surviving to thriving: home, continued

Let’s continue with this home trend, and finish it up here. Do you remember when I showed you that KonMari printable? Let’s move on from clothes and talk about the rest of the home. I’m not actually going to spend a ton of time on books or movies. I’m neither a re-watcher or re-reader, so we had no trouble at all letting go of DVD’s and books. I kept a handful of books, and all of the kids movies. Those Disney movies do bring joy and they would watch them over and over, both trademarks of things to keep.

At this point, I sort of made the process my own, I didn’t have a hard time holding on to papers, and the ones I did have a hard time with fell into the momentos category, so as I found papers I either put them with the momentos or into the recycling bin.  I went room to room, and drug four boxes around with me: Electronics (good grief, where did all the chargers and cords come from?), Momentos, Other Room (things that needed to be kept, but did not belong in the current room), and Donate. 

This worked really well for me. I followed the rule of organizing and then going back and buying organizational supplies like drawer organizers and such. I found that I needed way less than what I would have thought.

I really tried to think of everything. We have an upper cabinet in our kitchen where junk tends to accumulate. I sorted through the junk to figure out a better solution. Basically, it involved giving everything a place.

From cookbooks to medicine, our address book and the kids labels, every thing now has a dedicated place. Even my rock collection BK has gifted me with over the years. I wanted to show you this to let you know that it doesn’t have to be sterile and devoid character.

I’m not sure about you, it’s entirely possible I’m just a crazy person, but I tend to have a handful of the same things I feel like I’m constantly searching for, that cause a good bit of unnecessary emotion and the process causes us to be late or unprepared. Those things were at the top of my list, things like missing socks, and the disappearing lint roller, flashlights or a lighter to light the fireplace or a candle, envelopes and those important papers that get sent home at the beginning of the school year, the ones you probably won’t ever have to reference, but sure as you need to, they are nowhere to be found.

The socks were huge for me, goodness, looking for a tiny Jud sock is like a needle in the haystack. I found a washable garment bag while cleaning out the laundry room and it became the holding place for socks. Now, they stay together from beginning to end. I don’t know what your quirks are, but find a solution for the things that hinder you over and over and it will be life-changing. 

One of the best feelings now, is that the laundry room door doesn’t need to be shut because it’s cluttered and messy, you could randomly open a closet or a drawer and see things in order. Sure, our home is lived in every single day, but when you drastically reduce the amount of things and dedicate a space for all the things you keep, everything changes. There may be a few things out of place, but they can be quickly put back where they belong, rather than be stuck away in a closet or a drawer.