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The Decluttering Rules: Useless Furniture

Come on, you know you have it. I know I do. That piece of furniture that has been sitting in the living room, full of stuff from years gone by. Or perhaps it’s housing a single television and a few other items that could easily be stored elsewhere. It’s the scourge of the useless furniture. My house is full of useless furniture. Some of it has sentimental value, like my grandmother’s rolltop desk and her hope chest. This I will keep, because it has a lot of value to me. Most of our furniture has been gleaned from free sources, … Continue reading →

Decluttering the Small Toys

This post is most definitely inspired by Tedgar’s recent “The Decluttering Rules” post right here in the Home Blog. She mentions the issue of small things becoming clutter. Well, I cannot agree with her more here. In fact, in my household, it is the small things that tend to drive me the craziest. I do have a solution that tends to work for me. It is a form of containerizing, but with a purpose. Small things have to earn their place and be useful, and at the same time have homes where they can be contained. I’ll give you an … Continue reading →

De-Cluttering Our House Has Lead to Saving Money

One of the lovely consequences of doing a huge de-clutter of our home and living with less is that we are actually saving more money! That is right, there is more money at the end of each month, despite rising food and gas prices. How is this possible? Well, analyzing things lately, here are some of the contributing factors and the connections that I can see from our budget since we have been de-cluttering, including some things that will be with us long-term. Bigger Tax Refund All of the donations that we made were itemized and served as charitable deductions, … Continue reading →

Time To Do A House Scrub

Is your home ready for the holidays? Mine certainly isn’t. I’ve been trying to get ready, slowly, but sadly, I’ve not accomplished much. I really need to get ready for company. We usually host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, sometimes a Christmas party as well. We don’t always do those on the designated day because we want our friends to be able to celebrate the holidays with us without having to choose between us and their families. Before the stream of people, I need to get the house ready. For me, that means lots of decluttering. I try to keep the … Continue reading →

How to Organize Your Child’s School Papers

In some parts of the United States school is already in session. Where I live it is just under two weeks before my children return to school. One of the benefits to having children in middle and high school is that I notice the amount of papers that come into the home is drastically reduced. However I remember the old days when they were younger and it seemed like paper was going to overtake our home. So I established a system early on that has worked really well with school papers. Every school year I buy a new 3-ring binder … Continue reading →

On a Kid’s Bedroom Tear

It is finally the time to get that fourth bedroom ready. We are on a real tear about it. Our home currently has four bedrooms and three kids. We always wanted the kids to each have a room of their own. At the moment, though, our youngest child doesn’t. He sleeps in a toddler bed that is in our bedroom. The fourth bedroom, the one that is destined for his room needs some work. There is a hole in the wall that has been repaired, but the rest of the room has far to go. Previously, it was being used … Continue reading →

A (Furniture) Moving Experience

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Recently, we went on vacation. The trip back was exhausting. I woke up the next day and took a look at my furniture and began moving it around. Why? I find that a trip anywhere, even for a weekend, gets me to look at our home with new eyes. Often, when I come back I begin to give things away and reorganize our house. This time it was the living room. For a couple of years I have been overwhelmed by the amount of toys in our living room. Our bedrooms are small and while my daughter keeps stuffed animals … Continue reading →

Charity Begins at Home

You know that old saying, charity begins at home? Well here is how it can really benefit your household. I am frequently at war with myself. On the one hand, I don’t like clutter and disorganization. On the other hand, I tolerate quite a bit of it because of two main reasons: I have a husband and three kids who are not quite so intolerant of clutter (and being madly in love with all of them, I am a big softie), and I grew up in a household where nothing could be put to waste. So, not surprisingly, if you … Continue reading →

The Bedroom Situation

Does each child need their own bedroom? When you’re buying or building a home one important consideration is the number of bedrooms and whether you want each child to have their own bedroom or expect them to share a room. As an only child I always had my own room and I liked to be able to go there to read or as I grew older to play music. My husband grew up sharing a room with his brother. It wasn’t a large room. Basically all it got used for was sleeping or maybe lying on the bed reading, as … Continue reading →

I Only Want It If It’s Not For Babies

My daughter has more toys than she knows what to do with. Between my family, my husband’s family, friends, and church members, she’s set for quite a while (and by a while, I mean until her first birthday). Most of the time, she is completely content to sit on the floor and pull toys out one-by-one from her toy basket. She turns them over in her hands, bangs them against each other, and, of course, chews on them. She’s content, that is, unless there is something else within her reach that is not a toy. It doesn’t really matter what … Continue reading →