Living/Dining Room Progress

I've been making a little progress on my living/dining room decluttering efforts. I did get rid of 36 VHS tapes this past week on Freecycle. I suppose the progress in the video tower area doesn't look like much...
I did remove ALL the kid videos that were in the game cabinet and added them to the VHS tower and DVD towers. After weeding out the 36 VHS tapes, I was able to fit all but 15 or so VHS tapes in the towers. SO, I still have some weeding to do. I used to watch movies ALL the time. Now as a parent, I hardly ever watch grown-up movies. It's kind of sad to let some of my collection go, but they really do take up too much space and it's time to weed those that I don't think I'll ever watch again!

I'm still sifting through that stack of magazines... it's about 1/2 the size it was when I started. I know I could make it easy on myself by just dumping them all with out looking at them, BUT really I'm enjoying skimming through them!

The game cabinet...
is looking good on the inside. The top is still a mess, but I think I'm happy with the results of the inside. The games that we had stacked in another room all fit... and they are easily accessible! Now we might play the games MORE!

I also did some work on the craft cabinet... although, after rearranging it... I decided that it needed to be moved. So, now the craft cabinet is in the kitchen.
And the former craft cabinet is now housing my platters, vases, fondue pot, etc. Things I use, just not often enough to have to take up room in the kitchen.
I need to tweak the craft cabinet a little... might need different containers. For now, I'm leaving it as is... and we'll test it out. I can definitely find things much easier in it now. The Kids will enjoy doing a bigger variety of crafts now that I can find the supplies easier!

Progess is being made... not BIG progress, but that's cool with me... at least it's getting done!

Getting back in the saddle

It's been too long. It's not that I haven't been doing anything to declutter my cluttered life... it's just that I haven't been doing much of it... and I haven't been posting here.

That's the past though. No need to dwell!

I have come up with a new plan for the upcoming months. Once a month I'm picking a room, closet, shed, etc. to give my undivided attention. I'll continue to do daily, weekly, and monthly chores (working on my calendar for those still... trying to find what works for me), but I need to focus more on the clutter zones in each room and take care of them once and for all. I have a tendency to start a corner, make some progress, and then abandon that corner for another corner. I'm going to TRY hard to ignore the other corners right now... putting on my blinders. If I don't focus, none of it will get done... I know... it's been the way of my house for several years now.

For November, I'll be working on the living/dining room. They're connected and probably the easiest to tame. There's several clutter zones that need to be dealt with...

The game cabinet/mail spot...

The craft cabinet...

The movie towers/magazine end tables...
So, I've already decided what each of these areas is supposed to be used for... and to some extent they are already being used for those purposes. Now I just have to purge the junk, move the "stuff" to it's new home (if it's not there already), and organize it in a way that will make it easy to maintain (for me and The Kids... and Mr. Wonderful).

I've already got a good start for the month, I'm purging magazines (think I've sent about 20 of them out the door already) and VHS movies (have 35 ready to go right now). I'll check back next Monday with my progress.

Cleaning a closet...

I'm back to getting organized... decluttered! I must say that I took an extended break at the Holiday time. Things just got so hectic, The Kids were sick, I've been sick, Mr. Wonderful's been sick, we've been traveling, working, etc.... it's just been a busy time.

NOW... I'm refocused on my decluttering efforts. I started small with a closet/drawer project that I've been meaning to tackle for some time now. I have all my "beauty" products in a drawer that The Kids can get into to. LUCKILY, they haven't shown much interest in it, BUT I've been meaning to move everything out of the drawer and up onto a shelf in our master bath linen closet. In the process I wanted to FINALLY weed out much of the "beauty" products that I've been keeping JUST IN CASE. I really don't use half that stuff... and most of it never really worked for me anyway. Not really sure WHY I feel the urge to keep it...

Anyway, here's what I've done so far... it's NOT completely finished, but it's a lot closer to the way I've been imagining it. AND the stuff I don't want the kids to get into are now on higher shelves... in a closet that we can child lock for now. Eventually, we might even have to move to some sort of lock box system... ESPECIALLY for the medicines that are now on the TOP shelf of the closet.

Here's the BEFORE and AFTER...

