Declutter Your Life
This year is detox year. Not for me. It’s detox time for the house!
My Mom, sister, and I decided that we were going declutter the entire house. As you can see, it’s big. The decluttering will probably take a year. At least.
Thankfully, we started our big project a couple months ago and we’ve donated bags and bags of items to Salvation Army. We’ve thrown out tons of stuff. We have organized and sorted, and yet, we still feel we have lots to do!
We’re tidy people. We don’t like messes or clutter, but somehow…in a house as big as ours, things get stowed away in corners and you forget about it. My Grandparents stored their things here when they downsized their place. Things get old and not used. Suddenly, you realize how much stuff you really do have!
More stuff = more stress.
I HATE extra things. I hate clutter. If you don’t use it in such and such a time, it has to go. That’s my philosophy. Then I got to my closet. Wow. I didn’t realize.
I realize it’s not perfect. I still need to get rid of some extra clothes. I would like to get pretty baskets for the top shelf…maybe figure out a better system…but I think it’s a lot better!
I also like to organize my clothes in a rainbow style. Whites to greys – greys to browns – browns to orange – oranges to yellows…and so on. It keeps me feeling organized anyway and helps me put together outfits.
My shelves were horrendous. If any of you have a brilliant idea for my shelves, please let me know…it gets messy so quickly!
Thankfully, after sorting through more clothes and donating, I had a tad more room. A tad. If I get any new clothes, I try to get rid of one item in my closet at the same time. I store sleeveless tops on the top shelf, workout wear on the second, and tee-shirts on the third.
I even went through my jewelry collection. I gave away a lot of it and just kept the stuff I liked.
I store it in a craft organization box according to colour. It’s easy to find what matches what that way.
My challenge to you is to organize your closet this month…maybe donate some clothes you never wear…buy a shoe rack…organize your jewelry.
If you’re really serious about decluttering your life, you might want to try a serious challenge! I found this calendar (pdf format) on My Simpler Life and it gives you a small, doable challenge every day of the year (except Sunday) to declutter the house! It’s amaaazing! One of the recent projects it “told” us to do was to organize our spice drawer and throw away the old ones. So it’s little projects like that, throughout the whole year, that add up to a big difference! You totally need to check it out (or you can buy a pretty calendar for it here!)
Happy organizing!
P.S. I will be having a little mini-series on organizing in the next month or two…the next one focuses on the fridge! Let me know if you have any great ideas for that one…and I’ll include your thoughts in that post!
How do you organize your closet? Do you have any decluttering projects on the go?
Category: Healthy Living | Tags: closet organization, declutter, declutter your house, declutter your life, how to organize your closet, jewlery storage ideas, organize your jewlery, tips for organization 9 comments »
I love your house! Look at that wrap around porch!
Our home was relatively declutter free until Baby Boy came. Our living room now looks like a bomb of toys exploded all over the place. We put stuff away, sure, but there is so much more in our house now than this time a year ago.
We also inherited a bunch of junk. Our basement is full of legacy junk from parents and grandparents (its my inlaws home, we bought it when grandparents passed). It’s been a slow gradual process but not as expedient as I’d like. Perhaps this summer. :)
(PS Sorry I was MIA for a bit. Was laid off beginning of the year – getting back on track. We are good though, no worries. Hope you are well. Cheers!)
Great post! Very impressive :)
Great idea! Although, I don’t have my own house… Yet. So I will declutter my possessions ;) that’s what I also decided this year;)
Congratulations. LOVE the house . It looks like it is on the beach. Where? I like to color coordinate everything, like a color wheel.
Now on to the next room. My husband and I moved and did this last summer. We live in a tiny space, but we have places for everything. It is so nice. We love it. It makes your whole life transformed. Heave ho!
I have been doing little projects this year. It makes me feel so much better to have less clutter.
Every year I resolve to detox my house, too. I always start out strong, but by the end of the year, I have more stuff to get rid of. For example, I got a lot of clothes for Christmas, so I cleaned out my closet again to make room for them.
I need to declutter badly! We have furniture we don’t use just because our house has a room we don’t use. I want to get rid of all of it! Plus, I like simplicity, and too much is always toooooo much.
Good luck with your detox!
i have a suggestion , may be get the books out of the closet , and invest in see through boxes that looks a chest of drawers where you put all your tee shirts at bottom of wardrobe , i have a drawer of regular basic tee shirt , long sleeved and smart going out tee shirts . on top of the shelf you could put your handbags and a couple of labelled boxes for things you may need (like belts , hat ? scarves , gloves ) ..
Fatima – These are great suggestions! This post was a couple years ago, so it has changed…but I am updating the organization process again. :) Thanks for dropping by!