Busy Weekend Survival Tip

We had a very busy Memorial Day weekend, which is why I didn't get to that looming kitchen cabinet. Our weekend was complete with a full Sunday followed by fun at Mimi's on Monday. I love going to my Mother In Law's for family gatherings. All the brothers come over & we enjoy a lazy day of eating, TV, card games, and maybe even swimming.

The only problem I find with these exciting weekends is that the house is inevitably torn apart by the time we leave for Mimi's house on Monday. I find it depressing to come home from a lazy day of eating & then have to look at a cluttered living space. At that point I am left with the choice of cleaning it that night when all I want to do is lay around on our comfy red couch & watch a movie. My other option is to leave it for tomorrow, which always drains me to start the week with a messy house. I envy my husband who gets to escape to an office and leave our disheveled house behind with the simple click of a garage door opener. This particular holiday Monday, I came up with two clever solutions to this problem:

1. Clean before you leave. Carve out 30-45 minutes before leaving where everybody pitches in to pick up the living areas. I even managed to sneak in putting away my clean laundry (Mommy's is always left to be put away last for some reason). We turned on the music & we were all energized to see the results. The pay-off was my happy husband who couldn't believe I had suggested cleaning. Coming home to a tidy home made me appreciate--rather than regret-- the hours of leisure we had just wiled away at the in-laws.

2. Change Monday holidays to Fridays. This sounds brilliant to me in theory, though I am not sure how well it would work in actual practice. My reason for suggesting it is that if the recognized holiday fell on a Friday, then we would get to do all that partying Friday, and maybe by Sunday we could relax! This would be negated for those of us who go to church picnics on Sundays, although we would still have Saturday in between to get a bit of a breather. Two days of go-go-go in a row-row-row is just too much for my sanity when I have to face it all alone with two kids the next morning!

Organize the Tupperware Drawer

Let me start by clarifying that I do not own any Tupperware in the name brand sense of the word. I do own a sprawling array of re-usable plastic containers. We received a set made by Rubbermaid when we first got married, and since then we have acquired several other strays. They are just too cute! I hate to turn any away. We have also adopted and fallen in love with two varieties of sippy cups. If you can make it out in the drawer though, there are more than two varieties of cups! It would appear we have some stow-aways. Our mission today is to oust the stow-aways & recatagorize them as give-aways, throw-aways, or sale-aways.

1. Empty the drawer & spread out across the kitchen floor or on the counter top.

2. Separate out any excess containers & cups. This includes containers without lids, odd-shaped containers that will not nest, and styles that you haven't reached for in over six months. Plan to either donate, recycle, or yard sale what you don't need.

3. Clean out any crumbs & Lysol-wipe the inside of the drawer.

4. Group like items together. I used shallow baking pans to keep the lids in one place, and plastic cups to hold the valves for the sippy cups.

WOW! All this took approx 30 minutes.
A little hard to gage, though, as I had several interruptions along the way!

Check back Monday as we tackle a kitchen cabinet
before it tackles us!

Documentary of a Decluttering Diva

After five years of marriage, two babies, and several hobbies along the way (all short-lived because Hubby can't stand my messes), I am sick of the clutter & I want to repent. I want to clean house, but I can't take a vacation from my kids in order to declutter. And that's exactly what I feel I would need. One week all to myself. No kids. No cooking. Just me & the stuff, and a bunch of garbage bags & some yard sale signs. Yes, in my dreams I would have this week once a year. My kids would go to their grandparents' & my husband would go to work during the day, bring home take-out, and help me continue to de-clutter. Then Friday morning & Saturday we would have a yard sale.

In reality, I only have short periods of uninterrupted time. Ten minutes here, 5 minutes there. The rest of the time I am nursing a baby, entertaining a 3 yr old, and attempting to earn a little supplemental income. So I have decided that this goal of decluttering will be a journey. It is not a fun one for me. I have bad habits that have gotten me here, and I honestly like my stuff. Lots & lots of stuff. But 1700 s/f can only hold so much of it. And so I blog. To entertain myself along the way. Because I am slightly narcissistic and I like reading & looking at my blog entries again & again. Even if nobody else does. Hey, if it helps motivate me to declutter, it is worth every stroke of the keyboard & click of the mouse. If I blog it they will come. Rather, if I document it I will have something to show for my efforts. The closet I organize will forever be pristine here in my blog. Long after 50 pairs of mismatched shoes take over, that closet will remain clean, here in digitally remastered heaven. And then I will come back down to earth, only to declutter it again. And document it again. Maybe somewhere along the way, I will mend my ways. I will learn how to keep it all together. But this is a journey. It is one small step for this woman with the potential to be one giant leap for womankind. Maybe by me setting an example for my daughter. Or by you sharing your decluttering b4's & afters. So send me what you've got. And together, today, we will Document Decluttering Divas & their Daily Lives. Now if you will excuse me, I need to rock a baby to sleep, find some time to pee, and maybe post about my latest decluttering victory.