Project:Simplify Week Five Results...sort of

For those of you who are waiting on pins and needles for my before and after pictures, well, I'm afraid that Project:Simplify week five will finish in week six. (Who am I kidding? My mother-in-law knows this already! :D) As I mentioned in my previous post, at least part of my family has been sick for about two weeks now and last week, all of us were down. So needless to say, I did good to keep up with the basics. Anyway, I am still working my area of choice and while I really think I bit off more that I can do in one or even two weeks, I will post the result this Friday of what I have been able to accomplish.

Until Friday then!

Week Five of Project:Simplify

Sorry to be so late in posting this week's hot spot. We have a houseful of sick people and things have been a bit crazy.

Anyway, hop on over to Simple Mom and see what the final week's project is. I'm excited to see what I can get done...as least I hope I get something done...

Project:Simplify Week Four Results

This week was by far the easiest for me. Since I started using the one day/one room method of cleaning, my kitchen has stayed under control. But this did give me a chance to catch up on a few projects and I am pleased the results.

I started with my small kitchen pantry, where I store just enough for a week at a time. I have found that for me, shopping with three children 3 and under, once a month shopping is the way to go. So I store most of my groceries in a closet downstairs.
Before

After

Then I cleaned off the top of my frig, the spice cabinet and the inside of both the frig and the freezer, none of which had very interesting pictures but I am happy to have them tidy!

Finally I finished off Wednesday by cleaning out the oven, which was so dirty that I was too ashamed to take a "before" picture, and organizing my downstairs pantry, which was so messy, I could barely walk in it anymore!
Before

After

All in all, a good week! Only one more week to go!!! Head over to Simple Mom and enjoy everyone else's hard work too!

Week Four of Project:Simplify

I'm sorry for the delay in posted this week's hot spot. This is one I have been working on every Wednesday for a few months now. (I'll try to explain my system soon.) Anyway, I've been so excited about finishing up my simplifying that I haven't posted for all of you! :D

So head on over to Simple Mom and you can get started too!

Project:Simplify Week Three Results

This project was both easy and frustrating. I recently weeded through most of both the boys and girls clothing totes, so there wasn't much to do there, except my younger daughter was ready to move up a size...just a few weeks too early to change to summer clothing. So I will be moving totes up and down the stairs again soon.

And we don't have a lot of toys to cull but we did make some progress there too. So without further ado...

Before

After

Before

After

Before
These boxes are my toy rotation system. This means less stuff we have clean up every day, but we don't have to get rid of good toys, books and puzzles.

After
The box on the right is the remain toy rotation box. Some day I will get a tote for it but for now is a recycled diaper box and packaging tape. (Important so the girls don't get in to it while it's being stored.) The toys on the left are headed to my son's room, since they are going to be his toys anyway. I forgot to take a picture of the things we got rid of, but there was about a trash bag full between clothes, toys and just a few books.

Before

After

Anyway that was my week three. How was yours? You ready for week four already? I wonder what we will be simplifying then...:D

And don't forget to check in at Simple Mom to see what others did to simplify this week!

Week Three Project:Simplify

We are on week three of Project:Simplify. And this week's hot spot: children's clothes and toys. (You can find the post here, Simple Mom~Hot Spot #3)

If you're home is anything like mine, you will probably be spending more than a week on this, but we'll see just how big of a start I can get on it. :D

My words of inspiration for this project:

“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris (19th century architect)

See you Friday!

Project:Simplify Week Two Results

I've been weeding through the mass of paper that has steadily been over taking my home, well, as long as there has been a home to take over. I remember being a newlywed and going through stacks of paper together trying to figure out what we should and shouldn't save. (It doesn't help that my husband and I both are pack rats. :D)

So when this week's project was announced part of me was wiping my brow relieved to have another fairly easy week. The other part was in a dead panic...how would I solve the paper gather mess???

I spent most of the last week going through our family book collection getting rid of books we don't want or need...most of what I weeded out were old textbooks that are outdated and useless to us. But I digress...The main point in this exercise was to clear out my son's room, so that in about 6 months when he is ready to move upstairs, he can get in and out of his room. It has been our catch-all/storage room for the past 2 years and it wasn't going to clear itself out. But again, I digress...


While cleaning out his room, I found a little shelf I had used in college as a bookshelf. And it hit me (a solution, not the shelf), I could use this to house all my paper clutter!

So this is what I did:

Up until now, my kitchen island instead of being used to prep food or something kitchen-y, has been my catch-all paper holder. You can see the difference that just one little shelf made for me!

Now I can use my whole island without trying to move papers so they won't fall into the food or any of the other crazy things I was doing. I just need to get some contact paper to cover those wipes boxes and we'll be in good shape! :D

The best part is that the whole project didn't cost me a penny! Thank you, Lord!

Hot Spot #2 for Project:Simplify

Head on over to Simple Mom to find out what we are tackling this week...I'm dreading this project!

Project:Simplify Week One Results

So cleaning out my closet this week, I learned a few things about myself:

#1 I don't own very many clothes that fit me.

#2 I own enough clothes that will never fit me again to start a small clothing store.

In case you missed this weeks "hot spot", you can hop on over to Simple Mom and see what we were up against.

Oh and before I begin, I must also add a disclaimer, I am apparently a terrible photographer. Not only can I not hold the camera straight (it doesn't help with the children won't sit still) but I also can't seem to remember to take those all important before shots. So if you see a picture that doesn't have a matching before or you start feeling a bit queasy, I'm sorry in advance!

Before

After

Now before we go on, do you see that blue tote on the floor? Well, that used to be full of sentimental clothes, now it is only 1/2 full. Yes, I'm very proud of that one. I only saved those dresses that my mom made for me and a few others that I wore on special occasions like graduation.

Before

After

Not too much different but then there wasn't that much to get rid of. :D



My Jewelry~Before



My Jewelry~After

Again not much different but I feel de-cluttered now. :D And I managed to weed out a necklace holder full of necklaces I never wear.

So all in all it was a good week. I ended up with about 3/4 of a large lawn trash bag full of things to get rid of. Rather easy for me but I'm sure my Waterloo will come...just wait until we tackle spare rooms...

Week One of Project:Simplify

This weeks target area has been posted over at Simple Mom. Head on over there and get started simplifying your life!