Decluttering Holiday Items and Storage Areas {NetZero Decluttering Challenge 2018}

Do you feel overwhelmed during the month of December with all the stuff that enters your home? It makes it hard to enjoy this festive time of year.

I've found that when I declutter it really helps me feel less overwhelmed and I can enjoy the holidays so much more.  Will you join me in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge this year?

Last week was a big week for items coming into our homes and you might be feeling overwhelmed now as you step over and around all the new gifts and empty boxes. If you've been decluttering all month, you should have space to put those items away into their new "homes". But even if you haven't decluttered earlier in the month, there's still time to do some decluttering to make room for all the new stuff :)

Today I'm sharing tips for decluttering your post-holiday items and storage areas.

Week 4 - Post-Holiday and Storage {Net Zero Clutter Challenge 2017}

Happy day after Christmas! We're almost at the end of the month... just one week left in the Net Zero Clutter challenge for this year. And it's a big one this week! Today I'm sharing tips for decluttering your post-holiday items and your storage areas.

For many of us, yesterday was a big day for items coming into our homes. You might be feeling a little (or a lot!) overwhelmed today as you step over and around all the new gifts and empty boxes. If you've been decluttering all month, you should have space to put those items away into their new "homes". But even if you haven't decluttered earlier in the month, there's still time to do some decluttering to make room for all the new stuff :)

Each week I've been sharing decluttering tips and ideas to help you declutter a different area of your home.  The idea is that you'll end the month with the same number of items in your home (or maybe even less!) than what you started the month with. If you're just joining in, work on decluttering the same number of items as you just received!

Week 5 - Post-Holiday and Storage {Net Zero Clutter Challenge 2016}

Do you feel overwhelmed during the month of December with all the stuff that enters your home? It makes it hard to enjoy this festive time of year.

Yesterday was a big day for items coming into our homes and you might be feeling overwhelmed today as you step over and around all the new gifts and empty boxes. If you've been decluttering all month, you should have space to put those items away into their new "homes". But even if you haven't decluttered earlier in the month, there's still time to do some decluttering to make room for all the new stuff :)

I've found that when I declutter it really helps me feel less overwhelmed and I can enjoy Christmas much more.  Will you join me in the Net Zero Decluttering Challenge this year?

Each week I've been sharing decluttering tips and ideas to help you declutter a different area of your home.  The idea is that you'll end the month with the same number of items in your home (or maybe even less!) than what you started the month with. If you're just joining in, work on decluttering the same number of items as you just received.

This week I'm sharing tips for decluttering your post-holiday items and storage areas.

5 Tips for Purging & Storing Leftover Paint

I'm really excited to be guest posting today over at The Everyday Home!  If you've never read Barb's blog, you should definitely check it out.  She shares tips and ideas for simple country living, including some organizing ideas and lots of ways to simplify life.

16 Tips for Organizing Basements and Attics

Once again, I'm so excited to be included in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival!

What is the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival?  I'm glad you asked!  It's a monthly blog post that professional organizers contribute to.  Each month is a different theme and includes posts related to that topic from several professional organizers.  It's a great place to find advice, ideas, and tips for the theme of the month.

This month is all about Organizing Basements and Attics.  These areas of our homes are often the dumping grounds for anything we don't want to deal with or have space for in the main areas of our home.  And they can become overwhelming if they're not organized well.

So check out all the tips in this post and find the ones that will help you take back control of your basement or attic!

5 Tips to Help You Declutter When You're Overwhelmed With Stuff

Do you feel overwhelmed when you think about decluttering?  Are some rooms in your home so messy and cluttered that you just don't know where to begin?  Do you wait until you have a large block of time available to declutter (and that large block never happens)?

Today I want to share a few tips to help you deal with these decluttering challenges so you can see progress and feel better about your home!

The Great Photo Purge Challenge: Series Wrap-Up and My Final Progress

Welcome back to the Great Photo Purge Challenge!  This is the final post in this challenge.  Thank you to all of you who have hung in there with me the last few months!

If you're just joining in, or you want to review any of the posts from earlier in this challenge, here they are.

July was all about digital photos:

Introduction to the Challenge (and why it's important!)

Combine and Purge your Digital Photos

Organize your Digital Photos

Share or Print your Digital Photos

Back up your Digital Photos

And September has been focused on Printed photos:

Photo Challenge: Printed Photos
Purging Printed Photos:  My Progress
Tips for Purging Printed Photos
Purging Printed Photos:  My Mom's Progress
Tips for Organizing and Storing Printed Photos
Scanning Your Printed Photos

Yesterday I shared tips for digitizing your printed photos and today I'm wrapping up the series by showing you my progress.

The Great Photo Purge Challenge: Printed Photos

It's September and that means it's time for part 2 of the Great Photo Purge Challenge!  July was all about digital photos.  And we took a break from the challenge in August.

If you missed any of the posts from earlier in this challenge, or want a quick refresher, here they are:

Introduction to the Challenge (and why it's important!)

Combine and Purge your Digital Photos

Organize your Digital Photos

Share or Print your Digital Photos

Back up your Digital Photos

"Office" Organizing Challenge: The Final Reveal!

