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Rescuing My Stairs and A Hot Spot – A Series On Minimalizing My Home

{BEFORE}

{AFTER}

We will start with what I call a hot spot, because my stairs are very scary and I really want you to stick around.

A hot spot is an area that seems to collect clutter if you don’t stay on top of it. They are usually areas that just take minutes to get under control.This ledge is a major hot spot in our home. It is right in the center of our home and seems like the perfect place to put little things that really should be put away where they go!

I’m finding a big part of the clutter around here is due to our home office being unorganized. There seems to be a lot of office supplies that I’m coming across, in our junk drawer, on this ledge, on our stairs. Once our home office is minimalized, I think we will all be better with getting this stuff where it belongs.

This hot spot only took about 5 minutes. I grabbed everything off the ledge and put it on our table.

Here is what it looked like:

I started with making piles of things. Like with like. It helped to get whatever looked like trash out first. Then I had office supply pile, an earring pile, a pile of hair bands & combs, a pile of papers that needed attention, and some miscellaneous stuff.

By putting them into piles, it made it easier to put them all away. The office supplies were put in my our home study, which was hard to know where to put them because I have yet to declutter that room and it seems to be getting worse and worse as my other rooms get better! I’m finding this true for all of the left over rooms that I have yet to minimalize. I started with the easiest rooms of our home and I’m gradually getting to the rough ones. Not only did these rooms start out rough, but as I get stuff put away from other rooms, these unfinished rooms just keep getting piles added. Ugh. They are going to be a joy! At least I will have you all here along with me to see all the joyfulness. Ha.

So on to the scary stairs. I shared this picture in an earlier post. I confessed to loading things onto the stairs as I minimalized rooms instead of putting things away. Now for the most part, it is not as lazy as it looks, because most of that stuff DOES go upstairs. But it had piled up way worse than I ever let it, as the rest of my house was getting minimalized.

These Rubbermaid tubs came to the rescue. They are really neat because they have a door that swings down so you can get to them from the side. So clever! I marked them Giveaway, Put Away, & Trash.

I have found that they are perfect to use as I go about with my decluttering and minimalizing. Especially once I got the stairs under control, I started using the bins to keep them that way!

I did the same thing with the stairs as I did with the hot spot. It took about 15 minutes. Here is what our table looked like 1/2 way through. It may not look like it, but I am making ‘like with like’ piles to make putting it all away much easier.

Here are the stairs halfway through. Getting better! Getting safer!!

I had my bins close by and used the trash bin and also the giveaway bin. The put away bin sat empty as I needed the large space of my table for this large chore.

See what I mean? Oh boy. The shoes and leggings in the front go to my room. The books are library books and it was so nice to have a specific drawer in the living room for those. I had a crafty pile and a beauty supply pile. I had a seasonal pile of things that need put away for winter, and the far left of the pic is a large pile of my daughters things, as her room is upstairs and her stuff often gets put on the stairs, but not taken up!

It felt great to see that my Giveaway Bin was getting full. I will take that out to the trunk. This bin load will fill my trunk so I will be dropping off my first trunk load of Giveaway stuff to Goodwill in a couple days. Yay me!!

Ahhh…so much better.

{Pinterest Home: Floors}

After my house is minimalized, I will be turning my attention to some home projects. Something I’ve wanted to do for awhile was get rid of ugly stair carpet and refinish the stairs in some way. I have been collecting some fun ideas on my Home: Floors board at Pinterest.

Those 3 baskets that you see in my pic above are for the 3 rooms upstairs. The master bedroom, the craft room and my daughters room. My husband is convinced they just collect clutter and just “whatever” gets thrown in there, even stuff that does not belong. He has got a point.

Am I better off without them? OR do we enforce consequences to little ones who put things in the wrong basket or things that do not belong on the stairs in them? It would also help to mark the baskets so there is NO excuse.

Advice?

{source}

How about this idea for baskets on the stairs is from Sew Many Ways? She calls them crap baskets and has one for each family member. That is an idea! She puts whatever she finds around the house in the baskets and they are responsible for putting them away. Maybe this would be a better idea for me. I only have 3 baskets for the 3 areas upstairs, but this idea might be better.

How do you handle stairs and the things that belong up them?

I love hearing that you are all minimalizing too, so let me know if you are!

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Make The Switch With Your Laundry

I’m pretty excited about a company that I have learned about called The Honest Company.

