2013 in 2013

One of my new fave blogs to read is Slow Your Home,Love Your Life.  Brooke has a great blog.  I am jealous of her writing style as well as her views on family and life. 

 

Last year she committed to removing 2012 items from her home. She accomplished this goal and then some!  This year she is inviting her readers to join her in getting rid of 2013 items in 2013. She has created a forum and monthly challenges. I'm gonna see how many things in my home can be donated to either Salvation Army, the local pet shelter or taken to consignment shop/sold on Ebay.  I've added my own rules also.  Obviously, garbage is not to be counted.  Neither will be items left at my home by others.  Heck, I probably reached that goal this month alone!   And since I am always trying to rid my home of clutter, if I don't reach a total of 2013, I won't deem this unsuccessful.  I think 2013 averages about 5-6 items a day.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it truly is. And with my busy schedule, I doubt I will be able to do this daily.  I would like to declutter items at least 2-3 times a week. 

 

January's list of areas to declutter didn't interest me, so I decided to tackle a couple of spots that have been bothering me.  First is this little pile in my bedroom.

 

 

 

 

This pile has been "growing" for almost a year now.  What started out as a couple of Paige's yoga pants that she's outgrown, grew into a pile of everything that I was too lazy to deal with when folding laundry.  I threw outgrown clothes, items to be demoted to rags, and slippers I never wore.

Cleaning out this pile took less than ten minutes and that is with me going to get my camera to take pictures.  As I was moving down the pile, I notice a small item in the corner near my dresser.

Do you see something peaking out from under the outgrown underwear?



How bout now?   

 

 

It's a little blurry, I know.

 

 

How's this??

That miniature Whoppers has been there since Halloween as I remember putting it on top of the dresser so my son wouldn't eat it.
I'm pretty sure Whoppers have a long shelf life (or in my case floor life).

Ten minutes later, and one happy boy, I finally achieved a clean spot.  No longer do I roll my eyes at this little area of my room.

Here are the first piles of things to leave my house.  The Justice bag is from Christmas.  It's holding the items that were received by my family as gifts but do not meet our needs.  Inside the bag holds 14 items and the clothes from the above cleaning make 15. 

 

The next area I tackled was the container of change on the floor by my husband's side of the bed.  This container held the remnants of money he collected when selling candy for his cross country team.  I wrapped all the loose change and deposited in the team's account.  It totalled $158.38.  I can't find the picture of the container I took. I'm also only counting that as one.

 

 

Next items to go were Christmas decorations.  I'd like to post that separate as I was so proud of my new ornaments.  Not so proud of the tree falling...twice! 

 

 

The main room to tackle is the ever loving office.  I know you can't wait for another post on that room!!