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Last week I told you about my declutter project.  I can’t say I’ve gotten a whole lot more done in the bedroom, but I’ve begun to clean up the stuff I moved out of my bedroom.

One of my biggest issues was my collection of books.  I had way too many books on a cheap bookshelf that I got from Walmart several years back.  That cheap bookshelf broke a couple of years ago, but we kept piling on the books.

After getting rid of 3/4 of my books, I decided to put the remaining books in my living room, so I’d have a reading area.  I stopped by Target on Thursday, and they had the exact type of bookshelves I was looking for on sale!  I bought two and rearranged my books and photo albums.  Here’s the finished product.

Much neater, don’t you think?  Ignore the clutter off to the side.  I’m in the process of going through that and finding a new home for it.  Eventually I want to put a comfortable chair and a lamp where the clutter is, so I have a nice reading area.

I also need to continue to work with the new shelves.  It turns out our floor is really uneven in the space where I put the shelves, so they’re not lining up exactly right.  Right now it’s pretty close, but not perfect.

I’ll continue to post updates.  So far I have to tell you, I’m loving the changes we’ve made!

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I apologize for sorely neglecting this blog. Life has been unbelievably busy lately, and I haven’t been able to keep up. And my blogging schedule isn’t working out too well for me, so I think I’m going to go back to random posting.

Since I haven’t been posting, I thought I’d show you what I did yesterday. After being inspired by Oprah’s show with Peter Walsh last week, I picked up a copy of Peter’s book It’s All Too Much. Talk about inspiring. I can’t stop reading. And then yesterday I took action.

One of my goals for this year was to rid my house of everything but what was useful and what I loved. Peter’s book provides a road map for getting that done. I’m one who has an easy time coming up with goals and ideas, but a hard time translating ideas into action. That’s what the book does, so it’s perfect for me.

Yesterday I began the process of tackling my bedroom. My bedroom has always been a mess. It’s not because I’m messy, but we live in a three bedroom house, with a total of 5 closets. We have no garage or any type of outdoor storage, so everything needs to fit in the 5 closets. My bedroom started to become the catch-all room for anything that didn’t fit anywhere else. We just had way too much stuff in there.

Peter says, “No way!” He stresses that the master bedroom should be for sleeping, romance, and getting dressed. That’s it. If it doesn’t have to do with sleeping, clothing, or romantic ambiance, it shouldn’t be in the room. I did my best, but I made a couple of modifications. The TV stayed, as well as my husband’s guitars and amp.

I moved the books, the crafts, the mailing supplies, the gift wrap, and much other miscellaneous junk OUT. Are you ready for the pictures?

The before pictures were actually taken about a year ago. But the amount of clutter was the same then as it was yesterday morning.

Before

 

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

Stuff to go to Goodwill (mostly books)

 

And for good measure, the other thing I did over the last few days was accompany Liz to get her ears pierced. That’s what she wanted for her 10th birthday, so that’s what we did. Here’s her new earrings. She’s so excited about them.

So now that you all know how busy I’ve been, hopefully you’ll forgive me for not being around much.

Photo by sh0dan.

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Photo by aussiegall

I was wondering what blogging/productivity subject to tackle today, when I saw a meme over at Real Life. Sarah tagged everyone who read her post, so I thought I’d participate with 7 tools I use for Productivity.

To be productive, you don’t really need an elaborate system, but the proper tools can help a lot. Here are some of my favorites.

1. A small notebook. I keep a small notebook in my purse at all times. I also leave a little notebook laying on my desk at home. Whenever I come up with an idea for a great blog post, I write it down. When I think of something that I need to do later, I write it down. I don’t worry about categories, neatness, organization or anything else. I just write down my ideas. That way I know I’ll remember them later.

2. A Purse Sized Calendar. I also take a calendar everywhere I go. I write down every appointment that I make while I’m in town, so I can transfer it to my home calendar later. I also write down any commitments from my home calendar on my purse calendar. That way when I’m setting up my daughter’s next orthodontist appointment, I don’t have to guess whether March 4 is a good day. I know.

3. Google Calendar. I love Google Calendar! I write down future events that I will need to be reminded to do. Every week on Wednesday, I’m supposed to email our Sunday School classes prayer requests to the whole class. When I found that I was beginning to forget, I put a recurring event on Google Calendar and set Google Calendar to remind me every Wednesday morning. It’s hard to forget to do something when you have an email reminder in your inbox. I’ve used Google Calendar to keep track of coupons, saving me money.

