Lori Seaborg

Some Questions about Decluttering

From a blog reader:

Thanks, Lori, for the posts about decluttering. They motivate me. I am just so curious about all your decluttering. Did you have that much stuff or do you just not have anything left?

Somehow, I really had that much stuff.  But if I had a bigger house, it wouldn't seem as much as it seems in my 2100 square feet, and it would seem like more in our former 1200 square feet.  I seek to declutter to the point that the house can 1.) Look "homey," which to me is filled with only things we love and/or use; 2.) Be easy to keep neat.  With four little kids (ages 3-11), it is easiest for me to keep a house neat if there is a lot of empty floor space, and the children enjoy empty floor space for playing, so we don't have many stands or a coffee table or knickknacks, etc.,  and only recently I bought an indoor plant, since the children are now old enough to not knock it over/eat the dirt.  The truth is, whether we have more room or not, we really don't need most of what is around us. 

Did you clear out a lot of toys? Were your children upset when you began?

My children cannot usually be with me when I declutter their toys.  They want to keep even the broken parts!  If they cannot keep their rooms neat, I decide that they have too many toys.  Everything that is loose on the floor or out of place, we put into Rubbermaid totes and put them in the garage .  I tell the children that they cannot have these toys for a while, since they didn't choose to take care of them.  They know that once it's in the garage, it's out of sight for quite a while. Later, usually on my own, I go through that tote, and throw away most of the stuff, give away anything I haven't seen the kids enjoy, and keep the few left. 

My goal - I"m almost there - is to have 2 decluttered, sorted, organized totes waiting in the garage or attic.  Every month, we'll take all of the toys in their rooms, declutter, sort and organize them into a tote, and pull a tote out of storage to enjoy.  This keeps the toys exciting and appreciated, I would imagine.  Right now, I have a few toy totes to declutter in the garage, so I'm not at this level of organization yet. 

 I hardly ever know of anyone that is really needy. Even my children would be happy to give if we knew someone needy. I have been piling things in the garage for a yard sale. I haven't had one for years for the reasons you mentioned. I guess I thought I had more stuff this time that would equal more money.

It is hard to know who needs something.

I've found that many on our local Freecycle list are needy, so I offer larger items on that list, like a car seat or stroller.  I don't want someone coming to our house to pick up every tiny outfit, though, or we'd never get schooling done. 

If I have a friend with several children, I'll offer extra clothes to her, since your hand-me-downs can usually only hold up well through two children, it seems. 

Our Waterfront Rescue Mission offers free pick-up service.  I have called and said, "I have 20 boxes to give away," and arranged a pick up time within 3-4 days, even before I had the boxes ready.  That motivates me to get those boxes ready and on the front porch, waiting for the Mission truck to arrive. 

Here's another idea:  Several years ago, we started having a garage sale early on a Saturday morning but within about an hour, it seemed a shame that people were leaving empty handed or buying just one or two things, and I could see that all that clutter was going to stay at my house.  Besides, I wasn't exactly raking in the money. 

After okaying the idea with Tim, I told the kids, who had a toy table of their own and hoped to make money, that I was changing it to a Free Sale but they could take their things out if they liked.  They thought and thought about that, and finally decided to leave the items out for free.  Then they watched and waited for someone to come.  We prayed that God would send whoever needed the items.  Soon after, a family of 7 or 8 got out of a very crowded old car.  They spoke Spanish to each other and only one spoke broken English.  She said, "Free?" and motioned around.  "Nothing?"  I said, "Yes, it's all free."  She excitedly told the rest of her family.  Two of our children stood by their toy table and watched their children look at the toys.  Britty handed a little girl her Barbie, and Brenden handed a boy his robot toy.  The adults picked up some cooking items and clothing. 

Later, a very young couple came - also in a beat up car, with the gal quite pregnant - and they were so very delighted when I loaded them up with baby gear and baby girl clothes.  They kept saying, "God bless you," and nearly brought me to tears right there on the lawn! 

