Throw It Away Thursday – The Great Clothing Purge

Welcome to Throw It Away Thursday!  Today is all about purging the clothes in this house.  I went through the clothes in my closet last night and am going through the boys’ clothes today, and then finishing my clothing purge this evening.  By the end of the day, I hope to have a car full of clothes to donate to our local charities.  I’ll post a photo of the donations later today 🙂

Tackle It Tuesday – To Do List

Today I will be tackling my to-do list instead of an entire room, because with the two youngest kiddos home all day and Kaleb home from his half day of kindergarten, staying put in one room until it’s complete seems to be a little unrealistic 🙂

I want to have my parents over for supper, but I don’t want any of us to be stressed by the chaos, so I’ve held off on the invite until I’m happy with my house.  Mike and I would both love to have family and friends over, but the pressure to make our house presentable becomes too much, and we end up not inviting anyone over.

This week’s theme to to figure out my version of the minimalist life, and to work toward that.  So here’s my to-do list for today;

declutter clothes – I will go through each of our closets/dressers and donate anthing over a certain amount.  I’ve chosen unlimited socks/undies, five pairs of pants, 10 t-shirts and five sweaters.  Kianna is the only exception to this rule, because she has clothes from the baby shower that are bigger sizes and in storage at the moment, but I will be organizing those at a later date.  Once we’re tired of our current wardrobe or we’re gifted something new, I will go thrift shopping and bring in only the number of clothing items to replace the ones that will be donated.

declutter toys – Christmas is coming, so the kids will be getting toys as well as clothes, and my plan is to make room for those new toys.  I will go through and toss all the broken toys, donate the ones they no longer play with and put a certain amount in to storage to rotate at a later date.  The younger boys will each get a toy bog with a lid to store their toys.  Once a month, we’ll go through the toy box and see if anymore toys need to be tossed or donated.  Any toys left on the floor after 7pm will be picked up by myself and kept in a seperate box for them to earn back by doing chores.

declutter papers – With two boys in school and one at home who loves to do crafts, there seems to be an endless supply of papers lying around.  Today, I’m going to collect them all into a file box and sort through them.  Each child will get a memory box in which to put their papers, and at the end of the year, we’ll sort through the box and toss out anything not meaningful.

House Rules – We’re going to have a family meeting today after supper, where I plan to present our new house rules.  I’m going to talk to Mike about finding a creative way to post our rules until we get used to them.

There, that’s my to-do list for today 🙂  It’s gonna be a busy day, but I’m determined to get these things done!

Fifteen Minute Fling Friday: Kailer’s Room

Since Kailer was about ten, we’ve been doing this 15/15 thing – fifteen minutes of cleaning and fifteen minutes of free time, and continue until the job is done.  I love it for myself, and today I’ll be implementing it in order to get Kailer’s room clean.  I just cleaned his room a little while ago, and once again it’s a disaster 😦  He went to school very upset that I was going to be cleaning his room today, but it’ll be worth it when he can enjoy his room once again.  So here’s my plan to get it organized once again:

1. put all clothes in the wash
2. put all papers in a pile to sort later
3. trash the trash
4. put everything else in a garbage bag to sort later
5. rearrange the furniture
6. flip and vacuum mattress
7. vacuum and mop the floor
8. buy and label more storage bins
9. put clean clothes away
10. sort and organize papers into a file box

This is going to be a HUGE all-day job, but tackling it in fifteen minute increments will make it doable.

Throw It Away Thursday

Today I’m going through each room in the house and decluttering.  Until now, I’ve been trying to sell my excess items to help bring a little more income to my family.  Today, I’m implimenting the plan I laid out yesterday – declutter the physical chaos in my life.  Instead of trying to sell the items, I’ve chosen to be ruthless in my purge, and just give it away and bless others who may need those items but can’t afford to buy them.  Since I place sentimental value on items, this will be a trying process, but worth it when I begin to enjoy my home.

Here goes 🙂

Weight Loss Wednesday – Getting Rid Of Excess Baggage

Welcome to Weight Loss Wednesday!

This morning after breakfast, I weighed in at 175 pounds, which is a 5 pound gain from two weeks ago 😦  I know the culprit is pop, so I’ll be cutting that out this week for sure, and limiting my fluid intake to water and coffee.  I’m sure that will make a huge difference, which I’m looking forward to.  The other thing I’m going to do my best to cut out of my life is stress.  I’m a wife, and mother of four, so eliminating stress a little unrealistic, but as usual, I have a plan 🙂

My plan is to start by getting rid of the clutter in my house – not selling it, donating it.  Once I’ve gotten rid of the clutter, my next step is to find a place for everything else, and setting rules and guidelines for my family members in order to reduce the physical chaos in my life.  I’m going to do my best to create some charts and such so that our daily life is more predictable and easy to prepare for.

I’ve been drowning long enough, and no one benefits from a overwhelmed mommy, so I’m taking charge 🙂

Minimalist Monday – Kailer’s Room

Welcome to Minimalist Monday!

Today’s task is very important,as I’ll be decluttering Kailer’s room.  The story behind this horror is my son’s ADHD.  Anyone familiar with this disorder will know that kiddos with ADHD need order and reliability.  Anything out of the ordanary is a big deal, and a little mess seems overwhelming to conquer.  I’ve tried so many different things through the years, but nothing seems to work.  My plan now is to minimalize his room and label the storage areas.  Anything that’s broken, outgrown, worn out, useless or not his is coming out of that room today.  Here’s the step-by-step plan:

1. take the play pen out of the room
2. sweep everything out of his room
3. put all floor items into garbage bags
4. take the desk out of the room
5. empty the book shelf
6. vacuum
7. mop floor
8. move the bed
9. make the bed
10. empty the closet
11. hang up all clothes
12. label storage bins
13. sort items into KEEp and TOSS piles
14. Throw TOSS pile away
15. organize KEEP pile items in his room

This is going to take a quite a while, especially with the little kiddos needing my attention full time, but we’ll make it work.