Day 4, Desk revisited

When I posted the picture of my desk "clean and organized" it occurred to me that it was also really cluttered.  So after some thinking, I decided to put away all the office supplies, paper, etc. out of sight.  For now, that means it went into my empty dresser.  I have decided that the perfect substitute for the dresser would be our old hutch that is currently in the basement.  Just the bottom of it, that is.  It's got 2 drawers and two doors with shelves inside.  It will be a perfect stand for my dollhouse and perfect storage for the office supplies, without being a big overwhelming piece of furniture like the desk is.  In the meantime, here's the before and after of the desk.



BEFORE:  Clean and organized

AFTER:  Clean, organized AND clutter-free!



Day 3, Nightstand & Dresser

I mentioned before that my dresser is totally empty.  Well it is after Day 3's project!  My nightstand was not too difficult, but there was some clutter to deal with in the drawer as well as on the shelf underneath.  I had a lot of jewelry shoved in there as well as in the dresser.  Other things in the dresser included: pack 'n' play sheets that don't fit our pack 'n' play, clothes that don't fit anyone in this house, pantyhose that I will never wear, all the accessories to our pack 'n' play (the bassinet top, the toy bar, etc.), many miscellaneous items.  A few of the drawers actually were empty.  So the dresser is all cleaned out.  The only things I put back in it temporarily are diapers & wipes since I do a lot of diaper changing in my room.  I need to find an alternative spot for that stuff once I get the new stand to replace the dresser, but for now, it works.  Sorry I have no pictures, but it's just an empty dresser!  Here's the nightstand.  (We won't talk about the floor around it - that hasn't come up on the schedule yet!)

Day 2, Filing Cabinet

Filing is a joke in this house.  When we have a piece of paper that needs to be filed, we do one of two things with it - stuff it in the filing cabinet willy nilly, or put it in a cardboard box "to be filed".  Ha!  There has been no filing around here in a long time.  Well, no more!  Day 2, I tackled this project.  Step 1, empty the contents of the cabinet, which was in the dining room, and move the cabinet into the bedroom, under the desk where it makes sense.  My entire bed was covered in papers, owner's manuals, and just plain junk that got in the filing cabinet.  It took most of the day, but I was able to not only clear it out, organize it, but also FILE every single piece of paper that needed filed that I could find!  Now I know there are more boxes hiding around the house, but I did my best for one day. 

My fabulous filing cabinet!

Day 1, Desk

Since I am still under the weather, though feeling better than I was, I decided to start where I was.  I've been spending a lot of time sleeping and lying in bed.  My desk is right next to my bed, so that is where I started!  My "desk" is actually a 6-foot table.  Before, I had one of those nice armoire desks where you could close the doors and no one could see inside.  But there are a lot of problems with those desks.  1) you can close the door and pretend there's no mess inside, 2) you can lose things (at least I can), 3) in our house, mice tend to think that kind of desk is perfect for nesting!  Ewww!  So I decided I wanted a desk with no doors, drawers or cubby holes whatsoever.  Unfortunately, this type of desk also is an easy dumping ground in my bedroom for everyone's stuff.  So Day 1, I decided to tackle this project.  I regret not taking a 'before' photo, but here is what it looked like after:

Now this is where my "Clean House" inspiration comes in.  Even though my desk is now clean AND organized, I realized from this photo that it is still CLUTTERED.  So I am working on a plan to actually change this.  My dresser is completely empty since I keep my clothes in the family closet/laundry room. I realized that not only is the dresser serving only one purpose (as a stand for my dollhouse), it is HUGE.  So my new plan is to get a smaller stand for the dollhouse and also use it for storage for desk items such as paper, envelopes, etc.  More on that later.

Getting Started

The Ultimate House Decluttering Project has been a very long time in the making.  Really, ever since we moved to our house 5 years ago.  It started before that, though, when we rented our first house.  It had a big attic, and we began collecting stuff for "when we get our own house someday".  When that time came, though, we decided to do some decluttering so we'd have less stuff to move.  Even after that effort, we filled the 2-car garage of our new house with lots of things, planning to unpack and incorporate them into the house eventually.  Unfortunately, that plan never did come to fruition.  I became pregnant a month after we moved in and suffered all-day sickness during the entire pregnancy.  We were barely able to get things unpacked and organized at all, let alone incorporate all that other "stuff" from the garage.  And so it began. 

Trying to keep up the house, homeschool and take care of babies pretty much takes up most of my time, and the house just gets worse and worse.  To make matters worse, in June 2009, I was diagnosed with cancer.  Needless to say, that took a huge toll on the house as well.  So lately I have really been thinking about this and how I can finally, once and for all, declutter this house and make it liveable for my family!  Some things in my favor at this stage of the game are: the "baby" is almost 2 years old and occupies himself playing with the other children for a good portion of the day; the other children are old enough to actually help and to learn how to clean up after themselves; things are a little more settled now - I'm not pregnant, not nursing, cancer treatments are over, and we are on the road to "normal". 

So lately I have been suffering from the flu and spending a lot of time thinking.  Why is it that when we are sick and can't do anything, that is when we think of all the ways and things we could be doing?  I began googling about cleaning up a really messy house and I stumbled upon a TV show called, "Clean House".  We do not have a TV hookup, so I had never heard of this before.  After going to their website, I realized that I was not the only one!  In desperation, I signed up for a free 30-day trial of Netflix so that I could watch the show.  Wow.  My first reaction was, these people are like us!  Their houses are disasters too!  Even though each one had a different story and different reasons for why their houses were this way, the team on the show used the same game plan with each of them.  I was a bit disappointed to see that they didn't really give much air time to the actual cleaning up of the mess, but nevertheless, I began to be very inspired by the changes they made in people's homes and lives. 

So with this inspiration and the desperation of knowing that something had to change, I began the Ultimate House Decluttering Project.  I started a list of every area in the house that needed to be cleaned out and decluttered.  This basically encompasses the whole house, but I had to start somewhere!  I committed myself to tackling at least one of these areas per day.  At this point, I was still recovering from the flu, but I knew I could handle some easier sit-down projects, so that's where I started.  So, here goes the day by day chronicle of the Ultimate House Decluttering Project!