Organization Project: Craft Supplies

I have a major organization project that has been hanging over my head the past few weeks while I've been doing other things, such as preparing for our yard sale.

My daughter loves to make crafts, and loves to make a mess doing it. When she asks if she can paint and I say no, she'll go ask her dad, and he'll say, "Sure," and she'll go and do it herself. Same with playdough, glueing, cutting, you name it. Fortunately, she's reasonably neat:

We've been storing our craft supplies in the buffet cabinet in the dining room, and all crafts are supposed to be done in the dining room (we don't have a separate breakfast table, our house is on the smaller side). Since my daughter's birthday in August, the crafting situation has gotten a little out of control. Not everything is fitting in the cabinets, and what's worse, all the fun new craft supplies are mixing in with the broken crayons, dry markers, and empty glue sticks. My procrastination on the project has just given it time to get worse and worse!

Today, time was running out before I host a family get-together tomorrow. I just didn't have time to go through all the supplies, sort them, and get rid of the dried yucky playdough and the markers that don't work anymore.

My friend recently gave us gifts inside two reusable shopping bags from Ikea:

The best thing about these bags is that one of them zips closed. I decided to use the zipping bag to store all the nice fresh craft supplies that aren't fitting in the cabinet. The black and white bag would hold the completed projects (mostly paintings, but a few 3-dimensional endeavors as well. (The interior of the cabinet will have to wait for another day, as well as a plan for storing completed works, which are in several locations throughout the house currently...) The rest of the items were either put away, recycled, or trashed.

My other organization tool was a basket that I originally bought to store items on top of our refrigerator. It was just a bit too tall to fit between the fridge and the cabinet, so I had to put it aside. I decided to use it to store my daughter's current craft project: a princess storybook.

It fits underneath the buffet, and now I have a place to quickly pitch all the supplies and bits of paper that she is using for the project when it is time for dinner and I want to clear the table. There's even extra space for all the new things she thinks of to add to the book next time she works on it!

Now I have a functional dining room, just in time for tomorrow's gathering, and I have all of the craft supplies corralled in two bags so that when I do have time I can get everything sorted and restocked.

Narrowing this project down to the very simple step of clearing the area helped me overcome my procrastination and make some small progress on the project. I handled the mess while still giving my daughter access to her current project!

Linked to 52 Weeks of Organizing at orgjunkie.com!

Decluttering Paper in 3 Steps

I have to confess that I've been taking a lengthy break from decluttering projects this year. I was really on top of decluttering last year, but since then I got distracted and off track, and I'm only now (in July!) returning to the project, which for now is to just attack the piles of paper and miscellaneous items that have accumulated in my house. I'm decided to approach The Piles with a 3-Step approach:

1. Consolidate

First I went around the house and collected all the various paper piles in a laundry basket. (Confession: I filled the laundry basket twice!)

I cleared the dining table so that I would have plenty of space--and also for motivation to get the project done before dinnertime.

2. Sort

I set up an empty paper grocery bag for recycling paper, and sorted everything into piles. It occurred to me that this is really challenging work, because you have to make a decision about every piece of paper: keep? recycle?

I ran into a bunch of papers from an unfinished project that I need to refocus on, and also a few photographs and a recipe that triggered some memories. The biggest bulk of paper were the things that my son brought home from first grade at the end of the year. It takes a lot of energy to decide to recycle your child's artwork! I did save a few things that stood out.

Whenever I started feeling overwhelmed or unable to make a decision about something, I walked away and worked on something else for a while, then came back later. It helped that I needed to shuttle the kids around, and my mom stopped by for a little while. Sometimes I would just go switch the laundry to clear my head so that I could return and continue to make decision after decision...

3. Distribute

After all the piles were sorted, I found a place for each set of items. Some things were easy--obviously the two full bags of discarded papers went to the recycling bin, and the saved artwork went to a box in the basement designated for that pupose. Other things were more challenging to put away, and I admit that a small pile of those random items are sitting in a pile on my desk right now, still to be housed. Similar to the sorting, I did a few piles at a time in between other activities.

The good news is: I finished! I think that focusing very specifically on Paper Only helped me to avoid distraction, and setting a specific space and steps helped as well. I even got the dining table set for dinner, hours in advance. I think I will use this technique again on the disturbing number of Random Items scattered around the house--you know, the what-is-this-and-why-are-we-keeping-it stuff (I hope I'm not the only person with this problem!)