4. Backpack. I just love Backpack! It is very handy for keeping master “to do” lists. I have a page for each of my blogs with master lists of things I need to tweak in my blog design, post ideas, applications I want to review for my blog, and goals for the year. I also keep a master list of things I need to do around the house. (Don’t laugh….I just started) And don’t worry. Lists are private, unless you choose to share them.

5. Gmail. Gmail has quickly become my favorite email program, and I’ve used almost all of them…outlook, hotmail, yahoo, various webmail applications…and I always come back to gmail. I like that it’s web-based, because I frequently use two different computers, and I hate not being able to check my email. I also like the conversation view and the search feature. Whenever I need to revisit an email conversation, I just do a search for the email, and the whole conversation comes up.

6. A Timer. I’ll say it. I hate to clean the house. Can I hear an Amen? I didn’t think I was the only one. I’ve found a timer to be good motivation. I picked up this idea from Flylady, who says you can do anything for just 15 minutes. And you know what? She’s right. When I have an unpleasant task to do, I set my timer for 15 minutes, and I work as hard as I can. Then I give myself a short break to check my email, my blog, or my favorite message boards, and then I get back to work for another 15 minutes. Works like a charm.

7. Del.icio.us. Yep. A social bookmarking site. I honestly only started using this a couple of weeks ago. A fellow blogging friend mentioned that he used del.icio.us for long term, rarely used bookmarks, and I thought I’d give it a try. Now I’m addicted to del.icio.us. (I’m lynnae71 if you want to add me to your network) I added the bookmarklet to my toolbar, and yesterday when I was tweaking the theme on Being Frugal, I’d come across web pages that I knew I’d need for reference later. I just quickly tagged them in de.licio.us, and they were there waiting for me when I needed them. I was also able to pare down my google bookmarks to only sthe stuff I use really often. I can finally find all of my bookmarks again!

What are your favorite productivity tools? Please share in the comments. And if you want to play along with the 7 Things Meme, write a post telling us 7 things about yourself, and then leave a comment!

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Photo by tanakawho

When I set out my goals for this year, I mentioned that I was going to begin my home organization goals by going through the book 30 Days to a Simpler Life. At the rate I’m going, it’s going to be more like 30 weeks to a simpler life, but that’s OK. I gave myself a year to get organized, so I may as well use the whole year and do it right, right?

So far I’ve worked through the introduction and chapter one. The introduction was a fun read, as it went over different types of simplifiers. I found that I didn’t fit into any one category. I think I’m a wanna-be “Organized Simplifier”. The Organized Simplifier is a person who tends to be very busy, who likes to have a system for everything, and who is an early adapter of the latest trends and technology. I’m generally a couple of steps behind, but I wanna-be all of those things.

I know you all want to know how the simplification process is going, so I’ll update you. The first chapter of 30 Days to a Simpler Life is all about getting stuff out of your house. Fill up a shopping bag and get it out of the house, the authors say. Incidentally, that’s one of the things Flylady preaches with her 27 Fling Boogies. What’s a 27 Fling Boogie? It’s when you go through your house as quickly as you can with a trash bag in hand and find 27 things to toss. It’s very effective.

So that’s what I’ve been focusing on. A couple of days ago, I started to clean Liz’s room, and let me tell you I found tons of stuff to get rid of. I filled up a huge box. It felt good to get it out of the house. And it’s so easy, I think I’ll fill up one shopping bag a day to toss or donate, until everything I don’t use or love has left the house!

Have you ever tried a 27 fling boogie? Why don’t you make today the day?

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It’s time for Works for Me Wednesday - Backwards Style, where I get to ask what works for you.  I’m glad this is the week, because I have a doozy of a question for you.

First, a little background.  My family lives in a little three bedroom duplex with no storage.  No garage, no shed, no outside storage whatsoever.  Our inside storage is also limited, and our closets are packed to overflowing.

A couple of years ago we bought a small Rubbermaid shed for storing things outside.  Unfortunately, the plastic warped in the sun, and it started to fall apart.  We thought we’d get one more year out of it, but no such luck.  We recently had (actually are still having) a storm blow through here that brought hurricane force winds with it.  Now I’m sure hurricane force winds in Oregon are nothing like hurricane force winds in hurricane prone areas, but it was windy for us.

By now you can guess what happened.  The wind blew the side and doors off the shed, and now it looks like our shed threw up in our yard.  My husband tried to fix it, but it just wasn’t happening.

What would you do in this situation?  I’m looking for a temporary frugal fix to get us through the rest of the winter.  We can figure out something more permanent when the weather dries out.  But for now, I need to get the stuff out of the yard and someplace dry.

