Clutter Project #1

Today is a snow day, so the kids are home from school. Normally I would not consider this an ideal time to dig into my first decluttering project, but I've never been one to be conventional about stuff and do it the easy way!

So, today I decided that it was time to complete the first project. I have declared this project to the entire blogging world, and if I don't get it done, one (or maybe both) of you is gonna call me out on it! Motivation kicked in! First I took photos of the incriminating evidence...

Now, to the untrained eye, these might not look bad to you, but trust me, they were bad. One of the drawers (ok, maybe it was actually 2) was hard to open 'cause there was so much random junk in there.

First I emptied them out completely. Things that belonged in the toy room went into one bin, garbage (and there was a lot of that) went into a shopping bag, and stuff to go back in the drawers went into another pile.

By the time I was done, the shopping bag was FULL of garbage (and it was a big shopping bag) and the bin to go to the toy room was really heavy. It was full of books and legos and all sorts of treasures! The stuff that actually went back into the drawer was minimal. I had Drake and Katrina lug the toy room bin to said room and PUT EVERYTHING AWAY. That makes me happy...they actually did it too!

The shopping bag full of trash went into the garage to the garbage cans. No going through it later and determining something previously declared TRASH was now a treasure to be saved! I went through my magazines and tore out recipes that I wanted to keep and put the rest of the magazines in the recycling bin. (OK....full disclosure here...the pile of magazines is actually right next to me on the dining room table, but as SOON as I'm done, I will carry it out to the recycling bin!)

Then I decided to use the one end table drawers for books and/or magazines that I'm currently using. Bottom drawer is for the phone book.

The other end table is for remotes (which are constantly lost) in the top drawer and dvds and the TV manual in the bottom. Admittedly, the TV manual should be in a file in an organized office, but that's another project for another day people! Baby steps!

The coffee table is for the kids. I like to have those drawers for some of the kids toys so that they have a quick "put away" option. In theory, there should be a periodic emptying of said drawers, and the items would be relocated to their homes in the toy room. However, this has obviously not occurred in the past. Maybe now I'll improve!

Most toys were put back in the toy room, and the remainder were put back into the drawers. There is room for quite a bit of stuff in there, so I only kept some of the things that Avery plays with often upstairs.

So, one organizing project down, many.....MANY to go. Even though it was but a teeny tiny project in the grand scheme of things, it is 6 more drawers organized and cleaned out today that I had yesterday!

I think I'll reward myself now...5 days in Vegas sounds appropriate! HA HA HA!