It’s starting to feel like home…

The past couple of months have been so stressful. It started as a long-awaited master bathroom remodel that had to be put on hold due to an unexpected emergency with a family member. This emergency meant that we needed to focus on other areas of the house… things that we had planned to do in the future- after the bathroom.

Another project took over so that we could create another room in the house and it is finally finished. There are some touchups to complete and I know there will be some furniture changes in the future but it is finished for now… at least until after the upcoming baby shower.

I’ve been wanting to put a wall up between the breakfast area and the den for long time. I created a wall and separated the area in so many ways over the past few years that I felt confident that a wall would be beneficial. You can see some of the many ways that this space has changed HERE.

Continue reading “It’s starting to feel like home…”

Livingroom Remodel… it looks so good!

In one of my last posts, I showed a quick peek of how our remodel was going and how one thing always leads to another. Well, it is finally finished and it is looking so good!

These were some of the ‘Before’ after we had just finished a major decluttering:

Continue reading “Livingroom Remodel… it looks so good!”

Get rid of the socks… not just the stinky ones!

Another quick tip for helping to control that Laundry Monster and keep things neat and tidy in the kids’ rooms is to get rid of the socks! I’m not talking about just the stinky ones, the mismatched ones, or the ones that have seen better days and I’m not saying to get rid of all of them.

You may want to consider getting rid of some of them though as it has been found that some people will tend to procrastinate on doing their laundry until they are out of socks and/or undies. If you only have a set amount of socks then you would, in theory, need to wash clothes more often. If you have more socks than clothes then you may, in theory, also buy more outfits which results in more clothes that have to be dealt with.

Continue reading “Get rid of the socks… not just the stinky ones!”

I don’t have enough time to get it all done!

How many times have you said this or thought this? How stressful does it feel when you feel this way?

Maybe it’s not that you don’t have enough time but maybe you have too much to do, too much to take care of, too many unnecessary obligations. When you have young kids that time can slip by all too quickly and in the blink of an eye your toddler will be towering over you with keys in his hand.

I know that things can get really crazy, really quickly around here and I’m sure it’s the same in other homes as well. The past week was a train wreck with us being sick and not being able to do many of the things we had planned to get done so now we are almost a week behind already for the New Year!

Continue reading “I don’t have enough time to get it all done!”

Clutter scavenger hunt for kids

I’ve been trying to get the kids involved in helping to declutter the house so I have to get creative sometimes.

Lately, we’ve been playing this little game in the morning before we start our schooling. It’s pretty simple although you do need to provide a little supervision so that the little guys don’t throw away anything important.

I’ve been having each kiddo participate and I give them a number of items and a task to complete with those items. One day I might say I need 5 items to throw away, or another day might be I need 3 items to donate, or 4 items to put away, etc. I might even have them bring me one item per year of their age… I try to change it up to keep it interesting.

They bring the items to the kitchen island and deposit them. Then we complete the task of throwing them in the garbage, putting in the donation bin/bag, or putting them away in their proper places.

This doesn’t take very long to complete but it does make quite a difference… plus if the kids are complaining they are bored I can use this as a way to get them motivated to find something to keep themselves entertained.

You could even offer a ‘reward’ for the first kiddo to bring you the items… or offer them all a reward or snack when they complete their task. When we have 10-12 hands versus just my 2 hands picking up items we are able to clean/declutter a little bit faster… most of the time.

When we make the not-so-fun tasks a little bit more fun then they seem to get completed quicker. Who knows, maybe I could even come up with a Clutter Bingo?