I am always looking for products that are safe for my family. The fewer chemicals, the better. So when I heard that this company started with parents who were looking for the same thing, I was very interested in their products!
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The honest company delivers to your door

I personally tried out the Honest Stain Remover Spray and the Honest Oxy Boost. Many of you know I make my own laundry detergent, but I was in need of a good stain remover spray and also a whitening booster. My whites are so much whiter from the Oxy Boost and the stain remover worked on a tomato based stain. I was impressed. I LOVE that I can trust the ingredients in these products. I also love that they came in such great looking packaging! Even the box is cute!! Their products are not just designed to be safe and sustainable, but beautiful, fresh and fun!

Honest is a Certified B Corporation. This means they are dedicated to making a social difference, safeguarding people and the planet, and making efforts to be a better business.

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{Website} {} {Facebook} {}

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ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ HOME

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

Goals Last Week:

~~Purge First Floor–Sunroom, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen~~ & Study

~~No Cleaning, Just Purging~~

~~Think Minimalism~~

All Laundry Away

~~Make Refrigerator Pretty Again!~~

Goals This Week:

Continue to purge first floor–kitchen, study, hallway, bathroom & daughter room

All laundry cleaned and put away

Price house cleaners for a one time spring clean

Order new kitchen sink

Call electrician

Last Week’s Pin:

Hair Bows made out of hair.

Pin I Want To Implement This Week:

DIY Cinnamon Sugar Coffee Scrub

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Last Week’s Most Clicked On Links:

1. Skin Care Recipes Using Coconut Oil @ Second Chance To Dream

2. Refrigerator Cleaning @ Our Lives

3. Why Soy Is Not A Healthfood @ Small Footprint Family

4. Graduation Announcement Templates @ Beauty Divine Designs

5. How To Descale A Kettle With Vinegar @ A Typical English Home

6. No Bake Fudge Brownie Bites (Grain, Sugar & Dairy Free) @ Nourishing Passions

7. Chocolate Almond Bars (gluten-free & vegan) @ The Knoxville Holts

8. Beeswax Fabric Tutorial (use in place of plastic wrap) @ Purposefully Simple

9. Yarn Wrapped Letters @ Happy Little Lovlies

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Be Encouraged, Be Inspired & Get Something Done!

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ALSO, let’s get to know one another.

It would be so nice to visit the linked post right before your own, and let them know you came from New Nostalgia’s AP Tuesday!

HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Minimalizing My Dining Room

A series in minimalizing. For my Living Room Post, click here.

Today I minimalized my Dining Room. This room is right off the living room and is another room that does not often get to cluttered. These are the first two rooms you see when you walk in our front door, so I tend to keep them up. Stay tuned for future rooms to see the REAL clutter!

Before and after minimalizing dining room

The corner bookshelf is really the only thing that collects clutter. I tried to keep only things that are necessary or meaningful to me. We keep our white board markers/erasers in a basket–see our whiteboard for chores in the far right on the wall? The red box holds cd’s that I like to play in my under-the-cabinet player in my kitchen. There is a picture frame from our family Disney trip and photos of my girls. All things worth keeping. I just cleared a few things from the bookshelf and gave it a quick dusting.

Remember, even though I do have cleaning supplies out, WE ARE NOT CLEANING. We are minimalizing. A purging of sorts. We have to train our brains to ignore the dirt and only focus on minimizing the items that we no longer need, love or that need to be put elsewhere. If we do this then cleaning will be a breeze. We will get to cleaning eventually.

I DO have the broom, duster and vacuum nearby for the big nasty chunks. You know, the dust bunnies that appear when you decided to move a bookshelf to another room or to get the layer of dust under knickknacks that are no longer wanted or loved. It is just for a quick maintenance. A fake clean if you will. DO NOT GET OBSESSIVE and start cleaning. That will come later.

Things To Have Close By When Minimalizing

1. Broom

2. Duster

3. Vacuum

4. Trash Bag

5. Bin for Giveaway

6. Bin for Things That Belong Elsewhere

This is the shelf I put my Scentsy Pot. that was from the Living Room. In my Living Room post I talked about how it was hidden and not getting used. That lamp is also from a shelf that I moved out of the living room. I love the glow it gives our Dining Room in the evening when the household slows down. The Dining Room is a central location so it works great. I have pens and pencils in a holder, (notice they all match, a touch of OCD), as homework is done at the table and my daughters need me to sign folders each day. I have a little succulent plant that makes me happy, and a holder for my most favorite cookbooks. I made the Simplfy sign. Tutorial here.

{lamp that I took from the Living Room}

Our piano is in the dining room and the basket they put their books in gets mess. It felt good to organize it. See those earphones? They are a God- send some days!

This ledge separates our Living Room and Dining Room. It is what I call a ‘hot spot.’ It collects clutter all the time. Ugh. Notice there is no ‘after’ pic. I didn’t get to clearing it off yet. Tomorrow!

