We live in a very small 3 bedroom house with a family of 6. Needless to say, we have a hard time staying on top of the amount of stuff we accumulate. In addition to the regular household accumulation, we also have all of our homeschooling stuff. We are also creative people, so there are supplies for crafts, art, music, and scrapbooking AND we have now started getting ready for Christmas, since we are making all our own presents this year, and that also takes up space. It is all very overwhelming!
So, here are the steps I am taking to reduce clutter and free up space for the things we really need and intend to use:
1. I am not keeping anything I don't intend to use in the next 6 months. No extra school supplies, no extra arts and crafts supplies, none of it! I find that I usually lose the stuff I stock up on and end up rebuying it anyway. This way, I will be saving both money and space in my home by not stocking up on the "deals" I find during this time of the year.
2. The kids' rooms are zoned off. They are simple and limited to the children's special belongings, their clothes, and toys that remain in that space to be played with. We have a building and cars station in the boys' room and a kitchen/baby care station in our girl room. When we finish the living room, the same thing will happen. There are certain toys that can only be played with in the there. In doing this, we are also reducing the amount of toys we keep in the house. We have purchased a "special bin" for each child where they can keep their personal belongings and they are limited to that amount of space for personal items. We are trying hard to reduce the tendancy toward hoarding that our older two children have.
3. Each thing that we keep is limited to a certain amount of space and if we have too much stuff to fit in that space, we need to get rid of something. This will keep us from being overwhelmed with too much of one thing, but will allow us to have what we need in the home for all of our interests.
4. Reduce the wardrobe! Everyone is limited to 10 outfits for each season and no more than 5 pairs of shoes. I have less laundry that piles up because I have no choice but to do it and put it away every week and everyone has less clothes to manage. Simplifying our wardrobes helps us to be more grateful for what we have.
5. SIMPLIFY! We are working hard to simplify everything we do to make our home a more comfortable place for everyone to live. I love the Virtually Organized blog by Debbie Kravitz and she posted a very inspiring post this week for simplifying our lives and our homes: http://virtuallyorganized.com/2010/08/eliminate-the-unnecessary-2/
Hope this helps you move forward in your decluttering!
I have been meaning to do this for some time. Now, with the decisons we have made it's time to get all the excess cleared out to make room for more.
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