At the beginning of the summer my car was in the shop for two weeks and so me and the three kids were stuck at home. So I decided it was the perfect time to do a little decluttering! The kids transitioned to a slower pace back home and I filled in every free moment I had going through the house room by room.
I have never done a purging project quite like this besides when we have moved and it felt so good! I am continuing to learn that the feeling of a less cluttered and peaceful home outweighs my need for stuff - even the nostalgic things.
It has been an ongoing process for many years of simplifying. Add in kids and it is so easy to quickly accumulate more. But I am getting more ruthless now that I have felt the benefit of living with less.
Of all the rooms, my two older kids' room had the most noticeable change. With an always growing collection of toys and clothes, the baskets and closets were bursting at the seams! Plus with saving clothes for the younger ones, half of their closet is purely extra clothes storage. It takes up a lot of space but being able to reuse clothes and save so much money makes it worth it. But with that limits our closet storage space.
The whole house purge ended up taking most of the summer. With my kids' rooms being done while they were away at VBS one week.
I went through every bin of clothes to make sure they were organized correctly by size and also purging clothes that I didn't love. It is so tempting to hold on to clothes items just in case, but I had hand me downs that were given to us for our first that none of my kids have worn yet! It was time to let those items go.
One of the big changes was making an accessories bin. It holds things like socks, shoes and swimsuits that are now easily accessible. I no longer have to go through multiple bins to find something specific.
On the opposite side of the closet is my two kids' current clothes. They each get a shelf to hold their clothes. And then I hang bulkier items above. Stored up top are Halloween costumes and their Easter baskets as well as a few odds and ends.
I don't have any before photos but it truly feels so much better and spacious. While it is far from the most beautiful closet ever, I feel like a closet that is not stuffed and has a few decorative baskets for storage can actually make the space look amazing. So no fancy closet system here. Just proof that less stuff can make a closet look great.
I also keep one basket on top of the clothes storage bins to quickly put clothes away that are now out of season or too small. Then when I have a chance I put away all the clothes in the correct size bin.
My kids do have under the bed storage bins. Under one holds two more bins of clothes - the accessories and bigger sized clothes that we received as hand me downs that I am saving. Under the second bed is two bins of extra toys that get rotated. Besides that, all our toys are either in their room or in our living room. I limit myself to those two storage bins. Once they are full, it is time to get rid of some things.
All of their toy bins got reorganized as well. The white bins are stuffed full and the see through ones I try to keep fairly nice. They hold either books or wooden toys.
My kids are getting better at remembering some of their toys. So ones that I am unsure of, are new, or might be asked for again, I keep in a bag in my closet. It gives me a little time to think about it before donating.
But I try to teach my kids that we can't keep everything and that when we donate we get to share our toys with other kids. So far they have been pretty understanding. And when they have gotten upset that I got rid of something, surprisingly they get over it pretty quickly. They have so much and continue to get so many wonderful and generous gifts, I think they will be okay!
I didn't take photos of the rest of the house as most of the changes made were things tucked away in drawers and cabinets. But the day to day use, especially in high use places like the kitchen, has significantly made my life easier. Not having to dig through things or forget where things are has saved so much time. It has been life giving and was a much needed project to have another level of peacefulness in our home.
