Decluttering – Getting Started

Last August, I had started re-organizing the kitchen and had pulled everything out of the pantry to repaint it and rearrange the cabinets.   Also, the contents of our family room had been moved to the living room so we could remove the carpet and replace it with vinyl flooring.  We were splitting our time between the 2 projects.  It turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE!!!

One morning I came home from work and it was raining in the dining room – a pipe had burst in one of the upstairs bathrooms.  Unfortunately, we were using the dining room as walk-in storage.  Everything now had to be moved out of the dining room so the repairs can be done.  Anything that could not be salvaged was immediately discarded.  The rest of the contents (after drying out) were split between the living room and kitchen – leaving a narrow path to get through.

We are slowly working our way through all of the things that have accumulated over the last 45 years – items that we bought or inherited, that wandered in from family moves (including a piano), or were left behind as people moved in and out (the kids).  I am trying not to keep moving things from one place to another just to appear to make progress in any one area.  We need a better plan.

I discovered that there a lot of wonderful sites that have plans to get things organized in a house and maintain it.  I’ll start by mentioning two of them.  I will probably post links to other sites that I find have useful suggestions and information as I go on, especially some of the checklists for tasks and inventory that I spotted.  I don’t plan to duplicate information that is already available.

One of the sites that I accidentally stumbled across when looking for how to build a successful blog endorses a lifestyle called Minimalism. “Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.”  Theminimalists.com have a 21 day plan to remove all of the clutter from your life.  They do address the fact “There are many flavors of minimalism: a 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist lifestyle. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life.”

I learned my lesson about trying to do too much at one time so I’m leaning more towards the approach of 52 weeks to an organized home advocated by Home Storage Solutions 101.  If you scroll down the page I’ve linked to,  there is a list of 52 challenges by week to organize your home.  Each week has a goal and links to suggestions to help meet the goal.