Over the past month I have a check list of what I want to get done in the house before it is nice out and I wont want to do it any more. Studying real estate, pinteresting, and watching enough HGTV to be a professional designer, house flipper, and contractor (just kidding). A common theme came up while "researching." Clutter is NOT desirable. So this lead me to a mission to de-clutter my life, mostly my personal belongings. Now for most people I know this is not a small task, but actually one that can become overwhelming in an instant. Thinking about that back shed that is full to the gills or that garage you have that can barely fit your car never mind TWO! I am sure that anyone reading this has an area in their home that they could downsize on. For me I have many rooms I want to work on including my bedroom with wayyy too many clothes for one person to own.
Most of the de-cluttering I have ever done was donating a few shirts and shoes here and there. So this is many many years built up of junk that I do not need. If anyone out there is like me they collect things that they think they will need but most likely don't and will never use. I found a great website that went through the same perils as myself with clutter.
http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days-2014/
This woman calls it 40 bags in 40 days. However I'm sure I have way more than 40 bags that will be donated, thrown away, or recycled--- she did have a good point of staying in one area before moving onto a second, third, or forth area.
I started with my bedroom. I wanted to paint it a nice grey color because it was this god awful bright blue that no one liked...including myself. Anywhooo before I could paint or redo anything I needed to de-clutter.
First move was to sell my bedroom furniture-- I don't recommend doing this first but I also wasn't expecting it to sell so fast. The bedroom set I had previously was too big for the room. It looked out of place so I decided to sell it for a good price and upgrade to something nicer and fit the room better.
I sold the furniture within a week. I am a firm believe of craigslist! This was my first time using it and my bedroom set sold so quickly! I didn't have to pay to list my advertisement, I didn't have to pay to post photos. It was a no muss no fuss sale, quick and easy. Since that sale I have sold a bunch more on craigslist and my NUMBER ONE TIP for craigslisters is to keep updating your ad every two or three days. If you wait no one will take the time to scroll to page 8 of the furniture section. This is a great way to turn your junk into someone else's treasures and you actually profit from it.
So back to cleaning---- I took all my clothes and belongings and put in a spare room. This was a perfect time to de-clutter!! Going through all my drawers I was able to put 4 trash bags together of clothes and shoes that I brought to big brother/ bigsisters. A lot of the clothes I haven't worn in years and I didn't want to hold on to them to wait for them to come back in style.
Anyway, I continued to do this through out the whole bedroom and then was able to paint the room. It took about 2 days to de-clutter and 4 days to paint (this included moulding,trim, windows, and doors).
So obviously not everyone wants to go through the motions of repainting a room and doing all the de-cluttering but if you just want to clear out your closet to make room for new spring and summer attire I suggest.
-- MAKE YOUR BED FIRST in your room before starting to clean. Especially on these freezing days crawling back into bed doesn't sound all that bad. However once your bed is made everything else will look out of place if its messy.
-- CRAIGSLIST: anything you believe to be over $25
--BIG BROTHER BIG SISTER: They accept any donation from clothes to shoes to suit cases to stuffed animals you name it!
-- RECYCLE: anything you can resycle you should! Our dumps are filling up quick and whats better than recycling! Its FREE!
The room is done now on to the basement (which has been basically a storage unit for 14 years)---Wish me luck!
In the mean time I will post some fun pinterest ideas and photos that are great for home owners.
If you have a topic you want me to post about just leave a comment somewhere and I will research for you! I love doing it :)
