Basement Clean-Up

March 28.

Our basement ends up being a catch-all for things.  Is yours like that?  I don't go down there very often, even though that's where our TV/entertainment area is located.  Isn't it crazy how we just seem to accumulate stuff; I mean, where does it all come from?!  We don't have much income at this point, and we're not purchasing much besides food, so really--how do piles and piles of stuff just appear out of nowhere??  I'm flabbergasted.

Here's my before picture.  *insert embarrassed look here*

My goal was to separate in one place all the homeschool stuff I wanted to sell, because I signed up for a homeschool curriculum resale event.  Everything else needed to be put either "in a box" (I'll deal with it later) or in the donation box.  With that, I went to work.  I love all those empty blue Rubbermaid storage boxes--it means I've gotten rid of stuff!

It's amazing when you pick up everything how much floor space there is.  You can see all the boxes of homeschool stuff  on the left; those will hopefully all be gone in a couple weeks.  Yeah, the wires hanging everywhere are ugly, but it is what it is at this point, and as the guys move on with their lives much of that will disappear.  Give it a quick vacuum, and at least we can walk around down in this basement space.

Trust me, there is still lots to do down here in this unfinished space.  But there's something to say about clean floor space, don't you think?

 Stuff to go to Goodwill.

Back to life,
Christine

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Simplify -- Folding More than Shirts

Simplify!

Our Goal

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Click here to find out why/how I started!

Yesterday I showed you how to fold a t-shirt.  You can use that same general method to fold other clothing, too!  Watch this, for underwear.  (Shh, don't tell my guys!!)

Face up.

Fold the bottom half up.

Fold one side (doesn't matter) in, as in thirds.

Repeat picture--I moved the underwear down to see it better, lol!

Fold the other side in.

Rotate (don't flip over!) so the top is toward you.

Fold the top up and in half, and store in your drawer seam side down, fold side up.

Easy, huh?  No go do some laundry.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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Simplify -- How to Fold a Shirt

Or, How to Fit your Clothes in the Drawer.

Simplify!

Our Goal

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Click here to find out why/how I started!

T-shirts, shorts, sweatpants, Cuddl-Duds...

I love this method as a space-saver!  However, let me say this--if you have a ton of t-shirts, please declutter them first!  Do you really need 40?  Or 30?  There are some of you who have that many.  Honestly--you can't wear that many, and you should assess exactly what you're wearing.  Remember, this is a Simplify blog post; the idea is to simplify your life--house, clothing, schedule, etc.--so that you have time for people, not things; so that things don't control you; so that you have what you love and love every thing that you have.

This method of folding will help you maximize your space, meaning you can fit almost twice as many items in the same space, all while being able to see every single piece of clothing.  See the photo above--you can see every shirt and pair of shorts I own (okay, one pair of shorts isn't folded, but you can still see it!).

Keep in mind that this method of folding takes a few seconds longer than any method you've probably been using.  So if you plan on keeping a ton of clothes, you will be spending extra time taking care of them.  Eliminate the extra, maximize your space, maximize your time.  It's that easy.

Folded laundry waiting to be put away.

The Method.

Here are the steps, with the corresponding picture below each step.

1.  Lay the shirt face down on a flat surface.  (My shirt is hanging over a bit.)

2.  Fold in one side (doesn't matter which side you start with) in, on a line about even with the neck.

3.  Fold the sleeve back, thus:

4.  Fold the other side over, just like the first side.

5.  Fold the sleeve back in.

6.  Fold the bottom up a bit to hide the bottom hem edge.  (Since my guys are men, these shirts are long, and I fold the bottoms up quite a bit.  For children's shirts, you'll fold a lot less up.)

7.  Take the bottom and fold it upwards in half.

8.  Take the bottom again and fold it upwards in half.

9.  Flip the shirt over, et voila!  It's ready to go into your drawer, folded side up.

10.  Place the shirt vertically, seam side down and fold side up, in your drawer.

Once you fold two or three shirts, you'll quickly get the hang of it.  Below, you can see each item, which can be taken out instead of rooted through to find the right one.  Because of the fold on the bottom, the clothing items stay upright even when you remove one from the drawer.

Unmentionables.  ;)

Back to life,
Christine

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Simplify -- Bye Bye Books

Simplify!

Our Goal

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Click here to find out why/how I started!

