that also. When I tackle my kitchen, I’ll keep this in mind. Thank you for sharing, Debra. So glad you stopped by for a visit!
Good for you! I love it when decluttering is just part of the process of dealing wih the stuff–that really is th best time to deal with it.
thanks Alana. You make a terrific cheerleader!
Great job!! And I love seeing how separating decluttering and organizing is so freeing!
It really is freeing! Thanks for taking time to stop in and leave your encouraging comment, Nony! Thanks to you, I’m getting a whole lot done around here!
Interesting! This is what I tackled last week as well! My tree decorations were not really the problem. I had them stored in a large bin much like yours and it was pretty organized. The problem for me was my 2 tubs of gift wrap, tags and ribbons. Nightmare! Originally I intended one long flat under the bed container to be Christmas stuff and the other one all other wrappings and ribbons. Over the last few years thinks have gotten out of control, everything was mixed in with everything. So before I wrapped even one present this year I took everything out and started over! Whew! All the little 6″ squares that would never wrap anything were thrown out! Very freeing!
LOL, Kc – I was throwing out those beautiful little scraps of wrapping also! After working on purging the last two years both as we put decorations up and took them down, we’ve whittled down to a manageable hoard 😉 so glad to hear I’m not the only one so crazy as to save all that!
I need to finish putting away my holiday decorations, especially the lights. I think I may assign the light job to my oldest son since it’s more than putting the lights in the box.
It does feel good to declutter stuff!
Thanks for sharing your post at Motivation Monday!
I hear you, Barb. And though we’ve stored away most everything, the outdoor lights are still on the house. We’ve had some crazy cold weather, and I doubt it’ll be anytime this month. And I have a son who’s in charge of that too! Thank you for stopping by, Enjoy your day!
Good morning! Your post is among this week’s featured. It’ll be shared across social media and pinned to pinterest. Thanks for linking up at A Mama’s Story and help yourself to a featured button. 🙂
How exciting! Thank you Sara Elizabeth. I always enjoy my visits to A Mama’s Story. I’ll stop by soon to pick up my featured button and see who’s joined the party this week!
I find that I am always decluttering and organizing… I LOVE to organize things and often find my best ideas on Pinterest. This is typically the time of year I start all over again.
I’m still no good at organizing, but decluttering is getting easier – and makes a huge impact around here! Gotta love pinterest 😉
We’ve been decluttering too. Today we tackled boxes of kid toys and memorabilia from the attic. Hard stuff! ha. But we did get rid of several bags of old kids’ clothes to donate as well as a big box of trash. It feels good.