A lady picked up blankets for a family she knew who needed practical things like that. 

Throughout the day, people came and I was very impressed that nobody was greedy in the slightest way.  They only took what they or someone they knew could use. 

At the end of the day, we moved what was left to the curb and put a "Free" sign on it.  By morning, we were left with only a few scattered things to clean up. 

Giving that day was far greater a blessing to our family than the money would have been.  Our two oldest children remember that day well, even though it was several years ago and they were young then (about  6 and 8) .  It was a great lesson for them, to realize that there are people we can bless with our things. 

Colossal Clutter Clean-Up

If you are at all overwhelmed by the extra things, a.k.a. clutter, in your home, I really want to encourage you to visit The Colossal Clutter Clean Up.  The challenge begins today with a free 62-page ebook.  I am absolutely amazed at the generosity of Amy Verlinnich, the ebook author, who has given so much time and effort to write this book. 

If you are discouraged by the state of your home, please don't feel alone.  I've been there, too, several years ago when we had 3, then 4, little ones and were going through a difficult time financially (it seems that stress attracts clutter).  Don't feel alone, but do work on finding your way out of your clutter.  You will feel so much freedom once you let the things in  your home go. 

Don't fear letting go.  I have sent literally truckloads of donations to the Waterfront Rescue Mission, and I have yet to miss a single thing I sent away.  In fact, when I needed to remember what I had donated for this year's taxes, I found it very difficult to remember much at all!  (TIP:  Before donating items, if you're going to use the tax deduction, take a digital camera photo of the contents of the box to help trigger your memory when you need to write up the deduction amounts.)

Once your home gets decluttered, you will find it easy to keep clean.  Hospitality will be much easier to practice.  You will no longer worry about unexpected visitors dropping by.  Your toes will get hurt less.  :)  And your children will be happier.   After we decluttered most of our home, our 10-year-old said, "You know, we get in trouble less now."  It's true, they do.  Your husband will be happier, too, of course, and so will you!  Best of all, you will have time....time that you've never had since childhood....time for creativity, to discover your interests, time to start a little business, time to sew or cook or learn how to cook and sew, time to act on others' needs, time to visit with your Creator, and especially time to play with your family.

I said a prayer for you just now! 

Decluttering and the Colossal Clutter Clean Up Challenge

A reader asked me to write more about decluttering. That is one of my favorite subjects, too, so I do have more to say on it!  I've learned so much through the past decade about decluttering.

When newly married, Tim and I lived in a one bedroom apartment and had one chair, one t.v., and a mattress on the floor of the one bedroom.  Not long after that, we moved to a HUGE - in our eyes - 1200 square foot house.  Over the next 12 years, we filled it not only with things, but also with children!   It was while living in that Very Little - in our eyes, the house shrunk drastically over the years - house that I had to learn a lot about decluttering.  Reading from FlyLady helped out a lot. 

It was freeing for me to learn, from FlyLady, that I do not have to have a garage sale.  For me, garage sales are not worth the time it takes to do one, or the clutter that piles up while waiting to do one.  You may live in a neighborhood that has a community sale,  or you may enjoy having a garage sale, so decide what works for you. 

Instead of a garage sale, I like to be creative in giving away the items. It's fun for me to decide what to do with our extra things.  Sometimes, a friend or acquaintance will get the items.  I often pray that I'll know who to share with.  Once I loaded up the back of our trunk on the way to a homeschool day in the park and asked the moms to help themselves.  The local Waterfront Rescue Mission gets many items from us (they have been wonderful to the community during hurricanes.  The Salvation Army is also great during hurricanes, by the way); sometimes I'll place an item on our local Freecycle, as we did a couple of weeks ago when we wanted to give away a large weight bench system.  For homeschool books, or educational items, I now use the list I started, called Free Homeschool. 

We have family coming in on Monday for a - very late - Christmas, so I need to get back to work on preparing for that.  But I wanted to be sure to give you a link to the Clean Heart, Clean Home site, which is wonderful.  Starting January 7th, the Colossal Clutter Clean-Up is beginning at that site.  If you have an overwhelming amount of decluttering to do (I've been there, too, you're in fine company! ;D), please check that out. 

