The July Challenge

My challenge for July is my kitchen/dining area. There isn't too much that needs to be done in here since I decluttered some in February.

*Organize cabinets better
*Clean out bill paying desk
*Declutter appliances, dishes and utensils
*Organize shelves
*Declutter most, if not all, the plastic items
*Clean the refridgerator and freezer

My rewards
*Nice glass food storage containers (per budget)
*Organizers for the shelves
*Nice tablecloth and cloth napkins

My June challenge success!!

My June challenge to work on my bedroom was a success. All of my sons things are now put away neatly in his room. The clothing has been sorted and put where it needs to go. We managed to freecycle 3 HUGE bags of clothes. All the wintery type clothes and items that I was having a hard time with have been put into a small bin in the back of my closet. All items have been hanged up.

That big, blue piece of furniture will be staying in the room. I've decided to use it for school/sewing. It folds up nicely and isn't in the way.

Since I accomplished my goal, I will be getting my determined rewards sometime in July.

Walking into my room

My side of the bed

My side of the closet

His side of the closet

My decluttered bathroom

My downstairs bathroom is decluttered. I have a couple of items that I need to get for organization like some baskets for the items in the closet and a better hamper. I also would like to find a better space for my vacuum.

Walking into the bathroom

The bottom of the closet

The top of the closet

TV free....at least for a while

My TV broke. It refuses to turn on. I, for one, am pretty happy about it. I will get to experience life without the TV for a while, until he decides to get another one.

It is like a test. Fate is trying to show us the way to TV freedom (which I would love). It is giving us a taste of what life will be like without TV. It is trying to show us how meaningless it really is. It is trying to show us that it does cause conflict, anxiety and laziness.

Life without the TV will be sweet.

My sons bedroom finally clutter free!!

I finally managed to get my sons room decluttered. All of the toys, books, games and anything else taking up space has been placed in trash bags and put into the garage for my garage sale. Here is the finished room.

View from the doorway

His bed and nightable

Bookshelf inside the closet

Toybox in the bin on the right

Laundry basket and ALL his summer clothing hanging up

Guidelines for decluttering the kids room

This is the list of "guidelines" I follow when I declutter my sons room. Since his birthday is this week, I will be decluttering once again to make way for the stuff he will recieve.

TOYS
*Anything that makes noise or is annoying
*Toys that are plastic
*Anything broken, missing pieces, cracked, etc.
*Anything not played with within the last 2 months
*Anything not put away where it goes
*Toys that take up too much room....ie..the whole toybox
*Tyos overflowing out of the toybox onto the floor--exception train table

CLOTHES/SHOES
*Too small
*not in season
*Anything that won't fit over my sons big head
*Too big (goes into a storage bin)
*Things that he has never worn
*Things that he doesn't like
*Anything stained or ripped
*socks missing mates
*shoes that are too small
*shoes that are torn or splitting
*shoes never worn or worn only once
*anything annoying or uncomfortable

GAMES/PUZZLES/BOOKS
*books with ripped pages
*books with writing
*books never read
*books with bad content
*missing pieces
*never played with
*boring
*too advanced (goes into storage bin)
*games that are confusing to play

2007 items by Dec.31 2007

I made a goal at the beginning of the year to rid my home of 2007 items by the end of 2007. I am up to 771 items. They are sitting in my garage waiting to be sold/freecycled/CLed or donated to Goodwill.

I am about to do another purge of items. I will probably be attacking the games and puzzles that have seemed to breed their way into every closet in my home. The toys are pretty much under control. For a while they were in every closet. They are now down to 2 medium size bins, but they will soon be down to 1. As soon as my son gets his birthday presents next week, I will know what more needs to be done to tame those wild toys.

The June Challenge

I have decided that each month,starting with June, I will set up a challenge for myself to accomplish. If I succeed, then I get a reward. If I fail, then I get nothing. The reward has to go with the challenge. And it has to be something big, that could possibly take all month, but broke into segments.

My challenge for June is my bedroom. It is a disaster. There are clothes everywhere but where they are supposed to be. A huge piece of furniture that needs to be moved to the garage and some of my sons stuff is still in there.

My Bedroom Goals
1.Move huge piece of furniture to garage
2.Declutter and hang up all clothes
3.Purge shoe collection and organize
4.Organize under bed drawers
5. Remove everything from room not for sleeping or..um..entertainment purposes

My Bedroom Reward
1. Wooden hangers for clothing
2. Containers for shoes
3. Liner for drawer
4. New sheets and possibly a new bed set(per budget)

Of course, I will try to find these things used. It is always best to recycle instead of throwing away.