Ingenious De-Cluttering - Crap Baskets

As part of my focus on diligence, my word for the year, I've realized I must take control of my household. It's a mess. The clutter is out of control. When this article from buzzfeed came across my Facebook newsfeed, I knew I could incorporate a few suggestions that would really help my clutter situation without being total time drains.

Five Crap Baskets

The first ingenious de-clutter idea I took from the article was crap baskets. These go on your stairs (or somewhere within easy reach.) Items left where they shouldn't go inside. You and your kids can then take your own crap basket and put the stuff inside back where it belongs. (I'm really hoping this will help with our puppy destroying things, such as stuffed animals, left out!)

Yesterday I made my own crap baskets! One for each two-legged member of the family.

I went to Michaels Craft Store and bought 5 baskets for $5 each. Michaels is having a 50% sale on all baskets right now so perfect timing. I love a sale.

I chose black and gray because the colors in our great room are gray (couch and two gray/white checked chairs), black (tables and pillows), red (chair, ottoman and pillows) and white (in the checked chairs). I wanted the baskets to coordinate.

Close-up of two of the baskets

I used the picture in the buzzfeed article as my inspiration for the name tags and purchased a piece of scrap book paper (69 cents) and a package of sticky labels ($3.99) that I used a 40% off coupon on. I had the white ribbon (bought on clearance a while ago) so total cost for my crap baskets was under $30.

It took me less than 30 minutes. The majority of my time was spent looking for the ribbon. Thankfully, the silver Sharpee marker was right where I thought it would be! An easy-peasy project if you know where everything is.

Now I need to make sure the family uses them and Cato, our 15 month old puppy doesn't eat them. I think they will go above the gate on the stairs.

I'm going to pick another ingenious idea to work on next. Just haven't decided what it will be!

Too much stuff

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

My oldest and I spent Saturday afternoon and yesterday in Seattle working at an Irish dance feis for our new Irish dance school. It was fun, seeing people from our old school and meeting new people from our new school. We roomed with a mom and daughter from the school, attended a nice church in Burien and won a Pretty in Pink basket as part of the feis' fundraising efforts.

When we got home last night, I discovered my hubby had cleaned. I've been slowly trying to declutter, but I only get small snatches of time to do it so really appreciated what he did. Easter isn't that far away, and we have lots of people coming over for egg hunts and dinner. One less thing to check off my To Do list.

I'm afraid to tackle on thing on the list. The playroom. It's not Horders-worthy, but a crew from one of the Clean Sweep, get-rid-of-junk-and-clutter shows would probably find it a challenge. But it must be done. So I'll try to break it down into baby steps. Either that or rent one of those dumpters and just get rid of everything! Though that would cause tears and wailing from the kidlets.

This week will be filled with writing, cleaning/decluttering and craft prep for the April meeting. No more waiting until the last minute! At least that's the plan.

What's your week look like?

Minefields and clutter

more animals

This reminds me of my house. Between the cats, kids, dog, books and toys, I'm always negotiating a minefield. It's pretty deadly when I try to do it in the dark.

I've been working on decluttering. I managed to get the Great Room, kitchen and dinette area in pretty decent shape. At least surface wise. I never got into the built-in cabinets. But today was a working day so I couldn't declutter or clean. I left that to hubby. He spent the entire day in my oldest's bedroom. It was a mess, so bad, she couldn't do anything with it. But it's almost done and then she'll be in charge of keeping it clean.

A few months ago, I bought the kids a Financial Peace Jr. set from Dave Ramsey. Once all three of the kids' room and the play room are in order, they will be responsible for keeping it clean, plus a bunch of other chores. There's a nifty board for each child so they know what's expected of them. Fingers crossed it works, but it has to be better than what we have in place now...nothing!

I was at Amy's house on Friday morning and saw how organized she was. Only in my dreams! Still at least I'm doing something. Baby steps, I keep telling myself, both with the house and our budget. That's better than nothing!

Have a great Sunday!

Are you messy?

Today is house day. I managed to get the downstairs in shape for our dinner guest on Wednesday night, but that's about it.

Once again, there are so many clean clothes on the floor of my bedroom, I can't see much of the carpet. That means it's time to fold.

I also want to try and get organized. Not totally in one day, but one piece of the mess. I took everything off my built-in shelves in the Great Room in December when I put up Christmas decorations. Even though the Christmas stuff has been packed away, I never put stuff back on the shelves. I want to go through everything and figure out what should go where. I didn't like how cluttered it looked before.

I also want to bring a couple of my folding bookcases not being used and try to put my books in some kind of order. They are all over the place. I don't know what I have anymore!

I thought this quiz looked perfect for what's facing me today:

You Are Very Messy

You are a slob, and you really don't care if other people know it. You don't love messes, but you just can't be bothered to clean on a regular basis. While being messy and disorganized feels easy, it's probably making your life harder. Maybe it's time for you to get a maid.

Are You Messy?

Yep, that fits me to a tee. I'm trying to change. I really am. But it's just so darn hard. Messy could be my middle name.

What about you? Are you messy?