I'm back in the living room today, ready to tackle the other half of the room.  I set up my camera and tripod to document the process, with my back to the bookcase I decluttered and organized yesterday.

Books.

In today's world, with our smart phones and Kindles and tablets, I'm sure books aren't a big deal to declutter.  But listen--I'm a homeschooling mom.  I grew up lounging on the living room couch with throw pillows all around, absorbed in some adventure.  I read everything.  There is just something about holding a book in my hands, feeling the pages, the touch of paper against my finger as I turn a page.  You just can't replace that.  Books are something special.

Middle/upper elementary historical fiction books, soon to find a new home.

The decision.

With the help of my sister-at-heart Lori, I realized that when it comes to homeschooling, I'm really done (it still hasn't sunk in yet).  And saving everything for my grandchildren isn't worth it.

• It's not practical; how/where will I store all this stuff?
• Will I even have grandchildren?  (I sure hope so.)
• Will my grandchildren be homeschooled?
• Will homeschooling look the same as it does today?
• Will my future daughters-in-law even want the stuff?
• Would they feel forced to accept the stuff?

There were way too many variables for me to decide that keeping a ton of stuff in the hopes that all of these questions--and some I haven't even asked--would be answered positively.  I also looked at it from another perspective:

• My home would be less cluttered.
• I would be freer from stuff.
• I can keep a small number of quality books for visiting grandchildren.  Or stop at the library before they visit.
• My sons/DILs can purchase/borrow their own books.
• My DILs may already have books of their own!
• My relationship with future daughters-in-law wouldn't be burdened.

This second list is also incomplete, and much more positive in practical and tangible ways, even right now.  My mind was decided.

The process.

These books are serial sets, so it was easy to remove them from the shelves and divide them up into separate boxes.  I plan to sell these this spring, before the homeschool convention season hits and homeschooling moms are searching for materials for the next school year.

Once all the series were boxed and stacked, I took stock of the bookcase.  I decided I didn't like the look of the Bible concordances on the stop of the bookcase--they're too much competition for the border.  I moved them to the tall bookcase (behind me, the one from yesterday's project).

I took the bookends--giant hand-crafted fishing lure bookends I found in a shop in upstate New York--and moved them to the middle shelf to hold a few books I decided to keep.  That freed up some space and made the top look prettier.

The below picture is the end result of the day's work.  I ended up decluttering that canoe shelf on the right, too.  I removed the picture frames--no one can see those pictures, anyway--and put them in the Goodwill box.  I then organized the little games, mostly card games, in another basket which now sits on the bottom shelf of the canoe.

I really want to declutter the CD rack next to the canoe, but I have a husband who enjoys the CDs...  Although, you know, we never listen to them, and the CD player in our stereo system doesn't work all that well.  I wish I were tech-savvy enough to figure out how to get all the music stored digitally!  For now, everything is neat and tidy, and I'll soon have a few more dollars in my pocket from book sales.  The CDs can wait until I have some time for research and someone to help me.

Sometimes, a room doesn't have to be completely done; it just needs to be good enough for now.  That's not settling for less, or leaving it undone; it's simply acknowledging that even though I could do more, I'm content with how it looks now, I can enjoy the items that remain, and I can tackle the harder task of going deeper with decluttering when I'm ready.

This project took just a few hours, in the morning and again in the evening--as evidenced by the lamp in my pictures!


Back to life,
Christine

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Simplify -- My Project Desk

Simplify!

Our Goal

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Click here to find out why/how I started!

After decluttering our master bedroom, I found myself looking over at my project desk every time I was in my room.  It was time to tackle another project.  This desk was in a different part of our room several years ago, and here's what it looked like then, along the northwest wall  Now, the desk sits next to the bed along the southeast wall, and I use the edge on the right for my Bible and clock, sort of a "nightstand" section.

This desk very easily gets cluttered, and I rarely do projects any more.  I'm in the midst of selling all my scrapbooking supplies--punches, stickers, paper, scissors--because I'd like to convert my photos to digital format for online storage and for creating memory books.

Random family photos and scrapbooking supplies...

I bought this three-tier organizer at a garage sale for a buck, cleaned it up, and it now holds various crafting supplies.  It could stand a little decluttering, too.

I spotted a few buttons on my desk as well.  These belong to a number of articles of clothing that are missing buttons (or are extra buttons for them).  I'd have to pull out my sewing organizer to put the buttons away.