Note:  If you just want some cleaning or decluttering encouragement, visit the blog of the Clean Heart, Clean Home  challenge.  Be sure to look at the Side Bar for free printables and devotional pages.  I love that blog!

A Site to Visit on Healthy Eating and Homesteading

I've been on such a path of learning lately.  I've been learning more and more about nutrition and healthy eating (I think I said the same thing twice just then!).  If you're interested in some of what I'm learning, go pay a visit to Crystal Miller's site.  She is such a talented teacher!  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Housework Update

Oh, good!  I'm so glad that there are so many of you who need to organize and clean up, too!  You know how messes attract messes?  (go ahead and prove that theory by throwing some dirty laundry on your bedroom floor and then watch it multiply)  Well, I think messies attract messies!  Or sometimes-messies attract sometimes-messies.  Whatever it is, I'm glad I'm not alone.

The Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge can be started on ANY Sunday, so please don't put it off just because you're not with the group.  I'm not with it, either. 

My first cleaning day this week was The Vehicle on Monday.  I already blogged about that. 

The next two days were for The Front Yard (Tuesday, Wednesday).  Tuesday, I cleaned under the front porch bunny's cage (I know, who has a bunny on their front porch?  The same people who have 2 goats greeting the mailman each day; he says they are nicer than most dogs.).  Back to the bunny cage -- I cleaned under it; there was some straw there.  I cleaned up her litter trays (the flowers love the offering), swept under the bench, carefully leaving the free range chickens' nest of eggs (don't ask; it's just the way things are around here).  I did rob the nest of all but 2 eggs, so they'll lay there again.  It's more convenient than their other nest, which is where it should be, on a shelf in their pen.  I also straightened up the flower beds, where a few things had fallen over (the tiny bird bath; an ornamental doodad), wheeled the wheelbarrow to its place, and that was all on Tuesday.

Wednesday, I failed in my Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge and didn't do anything.  It was just too hot to move that pile of mulch from the pile (as I said) to the flower beds.  That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.  I am planning on washing the outside windows on the first cloudy day we get (if you wash them on a sunny day, they'll streak -- or is that a hot day? Well, if I wait for a cold one, it's just not gonna' happen anytime soon, so we'll go for the cloudy day). 

The Living Room was next on my week's list, and it was assigned 3 days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  The living room is my neatest room, so I feel like I'm getting a break even before I deserve one.  In that room, all we need to do is dust, wash the fireplace, wash the French doors, wipe the switchplates and perhaps the walls a bit, and sweep under the furniture.  Considering what monstrous jobs the other rooms will be, this room has what feels like nothing to do.  One note about the living room:  It's obvious that this room always looks the neatest because it has the least clutter.  It's a wide open space with only couches, chairs, and a big t.v. along the sides.  There are no knick-knacks, bookshelves, coffee table --- I wish every room was this maintenance-free.  It's certainly true that less clutter equals less housework. 

How are you coming along?

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Organizing and Cleaning Up

I was so happy the other day when an email buddy sent me a link to the Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge .  The challenge works not only on your home, but also on your heart, which likely needs some cleaning as well!  (mine always does). 

Scroll down a ways on that blog, and you'll see a link to the free Clean Heart, Clean Home Organizer.

I printed out that organizer (about 85 pages) and put them in a brand new 3-ring binder.  My house is not the mess it once was, thanks to Flylady (and even more thanks to God!), but I still find it hard to get deep cleaning done.  For some reason, the dust bunnies and the toys under the boys' beds do not get cleaned out on their own!  So I'm using the Clean Heart, Clean Home Challenge to do a "Spring" cleaning of my house.

Yesterday, we started with the van.  Oh, my!  The things you can find in cubby holes and  under seats in a van!  Whew, I'm glad that one is over.