My hair/leg/miscellaneous care drawer is now... ...a drawer for Mr. Wonderful and my towels.The make-up/teeth care drawer is now......the hand towel drawer.The closet which was mainly a linen/cleaning/hodge podge closet is now... home of my "beauty" products (ALL of the remaining ones that didn't get tossed... they ALL fit into that basket with pink liner... I can take this basket out as needed and EVERYTHING I need is right there for me to use... no more searching), cleaning supplies, medicinal/first aid supplies, and extra sheets for our bed. There are still a few miscellaneous items that I'm NOT sure whether to toss yet or not... like the alarm clock you see (that's mine, currently I don't use it, but if I ever get a job again I'll probably need it... or if I want to get up BEFORE the kids).So, there you have it... my much neater... more kid proofed closet and drawer! OH, the added bonus?! Right now I have an empty drawer!! I'm not sure what to do with that, but it's there to be used... we can always use an extra drawer, right?! (NOTE: I forgot to take a before picture of this drawer, but it contained all the first aid, extra health care items that have now found a new home in the closet.)

AND of course, there's the TRASH pile... and the donate/give away/sell pile...OH... and nothing was purchased to aid in this reorganization project... just used items that have been laying around the house unused!

Downsizing Christmas...

Now that Christmas is done, I've decided that I needed to organize the decorations that have just recently been taken down. I don't have a TON of Christmas decorations, but I have been storing them between at least three closets. I decided to make things easier... AND to actually be able to FIND everything next Christmas... I would organize and downsize. Here is a look at the majority of my decoration pile. That's TWO full totes (the smaller size), and a couple random boxes that I filled up while taking decorations down. I decided that I wanted ALL of my decorations to fit in the two totes AND in one closet (well, NOT including the tree which has a place in our downstairs storage closet). I would LOVE to have more decorations, but at this time I just don't have the space for it... so weeding out the favorites from the not so favorites is a necessity.

I decided that I HAVE to keep all my ornaments. Ornaments tell a story. I have every ornament I ever received and they all tell a story about some point of my life... whether it be a favorite cartoon character or an instrument that I played. I also have several ornaments that belonged to my mom... they are favorites from when I was growing up and always bring memories of past Christmas celebrations.

Beyond ornaments, I decided to keep two Christmas platters out of the five that I currently have. We tend to spend extended family gatherings away from our home, so they aren't really needed. I kept a Santa's cookies dish and one other platter for our own little family celebration. As far as other knick knacks, I weeded out those that I don't really like until everything fit... I have to let the bouncy snowman stay even though he doesn't actually fit... he's just too cute! :) AND now everything fits in the two totes on the floor of my upstairs linen closet. Perfect! ... AND I'll LOVE it next year when everything is so easy to find next year since it's all in one spot!

Oh... I did have an extra ornament tote that wasn't pictured in my first picture. It is currently home to The Kids' ornaments. They don't have much right now, but I would like to keep them separated so that they can take them for their own in the not-so-near future. For now, it's nice that they will be able to put their own special ornaments on the tree next year without any hassle on my part in finding them. The Boy really enjoyed hanging HIS special ornaments this year... and it'll be nice to keep that up! BTW, this ornament tote fits on the shelf right above the Christmas decoration totes!
I must say that I'm already looking forward to having a MUCH easier time decorating for the holidays next year!! :)

How to look good NAKED!!

I watched this show today on Lifetime. It's the new "How to Look Good Naked" with Carson Kressley from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Let me say... I'm a complete fan after just one episode!

I must admit when I first started seeing commercials for this show... I was just like "he just wants to see naked women" (I admit that I wasn't REALLY paying attention to WHO the host was), "who wants to watch a show about changing beauty queens" (some of the commercials were showing him prancing around beauty queens and talking about change... again, I wasn't REALLY paying attention), and "that's not going to help anyone." BUT I saw a clip on a morning show... can't remember which one it was (probably Good Morning America)... and it got me to the point that I wanted to see the show.

It has a GREAT concept, the show "teaches women of all shapes and sizes how to go from self-loathing to self-loving without resorting to interventions like extreme dieting or cosmetic surgery." Carson takes these girls through a number of tasks... he shows them how to pick the right undergarments, how to dress for the right body type, how to do hair and make-up, how to pamper (think day at the spa), and helps them to see how others see them... and how that is different than how they see themselves. At the end of five days with Carson, the girl is different... she has changed her self-image. Oh yeah, and she does a nude photo shoot!!

