Decluttering

Last year before I got pregnant, I was on a mission to declutter my life and my house, thus "Toward a Simpler Life"....

So after I found out I was pregnant, things got a little crazy wondering if I would have to go on bed rest or not, and I had to be a little more careful and try to slow down my life a little bit (although to hear everyone else tell it, I didn't slow down at all!!) So the decluttering got put on hold.

Now that it is almost time for the kids to go back to school (I can't believe it is that time already--only one more week of summer vacation!) and Hayden is working into a nap schedule in the mornings and afternoons, I am starting to think about decluttering again. Obviously with a baby, I can't just go wild and count on getting it all done in a really short amount of time, but I can start with little projects and at least feel some sort of sense of accomplishment about what I am doing. As I am doing this to our home, I am also hoping that I can teach Mari Cate (and Conner, but he is not quite as bad) to try to keep things orderly, get rid of what she doesn't need, and just try to keep her room tidy in general. For some reason she really has a problem with this and I just don't know how to help her care more about it. We have tried chore charts, reward charts, punishments, and somewhat clearing the room out, but none of these have worked!! Does anyone have any ideas on how to encourage her in this area?? PLEASE share them with me if you do!

So this was my project for the day. I collect makeup...not on purpose, it just happens. When my eyeshadow gets really low, I go get another one, but keep the teeny little bit in the other one...just in case I run out, ya know? So I have a collection of teeny little bits of eyeshadow. The same with foundation....I have multiple foundation bottles that are pretty much dried up at this point. (After writing this, I am beginning to see where Mari Cate might get her problem!!) So this morning I cleaned all the makeup out and put the good stuff (colors I didn't like and such) in a yard sale box and threw away the dried up, teeny bit stuff. I also cleaned my lotion basket out. I have "flavors" we don't care for and such, so I threw away the older ones and put some of the good stuff that we just don't use in the yard sale box. Mom and I will be having a yard sale after school starts back and we have found that this kind of stuff sells really great if you price it right!!

So I am going to add my decluttering tally on my blog again and I hope you watch it grow with me! Here are some before and after pics:

There is still a lot of makeup, but at least it is not nearly empty bottles and such and it is organized again! Here's to decluttering!