A Dirty Secret

I have dirty drawers.   Simmer on that for a few seconds...

Of course I mean my cabinet drawers.  Every drawer in our house is bursting with the accumulation of daily life.  Clutter and excess "things" make me anxious so I am no stranger to disposing of junk or non-necessities but it's harder to get around to cleaning out the little nooks and crannies.  My mind becomes stressed when we have more than we need or can use - which probably explains our mostly empty refrigerator and cupboards.  I just prefer to buy as we need it, not buy in the ANTICIPATION of needing it.

Isn't is shocking how many small toys and papers enter your house?  The kids come home with at least 3 papers each - every day.  Brent and I typically admire them for a moment and then into the recycle they go.  If they are super special papers that the kids are especially proud of or worked really hard on, we have a cabinet in the living room that they get put into - and then forgotten about.  Until now.  Because it's de-cluttering day!!  Moving from room to room, we are opening ever drawer to clean it out.

We keep all of our coloring books and simply art supplies in the built in cabinet in the dining room.  It's easy for the kids to get to and are encouraged to use them whenever they wish.  Encouraging them to put the stuff away when they are done is a different story.

Here's what the inside looks like.  I know, you're wondering, what's wrong with these people??!!  What a disorganized mess!!  Just kidding, I know it isn't that bad.

Emma and Owen sat with me and together we decided which coloring books we were using and which we could recycle.  After about 30 minutes we were looking much better.  And by "we", I mean the cabinet.  I was, of course, still in my pajamas with greasy hair and my glasses on.

Full of energy and a pretty sweet caffeine buzz from 3 cups of coffee, we moved onto the dining room. You'll remember my breathtaking buffet - looking all gorgeous on the outside.  She ain't so pretty on the inside.

Please tell me you can relate to this?  Everyone's drawers end up looking like this, right?

This is the perfect example of a dumping ground.  Everything that doesn't have an immediate home ends up in these drawers.  So this was just a matter of putting the small things back where they belonged.

Lastly up here was the cabinet in the living room that they TV sets on.  I keep the kids' photo & baby albums in here so when they get important papers, I can put them right into their books before they get lost.  Unfortunately, I usually just throw it into the cabinet and it takes a looooonnnngggg time to make it into the book.

We took everything out and started loading all of the loose photos and artwork into their books.  The kids had a fun time looking at baby pictures and hearing stories about themselves as babies.  Explaining my ultrasound pictures of Owen to him was interesting.  After I told him that they were pictures of him when he was inside of my tummy, he simply said, "I don't want to get back in your tummy."

My sister and I give my mom a hard time for not finishing my baby book (I'm a middle child) and for never even purchasing one for my sister (the youngest).  This should make you feel better, mom - looks like I stopped working on Owen's when he was two months old.

Here's some scrap-booking - KRUSE STYLE.  At least the pics are IN the book.

And all done and put away.

After the main floor was done, we took a two hour break to make an amazing Shepherds Pie and a quick nap.  The energy was going to be necessary for our final leg of this de-cluttering journey.  The basement laundry/storage room.

Please don't gasp too loudly.  And no judgement.

If your eyes are burning, just look away.

This room took about 2 hours - 2 grueling hours.  Lookin' much better now.

Our friend gave us a big box of ribbon when they were moving.  It was hard to see what we had in the box, so Brent ran down to the hardware store and picked up a metal rod to create a ribbon holder.  I guess this can sort of function as a wrapping station because all of the gift bags, wrapping paper, tape and bows are in the the two large cabinets under this countertop.

I have a theory - the less stuff in your house, the less messy it can get.  If you get rid of the toys your kids no longer need or play with, there is less for them to drag out and around.  Hopefully they don't notice how much of their stuff ends up disappearing - either into the trash or donated - because it's a lot.

I remember going through this process last year - its called our Winter Cleaning - get it?  Instead of Spring Cleaning...it's a great time to purge your home of all that extra stuff before the onslaught of Christmas gifts come rolling in.