1. Project Life update. Amber has now joined Turquoise in the “sold out” club. So as of right now, there are no Project Life kits available for purchase on Amazon. For now. As I have said before, more are on the way. Should be in stock within the next couple of weeks.
2. Cute friends. Speaking of Project Life, some friends came over last night for a little “Project Life Par-tay”. It wasn’t really a party at all. I just used that as an excuse to buy Costco’s chocolate lover’s delight cake. And I most certainly did that. Back to my point. It was so fun to sit and put our books together, getting them all ready to fill. Here are a few of the cuties.
3. Side note. As I said yesterday, I’m doing digital Project Life. But last night I was putting together Jason & Kyra‘s book as a wedding gift (Kyra’s our niece & they’re getting married this weekend). They are already taking their POTDs, starting with the New Year. How cool is that? Seriously – can you imagine having an album with a picture every day of the first year of your marriage?
4. Digital questions. Thanks for your feedback & questions about Digital Project Life. We’re working on FAQs to share soon.
5. De-cluttering. This is the real reason for today’s blog post. De-cluttering is on my brain and being that resolutions are floating around so much right now, I’d be willing to bet I’m not alone here. Raise your hand if you have some goals related to de-cluttering.
So I thought it’d be fun to have you guys chime in on this topic. What’s ONE thing you have already de-cluttered this year … OR … one thing you plan to de-clutter in the near future?
I’ll start.
Magazines & catalogs. I’ve had this growing stack for a few months. I’ve been letting them pile up thinking, I’ll get to that as soon as I’m not so busy and blah, blah, blah. I’m not a catalog shopper. Nor do I read magazines very much at all. I just enjoy flipping through for inspiration or whatever. But seriously — am I really going to prioritize going through a stack of magazines when I have so much else to do?
Um. No. The answer is no.
So buh-bye to this whole stack yesterday. Felt sooo good to let go (figuratively & literally) and drop them in the recycle bin.
One more example. My friend Megan (shown on the far right in that top picture) has had a big problem called laundry. Can you relate? With 7 people in their family, she always feels like she’s drowning in clothes. The solution: For each child, she is keeping out 5 school uniforms, 5 casual outfits, church clothes, a couple outfits for lounging & sports, a few pajamas and … that’s it. Everything else went into storage bins and under beds. When & if the kids want to rotate clothes, they can swtich them out (maybe once-a-month-ish?).
Great idea.
So — what about you? Name one thing you’re de-cluttering. Maybe we’ll all catch the bug.
Tags: catalogs, digital Project Life, laundry, magazines, organizing, Project Life
We’ve been decluttering all year. I’m still at it and that includes our shed. The more we get rid of by donating or selling, the better our life will be.
super cute!
I think it is AMAZING that your niece is starting her married life with POTDs… that is a gift to themselves that will last FOR-EVAH!!!
My computer desk. Round one done. My ‘playroom’ is another story, but a girl can dream!
Today I decluttered some toys in my den–we don’t have a playroom, so most of my son’s toys are in his room, but some of them are in the den—I’m sure he won’t even notice they are gone, but if he does, he can go up to the attic and get them—–and that will never happen! I’m also decluttering my craft supplies (mostly papercrafting stuff)—HORRORS!!! It’s true—now this is a slower process—to let go of “my toys”, but I’m doing it—then I’m going to sell some on Craig’s list and give some to friends and art teachers, etc—My hope is by the end of 2011 to have MUCH less crafty stuff and use MUCH MORE of what I have! Sorry for the rambling—it’s how I roll! ;D
I’ve been following and participating in a 21 Day Organization Challenge at a Bowl Full of Lemons at http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/, doing one challenge per day. We take before and after pics and share what we did for that particular challenge. The most rewarding one for me was the linen closet. I’m very motivated to keep up with the challenges.
CAS
We are on a mission in our house! With two kids and two dogs the sheer volume of stuff feels overwhelming at times. Therefore the hubs and I are trying to purge and organize ev-ry-thing! I started with my daughter’s school/craft supplies. Then I worked on my craft supplies. After that I tackled the spare closet. Other rooms have been sproradic as it all depends on what my busy toddler is up to, what I need to put away, whether the hubs is sleeping (he works graveyards), etc. But our goal is to get the entire house (including garage) squared away this year in addition to landscaping the backyard. I am looking forward to a more stream-lined existence in 2011
!
We had “Goodwill Roundup Day” at my house on January 1st. I went through all my dishes and we ended up with 4 boxes of stuff. I plan on doing more this weekend to include clothing.
Just a few days before the end of 2010, I decluttered my clothes closet. I should stop there. Too much “stuff” in this house. I will start taking down my Christmas decorations and declutter some of that, too. My scrapbooking style is simple and the things I have around me should be that way, too
I meant to say “I shouldN’T stop there.”