Here is what I was able to purge from the Dining Room. Some of it is giveaway, some of it belongs elsewhere. Not bad, not bad. Just wait until we get to my office & girls rooms. I will need my bins out for those rooms!!

Got any questions about Minimalizing for me?

HOME/ Homemaking/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Minimalizing My Living Room

I minimized my living room today, and it really just took minutes. My living room is not a room that I struggle with clutter, so it was pretty easy. I will be working through the rest of my house and you WILL get to see clutter, just wait!

Things To Have Close By When Minimalizing
1. Broom
2. Duster
3. Vacuum
4. Trash Bag
5. Bin for Giveaway
6. Bin for Things That Belong Elsewhere

Remember, even though we have cleaning supplies out, WE ARE NOT CLEANING. We are minimalizing. A purging of sorts. We have to train our brains to ignore the dirt and only focus on minimizing the items that we no longer need, love or that need to be put elsewhere. If we do this then cleaning will be a breeze. We will get to cleaning eventually.

I started at one end of the room and took the time to stop and think about each area and each item in there.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Minimizing Items:

~Do I still love it?

~Is it being used?

~Would it make more sense somewhere else? {Keep ‘like’ with ‘like’}.

~Am I keeping this out of guilt because someone gave it to me? If so, get rid of it!

~Do I really need more than one or two of an item?

~Is this item worth the work of picking it up if out of place or dusting every week?

~Is this a sentimental object I could take a photo of as a keepsake instead of keeping the item?

Another thing to do is get out of ruts. Mix things up. Don’t be afraid to move things around if it make more sense to put it elsewhere. I purged the above magazine holder, then moved it to the other side of the room where a bookshelf that was just collecting clutter and dust was. See below.

I thought the idea of having games upstairs in the Living Room would motivate us to play them more. It really didn’t. Maybe a little bit during Christmas break, but not enough to keep this shelf in the Living Room. It is a big dust collector. I am going to practice the ‘like with like’ rule and put the games in the basement on shelves with all of our other games. Same with the books. They will go with our other books, all in one place. No need to have books all over. Keep them all in one place, except for the specific books you are activly reading. Keep those where you are most likely to grab them and read them!

This is our TV cabinet. It has 3 drawers under the TV. The top drawer was just a mess of items, most trash, lots of stuff that belonged elsewhere. They went in the ‘belong elsewhere’ pile (I did not get out bins for this room because I knew there would not be much clutter. I just made piles on my rug, which you will see below.)

I will now use the top drawer to keep all of our library books in. As you will see below, I need a specific place for this as I have paid way too many late fees and STILL found 2 BOOKS in that mess that are overdue. Fail.

Be thinking of solutions to problems as you go. If there are pens everywhere, look for a jar to put them all in. If you are a coupon cutter, find a specific basket to keep your coupons & scissors in. Problem solving is a big part of decluttering and minimalizing.

The second drawer was pretty empty. It is hard to get open so I left it empty. The third drawer holds our DVD’s. I will have my youngest go through and purge the ones she is too old for. I will give them away to my niece & nephew.

Here is what was purged from my Living Room. Yay! Makes me happy!! The games will all go downstairs. The magazines will be recycled. The late books will get returned. Books will be given to my sister’s younger kids or to Goodwill. Ahhhh…FEELS SO GOOD!

Now I’m going to resist the urge to scrub my Living Room and move on. Our Dining Room and Sunroom is up next!

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Do you declutter before you spring clean? Or do you do it at the same time? I have tried that and failed so many times. This time, decluttering is ALL I’m focusing on first. Then cleaning will be easy. I may even reward myself and hire someone to do the cleaning for me. Just a one time splurge. Maybe!

Got any more hints for minimalizing the Living Room?

ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ HOME

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

Goals Last Week:

~~Decorate for husbands work event~~

~~Plan daughter’s 10th spa birthday party~~

~~Catch up on housework after being out of town~~

Goals This Week:

Purge First Floor–Sunroom, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen & Study

No Cleaning, Just Purging

Think Minimalism

All Laundry Away

Make Refrigerator Pretty Again!

Last Week’s Pin:

Pasta with Spinach, Garlic & Lemon

I made it but didn’t like it!

Pin I Want To Implement This Week:

Hair Bows made out of hair. My Avery would love this!

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Last Week’s Most Clicked On Links:

1. Make Your Own Sunflower Seed Butter @ The Small Footprint Family

2. Good Mom Bad Mom @ Mother’s Niche

3. Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread @ Housewife How-To’s

4. Use Cream Of Tarter To Get Mildew Out of Grout @ Mom’s Cup Of Ambition

5. Homemade Dairy Free Nutella @Dejong Dream House

6. The 2 Minute Face @ Chronic Resilience

7. File Cabinet Makeover @ Mother’s Niche

8. Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting @ The Knoxville Holts

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Be Encouraged, Be Inspired & Get Something Done!