Lori Seaborg 2006

Letting Go of Extra Books

I’m not sure how to justify giving other people twaddle (those books that don't improve your life through education or an exceptional story), but I’m assuming that giving them away is better than sending books to the landfill, so I’ve been getting twaddle out of the house in 3 ways:

1. Through PaperBackSwap.com, I’ve traded a ton of my twaddly books for book points (you get one book of your choice for each book you send to someone else).  I’ve picked up a few unabridged books for the children but usually use my book points on cooking books and on craft books (which we use for handicrafts class).   (p.s. My referral name is Dreamwords).  
2. Through Amazon’s seller program, I have gotten about $200 in the past 4-5 months that I've listed books there.  It's quick and easy to do  (you just input the ISBN – my children enjoyed this job) and the books sell much more quickly than on eBay (with the exception of curriculum as in teacher guides or textbooks).   To do this, go to Amazon and click on Sell Your Stuff at the very top of the Amazon.com home page.
3. If you don’t really need the money, give your books away to friends!  Through our local email group, I was able to bless someone with a full A Beka curriculum.   Sometimes it’s hard to let go of a valuable book set, but you’ll feel good about it after you do it!
4. It's October 2006 now, but I thought I'd edit this post to add another way to get rid of books:  I started a group for sharing your homeschool books with others.  Go here to find out more about it:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeHomeschool
   

 

Lori Seaborg, 2006

Scheduling My Days

I created the below schedule this morning and thought I'd share it with you all.  I am a natural, freewill kind of spirit, so am easily distracted by all the spontaneous things that happen in a day.  Anything from the dog chasing a butterfly to too many clothes piled in the laundry room at the same time, can make me forget what to do next. 

 

Even gals like me, who abhor routine, need a little scheduling in our lives.  I have found that a schedule (or "routine") does not restrict me to the mundane; instead, it frees me to enjoy the rest of the day. 

 

I already follow a loose routine in my head, but it covers only the "Morning-Noon Schedule," below.  I haven't been following a routine of weekly cleaning or 3-month cleaning, so when it does come time to do some of those jobs, like cleaning the outside windows, the job is so overwhelming that I don't want to do it at all!  I have learned, through my morning routine of daily keeping the bathroom wiped, that "prevention is the best medicine," even in housekeeping, so I was delighted when I ran into the following schedule at Donna Young's Printables website. 

 

You can create your own schedule like the one below by finding it at Donna Young's site (it is at the bottom of the page).  I downloaded the schedule into Microsoft Word and edited it to suit me by adding in animal care, such as shearing the Angora goats, changing the Morning-Noon Schedule to the shape of our house (so that I will move from one room to the nearby next room, not across the house) and changing the gardening schedule to fit our subtropical climate. 

 

Lori Seaborg 2006

 

Morning-Noon Schedule:

qmake bed, qget dressed, qpick up bedroom and bathroom, qclean toilet, sink, and counter, qclean toilet, sink, and counter in other bathroom, qtake laundry to laundry room and start a wash load, qfeed animals, qstart coffee & breakfast, qopen curtains and blinds, qtidy living room and schoolroom, qbreakfast, qtidy kitchen,  qput wash load in dryer, qcheck kids’ chores, qmeeting with children, qget school rolling, qcoffee & Bible, qcomputer time, qschool,  qlunch, qtidy kitchen, qcheck kids’ chores, qput away dry clothes, qdo chore from weekly list, qquiet time

 

Weekly Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
qsweep and mop qvacuum qshowers/tubs qKitchen Zone	qmirrors/windows qvacuum qdust qsweep porches qMaster Bedroom and Bathroom Zone	qplan meals, make shopping lists qsweep and mop q Girls’ Room and Family Bathroom Zone	qvacuum qlibrary qerrands/banking qBoys’ Room and Hall/Foyer Closets Zone	q sweep and mop qpay bills q15 minutes paperwork qLiving Areas Zone

 

 