It’s quite the sight, and if I think of it, I’ll post a picture tomorrow.  It’s too late to go out there and take a picture now.  Thanks in advance to any help you can give me!

And to find out what others are asking this week, visit Rocks in My Dryer!

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Oh boy do I need help in this area. I live in a small house with no storage, and we have entirely too much stuff for our small space. The one thing I want to accomplish this year is to reduce my stuff to the things I love and use. Everything else will be ushered straight out the door.

To get me started on the right track, I’m going to be going through the book 30 Days to a Simpler Life. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but from flipping through it, I know there are a lot of good ideas in that little book for getting me started on my quest for simplicity.

I also want to get back to my Flylady routines. I have used Flylady with much success in the past, but my routines went out the window when my husband lost his job and our schedule changed dramatically. It looks like we’ll be settling in to a relatively normal schedule again soon, so I’ll have no excuse for the mess I call my home anymore.

On Wednesdays you can expect updates on what’s working for me in the area of home organization. Tools, routines, cleaning products, how I get the kids to keep their rooms clean….Ok, I don’t know if that last one will ever happen, but I’m sure going to try.

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Wow! I actually did it! When I started this project, I was a little apprehensive. My family room was a MESS! My husband wasn’t (and still isn’t) working a regular 8-5 job, so I had no routine. And if you all know me, you know I thrive on routines! Money has also been tight, so I knew I’d have to go easy on buying organizational supplies.

Frazzled and frustrated, I pressed on though. I will admit I procrastinated, but it’s 10:00 on Thursday night, and I finished! Now for the wrap up. I need to answer 5 questions, and then I’ll post my before and after pictures at the end, because we all know that’s the best part!

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? The hardest part of the challenge for me was just getting started with the actual work. I love to organize things in my mind, and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. Putting the plan into motion was a big stumbling block for me. I think I actually started pulling things out of the room and organizing last week. (Though I did clean the room before that….Don’t worry….my house didn’t look like the before pics all month!). Once I got started, it was really easy though.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? I took out a lot of stuff. That helped a lot. I moved a trunk out of the room and rearranged the furniture. I added a bookcase and got the photo albums out of the cabinet under the TV, making it easier to organize the DVDs and videos. Rearranging the furniture also made room for the Christmas tree, which is a first for us. Usually it’s crammed right next to the door.

I’m also employing a in-to-empty a la Getting Things Done strategy for the mail that comes into our home. I have stackable inboxes on the desk. The top three are my husband’s (so ignore the stack of paper in the top bin….the best I can do is encourage him to go through it). And the bottom three are mine. I’m still working my way through the pile, but I should be able to tackle the rest tomorrow.

While the Christmas Tree is up, we still don’t have a landing spot for the kids’ backpacks and coats. After the tree gets taken down, I’ll put hooks up to hold the backpacks. For now, they’re being taken directly to the kids’ rooms.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? A lot of it is in the trunk, ready to go to Goodwill tomorrow. The trunk is in the hall where the bookshelf used to be. The books that used to be on the bookshelf are stacked in my bedroom, waiting for me to list on half.com or try to sell to a local used bookstore. What I can’t get rid of by the end of the week will be donated.

4. Now that you have completed the challenge, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life? Most definitely. I think a big part of that is the fact that I organized the kids’ DVDs and videos in a way where they can actually see each title. They can find the one they want to watch without taking all of the videos out of the cabinets, and they can PUT THEM BACK! They’ve also been very interested in looking at the photo albums lately, and now they’re easier for the kids to take out and put back.

Finally, the desk has always been a huge problem area for me. I took some of the electronic stuff (like the digital camera and accessories) off the desk and put them in the under TV cabinet to free up space on the desk. I also bought a little container to hold a few pens and a scissors, so they’re easy to get to. Extra pens, pencils, scissors, etc are in pencil boxes, so they’re stored neatly.

If I can continue to process my paper clutter as it comes in and not let it pile up, I think I will be in great shape. I can tell you that sitting in a nice, organized family room gives me a sense of rest that I have not had in a long time.

5. Why do you think you should win the challenge? Look at the pictures! My place looks great! Seriously, I should win because I overcame more than just a disorganized room. I managed to get this done spending only $50 on bins to hold CDs, DVDs, Videos, and a small container for pens. I managed to do this while my husband was home during the day and working in the middle of the night, which meant I had to be quiet while I worked, and I had to work around him at the desk. And the best times to work according to my husband’s schedule (afternoons) were also the times that my kids were home wanting my attention.

Are you ready for the pictures? I thought so. Here goes….