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ALSO, let’s get to know one another.

It would be so nice to visit the linked post right before your own, and let them know you came from New Nostalgia’s AP Tuesday!

HOME/ Simplifying

Minimalism For Me. And Minimalism For You.

{source}

The following is a guest post by Joshua Becker who blogs at Becoming Minimalist. I am giddy excited to have him as guest, as I am a big fan of his and I believe his message is super important one! Welcome, Joshua!
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{Buy Here}

In May 2008, my family of four decided to become minimalist. It was a decision made on the driveway of my suburban home in Vermont. I had just spent a beautiful spring morning cleaning my garage. Meanwhile, my 5-year old son had just spent the morning in the backyard… alone.

The juxtaposition of the two scenarios dug deep into my soul and forced me to evaluate my priorities with a new eye. The foolishness of excessive possessions became evident to me on a deeper heart level than ever before. My life – far more than I’d care to admit – had become controlled by the things I owned. My possessions were not adding joy to my life. They were distracting me from it!

The term “minimalist” became the best word I could find to describe the transition that was taking place in my heart and mind. I became committed to live with only the essential possessions and remove everything else.

Since then, we have been on a journey to define what that means. After all, we live in suburbia. We have two small children. We are active in our community. We love to entertain and show hospitality. I work as a pastor.

While not exceptional, our life is not identical to anybody else. It is our life – nobody else’s. And if we were going to become minimalist, it would have to be a style of minimalism specific to us. It would require us to ask questions, give-and-take, identify what we most value, and be humble enough to change course when necessary.

Eventually, we defined minimalism in four aspects:

1. We will remove all “clutter” from our lives. The process of decluttering began with the physical items in our home. We moved from room to room selling, donating, and recycling everything we no longer used or loved. Almost immediately, our home began to breathe new life and energy rather than draining it from us. As we began clearing physical clutter from our lives, we began noticing new opportunities to remove other non-physical clutter from our lives: schedule clutter, mental clutter, emotional clutter, and spiritual clutter. One freedom opened the door to another. And we walked through as many as we discovered.

2. We will decorate in a minimalist style. Since becoming minimalist, we have removed numerous pieces of furniture and countless decorations from our walls and shelves. What remains is not just clean, sleek, and modern, but is meaningful. The decorations and paintings that remain are the pieces most dear to our souls and lives. As we did, we began to discover that fewer decorations allow our most meaningful decorations to stand out and speak. Rather than subtracting warmth from our home, we find the few, significant pieces actually add it. As a result, our house draws praise from many who enter and enjoy its simple beauty.

3. We will use our money for things more valuable than physical possessions. Madison Avenue has controlled our finances for too long. The average American sees over 5,000 advertisements every day. And they all try to convince us of the very same truth: buying their item, service, or destination will result in greater joy. Since the day we were born, we have been told what needs to be bought, when it needs to be purchased, and what store we should visit to find the best value. But when we chose freedom from material possessions, we broke the control that our consumer-driven, capitalistic society had over us. As a result, we have been freed to use our finances to pursue endeavors far greater than those offered at our local department store. Rather than buying more stuff, we have helped dig wells in Ethiopia, support coffee shops in Mongolia, build churches in America, launch new artists, and feed the hungry.

4. We will live a counter-cultural life that is attractive to others. We have met many minimalists over the past few years that live a life that is far from attractive to us. They have sold all their possessions to live communally on a farm. They have packed all their possessions in a backpack to travel the world. Or they have quit their jobs to work only 4 hours/week. But we didn’t find any of those options particularly attractive. We like our jobs. We like our neighborhood. We cherish significant, life-changing relationships. Because of these realities, we have determined to live out a rational minimalism that fits our lifestyle and invites others to simplify their lives as well.

The benefits of our decision are unmistakable: more freedom, more impact, more time, and less stress. Since our decision, we have sought to encourage others around the world to simplify their life, remove clutter, and become minimalist. We have discovered there is more life to be found in owning less than can be found in pursuing more. And we invite you to discover the same.

Joshua Becker’s Newest Book on Minimalism

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{Site} {FB} {Twitter} {Pinterest}

Joshua Becker blogs about the rational approach to minimalism at Becoming Minimalist. He writes about the joys, the struggles & the lessons that they have learned. He writes to inspire others to intentionally live with less. And find more life because of it.

His story has been seen on the CBS Evening News, NPR and countless media interviews around the world. His books have sold in the tens of thousands, and he has the opportunity to share his message to thousands of people at various venues all across the country.

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