Clutter and the Kingdom

I have mentioned here occasionally that I am a bit of a neat freak. I like my kitchen counters clean and bare, my closet color coded and my books arranged by height. Three items on the dining table form a clutter in my head, and I utterly dislike the feeling of going to bed with dishes in the sink. Once, taking a women's class at church the speaker told us we did not have to submit to the cleanliness bondage, for there is no inspector that will knock on your door to check if you dusted your shelves and vacuumed under the couch. My answer to her? But I am the inspector!

So you get the picture of what my house looks like on a daily basis, except for extreme cases of sickness, pregnancy fatigue, or excessive business (I am not that crazy and won't trade in sleeping hours for cleaning, ever!). Pair that with a love for making things homey, and you got a cleaning obsessed and always on the search for new ways to organize/declutter/simplify home maker. 

That is why I love Simple Mom's yearly Project Simplify so much. I was actually quite bummed to not take part in it this year because we had just put our house up for sale and I figured I should do it when I moved. Yeah, still waiting on that to happen. (By the way, I did take part in it last year and loved it!). 

I recently read Simplify, by Joshua Becker, which talks about how we can be rational minimalists, not the type that has one piece of furniture in the living room, but that has enough and only that which we need. I loved it off the bat and immediately started working out decluttering plans. 

Two days later, the church had an announcement of a garage sale to raise proceeds for missions. It felt like a confirmation that this needed to be done. But more so, I felt more inspired than I ever did before. With every piece of kitchen gadget and craft supply, instead of thinking  Won't I need it eventually? my heart would tug and go Can this raise money for the Kingdom?

So I went through my house and made a decision. Purging for it's own sake may be healthy, but doing it with a purpose to bring Glory to God, just like anything else in life, is so much more worth it. 

Two hundred moments

Today is Little Gosh's post #200! I am so happy I listened to God's prompt about this, and the fruits I've been reaping from it have been wonderful. Having an outlet to vent and to digest things has truly helped me be a better person, and I just love all the support and comments I get. Thank you for that!

To celebrate, here are some of my favorite posts:

My favorite Five Minute Friday: Wide

The most accessed post: Project Simplify's Craft room reveal

My favorite 31 days post: On love

The post that changed the direction of this blog: Well, hello there...

Enjoy! And thank you for sticking around!

Project Simplify closet

This week’s hotspot for Project Simplify was the closet (and such, but that's about all I could tackle!). When move into our new house five months ago I went through all my clothes, sorting them. My first thought was that means I am done with the project.  But to be honest, I couldn’t post a picture of my closet here because I was so embarrassed.

You see, it’s not that I have too many clothes. I could actually use some more. But my closet is small. Really small. So it looks cramped, really cramped. Furthermore, I often take trips on the weekends to my mom’s and my in-laws. I’ve been doing it for years, and yet, every time, I pack a suitcase because I was always too afraid I’d want a pair of pants that was left at their house or something crazy like that. For this week’s project I decided to figure out which ones to pack and send away:

People say you need to try on every single piece of clothing you have in order to check it out, but I think that’s a bit too much. There are clothes I wear every single week, and I know they fit me.

As my closet is small, I figured the best way to work thought my clothes was putting everything on my bed, except the blouses and jackets that are on hangers:

I sorted through them sharing them into three places: the closet, apile for mom’s and a pile for the in-law’s. No one really needs five winter pjs at home anyway. Here is my new clutter-free closet:

I also went through my shoes:

Project Simplify Kitchen reveal

This week Project Simplify's focus was the kitchen. I must admit I jumped the gun and did it all on Sunday, even though I promised myself I wouldn't. I belive in Sunday rest. I was more than happy with the thought of lounging in front of the TV or curling up with a good book.

But I thought of last week's hotspot, and how I had to get home, walk the dogs, tackle my craft room, cook dinner, bathe and then relax. It drained me too much. Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic and I am so thankful I did it. But it was quite tiring. So Sunday it was.

I started out early with two different objectives in mind: de-clutter, assessing how much I really use and need of each item, as well as focusing on my paths in the kitchen. You see, when I moved, I thought about where each thing should go based on the size of each cupboard. I needed a big cupboard for the pantry, so food was stored away from my prep area. I figured serving dishes should be stored low, so they are across the kitchen from the sink.

Therefore, my kitchen made no sense. Now, it flows much better. My dishes go from the sink, to the drainer on top of it, to the cupboard right next door. The food is under the food prepping area. I love it!

