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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?

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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?

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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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.

HOME/ Homemaking/ Simplifying

Last- Minute Continental Breakfast for 12

I recently had some special people over for a quick breakfast. I had to throw it together due to time restraints, but it was an important & meaningful event, a remembrance of a lost loved one, so really the food was not important. What was important was that people felt loved on and comfortable in my home, and that I was freed from worrying about details to concentrate on what mattered and why we were all together.

I had about 1 hour to get things ready once my kids were off to school, so here is what I did:

~I stopped at our local bagel store & bought a dozen assorted bagels, sliced. I also got a couple tubs of flavored cream cheese.

~I stopped at our local donut shop and bought a dozen assorted donuts, then cut them in half. I like to do this so people can eat more than one type without getting too full.

~I stopped at our local health food store and picked up some orange juice, coffee & fruit.

~Once I was home, all I had to do was display the food in a pretty manner, slice the fruit, and make coffee.

It really only took about 15 minutes, and I was ready for my guests. This can feed up to 12 people-I fed 7 people and we had a ton of leftovers. I spent about $30.00, which is more than I usually spend to entertain, but the ease of this was worth the money, and the time with my loved ones was priceless.

Shopping List:

bagels

cream cheese

donuts

bananas

grapes

apples

oranges

blackberries

paper plates

napkins

cups

orange juice

coffee

Easy peasy!

~Does this motivate you to have some of your loved ones over for brunch?

~If so, who would you have over?

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Decorating/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Organizing/ Simplifying

8 Steps To Rescue A Room + Cleaning My Girls Room On Spring Break

This is a repost from the archives…one from almost exactly a year ago! It is fun to read and see how God has answered my wonderings in the below post, with this team of people I introduced you to yesterday. Pretty cool to see what can happen in a year AND I’m motivated to go clean up Lil’ Ones room again after reading this old post. I might even take a before and after pic for you this time!

Having my kids home for spring break has got me wondering…

…about this blog of mine. A hobby– turned passion– turned surprise income maker– now takes time. I now have advertisers, sponsors and write occasional posts on products and get paid for it. I find myself photographer, editor, writer, social media specialist, administrator, and receptionist all at the same time, and I LOVE IT! It has been a huge blessing, a surprise answer to prayer. We asked God about supplementing our income and what would be the best way to do that, and it seems like this blog is the answer. It brings me to tears when I think of the incredible gift I have been given, to spend time doing my passion hobby, and actually help the family income at the same time. I have God and YOU ALL to thank for that.

But, as spring break is here, and kids are home, I find myself wondering how in the world am I going to do it all come summer break? I have felt the pull the last 2 days, the pull between being a mom and being a blog writer. My little ones win in this tug o’ war game. I gladly give in. For you see, I now know that the moments are so precious, and are not forever. They pull, and I respond pulling them to me into arms that don’t ever want to let go. Oh if I could freeze these precious moments!

Arms right now are empty, as I sit here in a few surprise quiet moments, as all 3 of my girls are at a friends house down the street. Thank goodness for great neighbors, another answer to a prayer that we prayed.

Back to summer, I’m not sure how I will balance the two. I know so many of you do it, working mothers, and then those who are my heroes, single mothers. But, I do know that my family must always come first, and I must notice and cling to those moments that so easily slip past when I am too focused on work. I know my work is best when I am being the best mom and wife I can be.

I will probably sneak away to a coffee shop a couple evenings a week and take my laptop to the pool.

Another solution I have is bringing you into our days, sharing with you what we do, and keeping my posts simple. So today, you get to see what my youngest and I have been up to, and I will show you a glimpse of a fun little project we did yesterday with some of our neighbor kids.

I received a phone call from Grandma last night, “Can I take you all out for breakfast in the morning? Can I drop little ones birthday gift off at the house, too?” So our morning started out with the blessing beautiful weather, an awesome breakfast and time with Grandma. Grandma Sharon knew that my little one could really use her own comfy chair in her room, and after looking all over the city, she found the MOST special and comfy one. Such a great gift!

My little ones room has been a mess, and I was hoping this would be the motivation she might need to get her room in order. I was right. As we were out to breakfast, little one asks, “Mom, do you think we could work on my room today, maybe rearrange it and find a special place for my new chair?” Yay! Because I didn’t over schedule our Spring Break, I was able to say “yes” and now her room looks great! She expressed such gratitude to me for helping her with her room, which melted me.

{Here is what was eliminated from her room, most of which was under the bed! Eyyy..}

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8 Steps To Rescue a Room

1. Gather all clothes on that are not where they should be. Sort dirty from clean. Hang up/put away clean & take dirty to the laundry room. If there are a lot of clothes to put away, grab a laundry basket and lay them neatly in there. Do not get distracted by spending too much time doing this. Once the room is clean, you can grab the basket and put clothes away. You will be much more motivated once you see the beautiful, decluttered and clean room!

2. Grab a trash bag and keep it close to throw things away. I like to hang it on the door knob of the room I am cleaning. Look around the room and get the big stuff that you know is trash. Getting clothes and trash out of the room will instantly make it feel cleaner and decluttered.

3. Make a pile outside of room that is for things found in the room that belong elsewhere. Could use a laundry basket for this, to make the process of putting it all away easier.

4. Make another pile outside of room for things you want to give away. Bag it up and take to car after the room is finished.

5. Look around room and get rid of anything you don’t love. Eliminate! Clutter attracts clutter.

6. Keep like with like, and find a place for everything now that the room is only full of the things you love. Everything needs a home.

7. Use a broom to get things out from under the bed. You will find most is trash or things you want to get rid of. If it was under the bed, it is usually not important enough to keep!