Find more declutter and organizing inspiration with 52 Weeks of Organizing at orgjunkie.com!

Acknowledging the Unexpected

What happened here? Not what was expected...

Once upon a time, long ago, I worked for a boss who struggled with time management. She took a class and worked with a time-management coach, and he advised that each person in the office keep a daily list of unexpected events. My coworkers and I started doing this right away, because we were stressed out and eager to work on the time-management challenges we were having.

We were really surprised to discover exactly how many unexpected things just 'popped up' during each day. A client would call with a problem, a salesperson would stop by unexpectedly with a new product line, our boss would suddenly remember a project that she needed finished ASAP, or the copier would jam.

Writing down these unexpected events on our To Do lists seemed to give us more power over the situation. We could compare the tasks that we had planned to do with the new task that was now staring at us in the face, and decide which task took higher priority.

Often the unexpected event took precedence over what we had been working on before (our office certainly wouldn't have been able to function if we didn't take the time to fix the jammed copier!) Instead of feeling discouraged at the end of the day because of ruined plans, we could read our lists and count the unexpected events towards our productivity for the day: I helped a client, learned about a new product, finished my boss's project, and fixed the paper jam in the copier.

I'm finding that this same strategy can be applied to homemaking: if I take the time to acknowledge the time I spend each day on unexpected events, and count them towards my productivity for the day, I feel more empowered and in control of how I spend my time each day. I cleaned up the broken glass before someone got hurt, I rescheduled our plans so that I could care for my sick child, I got the car inspected on the last day before the sticker expired and avoided a ticket.

I also apply this strategy to larger periods of time. For instance, I haven't spent much time and effort on keeping up with clutter in my house this year. I think it is important to acknowledge the events (some expected, some unexpected) that have required additional focus and that have shifted my priorities away from this project.

My sister-in-law died in December. My close friend died in January. I'm still helping to go through my close friend's home and possessions and cooking meals for her college-age son.

I completed three large projects for my volunteer work in February, April and May--and I'm working on several new projects now.

By the end of this month, we'll have taken 9 separate trips since December--4 of them unexpected to some degree, but all worthwhile time spent connecting with family, friends, and each other.

By acknowledging that all of these events are important and realizing that I don't regret the time or effort spent on any of them, I realize that I have good reasons for not focusing on the projects I hoped to focus on so far this year. I can release feeling of guilt and powerlessness, and refocus on my goals with a fresh, positive attitude.

With all that said, I am off to finish prepping my new consignment pile, and a nice large Goodwill donation is on the horizon, too.

This plan works for me. What unexpected events have occurred in your life that you need to acknowledge and release?

10 Things I Wish I had time to Write About

I think about sharing stuff on my blog every day, but for the past few months none of those thoughts have made it into an actual blog post. This is a shame, because I have a lot of fun stuff going on!

1. I planted a terrarium. My grandmother gave me a Wardian Case for my birthday last fall, and I am finally got around to planting some tiny plants in it after reading a beautiful book called The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature and reading this very helpful blog post by the same author, Tovah Martin. My terrarium is not be as stunning as those pictured in the book (I dumped the dirt all over the leaves on the tiny African Violet!), but I will enjoy my tiny little plants just the same.

2. I made Lemon Lavender Butter Cookies, yet another recipe from Fix, Freeze, Feast: The Delicious, Money-Saving Way to Feed Your Family. To make the cookies, I first had to make lavender sugar with some culinary lavender. These cookies are lavender-scented! Because it is a freezer cooking recipe, I have several dozen more balls of cookie dough stashed in the freezer to bake when I feel the urge.

3. I'm planning a cutting garden. I love having fresh flowers in the house, and I will occasionally buy a $5 bouquet of flowers from the grocery store for my table or mantelpiece. Last summer I kept seeing these beautiful bouquets at the farmer's market--like this--which I didn't buy because they were quite costly, but the flowers were beautiful! I finally realized I was looking at zinnias, which are actually quite easy to grow in my area, so I bought some pretty zinnia seeds and planted them. I will add a few more types of flowers to the cutting garden and hopefully I'll have a nice selection of flowers for vases throughout the summer and into the fall.

4. I'm slacking off in the organizing department. I came up with a list of organizing projects at the beginning of the year, and I planned to post about a project each week. I haven't finished any of them, nor posted anything about them. I need to get motivated and knock some of these projects out.

