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Cay Gibson
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Joined: July 16 2005
Location: Louisiana
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Posts: 5193
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| Posted: Oct 07 2008 at 10:27am | IP Logged
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JSchaaf wrote:
Cay-
Your kitchen looks great! Where is everything?  Where are your canisters of flour, sugar, etc.? Where is the toaster and coffee pot? Where is your CD player and 3 foot high stack of caseless CD's?? 
Jennifer |
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Jennifer,
For some reason I'm not receiving emails when people reply so I missed your questions.
I went ahead and answered you with pictures. 
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Mackfam
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Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
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Posts: 14656
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| Posted: Oct 09 2008 at 9:14pm | IP Logged
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I've enjoyed your updates, Jen! They're uplifting and I can just imagine how lightened you feel going through the home purging and re-organizing and thinking about a room's purpose. This is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the domestic life for me. I truly enjoy it, and it gives me joy to see our home tidied and functioning in a way that is beautiful, ordered, and serves the family!
Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and encourage you in your efforts and ask for more updates on how your rooms are going? Let us know when you can!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 10 2008 at 5:59pm | IP Logged
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Aah, Jennifer, you hit my two very big weak areas - books and papers. I am hugely sentimental so I have lots of stuff that gets out of hand, but nothing quite so badly as paper and books.
Fleas really inspired my decluttering - but things need doing again and I don't want to need fleas to get me moving, so thanks for the post.
We accomplished a huge amount when we had to for the fleas, but then a month later dh came home with a van full of stuff from his mil and all her neighbors who were decluttering and thought we might find things useful (a lot was - but it stayed piled in my living room for a while till I could tackle it) and dd came home from college with all her dorm stuff, her school stuff and her thousands of music scores and these seemed to drift everywhere. I think some of it is orchestra music that is supposed to be destroyed since it is old - but I cannot read music so I cannot tell the stuff we need to trash and the stuff she still needs. I am anxiously waiting for break to get a handle on this once again - after dh gets back from his business trip home this time instead of after. So my question is that, if you are not naturally neat and orderly and function best off of piles, how do you keep a handle on things not swamping you within a month of great progress!!!
One thing I found helpful was a goal to have everything off the floor that wasn't a major piece of furniture. We had to do this for the flea spraying, but I was amazed at how much easier it was to vacuum. I still have a long ways to go and trip home meant we inherited a bunch of sentimental stuff that still needs sorting and a home. I really had to be brutal - if we couldn't find a home off the floor, then something had to go. I couldn't go through college dd boxes, so we cheated a bit here and hiked her boxes up on a stool but now that she is looking for money for music camp, those boxes of stuffed animals may be part of a garage sale fundraiser for her personal funds. Surely she will finally part with that nutty snake game that doesn't even work anymore.
A few things that helped me. I tried to tackle one room and one thing at a time. I started in the kitchen - the room that is usually the most under control (to give me an early sense of accomplishment before discouragement could take over - with just enough boon of success, my stubborness could take over in the more dreadful rooms)in our house and just looked at the paper first. Just getting rid of paper was great. I need to relook at it. Then I went from there. If it was something I wanted to keep but didn't belong in the kitchen, we put it in a box for later reference. I found having a big bag for trash and a big box for giveaways right next to me, helped tremendously. It was essential that I move the giveaways and throwaways out of the house ASAP or some child would find a treasure in there.
One thing I saw at the other Jennifer's house was a home management notebook and such. Filing cabinets just don't work for me - paper just gets shoved, but they work wonderfully for dh. I've given up using them for school stuff and freed them for his financial papers. I'm thinking 3 ring binders for recipes I really use in a usuable form. Then a 3 - ring binder for saints and feasts - to include pictures, quotes, activity ideas, etc. The pretty pages with quotes and pictures could be open on the feast day table at the appropriate page - and I could just shove all the various ideas, into one of those 8 1/2 by 11 photo pages right behind the displayed saint - where it is convenient, all in one place and not visible drift. It is the only way I won't end up with paper drift everywhere. This is our family project for our upcoming October break - a saints notebook to celebrate All Saints and a place to organize the paper ideas, instructions, recipes for the feast, instructions for making the craft.
I have a pile of books to donate to a convent - meditations for religious. I've never had time to read it in 10 years and it might be a lot more appropriate for them anyways. I'm trying to give away excess school supplies, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. without being careless in terms of saving money. It is just that I cannot store 10 years of supplies - 1 or 2 should suffice, right? I don't purchase any of this stuff at all. Our dentist gives us toothbrush and dental flosh every 6 months and my mil has stockpiles that she is passing on to us in huge quantities. It seems it all comes from rebates and free after rebates. I love the savings, but it is nice to share it around and have a bit of storage space under the sink for cleaning supplies or such.
I'll be studying further ideas. Oh, I do resort to claiming items that are left out. We have a big basket on the top of our pantry - junky toys that don't get put away end up there. My dc know that that becomes my property - sometimes they have to buy it back with chores, or live without it for a certain time. If they don't care about it, then we probably shouldn't be hanging on to it. If it is total junk, I am known to trash it. I have to be careful though in case the youngest is drifting with someone else's stuff. I should probably allow dh to do this to me as I am terrible about my TM and such. I've placed those trays that stack so that I can have a neat and organized stack of my teaching materials that isn't an eyesore right in the kitchen. I really just need to finish the projects and then turn those into the inboxes and outboxes for stuff to grade/review.
I've tried all kinds of things with the library. Unfortunately, we have yet to tackle it. It stays highly organized for maybe a week - then there is drift. If you find a great solution for book drift, let me know. We seem to work in stacks here, so maybe I should try Jennifer's baskets - only I have to have somewhere other than the floor to store them or vacuuming is a nightmare!
Janet
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donnalynn
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| Posted: Oct 14 2008 at 6:39pm | IP Logged
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I can really appreciate this thread - I am drowning in clutter and disorder. No one else in this house seems to mind except for me!! 
I thought I would pass along these resources I am currently using -
The Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge
I am really finding the main calendar page useful as well as the room by room checklists. I just started last week - and I'm sad to say I'm already "behind" but...I have such a small house that I don't have as many rooms that are listed on the calendar. I am hoping and praying I still come out ahead! 
Along with this program I purchased the pdf workbook that goes along with "A Mother's Rule of Life" - which I am reading for the umpteenth time!
Holly's Notebook
I think this will really help me break down the process of creating "a rule" into smaller more doable steps. In the workbook she gives suggestions based more on where you are - so for instance if you are looking at prayer.. she suggests different things for those who are not used to praying daily...for those for who are praying some... and then for those who want to deepen an established prayer routine. But she also gives hints on how to get from one phase to another.
I think I would try to do too much all at once...and quickly burn out in discouragement. This workbook has already been well worth the purchase price. I print out pages as I need them. I especially like the room analysis pages - very helpful for really looking at what needs to be done and how to keep getting get it done!
For me...it's not so much what to do with the clutter - I need strategies for keeping it at bay! How many times have I cleaned my house and said to myself - "Ok this time I will keep up with it" only to suddenly look around a couple of weeks later and wonder in despair "How did this mess happen, AGAIN!!!????"
I know for me to succeed long term I need to reduce and simplify but I also need some kind of plan or system for watching out for that clutter monster before he takes over.
Oh and one more resource I've been looking at
Simplifying Your Domestic Church
Please keep posting your ideas and progress - I need that flicker of HOPE!!
Really - I often wonder why I have been called to a vocation where I feel so untalented and downright inept at times!
__________________
donnalynn
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Decluttering and Simplifying
