A Clean Home: Problem Area Assessment

We have a small 3 bedroom home. We have a small bedroom which was intended to be Roo's room, but he didn't sleep well in that room... fast forward 3 years. He is still sleeping with his Mommy while Harper's crib is in that room. As much as I hate it, it is also the play room. It is a good thing Harper sleeps like a log and Roo prefers to play in the living room. Mostly toys are stored in Harper's room. We have a bedroom that is larger than the baby's room, but it has an extra bed, our desk, printer, turtle habitat, carpet cleaner, vacuum, dvd collection, spare sheets and blankets... yeah everything stored in there. This is supposed to be a guest bedroom. No guests could sleep in there due to my mess. The last bedroom is the actual bedroom. It is also crammed full of everything. 2 bookcases, a baby swing, a queen size bed. All of the clean laundry I haven't put away yet... and the list goes on.

When I made an assessment of what the most annoying problem areas in our home were I came up with big and small issues to correct.

I tackled the drawer mess if you recall. That was easy enough. The mess that is my children's clothing and toys is another issue altogether.

These photos are mortifying. I am still in shock that the mess had got so far out of hand in a matter of days.

This mess is kids clothes. Sadly, this is not all of the mess. You can't see the clothes that won't even fit on the rack and are hung on the braces for the shelf. You can't see the baby clothes in baskets  or the pile of shoes they have and rarely seem to wear.

I have had 2 declutter sprees in the last month. Yesterday we took a box large (enough to hold an elliptical), a trash bag and a brown shopping bag full of clothes, towels, blankets and etc to Goodwill. We dropped off Beloved Kota the Dinosaur to the elementary school, where he will be in a play. My son loved this toy, but it took up a ton of precious space.

Break a leg Kota in your acting debut this spring..

With Kota and a huge pile of old stuff out of the way, I felt like I could finally get a good feel for what the true problem areas were.... The whole house is a problem area. No way around it.

Toys have taken over the living room again.

And the dining area too.

It only gets worse. I can't bring myself to keep posting these pics...

Another problem area in my house is my laundry room. Not only is the room just ugly, it is always full of stuff. Recycling to drop off, at least 20 pairs of shoes reside in this room, my husband has his plants in the laundry room. There are extra household supplies like toilet paper, laundry detergent, soap and shampoo. The gear for the dogs is in this area... it gets messy really quickly. The worst part is, the laundry room is actually an enclosed porch, therefor you must enter the laundry room which is in a constant state of disarray to enter my home.

My kitchen always needs attention. The breakfast nook is the catch all for everything in the free world. The area under the breakfast counter has been catching a great deal of junk too. There are always dishes ready to spill out of cabinets, the pantry is always messy.

Oh my, this clean home challenge is getting bigger and bigger. What a mess my home is! I hope you will come back tomorrow to find out where I begin and what the result is.

A Clean Home Challenge 2: The Drawer Declutter

It seems like I woke up one morning and found that my serving utensils like spoons, spatulas and ladles had multiplied. They occupied a large drawer in my kitchen and I could no longer get that darned drawer to close... and it had migrated to a second drawer of kitchen mess. This was driving me crazy.

Yeah... it was really out of control.  I found a ton of flat out junk shoved in these drawers. Take Out Silver wear and Straws, note pads, treat bags, notes and half completed grocery lists to name a few.

The only way to really tackle any project is to just dig in to it. So I pulled everything out the drawers. I found kitchen knives that should not have been in these drawers and packaged them for Goodwill. I found measuring cups with the measurements worn off and unreadable. Those went to the Goodwill box as well.  Old spoons were destined to be discarded as well as several spatulas.

When the drawers were empty I disinfected them.

Next I pulled a bean crock out of my cupboards. I have had this item for 11 years or so... I baked in it one time, and used it to store left overs a few times. It was really one of those things that I don't need but don't want to part with. So it takes up cabinet space and is never used.

Realizing the crock is gorgeous I decided it would be better used as a spoon/spatula holder where it could be functional and admired.

The items I opted to keep were a perfect fit in the crock! I have 2 empty drawers now and I can grab whatever spoon or spatula I might need without having to rummage through a messy drawer to find it.

 I was really impressed with the results of this challenge. My kitchen looks better without 2 drawers that won't close. I reduced the amount of clutter in the kitchen drawers and I put a lovely item to use in my kitchen, and I disinfected 2 drawers.

This drawer declutter was a project that needed to be completed maybe 6 weeks ago in all honesty. It only took me about 8 minutes from start to finish and it didn't cost any money to complete.

I have 2 other drawers awaiting a declutter. One holds hand towels and napkins, one holds dishtowels. I am going to reduce my towels/napkins by selecting any that are stained, frayed or in another state of disarray to get rid of.  I hope to reduce the napkins/towels by half. My family should be able to survive with 7 hand towels in the kitchen instead of 15. We don't need 5 sets of cloth napkins for the 4 of us. This will hopefully free up another drawer for a total of 3 drawers to use in another way.

My 3rd Challenge for A Clean Home involves a DIY organizer that will cost you under $11 to complete. If you have kids you won't want to miss it!

I would love to challenge you to clean out a drawer or two in your kitchen. I would be thrilled to have to you leave a comment and tell me about your kitchen drawer declutter project.