Could You Do a Year of Less?

Do you often buy a specialty coffee on work days? Get a manicure as a pick-me-up? Purchase new clothes because you're going to a wedding? I recently read The Year of Less by Cait Flanders in which she not only purged and decluttered over 50% of her household items but she decided not to buy anything new for an entire year unless it was consumable or on the "approved list" such as one new sweatshirt because she didn't have one. I've written about decluttering several times before specifically after reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. This book gives some food for thought and here are some of mine...

Five Things I Learned From Tidying Up My Clothes

Although our home is relatively clean (I keep it at a 7/10 level in case you were wondering), I struggle with holding onto objects because of their sentimental value. This holds true for my clothing as well. University T-shirts, race shirts, sports uniforms, my first pair of skinny jeans, a dress I wore for a great New Years Eve, the bikini from our honeymoon...the list goes on. There's also the practical side of me that thinks "I paid a lot of money for that item, I will wear it forever!" Well, I'm not sure if that's practical or wishful thinking, but I'm guilty of it.

Five Tips for Organizing Your Home

Our house currently has four kids under the age of nine.  This means that we have a lot of books, papers, backpacks, shoes, coats, toys etc.  How do we try to keep things organized and relatively clutter-free? A lot of these ideas stem from minimalism and the desire to be intentional about what we own and why. 

1.  File homework and library books into a safe place where we can see it (to be reminded) and where it is out of reach of little hands. Nya really just puts her crafts in her section and after a week they get recycled or placed on the Art Board. There is a basket for all the LeapPads and chargers and games.

Getting Organized with Lockers For The Kids: IKEA Hack

Our house has a small entryway and so there always seemed to be an overabundance of coats, vests, boots, backpacks and shoes. Our office, also at the entrance, was looking very cluttered. We are in the process of putting in new floors and converting it into a mudroom/office ourselves. I just want to give you a sneak peek at one of the ideas that we had: Lockers for the kids through an Ikea hack!

We bought this unit, Lappland, from Ikea for $179.00. This unit works well for us because our office is just 10 X 10 feet and we need room for two desks in it too.

{Photo from Ikea}