Working through the process of decluttering and minimizing the waste in my home has been a great reminder of how fortunate we have been. My husband and I haven’t been collectors of stuff, though with our busy lives, it can be difficult to stay on top of putting items away and making sure an item is worth keeping.
For the most part, the items that are being tossed or going to Goodwill have been used for a season, and now it’s time for them to bless someone else. I truly feel we got our love and money’s worth out of most items. I do have a few regrets, but my regrets are not as costly as they once were because I’ve learned the value of thrifting items.
To keep myself on track with the process, I’ve been using my timer each time I work on a space. I set the timer for 30 minutes and I stick to that time, giving myself 5 minutes afterwards to process and clean up any piles I’ve made. Since I have a tendency to hyper focus on projects, I remind myself constantly that I have entire 4 weeks to do the kitchen and the basement. 30 minutes at a time is good enough.
I cleaned these shelves, and the ones opposite to them Monday afternoon. I had stored a bunch of stuff for my home business here which I no longer need. Instead, I pulled together many of my entertaining supplies and put them here, including the real silverware which I always have a hard time finding.
Unfortunately, one of the plastic boxes I am using for storage is missing a lid, but that seems to be the story of many of the plastic boxes in my basement. As I’m finding lids, I’m collecting them on top of one of the shelves to prevent them from disappearing again.
I worked on this set of shelves next to the pantry yesterday. A few items went into the entertaining supplies. The small loaf pans went into a kitchen box where I’m keeping items to review in six months. I dated the box to remind myself to look at it again and decide whether we need to keep the items.
I found 2 almost empty boxes sitting on the shelves. One had some canning supplies which I moved into a plastic shoe box and stacked it with my other 2 canning supply boxes. The other had a few glass jars. I took 2 upstairs to the kitchen, and the box and the rest of the jars went into the recycling pile. We’re going to have a huge recycling pile this week!
I cleaned up and cleaned out this kitchen cabinet yesterday, too. I found some small glass bowls and 2 glass loaf pans with glass lids, unused for at least a year. They went into the dated kitchen box in the basement. I’m debating whether to put the ceramic bowls in the box. Truth is, we hardly ever use them either. In fact, I don’t remember the last time we did use them.
My next step is the toys in the basement. I’ve been finding little pieces scattered around under the shelves. Someone dumped a whole bunch in the big toy box which is supposed to hold the Tonka trucks. To help me get the job done, I’ll have the kids help me look under stuff, and then I’ll reward all of us with ice cream at the end. There’s nothing like a little bribery to get a job done!
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Looks good so far!!!!!
great! inspiring enough to make try doing away with my clutter.
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