3 Month Schedule:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
1st week	qchange a/c filter	qwash baseboards	qcheck dryer ductwork	qclean a closet	qextra animal care	qBackyard Clean-Up
2nd week	qStraighten books	qclean 3 drawers	q check water heater	qvacuum furniture	qhaircuts	qGarage 15 minutes
3rd week	qclean coffee pot	qwash window sills	qplan a homemade gift	qwash knick-knacks	qclean a light fixture	qFront Yard Clean-Up
4th week	qwork on homemade gifts this week		qwrite a note		qinvite someone over for a meal	qGarage 15 minutes
1st week				qclean a closet	qextra animal care	qBackyard Clean-Up
2nd week	qStraighten books, CDs, and DVDs

Scheduling My Days II

This is a continuation from the above schedule.  All of it would not post in one blog post.....

 

 

From the 3-Month Weekly Schedule, this starts with the second month, 2nd week:

 

2nd week	qStraighten books, CDs, and DVDs	qclean 3 drawers	qcheck water heater and power box			qGarage 15 minutes
3rd week	qclean coffee pot	qwash woodwork	qplan a homemade gift		qclean a light fixture	qFront Yard Clean-Up
4th week	qwork on homemade gifts this week		qwrite a note		qinvite someone over for a meal	qGarage 15 minutes
1st week		qwash window sills	qInspect plumbing	qclean a closet	qextra animal care	qBackyard Clean-Up
2nd week	qStraighten books, CDs, and DVDs	qclean 3 drawers			qhaircuts	qGarage 15 minutes
3rd week	qclean coffee pot		qplan a homemade gift		qclean a light fixture	qFront Yard Clean-Up
4th week	qwork on homemade gifts this week		qwrite a note		qinvite someone over for a meal	qGarage 15 minutes

 

Seasonal:

January	Plan garden	Plant cold season veggies	Sort clothes/shoes
February	Plant early veggies	Plant garden after Feb. 14th	Garage declutter
March	Garage declutter	Finish planting garden	Start plants
April	Wash outside windows	Check animal housing/fencing	Sheer Angora goats
May	Hurricane Preparations	Defrost freezer	Wash house
June	Plan school	Sort books/curriculum to eBay
July		Wash blinds
August	Sort clothes/shoes	Clean utility room	Plan fall garden
September	Plant late summer plants	Plan Christmas gifts
October	Plant fall garden/perennials	Sheer Angora goats	Check animal housing/fencing
November	Create Christmas gifts/decorations	Check gutters	Plant trees/perennials
December	<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGI

Final Day: Declutter Your Home Series: Final Thoughts

 

We are finally done with three weeks of decluttering our homes!  I hope you were able to do at least a few of the tasks.  A clutter-free home helps make a clutter-free mind.  It is on the days when our home is clutter-free that I find I am a much better mom and wife.  Homeschooling, cooking, and even bill paying are more manageable when I know where everything is to complete the task.

 

In my home, I have yet to declutter the Girls' Closet, more paper decluttering in my office space, and much to do in the Garage (the Waterfront Rescue Mission is coming on Saturday to help out with that -- I told them to be ready to pick up 20 boxes!).

 

Here is the final post from Mrs. Cat. 

 

I apologize that I wasn't entirely consistent in posting during these 21 days.  It is hard for me to stick with something for so long and even harder to find computer time to post the messages. 

 

Thanks for decluttering with me!

 

 

 

by Lori Seaborg

Day 19: Declutter Your Home Series: Your Husband ' s Domain

 

Your Husband's Domain

 

 

 

by Lori Seaborg

Day 18: Decluttering Our Homes: A Favorite Site

 

Today's post by Mrs. Cat sends you to one of my favorite inspirational websites, Laine's Letters.  From Laine, a woman I have never met, I have learned many bread recipes for my bread machine (to make the dough and finish it in the oven), patience when finances are tight, wisdom when finances are tight, and the importance of a quiet time with God every day (still cant' get up at 4am like she does, though). 

 

You will love Laine's wisdom as I do. 

 

by Lori Seaborg