What in the world is a DIY out of the box? Well, for me, I am starting a long home do-it-yourself project. I am going to declutter our house, from bottom to top! I believe that this decluttering is going to be the biggest DIY I have ever attempted!
We have accumulated so much stuff. Our home is 5 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and a full basement and it is full of stuff we never use and never will. We have a full house here, my husband and I have two daughters, a 13-year-old and a 12-year-old. My mother also lives with us along with our 110 pounds black Labrador and our cat.
My DIY project is I am going through every room, every floor, every space and purging our home. My goal is to get rid of half our stuff! Is my goal too much? I have a feeling that once we start, we will get rid of more than that! I have so much going on in my life right now. I work part-time at a job outside my home, have a furniture refinishing business that I don’t spend enough time on plus having a busy family life, but I have to make this a priority.
For the past couple of months, I can’t stand to look at any room in our house. Everywhere I look, I see clutter and trash. We have daily tensions in our family and it affects all of us. It affects each of us differently, from being short-tempered, yelling, or just throwing in the towel. None of us are proud of our home, in fact, none of us want to be in our home!
Where to start? Should I start in our living areas, they are seen first and we spend most of our time in them? Should I start in the girls’ bedrooms to get them organized and de-stressed? Yes and no, I’ve decided on doing a multi-pronged approach. My girls and I will be going through all of our clothes and getting rid most of them. I’ve started on our basement and cleaned out 5 black yard bags(3 full of trash and 2 for donation). I took apart 2 old broken futons and cleared a path from our steps to the laundry. It’s a start, a small one but a start!
Why did I start in our basement you ask? Well, that is a long story. Last summer our youngest daughter wanted to move her bedroom down to our basement. Ericka had the smallest bedroom in our home and needed more space. I came home from work one day and she had started moving things out of the area that she chose and just dumped it anywhere there was an empty area. Of course, she chose MY lady cave to move into. I had a good sized room with a television and couch and of course, lots of stuff all over. This was my crafting room with all kinds of paints, papers, and tools all over. We still had toys from when the girls actually played with toys! Cabinets with board games and old photo albums, old wooden boxes filled with books and all the other stuff that I didn’t have a place for in the rest of our home. Ericka moved it like any other 12 years old would, she just dumped it. We barely had a path to our laundry! I was immediately overwhelmed and instead of explaining that to Ericka, I got angry and started to yell at her. Have you ever had those moments when you know you are doing something wrong, but continue? Yep, this was one for me but I couldn’t stop myself. Superbad parenting moment and I apologized as soon as I regained my senses, but the damage had been done to her psyche. So, we finished moving all of the big pieces of furniture out of that area and made a bigger mess.
Will you accompany on my decluttering DIY? I hope so, I need encouragement, advice, and someone to hold me accountable!
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Thanks again for taking your time and stopping by, I appreciate you!!
Until next time!
Andrea
Andreas Uniquely Yours 