5. I'm also slacking in the decluttering department. The spring consignment sale went on without me. I haven't sold anything on Ebay yet this year. I did manage to donate some summer clothes to collection drive for an orphanage in South America... but otherwise, nothing. All my efforts from last year will be undone if I don't stay on top of this neverending project!

6. I have been using the Motivated Moms half size chore planner to get a handle on what needs to be done and how often around my house. I also use it to track my menu plans and workout schedule, including calories burned per workout. I'll be honest--I never get everything on the chore list done, but at least some things get done and I am gaining a more realistic idea of how often things need to be done in my household. (Never often enough!)

7. We are planting a raised vegetable garden this summer.We planted a small amount of things last year, and it was so much fun we decided to get more serious about it. Like for the flower cutting garden, I've planted some seeds and we'll see how things develop. I am using this handy site here to plan a square foot garden. For now it's recreational, but I am looking forward to having a prolific supply of vegetables.

8. After many years of studying the room arrangements in The Washington Post's House Calls, I'm finally rearranging the furniture in my living room. This was the room that finally convinced me that I had enough information to improve the layout. This room was also an inspiration. We just need to paint and have the new couch delivered...

9. A friend of mine has convinced me to try growing potatoes in a garbage bag. Apparently potatoes can be easily damaged when you go to dig them up, so if you grow them in a bag, you can carefull empty the bag open at the end of the growing season (or slit your garbage bag open, which is what I'm planning1), dump the soil in a wheel barrow or container, and pull out the potatoes without using a shovel.

10. I did some freezer cooking last week! And I got around to posting about it. Hopefully I will be able to post updates on these other projects, too.

52 Weeks of Organizing: Clearing up Christmas 2010

Before I can work on any of my numerous household projects, I need to clear up everything from Christmas, which we allowed to run a little longer than usual after our tough season. I know if I take the time to organize now, things will go much more smoothly when I pull out the Christmas containers 11 months from now!

As I mentioned last year, now is the best time to record the things that worked and didn't work in 2010, and then I 'send' the letter to myself to be sure that I read it in early November 2011. Last year's highlights included:

• Buy new lights for the Christmas Tree (great reminder as lights sell out in my area before we buy our tree)
• For the English Trifle: buy TWO boxes of ladyfingers and only ONE box of blueberries (I guess I bought the wrong amounts in 2009 ;)
• Family photo must be done by October or it will not happen (true!)
• Gift Wrapping always takes about twice as long as I think it will, so schedule accordingly. (much better this year!)

All of this was valuable advice! I am adding a few new tidbits to the same list for next fall. In the mean time, I've been implementing my other Christmas wrap-up strategies:

Ornament Removal Procedure: I take all of the ornaments off the tree at once, carefully accumulating them on the bar in my dining room. When I unplug one from the light string, I immediately replace the plug with one of the original light bulbs. (We have a few Hallmark Magic Ornaments)

Now that the ornaments are down and the tree has been cleared for removal (don't forget any small ornaments!), I can stand in one position to invidually box the ornaments: find the box, locate the corresponding ornament, wrap up, store. I can stand in one place and work on this over the next few days whenever I'm talking on the phone or have a few minutes of extra time.

This takes much less time than searching for the correct box each time an ornament is removed from the tree. It also helps me to identify dirty or damaged ornaments that either need to be cleaned up, superglued, or thrown out. (Ebay is a great place to find replacement ornaments.) Most of our ornaments fit in 3 identical storage containers, except for a handful that don't have boxes, which will all be stored together in a labeled cardboard box (I should find a plastic storage container to replace that old box!)

Now is a great time to declutter Christmas decorations and supplies. If something is worn, broken, or just unused, weed it out now rather than storing it for another year. If something worn or broken needs to be replaced before next Christmas, you'll most likely pay less for the item now than if you wait and buy one in December.

Wash and neatly fold Christmas linens so that they will be ready for use right out of the container next fall.

If a kitchen item is used exclusively during the holiday season, consider storing it away to free up space in the kitchen. (cookie baking supplies, etc.) pic Be careful to store food type items (decorating sugars, etc.) in sealed containers to protect them from pests.

I'm hopeful to participate often in the 52 Weeks of Organizing challenge, with a variety of decluttering and organizing projects!

How to Feel More Organized: Keeping up with Kids

In addition to my attempts to keep myself organized, I've been implementing strategies to keep up with my kids as well.

