If you are like me you are spending these few final days leading up to Christmas knee deep in tissue, wrapping paper, and gift bags. You’ve probably lost the tape a few times, scrambled around for the scissors or a pen and wonder if ribbon is really necessary (hint: it’s not!). While you are in the middle of wrapping all these gifts, take a gander at your supplies and declutter at the same time!
Two weeks from yesterday is Christmas. CHRISTMAS! By now I expect that most of you have decorated and are figuring out what you need for hosting people. Or perhaps you are going places and don’t need to host. But I’m guessing you still decorate your own home even if you do travel. Anyway, enough rambling. Year after year we find fun decor that we add to our stash but we don’t always want everything we’ve accumulated and that’s when it becomes clutter!
I think it’s impossible to not own a a junk drawer. It might be organized but a drawer or space with a hodgepodge of items that don’t belong anywhere else or that make sense to have in one space but don’t necessarily go together simply happens to everyone. Or at least everyone that I know. Embrace that it’s normal to have one and that with simple and normal decluttering it can be a space that doesn’t always overwhelm you. It might right now, and that’s okay. That’s why we are doing this challenge.
Ugh. The week that I (and probably many of you) have both been dreading and looking forward to all at the same time. I saved this job until later in the year because right before the holidays is the perfect time to do it. Go through and get rid of anything they don’t play with anymore or bits and pieces of broken toys so when the new toys arrive on Christmas morning they aren’t piled on top of the old ones!
Why, oh why, oh why did I not take a before picture. You guys, this was probably one of the worst spots in our house. Yeah, it was BAD. Our games hide in a closet under our stairs. I think it’s intended as an extra coat closet, storage for things like paper towels, toilet paper, and the vacuum cleaner. Well, it’s our game closet along with storage for several other things.
I separated this from boots and coats and now I’m thinking it was kind of a silly thing to do. If you are going through one area you are probably going through all the stuff you need. But in my desire to make these tasks as simple and short as possible I broke it down into different parts. Maybe you are smarter than me and did it all in one fell swoop so you are off the hook this week. I’ll be in my closet while you catch up on your favorite show 😉
Again, this project was so timely. The boys have been taking their coats to school everyday for a week or two and now it’s cold enough that the littler three need their ponchos when we go pick up the boys from school and go shopping on the weekends.
Bedroom tasks are done and now we move on to the final stretch of the challenge! From here on out we will be dealing with seasonal items and areas we need to declutter to prepare for Christmas and the new year. I can hardly believe we have so few weeks left! Have you completed all the challenges so far?
I’m pretty sure that if you ask most parents what the scariest place in a kid’s room is they will answer, “under the bed.” I don’t care how old your child is, things get under there, disappear, and weird things happen. I remember hiding all sorts of things under my bed as a kid… like a cheesecake because I didn’t feel like sharing. It’s shocking I didn’t get super sick. Thankfully my kids seem to have better hoarding tendencies than me and they only keep toys and papers, not food.
I’m still in Mercedes room for this challenge. I could easily have gone into one of the boy rooms for this because both rooms have “stuff” on the shelves but its mostly extra bedding, seasonal clothing, or toys that have been confiscated for a short time. Mercedes uses her closet shelves for her current wardrobe. She has all these little cubbies to house her pants and a shelf above her dresser for skirts.