We’re doing a lot of purging around here in the new year. Maybe 2015 will be the year of simplifying on Leger Lane! In my opinion, only good things happen when you and your husband both come up with the same idea independently of each other.
I saw a post on Twitter about the Subtraction Project and I decided to join. With two messy boys, my house can always use a little purging and organizing. {Some day they’ll put things back where I want them, right? RIGHT!} Luckily, Bryan wanted to purge our closest before the new year. {Hello, tax deduction.} I had already started a section in my closet for items I was ready to part with. It was the deadline I needed. I also used the opportunity to pull out all of Quinten’s 18 month clothes that were way too small. I got rid of things that I didn’t like or items that were ruined. One garbage bag of things went from Quinten’s 12-24 month clothes. That felt GOOD! Heck, it feels good to pull out the things that are too small or refold everything in the drawers.
Other things we’ve done to purge…
- Maximus’ has a new bedroom! Same room, different pieces.
- Used part of a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card to buy organizers for our tooth brush drawer. In the process I threw out two perfectly good deodorants that Bryan was currently using. Opps! BUT! That drawer is now organized and again, everything has a place. I went through the container with all of our travel sized items and extra items. Rearranged some of the containers to make things more accessible. We seem to be using gauze and wraps more, so now there’s a specific container. One container for bandaids, so everything else doesn’t come out when little hands dig into the bandaids. Our bathroom also got a fresh coat of paint to match our comforter! It’s a mustard yellow and hard to photograph with a phone.
- Reorganized our kitchen counters. I have a lot of counter space that ends up collecting a lot of things. Every time I clear it I realize that my brain is much happier when my counters are clear. Our back counter is used for food prep so it’s easy for that spot to be a catch all and to put things there that need to be returned. Not what I’d like our kitchen to look like. There are also a lot of preschool things. We’re definitely in that school paper stage. I need to get my organization in check real fast! Now I have an island full of items that need to find their home…
- Cleaned up and organized our command center. It’s another place that collects things. Receipts, schedules, papers, phones, wallets, bills to be filed, iPad, and pictures. I threw away all of our Christmas receipts, filed recipes, rearranged our organizers, and pulled out all the birthday cards and pictures to be filed. I feel so much lighter and more at peace when I walk through my kitchen. I can see the counter and everything has a place. #subtractionproject {pens and papers}
- We bought an Apple Time Capsule to backup our computer. The peace of mind that comes with knowing that your computer is replicated somewhere else, priceless. An added bonus is that it increased our internet connection speed. Our router is pretty old so it was an unexpected boost! Next, I backed up pictures and videos from my phone to my computer. My iCloud hasn’t been able to back up because I had too much on my phone. Now my videos and pictures are on my computer (and backed up) and everything else on my phone is also backed up to my iCloud. #subtractionproject {phone pictures and videos}
- Deleted apps off my phone that I didn’t use. Reorganized my app folders for ease-of-use. Looked up some podcasts that I want to listen to. I hate to admit that Bryan and I haven’t used our podcast app and haven’t ever listened to a podcast. We stream Dave Ramsey from Spotify and listen to a lot of talk radio, but we’ve never looked around on the podcast app. I think I’ll really like it.
- Cleared the cabinets of glassware that we don’t use. We don’t have a coffee maker so we don’t need all those Fiestaware small coffee cups that we got for our wedding. We also don’t own a margarita maker, so why do we have glasses? GONE! #subtractionproject
It’s been a pretty successful week at our house! Lots of cleaning, purging, and organizing. I feel like I’ve got the energy to put in a few more days on our house, but tomorrow it’s back to work, school, and daycare. I’ve got quite a few goals for 2015, but essentially I’d like to keep the motivation and energy going to devote to my family, house, and self. As exhausted as I am come 8 pm, I want to keep going. This week I’ve learned that a lot can be done towards purging and organizing in an hour.