A Clothes Box in Every Closet
This is a place in each of my kids' closets where I can quickly stow outgrown, damaged, or disliked clothing until I am ready to deal with it. I repurposed a pretty Piperlime box for my daughter's closet.I also have a box in the laundry room to store items after they are cleaned, but it's nice to have a storage spot right where the kids get dressed so that I can separate the items right away--sometimes outgrown clothes get reintegrated with the regular laundry en route to the basement, and they don't quite make it to the Consignment box. (Of course, I don't consign an item unless it meet my criteria.)

This way I can take a larger amount of clothing to the basement all at once when I have time to think about what I am doing, reducing the chances of the clothes ending back up in the drawers!

A Toothbrush in Every Bathroom
I don't know how other kids are, but my kids are highly distractable when we are trying to focus on leaving the house. If I send them upstairs to brush teeth, it takes forever for them to reappear, mostly because they got lost on the way! I finally got the message and put toothbrushes, floss, and toothpaste in every bathroom. Now, whether we are preparing to leave the house, preparing to go to bed, or someone just has bad breath, dental hygiene supplies belonging to my kids are close by.

I included supplies for the master bathroom because I've made the habit of preparing a toothbrush for any kid who joins me in the bathroom while *I* am brushing my teeth. I need a few extra toothbrushes for this strategy; I've found the sample size toothpaste and floss from the dentist works well in lesser-used bathrooms. I'm finding that it is well worth it to help my kids avoid skipping brushing, especially since both kids have tooth issues that increase their vulnerability to cavities.

A Spot for Every Lunch Box
My son takes his lunch to school every day. My daughter uses her lunchbox 3 days per week. What this used to mean was that my son's lunchbox was sitting on the countertop when the weekend arrived, and my daughter's was taking up space in the kitchen every day! I realized that even items that are used nearly every day need a 'put away' spot. Now that I designated a spot in a cabinet to store them, our lunch boxes spend much less time cluttering up the kitchen counters, and I always know exactly where to find them when we DO need them.

This is what works for me, I hope it works for you, too!

Declutter Challenge October Update: Successes and Failures

I am really glad that I jumped on the declutter wagon again this month and moved additional items out of the house, but it is really hard to keep up with my declutter challenge when there is so much other stuff going on!

First, I have to talk about my failures: I didn't get around to selling anything on Craigslist as I had planned. I find Craigslist overwhelming to deal with. You post your item for sale, and then you have to comb through your email to find the responses. Typically at least one response is from someone who is talking about something you aren't selling (ex. someone was interested in my stove once when I was offering some free tickets to a consignment sale...????). It's difficult to determine who is really interested vs. someone who isn't serious. Some people want to meet you at a location in between, and then they don't show up, or want to meet at a strange time, such as early in the morning (horror stories from friends).

I haven't figured out a smooth way to deal with Craigslist Chaos, so I'm reluctant to do a lot with it. If I am going to sell something on Craigslist before the end of the year, it will have to be this upcoming weekend. Stay tuned next month to find out if I get motivated...or not!

I had an opportunity to sell items at a friend's yard sale over the holiday weekend, which would have been a great way to move the items I am dreading posting on Craigslist. Unfortunately, I had too much going on that weekend and I had to bypass the opportunity. I love that people are getting together and sharing yard sale opportunities, though, and I look forward to participating next time!

I had a steady, tiny stream of book sales on Half.com this month. I am going to count only the transaction that I already received payment for, and count the 3 other sales for November, which means that my Half.com total is $7.75.

I also pushed myself to consign approximately 100 items, and sold over 60 of them, with the rest being donated by the consignment sale to several different organizations. (You can read here about how I track what I sold/didn't sell without picking up the unsold items) Since most items were small and I priced them to sell, I earned just $121.13, significantly less than the big earnings I saw at the spring sale, but better than nothing!

I scraped up 11 items to sell on Ebay, including a few seasonal items I had put aside earlier in the year, thinking they would sell better in the fall. The list included a few Halloween costumes, NFL Football kids' clothes (Steelers stuff, if you care to know), and some little baby shoes, in addition to my newborn cloth diapers, which were so cute and so little they were hard to let go, but sell them I did.

10 of 11 items sold (a couple for only 99 cents, but at least I found someone who wanted and could use the item!) and I made a total of $107.45 after shipping and fees. I have another short list of items for Ebay to sell in November, because so far I find it to be the most convenient way to connect nicer items to people who want them and can use them.