Here are some before and after pictures:

Project Simplify Week 2

Last week I was quite excited about Project Simplify, just because I knew I had to get in the groove. But now, I am thrilled. Let me explain: Hotspot #1 was the kids room, and while I think 100% of the kids rooms I’ve been in are in desperate need of purging, and I am happy for all the mommies out there, I am NOT a mother. Yet. So I had to make my own hotspot, which suited me, but felt a bit lame. I crave to fit in. We all do.

 This week we are tackling the kitchen, and I cannot wait. My kitchen is small and crammed. I am always complaining I need more Tupperware or a bigger counter space. But I also know I am guilty of hoarding useless stuff that I might use once a year. Not cool.

Although last week I was too in-deep with Project Simplicity and I had a big task which took literaly all my free time, I decided my daily posts wont all focus on that. That’d be a month of Project Simplify, and not even Tsh is doing that. So if you want to see my before and after kitchen, tune in on Friday.

Until then, I have two words for you: Go declutter. Ok, the second is not a real word. But you know what I mean. Free up some space, and free yourself from all that stuff. You know you want to!

PS Craft room reveal

After a lot of physical work and emotional dettachement, my craft room is finally done. This is what it started out as:

And this is what it looks like now. There are so many reasons why I love it:

First of all, I have a cozy space right next to the window. I kept all the books I love, but no longer have piles of books I couldn't care less for.

With the extra space on the floor, I can now keep our mini-fridge (a must for the top floor on a two story house!) and our document boxes in accessible, yet out-of-the-way places. Pus, did I mention I have now room for my shoes?

My table is organized and to make sure I am not going back to cluttering, I gave half of its space to my husband (therefore the desktop computer). I also love that I have a 'project box' right next to the table, where I can centralize everything that needs my attention. I made a deal with myself that by July, whatever is still in that box gets binned.

Here is all the clutter that no longer has room in my life. Plus, I'm sure my kids at school and cleaning lady will be very happy with the donations!

If you took part on Project Simplify, please post your link so I can check it out! Have a great weekend!

PS My photography debacle

Yesterday I focused my attention once again on my craft room for Project Simplify. I actually set out decided to finish this mess you saw yesterday. I figured I could do it.

And then, I hit a road block. A good one, mind you, but still, an emotional-can’t-let-go-I-must-be-going-crazy road block. I decided to purge my photo boxes.

The first thing I realized is that I had never done this before. I’m a child of the 80’s, so was brought up to cherish pictures. 35mm film was expensive back then, and we did not waste it. And when we got our prints back, we kept them, even if they were blurry or had evidence of the photographer’s fingers. A picture had to be unrecognizable to be thrown away. Or maybe my obsession is actually founded in the fact that I chose Photography as my major in college.

That mindset was highlighted by my hundreds of snapshots of landscape, some of which I can’t quite recognize. There is also a whole section on Walt Disney World parades, and some snapshots of friends from summer camp whose faces I cannot name.

So I decided to tackle them as I do most of my things. If I had to think about it for more than a second, it’s gone. If it’s blurry or badly taken, it’s gone. If it’s of a friend I can’t remember, it’s gone. If it’s from the digital age and I have the prints, it’s gone. And for those portfolios on Disney and the Scottish landscape, they were narrowed down to three shots.

My two boxes quickly became a third of a box. And now I can honestly say that I love all the pictures I have.

PS Craft room day 2

I must be honest. When I got home on Monday, the last thing I wanted to do was organize. And that is saying something. You see, I L-O-V-E organizing. I find it therapeutic, and actually look forward to it. But I had a rough week, in all sense of the word. And I had a fantastic weekend, which recharged me. But I did no lounging around, and all I wanted was to get home and plop in front of the TV.

I figured if I didn’t get the ball rolling, it just wouldn’t get done at all. So I mustered my courage and tackled the worst cupboardin the room. And boy, did I feel good about it!

So last night it was day 2 and I was pumped. Since I had some empty space on my bookshelves, I figured they should go next. Which made me scared. Here is a picture of what they looked like.

         

You see, I was brought up to worship books. My mamma taught me you don’t donate, sell or throw away books. They are a legacy. I think that sounds nice. Until they become a burden.

I did some long and hard thinking during the day, and came to the conclusion that I tend to:

1-      Not want to get rid of books I got as a present. Even if I never ever read it and never will. Which is ridiculous, I know. Part of me wants to please. The other part doesn’t want to offend anyone. Not a good combo.

2-     I get attached to the physical item instead of treasuring the memory. I have books I read fifteen years ago and found them ‘ok’. But I remember the summer holidays I read them as if it were yesterday. I have books about random topics, such as ‘women and contemporary art’ which mean little to me. But the professor who required that book was awesome. So I tend to clutter.

