Organizing, Day 1-3

Recently, I ordered a book that has changed my life......for the last three days anyway. It's called Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider of simplemom.net:




It's full of great information on how to simplify, organize and just plain enjoy the simpler things in life while letting go of the stress our "stuff" causes us. Tuesday, I began tackling one room at a time using her clearly defined steps to declutter and make beautiful. She includes wonderful homemade recipes for all-purpose cleaner, furniture polish and much more.

Most of you know, I am a fairly uncluttered person, but it is amazing how much we have accrued since moving to our current home (we "accrued" two more kiddos as well :-)!). It feels good to get the motivation back for simpler days around here.

The family room was my first project, I then moved on to the living room and yesterday tackled the kitchen. I am happy to report every drawer, every cupboard, every nook and cranny has been thoroughly cleaned and organized. In fact, I was able to condense my armoire and china hutch into just the amoire, so the hutch can be sold in this spring's garage sale!

I love that Tsh has you take on one room at a time with such clear direction, it has helped to keep me from biting off more than I can chew. Her plan is for ten days, but our house with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, school room, living room, family room and the dreaded basement will probably take twelve if I want to be thorough. When there are seven people living under one roof it makes for a lot of "stuff"!

Here are few shots of the kitchen yesterday after I unloaded all of the cupboards and pantry (sooo glad Randy was on shift!):

I finished at eleven last night, so there are no "after" pictures yet. My plan each day has basically been school with the kids in the morning, lunch, Addie down for a nap, kids to quiet time and I spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning the chosen room for the day. I break to make dinner, do dishes and take care of bedtime with kids (Randy has been on shift most nights this week, otherwise we work together on this)and pick up where I left off until the room is completed. The kids have been super helpful and have been excited about getting rid of things.....we'll see if that attitude remains when it's their room's turn!

Today (Day 4) is the laundry room and downstairs bathroom, so I should finish pretty early and get a jump start on the next room. The basement. The mother load of toys, I'm sure I will need a couple of days down there.

Tsh has written a lovely book I'm so glad I found. One small note though, Tsh has younger children (kindergarten and under), so if you're like me and have older kids (especially kids schooling at home) you'll need to come up with some creative ideas for scheduling your day beyond the toddler years, but she has lots of helpful tips that will get your creative juices flowing! Thanks for the great book Tsh!