From the Front Door

BeforeAfter As you can see, I switched out the piano for the sofa. This is actually a better place for the sofa, because the kids don’t pull on the curtains anymore when they’re sitting on it. It’s also easier to see the TV without a glare from the window.

Moving Counter-Clockwise to the Next Corner

BeforeAfter Not a huge difference here. We did get a new, more comfortable computer chair. Thanks mom!

The Next Corner

BeforeAfter Again, the piano is where the sofa was. I also have recent pictures of both of my kids on the piano. We kept the plastic file boxes, because we can’t afford a nice cabinet right now. But that’s OK. They serve their purpose, and there will be plenty of time to buy a cabinet in the future. The important thing is that the papers are off the desk!

From the Kitchen Table

BeforeAfter I got rid of the trunk and the plastic carts. The carts went into my son’s bedroom, since all the stuff in the carts belonged to the kids. I brought out a small bookshelf from the hall to store the photo albums. I replaced the pictures on the wall with our family picture. After Christmas I think I’m going to move the piano to the wall with the bookshelf, and the bookshelf to the piano wall. Then I want to get a comfy chair to sit next to the bookshelf. And I’ll hang hooks on the wall by the door for backpacks and coats.

The Desk

Before After Do I even need to say anything? And the ONE piece of paper that’s lying out on the desk is a page I printed out for the organizational challenge. It’s getting recycled as soon as I hit post. Oh, and a reminder that the top bin is my husband’s. The second bin is empty. The third bin has a book I need to mail out soon and some movie passes that expire tomorrow. (Are there any good family movies out right now?). The fourth bin is my inbox. I have some bank statements to reconcile and phone calls to make tomorrow. Then it will be empty. The 5th bin holds my idea notebooks and the checkbooks. And the bottom bin holds some magazines with some good coupons in them. I need to clip them this week.

TV Cabinet

Before After This is perhaps the biggest improvement. Before all the videos, DVDs, and CDs were just stacked up on the shelves, making finding things impossible. The photo albums were crammed into the bottom shelf. I bought some big wire bins for the videos. I actually need one more, but Walmart was out. I’ll check again for another one next week. The big, black box on the right holds all of the CDs we held onto. We got rid of a lot, and we also got rid of all the cases, so they’d take up less space.

Electronics, such as the camera and video camera are on the bottom right. The smaller black bins (which came with the big ones) hold home movies. Another black bin holds electronics cords, which are coiled and fastened with twist ties. Right nowI have the camera accessories in a basket, but I will move them to the new black bin when I get it.

I also have the exercise equipment on the bottom left, as well as the laptop and lap desk. The lap desk won’t stand upright, which bugs me, so I’m not sure that’s it’s permanent home yet.

Finally, here is the picture of the stuff in my trunk, ready to drop off at Goodwill.

So there you have it. My new, organized space. Regardless of whether I win, I’m thrilled with the way my room turned out. Thanks for the motivation to get this done!

Be sure to visit all of the participants in the 30 Day Organizational Challenge at I’m an Organizing Junkie!

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As I mentioned about a week ago, I’m taking part in the 30 Day Organizational Challenge at I’m an Organizing Junkie.  I’m organizing my family room, and I’m running a bit behind schedule.  I’m glad to be posting my first update, because it will help hold me accountable for following through on this challenge.  So far I’ve developed a plan of attack for my room by answering some questions that Laura suggested.  Here’s the plan:

1. What do I want the purpose of this room to be?  I want the family room to be a place where the family can hang out together and relax. A place for watching TV, playing games, reading, and having friends over to chat. It also needs to be a room where we can do some office work, like balancing the checkbook, other computer work, paying bills, etc.

2. What do I need in or near that room to serve that purpose? Comfortable places to sit. Small surfaces to hold food. Attractive wall décor. A desk with computer. Some way to keep the desk neat and organized.

3. What can I remove from that room? The piano. Possibly the fish tank. The trunk. Craft supplies. Extra CDs, DVDs, and videos.

4. What problems do I see with the room? We have too much stuff crammed into one little room right now. There’s no landing area to organize backpacks and shoes. Not enough sitting space. There’s no organizational system for the desk.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems? Something to organize the backpacks and shoes. A computer armoire would be great someday. A curtain for the TV cubbie would be nice, so the TV isn’t always staring at us. A basket for reading materials. A nicer filing system. CD storage that is closer to the CD player. Either that or I need to try to move the CD player closer to the TV.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems? I need to deal with the mail and paper clutter in a more effective manner. We also need to develop a habit to deal with backpacks and coats as soon as we get home.