All of these totals added together bring me to $236.33 for the month of October. Two more months to go, and I can tell already that December is not going to be a big month. :) It's time to shift gears and get organized for the holidays!

Check out additional declutter reports at The Finer Things in Life!

Birthday Declutter: Daughter's Bedroom

Recently I decided it was time to deal with... The Situation in my Daughter's Room.

Most of my daughter's toys are kept here in her room, and she enjoys pulling everything out, as can be seen. She has plenty of things (including many many puppies), but she isn't interested in helping me declutter. "Don't sell my stuff, MOM!" is what she says every time I gently bring it up.

The space in her room is a little tight because she has a double bed. We gave our kids larger beds because a) we had two double beds already and b) a parent can lie down with either child to help them fall asleep (the kids love it. The parents don't mind except when they fall asleep before the kids do!) My daughter's room is decorated with a bedspread and curtains that used to be mine when I was growing up. I figure we'll update her room if/when she is interested and wants to pick out something on her own.

In the mean time, I wanted to get a better hold on her stuff, and clear out some of the things I didn't think she would miss, and do this before her birthday, when I knew she would acquire additional Stuff on top of the stuff she already had. We took one rainy day and spent it moving furniture and decluttering. I took four boxes of random items to the basement, and completely cleared everything under the bed. (Did I post that before picture yet?)

Anyway. Ever since, my daughter has enjoyed her clean room so much, she asks me to clean her room almost every day. I encourage her to help me, of course.

I can't wait to post the 'After' pictures, which I will do later this week. (Long Story Short: daughter broke camera, ordered new one, it's arrived, just need to remember to take the pictures when the room is all put together nice.)

Stay tuned...

Summer Recap and Back to School... and Work

Our full school schedule is now starting its third week (we start school late around here, and preschool starts even later), so it's time for life to return to some semblance of normal.

I was expecting my summer to be productive time spent continuing my decluttering quest, in addition to keeping my kids entertained with fun summer activities. Based on the amount of decluttering I completed (very little), I need to adjust my expectations.

All I wanted to do this summer was hang out with my kids. We did numerous non-productive mundane activities, including swinging on our rope swing, chewing bubble gum and learning to blow bubbles, and occasionally making it all the way to the swimming pool. We also celebrated both kids' birthdays and went to the beach twice. For some reason I was expecting to get more done despite the fact that my kids were involved in fewer activities during the day. They were always around, standing between me and their coveted piles of stuff saying, "MOM, DON'T SELL MY BABIES!"

I did have some house projects going on; our masonry and landscaping project took most of the summer, and we had some electrical work done. It took a lot of time and effort to stay on top of these projects (which were hired out to contractors, I wasn't even doing the work myself!) as well as doing the regular tasks that need to be done around the house.

Now, at least I know what to expect of myself next summer: not very much! After my declutter challenge is over, I'll change to a different focus; instead of getting rid of items year round, I'll focus on purging once in the spring and once in the fall.

This means that I need to focus on October as my next big declutter month. My basement is filling up as I recently did Birthday Declutters on my son's room (1 large container full) and my daughter's room (4 boxes!). If it doesn't get decluttered in October, it probably won't leave the house until next year, as I already know I won't have a lot of spare time to work on the project in November and December.

So, we'll see what I can complete next month!

Declutter Challenge July Update: Easing Back Into It

Something is better than nothing! I love looking at a nice pile of packages, ready to be shipped out the door. It's so satisfying!

I'm distinctly relieved to report that I made my sales goal for July. It wasn't an amazing month, but at least there are 6 fewer items in my home that have now been connected with others who have a use for them.

It wasn't until halfway through the month that I was able to focus on selling some items. I was getting ready to go out of town and didn't have a lot of time to work with, so I decided to do what has become easiest for me: selling on Ebay. To make things work with my schedule, I reduced my auctions to be 5 days long instead of the standard 7 days. I also started all 5 of my auctions at $.99 to attract as much interest as possible.

There seems to be a psychology to starting auctions at $.99 which makes items attract bids more than other items that have a higher starting price. People can't resist a great deal, apparently, and bid on the items, which increases the perceived demand for the item, or some such. At least I've noticed that my $.99 items get a lot of attention and sometimes sell for higher than identical items' Buy it Now prices. (Also, Ebay collects lower fees on $.99 auctions, so it's win-win unless the item isn't in demand and the item ends up selling for $.99!)