Happy Easter everyone!  And happy last day of March!

At the end of February, I told you I was going to organize my "office" spaces during the month of March as part of OrgJunkie's 31 Day Organizational Challenge.

I'm so happy that I took on this challenge because both of my office spaces where overwhelming me for ages and now they make me smile :)

Office Progress Week 4C: Desk Drawers {Part Two}

Have you ever purchased office supplies because you thought you needed them?  And then later you realized you already had a bunch but you just couldn't find them because your desk drawers were too cluttered?  Have you ever found something completely useless when you looked through your desk?

Me too (on both counts!).  More on those stories in this post :)

Today's post is part three of my progress organizing my "office" this week.  If you missed yesterday's post on organizing my dining room desk drawers, or the post earlier tonight on purging books and organizing shelves, you can read them here and here.  

Office Progress Week 4B: Desk Shelves

Do you have any shelves that are overcrowded and make the whole area feel cluttered and overwhelming?  Do you use shelves to store items other than books?

This week as part of my office organizing, I tackled the totally overwhelming shelves above my desk in the basement this week.  In this post I'll show you before and after pictures and give you some tips to organize your shelves.

Today's post is part two of my progress in my "office" this week.  If you missed yesterday's post on organizing my dining room desk drawers, you can read that here.

Ready for more before and after pictures?  Me too :)

Office Progress Week 3: Manuals Drawer

Have you ever had something break down and had difficulty finding the manual?  Or the warranty?  Or the receipt? I have!

So as part of this week's decluttering and organizing in my "office" spaces, I decided to create a drawer for all the manuals, warranties, and receipts for items in our home.

At one point I had a folder that I kept these documents in.  But over time we've accumulated a lot more manuals and they outgrew my folder.  They ended up being stored in several different places in our house, which isn't practical.

I needed a better solution.

Office Progress Week 2: Surfaces

Do you have cluttered surfaces in your home?  Do they become dumping zones?  Me too!  Today I'm sharing how I cleaned up some of my "office" surfaces.  I'll also give some tips to help you organize your office.

I'm pretty late with this update post (it's actually week 3!) but I wanted to show you what I've been doing lately to organize my "office".

Last week was March Break here and it was also my son's birthday on Saturday.  It was a great week, filled with family activities {followed by a few days of recuperating catching up!}.  Needless to say though, I didn't accomplish as much as I'd hoped with respect to my "office".  But I did make progress!

Office Progress Week 1: File Drawer

Do you ever have trouble finding a document that you need?  Do you have so many papers that you can't find what you're looking for?  Are you overwhelmed with paperwork?  Then read on for tips on getting your files organized!

I told you last week that I'm going to be organizing my "office" this month as part of OrgJunkie's 31 Day Organizational Challenge.  

I'll be giving you updates throughout the month as I work my way through both of my desks, several file cabinets, and the areas above and around my desks.

Tackling My "Office" This Month!

This month I'm going to be participating in OrgJunkie's 31 Day Organizational Challenge and I'm going to tackle my "office".  

Today, I'm showing you the "before" pictures of the various office spaces in my home and throughout the month I'll be sharing updates on what I'm doing to organize it.  

{Note:  These are true life pictures.  I didn't tidy the areas nearby before taking pictures, nor did I mess up the areas to look worse for the challenge.  The only thing I did was flip over a few papers so our personal information was not visible.  This is the real deal folks.  Sad but true.}

OK, on with the post.

31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 28 (Multi-purpose rooms)

Welcome to Day Twenty Eight of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series!  

Today's tips are about organizing rooms that have more than one purpose.  

Our New Craft and Activity Area!

As part of trying to have a balanced summer, one of my goals is to create an area for our craft supplies so my kids can let their creativity flow while they're at home for two months.   I've seen some BEAUTIFUL craft rooms and wonderfully organized craft supplies on other blogs.  I've never really been a huge crafter and we do not have the space in our house for too many craft supplies, so I'll tell you up front, this post will NOT be one of those dreamy craft room posts.  But, I'm pretty excited about what I managed to put together and I think it will work well for our level of craftiness and our limited space. 

Kids' Games Cupboard

Why is it that games have a nasty habit of taking over a home?  Boxes, cards, play money, dice, characters, spinners, and all those assorted little pieces... Sound familiar?

We love to play games in our family.  Both my hubby and I grew up in families that enjoyed playing games and we've passed on our love of playing games to our children. 

But, because of our love for games, we have a LOT of them.  People give them to us as gifts, we each had some of our own when we got married, and we've bought some over the yeasr as well.  It's great to have lots of selection, but it means storing all of them. 

Basement Entertainment Area

Ever started a project in one area of your house and it turned into multiple projects in various parts of your home?  Our entertainment area in the basement was one of those!

Here's what we used to have in the basement.

Organizing Gifts (Free Printable!)

We buy a lot of gifts.  A lot.  Parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, our kids, our friends' kids, our kids' friends, and on and on.  It can be overwhelming to stay on top of buying all those gifts.  Not to mention the cost.