7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams? I’d probably need at least $1000 to create the room of my dreams. (remember the computer armoire?) I’m on a super-limited budget now, though, so we’re going to do the frugal version.

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room? I think I can have a pretty good system up and running by the end of November. It won’t be my ideal system, but it will be good enough. Sometimes you have to let perfection go and settle with “good enough to work.”

9. What is my plan of action?

• Decide what can go and immediately list on Craigslist.
• Assess the best way to arrange the furniture.
• Follow the Getting Things Done method of dealing with paperwork.
• Decide how to deal with backpacks and jackets.
• Once decisions are made, find organizing tools to work with the systems.

10. Who can I ask to help me with this?  My family, of course!

Over the weekend I plan to pull out everything I need to get rid of and list what I can on Craigslist.  I’ll take what I can’t sell to Goodwill or list it on Freecycle.  If you all could say a prayer that I’d be able to unload the piano, that would be great.  It doesn’t work very well, and we can’t afford to fix it right now.  Our house is really way too small for the piano, so I’d love for it to go to someone who wants to fix it up and will really enjoy it.

I’ll be back with another update next week.  Have a great weekend! I’ll be working hard! 

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We have a problem. A big problem. It’s my daughter’s room. She’s almost 10, and has many great qualities, but organization is not one of them. Neither is motivation.

This is a good day.
I used to have her clean her room once a week. The problem is that one day later, you can’t even walk into the room. Any suggestions?Organization is obviously not my strong point. I’m working on it, but help me to help my daughter before she becomes a disorganized homemaker like myself!
For more Works-For-Me Wednesday: Backwards Style visit Rocks in My Dryer!

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I’ve decided to participate in the 30 Day Organizational Challenge at I’m an Organizing Junkie, because, well, my house needs organizing. I had a hard time deciding whether to organize my family room or my bedroom for the challenge. My bedroom is actually more disorganized. You’ll find it hard to believe after seeing the before pics of my family room, but it’s true.

I finally settled on my family room, because the holidays are quickly approaching, and I want the first room people see when they walk into my house looking neat and clean. I also need to figure out where I’m going to put the Christmas tree!

I have a couple of challenges going into this project. First, we live in a very small space. Our home has one closet in each of the three bedrooms, a small linen closet, and a coat closet in the hall. That’s pretty much all the storage. We don’t have a garage. We do have a small Rubbermaid shed outside, but it’s already overstuffed. So I need to downsize the amount of stuff we have, and I need to think outside the box in terms of storage.

My other challenge is going to be lack of money. My regular readers know that my husband recently lost his job. He’s got a few opportunities on the line, but nothing solid yet, so money is tight with a capital “T”. I will be making good use of Craigslist and the Dollar Store in terms of finding organizational supplies. I’m confident I can do this though.

Ok, I’ve put it off long enough. Here are my family room “before” pictures. (The pictures are kind of small, so if you’d like to see the full sized pics, check out my Flickr page.) This is typically what my family room looks like at the end of the day, before I make one last sweep to get at least some of the clutter picked up.

This first picture is taken from the vantage point of the front door.

You can see that the piano gets used as a table. And there is a lot of clutter on the floor. The backpacks don’t really have a home, so they get tossed on the floor. And the videos get strewn about. You’ll see why in a minute.

Moving around the room counterclockwise, you see where the family room meets the kitchen.

We have the desk, the fish tank, and the kitchen table crammed into a very small space. The desk, which I cleaned yesterday, is already a mess again.

Continuing in a counterclockwise direction, we come to the front door.

You see more of the messy desk, and our file boxes, which hold my semi-organized files. There’s not a lot of space for entering the house.

The last corner of the room is the worst. Almost.

It’s the catch-all corner. The trunk is filled with stuff I’ve been meaning to sell on eBay. There are two pictures on the wall. The third picture (of my daughter) fell off the wall a couple of weeks ago, and the frame broke. I haven’t replaced it yet.

A close-up of the desk.

You can see I need a lot of help organizing the little things. I really want to get a computer armoire that I can just close up. It would take up less space, too. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and find one on Craigslist or Freecycle. If not, I’ll make this work.

Finally. The worst of the worst. This is downright embarrassing.

This is the cabinet underneath the television. It’s really deep, and we have so many videos and CDs that when they kids pull them out, they can’t get them back into the right place. They also love to look at the photo albums, which don’t quite fit right either. Eventually it ends up looking like this, no matter how often I clean it. So I know I need a new organizational plan here too. And we need to get rid of some of the CDs and videos.

So there you have it. The good (is there any?), the bad, and the REALLY ugly. By the end of the month, I hope to show you a whole new room with a lot less stuff!

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