I went through my wardrobe yesterday and removed nearly half my clothes. I have been working hard to lose weight lately and was still holding onto bigger clothes in case the joy was short lived. But what kind of attitude is that to have??? So I got rid of anything that doesn’t fit and some pieces that I knew I was just never to wear. This all due to Project Life and seeing with great clearness the things that are really important and the stuff that is just STUFF!
Well I actually have 2 areas….the first is TOYS…with 4 kids…and 3 of them under 8…I have more toys floating around my house than I care to even admit. So I started organizing and sorting….I have the legos in a bag….all the barbies in a bag…..etc. I mainly only kept sets or collections…because even then…there’s wayyy more than they need or play with!!
My next area is my collection of all the kids school work, projects, and art work. I have REALLY been trying to go through and throw away….but I still look around and see piles and piles of ‘important’ stuff that I want to keep. This project may take me some time!!!
So glad I found you on the WWC web site. Becky, I have transferred all my picutres of the year onto DVD for storage in the safe. I have each moth in its own folder. I also break out a folder for each special event, such a birthday, or an art event. I then make a highly edited Best of 2010 folder for my favorite picutres I go to over and over. This keeps the 100s of picutres organized, safe and useable.
Also, I print out picutres.Ii want to sit in a chair and look at real picures. Cannot wait to start using your new system for this!
The dreaded filing cabinet is my decluttering goal for the new year…just as you said Becky, not something I would otherwise prioritize b/c it is out of sight, out of mind…and I KNOW that most of the stuff in there can probably go straight to the paper recycle bin, but b/c there are probably a few important papers lurking in there somewhere, I must go through them item by item (tedious task=major procrastination). So, I am envisioning file folders, putting my label maker to good use, and transforming the mass of papers so that when I open the drawers there is order and not chaos.
ha.
OK,
First let me say that I have clutter everywhere. My word to live by this year (inspired by Ali Edwards) is STEWARDSHIP. I have started my year, by decluttering my Christmas decorations. As I am putting everything away in the basement, I am bringing up those decorations that haven’t been used, and making the decision to let most of them go. What am I keeping? Everything we used this year, and a pair of porcelain angels that my grandmother painted for me that had been “lost” for a while. I was so happy to find them, and I know just where I will put them next year. Until then, they are in a clearly labeled box on my Holiday Decor Shelves.
Oh, I forgot. My darling husband is going through and organizing all of the gift wrap. I bought 3 new bins for it. He wants me to buy more, but I told him that he skipped the “Purge” step in SPACE (see Julie Morgenstern’s “Organizing from the Inside Out” or an article by Becky many years ago in CK), and that we don’t need any more bins!
I just decluttered the kids toys, from around the house and in their room. I told my 4 kiddos that with all of the new toys coming in, we needed to make room and donate the toys we were not using anymore to children that are not as lucky to have so many toys. They did a wonderful job pairing down, with some help from Mommy : ). This resulted in a nicely organized “toy closet” and very few toys in the rest of the house. Now, we just need to stick with our resolution to put a toy away when we are done with it!
As a nice side effect, my husband saw our progress and decluttered his clothes and some “collections” in the basement. I think the donation trucks are going to love us this month!
Recent Christmas card fronts and old card fronts from other occasions are being sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Ranch where they will be recycled into new cards that the kids make and sell. What a neat project and a worthy cause!
Send card fronts to:
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude’s St.
Boulder City, NV 89005
Becky, Just a thought on getting rid of magazines…our local library will take magazines and then they offer them free to people who want them. Also, I’m sure nursing homes, or shelters, or thrift store, or other places like those would be open to taking them too, so that they can be shared (again) with people who will enjoy them and it also makes us as the givers feel good that we could make someone else happy with our unwanted STUFF. I also like that they will be used more before going to be recycled.
I would like to say that my local library takes magazines like that in the Friends of the Library corner and they sell them for a quarter to raise funds for library projects. Also my aunt, my mom, my sister, my cousin, and my friend all trade magazines too. Recycling is great, but reduce, and reuse come before that.
I work 46 hours a week, however, I want to organize and clean but not have it take over my week-end. I have assigned a cupboard a week-end. Starting at the recipe cupboard, tupperware cupboard, hall, bathroom, etc. I am looking forward to being more organized without it becoming to much of an obsession.
I have decluttered one closet, my laptop, my paper punch drawer, and the food container cabinet…where DO those lids go???
Yeah. You made ALOT of people feel pretty bad about being left out. Maybe you should have thought about that. You can’t just invite some people and leave others out.
I plan to get my whole house decluttered. So far, I’ve gone through and decluttered, sorted and weeded and cleaned out all my cupboards. I still have a few drawers to do. I got sideline though with vertigo. I got it yesterday and my Dr. says it usually lasts two weeks. The medicine knocks me out, so I spend my days sleeping :0(
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