3-     I love the look of a bookshelf. And that means that if I have any empty space, I will fill it up with books. Which needs to stop.

Buying a kindle was step one. Getting rid of useless books should be step two. So here is my pile of use-less books:

And after a lot of practice in getting detached from the ghost of the books past, here is what my shelves look like now.

Yes, shoes! For several reasons:

1-      It encouraged me to purge more books.

2-     I had no place to put these shoes in my bedroom, so they were out on the floor.

3-     They are not the best smelling things in the world, I’ll be the first to admit. So leaving them out of my room if the best thing I can think of right now.

I also moved my chair around to be closer to the window, and had to move the art cupboard to the other wall because it was too tight.

Now here is what I have to tackle for the next three evenings:

PS Craft room day 1

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to start Project Simplify’s purging feast in my craft room. I actually gave it a lot of thought as to where in the room I should start. I wanted to make sure I could move things around and start getting rid of what made more sense first.

So it sounded just right to get started with the most cluttered cupboard in my house. Here are some before pictures:

As you can see, the drawers were cluttered, and I could barely open the bottom part. I actually had a hard time taking the first things out, since everything was so squished. Here is what I took out of this one cupboard to recycle and donate.

And here are the after shots of the cupboard.

See that brown spot on the right drawer? That’s actual free space!

Before you can complain that it’s still a bit crowded, here is the real accomplishment:

As you can see, most of the stuff was on my bookshelves. That means I have free space and my wheels are already turning to figure out what to do. More on that tomorrow!

Project Simplify Day 1

If you’ve looked around this blog, you’ve definitely stumbled upon the concept of Project Simplify. If not, read Friday’s post to catch up!

Today is Project Simplify’s day 1 for the first project: kid’s room. Unfortunately, the Jordãos over here do not yet have a little one running around, so there is no way I can tackle this project. However, I thought of an alternative that would be fitting, and decided to tackle baby Jordão’s future room.

Let me explain: we live in a two-bedroom house, and the second bedroom right now is my craft room.  It was my husband’s super-duper 30^th birthday present for me, and it’s my pride and joy in my house.

Since we only moved into this house on September, and the craft room was only finished in December, it’s not that outdated. It’s mainly organized not that bad, and definitely clean. However, it is oh-so cluttered! I have nearly zero counter, shelf and closet space for new things. So it seems fitting to me to tackle it, especially since I planned to do it only when it would be transformed into a nursery.

Here are some before pics. Not for the faint-hearted. It's actually fitting that I haven't been feeling well for the last couple of days so I did no tidying up. This is what three days of no attention to this room could come up with.

You'll get an upclose shot of the table when I tackle it, by I promise there isn't much working space.

The reason for stuff everywhere? No more space in the cupboard!

 Random to-do things that haven't yet gotten done are just sitting on the floor. Like I said, I have very little space left!

There is a chair under there, I promise!

Now that I look at it, it all looks horrible. I can't believe I have the guts to post this on the web. But you gotta start somewhere, right?

I will post pictures throughout the week to show the progress I manage every day after work. Happy purging!

Gearing up for Project Simplify!

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it!

Are you Ready?

No, I am not going on a zip-line. It's even BETTER!

On Monday Project Simplify 2012  starts. If you have no idea of what that means, I have two questions for you: number one, where have you been in the last three years? Number two: how much stuff do you have cluttering your home?

Project Simplify was started by Tsh Oxenreider, from Simplemom.net . She also wrote a book, Organized Simplicity , and since reading it, I’ve became a huge fan (I already was a pretty big fan of hers before the book!).

If you have any  thoughts about having too much clutter around your house, I seriously suggest you to join the party and start saying good-bye to stuff that is taking space around you. It all starts Monday, so let’s get the lo-down to get energized for it!

On Mondays this month we start tackling a project, and by Sunday we post the results. I’ll be focusing on it for the entire month, posting my daily results (since I work, this will all be an after-school special, literally). To share with even more people, and for a chance of winning a little something-something, post your results on Tsh’s blog as well.

Set?

Get your motor engine ready, because Monday the first project starts tackling the Kid’s room.  Personally, I don’t have kids yet, so I will tackle my future kid’s room.  More on that on Monday.

Now it’s time to Go!

I suggest you think about what, where and how this weekend, so you can start fresh Monday morning. Look around, and take mental notes on how often do you use things, and how much is just sitting there. I promise it will make the purging easier next week!