Below is my sewing organizer.  The little containers pull out, then snap back into place.  Each container has several compartments for organizing.  Over time, this piece became my sewing organizer, and guess what?  I don't sew.  I do save buttons from clothing, though--you know, the extra ones that come with sweaters, dresses, coats, etc.?  And every now and then, I need thread to fix a tear, or sew on a loose button.  I've amassed quite the sewing collection over the years.  This is where I started the day's decluttering.

One of the organizer's compartments.

I started pulling out thread, snaps, hooks, buttons, needles, ack!  Where did all this stuff come from??

I set these buttons in one compartment for saving, since they're for clothing items I still own.

Most of the thread I had amassed was in the red or blue palette.

I bagged up most of the buttons in little jewelry bags I already had, and collected all the spools of thread together.

Below are the spools of color I saved, since they're basic colors I know I'll be able to use in the future.

And since at this point, that jewelry organizer was empty, I used this other empty storage container to store my sewing items, as you can see below.

What are these keys doing in this post?  I found them in the single desk drawer.  I cut out tags and attached them to the keys, labeling the ones I knew.  I hung all the keys in our key box in the back hallway by the kitchen.  Hopefully we can figure out what the keys are used for!  If not, after a while I'll just drop them in the trash.

Well, my project desk project turned into a sewing organizer project!  I donated the thread, buttons, and other sewing items to two ladies at church, and sold the sewing organizer to a lady whose son loved to organize his Legos.  Bingo!

I will share more on this desk in a future post.  For now, I'm happy that I got rid of so many little items.


Back to life,
Christine

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The Annual Christmas Declutter

Simplify!

Our Goal

A simple and beautiful house

that the Lord can use as a peaceful haven

for my family and others.

Click here to find out why/how I started!

Well, Christmas is over, and it's time to put the decorations away.  Being Mrs. Practical, and having guys who are not into decorating, I don't have many Christmas decorations to box and store.  Also, I've already blogged about decluttering Christmas decorations a few years ago, so you may refer to that post for more details.  In that blog post, I shared how I got down from five boxes of Christmas decorations to four.  In my photo below, you can see that I'm back up to five.  This is only because last year, I was adventurous and decided to make tabletop Christmas trees with some wired garland that mysteriously appeared at my front door.

Also, I shared in that old blog post about how I labeled the individual ornament boxes with the ornaments stored in each one.  That is due to my excessive list-making urge.  My goal this year and beyond, however, is to simplify.  So the individual ornament labels are now gone.  Here we go with the details...

Once Joseph--sweet young man that he is--helped remove all the ornaments from our tree, and once I had everything spread all over the floor (grouping like ornaments together--I have a few "sets" of glitter snowflakes), I took inventory, same as two years ago.

As you may know, I collect snowflake ornaments; since the ornaments fall into pretty much two categories (snowflakes and other, lol), I don't feel the need to label the individual ornament boxes anymore.  Away with those labels!!

I sorted through my non-snowflake ornaments, setting aside most of them (the two shoe boxes below).  I also put aside those red ribbon bows, which I've hung along our front porch railing for several years, but not for the past two years.  They were a little smashed and old looking.  Plus who wants to go out in the cold to tie decorations on the porch?  Not me.

Side note--don't you just love that Hot Wheels shoe box in the above photo?  My youngest guy is 18, so you know that box has been around for a loooong time!  Okay, back to decluttering.

Even though the individual ornament boxes are no longer labeled, I wanted to update the labels on the (now) four large 44-quart Rubbermaid boxes.  So, I removed all labels everywhere and went to work.  First, I sorted all the decorations into the four boxes, below.

You may see two tree skirts in the two boxes on the right.  I use the one in the far right box, and the other one--well, it was made by my mom (both of them were), and I'm keeping it for one of my guys.  If they don't want it, out the door it goes.  It's just one item, it fits in the box with room to spare, and I'm not letting go of it yet--so there.  Don't bug me about it.  :)

I use Microsoft Word to create single-cell charts, make the border a nice wide one so I have something to cut out, and I use a font called Nickolodeon, which is on every label in my entire house.  Keepin' it uniform and all, folks!  I label the front side with the word Christmas, and the back side with what's actually in the box, so that I know I can fit everything in the boxes next year.

These boxes are stored in our basement, which needs a lot of decluttering again.  I'll be down there soon when the urge overtakes me!


Back to life,
Christine

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