I admit that I don't REALLY love my body these days... what with my thunder thighs, muffin top, and flabby arms... so this kind of show appeals to me. I don't know if I've EVER been happy with my body... even when I got down to a size 8 between the births of The Kids. People have told me that I look good... skinny even, but I get too focused on the scale. How can I look skinny when I weight 182 pounds???? (I can't believe I'm revealing that here!) I have to admit that I AM 5 foot 8 inches... so, although 182 DOES put me in the "overweight" category according to BMI calculations, it doesn't label me as FAT. I think I'm FAT though. So, when I tell myself that I want to lose 30 pounds to get back to my size 8s... really I only need to be healthy... I need to exercise (I do fine with the eating healthy), but only to be healthy AND get some energy back... NOT to necessarily to lose weight. At this time I HARDLY ever exercise (pretty much my exercise is marching around the house once or twice with The Kids). I could use some help with my body image... and this show should help me to see more clearly! My wardrobe definitely needs help (I'm living full-time in the baggy clothes these days)... and I know I need help with pampering myself, too! So, I WILL be watching this show again... and hopefully, learning to LOVE my body for what it is!!

My BIGGEST problem with this show was the commercials (no TiVo here) that were shown during the show. Ummm... guess what over half of them were?! Dieting aids!! Lifetime puts this GREAT show on to help women with their body images, BUT then every commercial break tells them to diet or lose weight. Ok, I know they need their money, but you'd think they'd work on that a little don't ya think?!

Anyway, if you haven't checked this show out yet... and you don't REALLY love your body as it is, check this out!! :)

This entry has been cross-posted at Mom Chatter.

Christmas Cards

I LOVE receiving Christmas cards... AND there was a time that I loved sending them out!!!

Now, it just seems to be one more major hurdle I stumble on every Christmas... I just can't seem to get it together enough to get them all finished and sent. The last few Christmases I've probably finished about 1/3rd of my list by Christmas... and by Valentine's Day I've finished off about a 3/4 of the list. Therefore, there seems to be an unfortunate 1/4 of my list that HAS NOT received their Christmas cards from me in several years. It's REALLY a shame!

It's time for a Christmas card makeover. It's just NOT working this way... and I end up feeling awful that these people never hear from me anymore! I've thought about NOT sending them, but that just doesn't seem quite right. I miss the many REAL letters I used to get... letter writing is quickly becoming a lost art form. I want to keep people's mailboxes filled with SOMETHING other than the regular bills and junk mail!!! I've come to the conclusion that my Christmas cards just can't be what they USED to be (card, pictures, update letter, and personal letter)... at least temporarily until The Kids are a little older and can help out more (some of my fondest Christmas memories are of helping my mom get the Christmas cards ready to mail). THIS Christmas... I'm sending a card with pictures... AND THAT'S IT!!!

NO letter... it just doesn't seem to work for me. INSTEAD, I'm going to be weeding through my list and identifying those people that deserve a letter... those that I don't keep in touch with often enough. I'll divide these people into 11 groups... and spread the letter love over the first 11 months of the year (I'm figuring that might add up to a letter a week). December will be kept for Christmas card preparation and mailing. I think this will be much easier on me than writing a MASSIVE amount of letters during one of the busiest times of the year!!

We'll see...

I'm still around!

Now that I finished the BIG 30 Day Organizational Challenge (here and here)... I'm just taking a breather from my decluttering efforts. I STILL have closets (can you believe we have 9 closets in this house... and only 7 rooms... not including bathrooms) and one more room to work on.

I'm thinking I'm taking December off from home decluttering. I need to work a little on mind decluttering (there's just SO MUCH going on with the holidays being here) and weight decluttering (I have about 30 pounds I'd like to lose). I'm NOT sure that I'm going to be working on BOTH right now, but I should! I'm afraid that if I wait 'til January for starting the 30 pound shedding, it will become one of those failed New Year Resolutions. We'll see. I think a goal of "lose 6 pounds" by the end of December would be reasonable. As for the mind clutter, I just need to get some of my holiday "to do" list done with. The Christmas Cards, shopping, travel plans (we were going to travel back to my hometown, but have VERY recently changed plans), finishing stockings, etc., etc., etc. It's all "listed" in my head. I REALLY need a better way to store information such as that!

So, I'm here... just NOT entirely sure what to do with myself next!