My total sales amount on Ebay (after shipping, fees, etc.) was $119.28. I also sold a book on Half.com (even easier than listing items on Ebay!) and made $6.05, bringing my total for July to $125.33!

All of my buyers paid promptly except for one, so I had to haul that package along to the beach while waiting for payment. I prepared the package and used the Wifi connection at the beach house to obtain the address--and the location of the nearest post office. It was a bit of a pain, but I'm glad I took the trouble to make the sales despite being crunched for time.

Maybe one of these days I will actually sell something on Craigslist. I haven't figured out the secret yet, but I hope to make some attempts in August.

August is Toy Purge Month in our household, due to upcoming birthdays. I don't know if I will actually get around to selling many of the toys, but I hope to get a good supply together to sell/donate/get out of my house this fall!

Another area I need to focus more on is recycling. I have various appliances and other random items that need a new home one way or another that I hope to get to in the coming weeks/months.

Visit The Finer Things in Life to fine more decluttering inspiration!

Declutter Challenge June Update: Zip Zero

This is the most depressing post I've been procrastinating about writing.

I've been overwhelmed by the rest of my life, so I didn't get around to selling or donating anything during the month of June. Things are not looking too great for July, either, seeing that we are almost midway through the month and I haven't sold anything. We did send a carload of items to Goodwill, so at least that's something to offset the huge amount of artwork that my kids brought into the house at the end of the school year. (I don't even know where to start with that project! What am I going to do with all of this stuff? How on Earth do I decide what to keep and what to get rid of? How many of my daughter's identical pictures of puppies do I need to keep? According to her, we need to keep them all. Ack!)

I've got about a week to work with sale-wise, so maybe with some focus I can do a little something. I was doing so well with this and I would like to get back in the groove and continue meeting my monthly goal.

I'm learning new insights about myself, though. I can see that I had an expectation that I would be just as productive in the summer, and now I am realizing that I just want to take my kids to the pool. I hope to keep this new insight in mind for future summers.

Declutter Challenge May Update: Nothing Much

Decluttering activities got a bit derailed this past month. In fact, I didn't do hardly anything to try to reach my goal this month, and my numbers reflect my lack of initiative!

I sold a nice maternity dress on Ebay, using the Buy it Now 30-day listing feature, which gave me $15.93.  The fees for this type of transaction are higher than for the auction. I think I should have auctioned the dress instead.

The exciting thing about this transaction was that it took place right after I left town for a few days. The timing was amazing. (Thanks to my sister for helping me out with shipping the item!) Lesson Learned: Don't forget to put your selling items on vacation when you are on vacation!

Here's a photo tip I discovered for my dress pictured above: I stuffed the bosom of the dress with crumpled paper towels to make a more flattering shape on the hanger (then used the towels for other purposes afterwards, of course). Another neat thing: a dress made of thin material can be carefully folded and fitted into a flat rate shipping envelope. I tucked it carefully inside a gallon-size resealable bag and pressed the air out first.

I also managed to sell two books on Half.com, netting a total of $12.89 after shipping costs and fees. I'm fudging a little here because I haven't recieved payment of one of these books yet; one just sold last week. My total book inventory on Half.com is still a grand total of two books, and I've been selling approximately one per month. I'll have to look around and see if I have anything else to list; these transactions are really easy to do!

We have a large outdoor shed that we are not going to use, so I made a half-hearted end-of-the-month attempt to sell it on Craigslist. It didn't sell yet.

And... that's it! My Grand Total for the month of inertia is $28.82. It's better than nothing, but nowhere near my $100 goal. I will have to use other funds to cover my minimum payment for my loan this month, and hope for better results next month.

The best part about getting derailed is picking yourself up and getting back on track. I have plenty of ideas on items to sell for the month of June and beyond, as well as two piles of items that have yet to make their way out the door to Goodwill. I have a variety of larger furniture items to offer on Craigslist, and some items to auction on Ebay as well... including the final batches of cloth diapers that we own. Somehow the toy situation that I thought I had under control is NOT under control. I think the toys are replicating exponentially when we are asleep! I'm hoping to get a better handle on the volume, location, and storage challenges this summer.

I'm linked up to decluttering progress reports at Amy's Finer Things In Life. Be sure to stop by and check out others' decluttering progress, which is hopefully more inspiring than mine!