8. Now that everything is in its place, sweep, mop, vacuum, dust, wash the windows and wash the bedding. This is all so much easier to do once the clutter is gone!

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As always, when I get into one project, it seems like the rest of the house falls apart, so I will take some time this afternoon rescuing my house! The weather is so amazing, I’m thinking it may be a great evening to pack a picnic and have Todd meet us at the park for dinner. It is 81 degrees and sunny, with just a slight breeze. Perfect!

Off I go to get to my rescuing, but before I do, here a quick peek at a super fun project we did yesterday. I will have a “how-to” post coming soon!

Natural Homemade Lip Balm

It was one of our most fun projects, the girls loved it, and I love that it is healthy for them–no chemicals!

HOME/ Homemaking/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Organize Your Measuring Cups and Spoons

This simple organization step I recently took might just be my favorite thing I’ve done so far in my kitchen! I can’t tell you how great it is to have my measuring cups and spoons organized and hanging in plain site. NO MORE digging around in drawers trying to find them!

The first thing I did was buy small hooks. I got mine from Target. I knew if I was going to display my measuring cups and spoons out in plain sight, they would need to be nice looking, so I looked around for these while at Target, too. Giada and her awesome brand of measuring cups and spoons is what I stumbled upon and fell for instantly. I love the simplicity of them & I think they look quite sharp hanging under my cabinet in the kitchen.

I have VERY limited space in my kitchen. Especially drawer space…remember this post? I only have 2 drawers….yes, I said TWO! Oh, and a half size junk drawer…so 2 1/2! One is taken up by our silverware, so really that only leaves me one drawer for kitchen utensil storage. Do you see why I need to get creative in efficient kitchen utensil storage?

Peek-a-boo! I see you! Do you see me?

I honestly have found myself baking more often since organizing my measuring cups and spoons. These 3 jar canisters that I keep out on my counter under the measuring cups and spoons hold whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour and organic cane sugar. It is amazing how handy it is to have the things you need in an easy to grab place! I also have baking powder, baking soda, salt and yeast in mason jars, in a nearby handy location. I’ve been doing so much baking, especially this Whole Wheat Bread from the bread machine and these Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins, that both my flour canisters were empty on photo day!

Amazing what a little organization can do!

HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying

How I Put Away My Christmas Decorations

No matter how much I love my Christmas decorations, I am always ready to put them away once Christmas day is over. I think I anticipate the New Year coming, which automatically gets me in the mood to declutter and organize! I also can’t stand how hard it is to dust my home with a bunch of Christmas chotskies sitting around.

Today was the day to get it all put away. I decided to quickly grab all decorations from every room, put them in a central location, (my dining room table) and bring the storage bins to said location. This made it very easy to see what I had, what I wanted to keep or get rid of, and easy to put into bins because I could see the size and shape of everything that needed stored.

Once I gathered all Christmas decorations from every room, I started to dismantle my tree. I actually have 2 trees. One in the living room that is considered our ‘pretty’ tree–this is the one I attacked today. Our other tree is a family tree downstairs, and that one we will dismantle as a family, as it is full of Hallmark ornaments that each need put back into its cozy box, one by one. That is a big, time consuming job, so I will let my family help me with that one tomorrow.

I took the ribbon off my tree and rolled it around the spool it came on. I took down all the decorations and Christmas balls. I rolled the lights up onto the handy plastic roller they came on. My Colsie girl helped me take the branches down and put them back into the Christmas tree box.

I have kept the original containers of most of my Christmas balls which has been great for protecting and storing them. Our homemade marble Christmas balls are like new, 3 years later!

For the few that do not have a container, I use Christmas bins that come with cardboard dividers. These work GREAT for ornaments or smaller, breakable decorations –like candle holders.

I put all smaller decor away in this fashion, wrapping some in tissue paper if delicate. I started with small and worked my way into my larger pieces, using 3 red Christmas bins. I used our 3 fluffy stockings in between breakables, and tissue paper for the rest.

I got rid of decorations I did not use this year–2 bags worth! I went from 6 Christmas bins down to 4. Not bad, huh?

It felt so good to move furniture back to their pre-Christmas spaces, after dusting and vacuuming, of course. I did leave out a few winter type decorations. A couple small winter trees, a snowflake candle holder, and that big, crazy silver twig thing you see in the middle of my table. I love the texture of it and I think it looks wintry.

1. Collect all Christmas decorations from every room, put them in a central location. I used my dining room table.

2. Take ornaments off the tree

3. Take lights off the tree

4. Take tree down and box it

5. Sweep up loose pin needles.

6. Bring all Christmas storage bins to central location

7. Decide what to get rid of. Don’t keep everything! Only keep what you love.

8. Wind lights up. Store. Mine came with a handy dandy plastic wheel to roll them on. I have also used washed out Christmas popcorn tins as light storage in the past.

9. Wind Christmas ribbon up if used to decorate the tree. I kept the spool it came on and used that.

10. Put Christmas balls back into original container, or use a bin that has cardboard separators.
11. Store small decorations in bins with separators. If you don’t have them, wrap in newspaper or tissue paper and store in a bin.

12. Work from smallest items to largest. At least this worked for me. It was nice to get all the little chotskies out of the way and then work the large pieces into bins, almost like a puzzle!

13. Leave out some ‘winter’ type decor if desired. Just a bit. Leave room in one of your Christmas bins to store this once spring comes.

14. Sweep, vacuum and dust!

15. Light a candle, get a cup of chai, and enjoy the uncluttered atmosphere of your home!

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It is ok to break it up into days. If you have lights and decorations up outside, do them another day. I saved my basement tree for another day. Small steps are better than procrastinating until spring!!

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