We redid our kitchen 4 years ago and have had the cabinets from our old kitchen sitting in our garage ever since.  I finally got tired of them sitting there and put them on Craig’s List yesterday.  I got 10 emails in less than an hour and I now have a check in my hand!  I even got what I was asking for them.  They didn’t even haggle the price.  I posted the listing exactly 24 hours ago.  I am SO HAPPY! Now we can use the money to fix up our next project to sell.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

1.  Commit to change – I said last week that getting organized and decluttering is like losing weight.  Really, it is.  You have to be committed in order to change.   Being organized is a lifestyle.  That also means that some days we mess up, just as if we would when losing weight.  But we have to start out new each day toward our goal.

2.  Set small goals – Take it one drawer at a time, one box at a time, and then one room at a time.  You didn’t accumulate everything overnight, and you can’t do it all at once.  See, it is like weight loss.

3.  Set a timer – The Flylady really promotes this one and it works.  Decluttering sometimes seems like a huge overwhelming task, but if you set a time limit of 15 minutes, it won’t seem so bad.  So set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes and get busy!

4.  Change your mindset – This is one that I am working on.  Too many times I say, “Oh, but I might be able to use this again” and I know I haven’t used the item in two years.  In times like these, remind yourself of the stress it incurs and junk it.  Say it with me . . . It’s just stuff!

5.  Keep it simple – This means two different things.  One way to keep it simple is not to run out and buy a bunch of organizing gadgets right away.  First you need to sort through what you have and figure out your needs, not the other way around.  It also means keep it simple in what you keep.  Do you need 12 bottles of Bath & Body Works body wash?

6.  Sort and purge –  This is one of the most important steps and you need to be brutal.  Try to detach yourself from your belongings.  It’s just stuff, right?  If you haven’t used it in a year, then get rid of it.  :Gulp:  Did I really say that?  Yes, I need to take my own advice.  If you still can’t bring yourself to get rid of it, then put it away and give yourself a time limit of 6 months or a year.  If you still haven’t used it by then, get rid of it!!!!

7.  Have a yard sale – Sometimes selling your stuff and getting some money for it helps to take away the pain of letting it go.  I’ll sell just about anything I own.  It’s just stuff!  Keep saying it.

8.  Think of the money the stuff cost you – By this I mean think of the square footage in your house the things are taking up.  Or in my case, think of how much it costs to move the items when you move to a new area.  You have to box it up, put it on the truck, unload it, and unpack it.  It costs money (and labor) to move.  And also, think of the stress and aggravation.  Is this stuff/junk really worth it????

9.  Put organization into your daily routine. – Have the kids clean up their toys before dinner and before bedtime, go through the mail each day, put away catalogs when you’re done with them, clean out your junk drawer while you’re on the phone.  There are things that can be done each day that only require a few minutes, but will make your life much easier.  I really need to make the mail a daily priority!

10. Teach kids to be organized. – Each night have the kids put their backpack by the door, put away their toys, put their clothes in the hamper, put away the soap and shampoo when they’re done.  Teach them when they’re young so that one day it can become a habit.

I hope these tips are helpful or inspiring for you.  Do you have any decluttering or organizational tips you’d like to share? What works best in your home?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

The truth is, you have to stay on top of the clutter issue or it will overtake your house.  The clutter in my house is stressing me out and something has to be done.  A few months ago, I began a serious effort to get rid of all of our baby and children’s items that we no longer needed.  I gave away trashbags of stuff, sold some things myself, and then I began taking things to the consignment store.  In the past few months, I’ve probably taken 10 totes full of stuff to the consignment store.  Isn’t that just crazy?  It’s amazing all the things that quickly accumulate.

Decluttering is like losing weight.  Both require discipline and neither happen overnight.  Being organized has to be adopted as a lifestyle.  It seems I am on a mission to purge and remove some stress from my life.  I am going to have to get brutal about it, or find someone to offer moral support as I purge.

I am trying hard to make my life less stressful by getting organized and having less clutter.  With each box that goes out of my house, I feel a bit less burdened.  It seems my biggest problems right now are having the time to stay on top of the mess and having the guts to get brutal with the problem.

Clutter is a main source of stress, anxiety, and time loss for many people.  We could all be more thrifty with our time if we were more organized. 

Next week, I’ll share with you some decluttering tips I’ve learned.  Until then, would you like to share some of your suggestions?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I am loving the frugal Saturday challenge.  Are you?  I got an email from the Flyladies this week about doing a 27 fling boogie.  These have become very liberating to me.  A 27 fling boogie is a periodic surprise email that tells you to go throughout your home or a specific room and throw away 27 pieces of junk that you have accumulated.  This keeps your house form getting cluttered.  It is a great way to keep that junk mail from piling up because each piece counts towards the 27 fling boogie.  Well this week we got an email for a 27 fling boogie to throw away AND a 27 fling boogie to get rid of stuff to donate that keeps getting put off.  This never takes more than 5 minutes and what a difference it makes when I actually do it.  I did both today.  I lucked out because I had a bag of stuff sitting in the new nursery that needed to the Goodwill so I just tossed the bag in the trunk of my car.  But it counted because there were more than 27 things in the bag.  This week was easy.  My 27 fling boogie for trash was sadly accomplished by just cleaning off the kitchen cabinet from all the mail from the week that needed to be done.

So your frugal challenge for Saturday is a different kind of frugal.  This time we are being frugal with our time.  Take less than 5 minutes and go around your home and do a 27 fling boogie of trash.  Take a trash bag and get 27 things that need to be thrown out of the house.  Don’t say you don’t have 27 things to toss.  What have you done with your junk mail?  Aren’t there a couple of toys that you have been meaning to get rid of without your kids looking (McDonalds toys don’t need to take up space in the closet)?  What about that overly loved piece of underwear or forever ago t-shirt that has holes in it?  You know the ones.  Come on ladies.  Just jump in and do the boogie! 

Then when you are done, take another 5 minutes and go through the closets and find 27 things that you can donate to the Good Will or Salvation Army?  I have old t-shirts that I just don’t want to get rid of that become casualties of the 27 fling boogie and I finally can feel good about doing it.  Usually I feel overwhelmed and think it has to take forever to accomplish decluttering.  It doesn’t.  It just takes a little boogie time.

So go ahead and boogie again.  If you are like me, this is the only kind of boogie that won’t throw your back out, or in my case, the baby out J

Post from: Thrifty Mommy