Consignment Sale Wrap-Up

Along with my consignment sale check, I received a stack of index cards--the cards I used to price my items. Before I did my pricing, I numbered the cards on the back with my own personal numbering system. This was my experiment to see if this would help me to analyze what sold and what didn't sell well at the sale.

I think it worked! I sorted the cards back into numerical order and this is what I've determined so far:

• Out of 124 books/videos/DVDs, I sold 84.
• Out of 75 kid clothing items, I sold 66.
• Out of 12 Maternity items, I sold 6.
• Out of 9 pairs of kids' shoes, I sold 7.
• Out of 43 baby/toddler toys, I sold 28.
• I also sold 5 items that were left over from a previous year's consignment sale. They weren't included in my new numbering system.

I also had a 10-item category for baby gear, but the numbers are messed up because I forgot to take a few of the items to the sale. I sold only 3 items from that category but I'm not exactly sure how many of the items made it to the sale. Seven?

Now I know what categories to focus on for the next sale this fall! Clearly the kids' clothing and shoes sell well. The toys sell okay, and I should forget about the maternity items and baby gear (which works out well since I don't have much left!)

The other great thing about this list is that I can fill out the form in the bottom center of the picture above, which is a receipt for donated goods. Any of my items that didn't sell were donated, mostly to the Salvation Army. I had the option to pick them up, but decided to let them go. It was hard to do, but I know they are going to a better place. Because I have a clear picture of how many of my items were donated, I can fill out my receipt and keep it with our 2010 tax records, therefore gaining even further financial benefit from participating in the consignment sale.

In conclusion, I sold exactly 200 items at the sale, meaning that a huge pile of stuff we don't need anymore has been united with people who need and want it. In addition, I donated 77 items to charity, and hopefully those items will be connected with people who need and want them soon.

I don't know if this is good news or bad news, but I haven't started running out of items to sell yet! I had no idea we had so much stuff. I'll just keep plugging away at it, and hopefully a cleaner, simplified household will emerge from underneath the clutter at some point. I hope...

Declutter Challenge April Update: The Big Report

April may be the biggest report of the year, due to my wild idea to prepare items for a consignment sale AND hold a yard sale at the same time! If that was not enough, I also had some books sell on Half.com, AND couldn't stop myself from listing just a few items on Ebay. It's been a busy month!

This month I decided to try out Ebay's 'Buy It Now' selling feature: putting some items up for sale at a flat price and making them available for 30 days. I have some nice items I thought might sell well, but that were not necessarily something that people would be excited enough to bid on and wait for an auction to end. Sometimes when I've been shopping on Ebay I've been drawn to items that I could just buy instantly--when I didn't have time or patience to wait for the auction to end to see if I won the item... or not. I sold two of the items within the first week, making at total of $20.05 after fees and shipping. Two additional items are still listed for sale for another week or so, and one of them has already sold so I will count that one in my total for May.

One of these items was a Pampered Chef Tool Turn-About that I never ended up using. I tried to sell it at a yard sale three years ago for $5, and it didn't sell. On Ebay it sold for $15! This is a great example of how certain items are more in demand depending on the marketplace. Probably few of the people at the yard sale were interested in Pampered Chef, but online I had access to many more people who were looking for brand-specific items.

I also sold two additional books at Half.com. My current inventory there is 4 books, so selling two is a big deal! I earned $15.05.

Our Yard Sale was a fun event, and profitable, too! Most of the items we sold were small household things that we no longer needed, plus a few larger items: a crib, 3 vacuum cleaners of varying functionality, an old large television set, old computer speakers, etc. Amazingly, we made $270.25! I will subtract $10 to cover costs for posterboard, marker, and stickers that I bought. This was the only cost as the advertising was all free!

Lastly, I received my check from the consignment sale, and it's time to announce the winner of my Giveaway. After many hours of preparation of our nicest reusable kid and baby items (and a bunch of cheap books), I was thrilled to recieve a total of $263.63 from the sale! This means that Alyssa is the lucky winner of a $25 Amazon Gift Card! (She guessed $261.00, long before my check arrived in the mail. Amazing!) Alyssa has been emailed to announce the win, and I need to hear back from her in the next 48 hours to issue the prize. Thanks to everyone who guessed!

April Declutter Challenge Grand Total: $558.98

As always, this amount will be applied to my loan. I'm thrilled with my progress as I have paid a total of $1,185.93 so far this year.

Does this mean that my goal to earn at least $100 per month is too low? I've been thinking about this, and I've decided that it doesn't need to be higher. The goal is enough to motivate me to sell a few things each month without feeling extreme pressure. I think I will be happy to earn a smaller amount for the month of May. I still need to finish putting my basement back together. I'm also trying to focus on a few other projects this month and we have a lot of weekend activities. I like that my goal gives me some flexibility to have a lighter month when I need it!

ETA: You can read about other's decluttering progress over at The Finer Things in Life!

Yard Sale Wrap-up

I am so glad to report that we held our yard sale over the weekend, and everything went well!

What I achieved:

• I didn't finish the final declutter areas in my Purge Process, but we still managed to sell over 200 items in our sale, including a large old TV (not digital!) that I would have had to pay $20 to recycle. We gave it away for $10, and I hope that it holds together for a few more years for the lucky purchaser!
• Most of the remaining items we carted off to Goodwill. It's a mess, but we have lots more space in the basement now.

What I learned:

• You don't need to pay for advertising! I posted a free advertisement on CraigsList three days before the sale. We also hung up a total of 9 signs in our neighborhood, leading people from two major roads to our street. I was really nervous that this wasn't going to be enough advertising, but it was fine! We had consistent traffic to our sale all morning, and continued to make a few sales after Noon while my husband was taking down the sale (after we had taken down our signs!)
• Stuff will get stolen. We had a few small items stolen: cheap jewelry and some colorful plastic cups. They weren't worth  much, but it gave me an uncomfortable feeling, that people had interacted with me and my family and had chosen to take an item rather than pay $1 for it. I tried not to let it get to me. If you're going to have a sale, keep a close watch on your valuable items! (Or sell them another way. Most of the stuff we sold was not very valuable.)
• The more the merrier. Our niece brought over her items to sell at our sale, and my friend brought some larger bikes and furniture to sell. A few neighbors brought over a few items, too. Still more neighbors stopped by to socialize, and a friend of mine was visiting from out of town, so she came over for a while, too. My son's friend came over with his dad, and the dad ended up taking the boys to the park after hanging out for a while. It was a nice community-building event that was much more fun than I expected! If you're planning a sale, get some people together to make it a more festive event!

What I recommend:

• Carry your money on your person. I made sure to have lots of small bills, and I wore them in my jacket, which has four zip-pockets total. I put $10s and $20s in one pocket, $5s, in another, and put $1 and quarters/change in the other two pockets. It worked well, although I got a little hot near midday.
• Be willing to bargain. I had some impressive hagglers come to the sale. I had to really concentrate to keep up with the offers she was making. I gave her great prices and she bought a lot of stuff. She even came back later and bought more. (I wonder what she plans to do with it all? Hold her own sale, perhaps?) I think she really liked that I was willing to haggle with her. I recommend coffee to help you keep up with the math. But if you are set on a price, stick with it. I held firm on certain items that I had decided on in advance.
• Be willing to hold items. One purchaser had a $100 bill which I was unwilling to break so that she could purchase $7 worth of items. I told her I could hold her items for an hour. She returned and ended up buying $5 of additional stuff once she broke her hundred at a nearby fast food restaurant.
• Put out an extension cord so that people can test the small appliances. This led to several sales when we could confirm that the items still worked.
• Enlist help to watch your children. (See community building above!)

How much did I make, you ask? I'm not going to say yet, as I want to wait and report all my results for the month in my April Declutter Challenge Report. I'm waiting for my consignment check to be mailed, too, and you can guess how much that total will be. The person who guesses the closest without going over the total will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

I'm so glad that so much of my stuff has made it to a new home, where hopefully someone is getting good use out of it! I don't think I could have a yard sale every year, but maybe in 2-3 years we'll consider holding another one. It was fun!

Purging Continued

I think I might be doing something wrong. Lately I've seen decluttering results at other people's houses, and they look great!

This is what my 'decluttered' space looks like at the moment:

Here are the Before Pictures for comparison. This is the aftermath of consignment sale pricing. Guess how much money I will make from the consignment sale here!

Ack! I'm going to be busy cleaning house this weekend. At least it should go faster because there is less stuff...right?

Anyway, my purge process continues this afternoon as the yard sale is tomorrow.

Previously decluttered:

• My closet and drawers
• Daughter's closet and drawers
• Son's closet and drawers
• Linen Closet

 Completed Today Already:

• Basement Playroom
• Storage Room

 Still to do:

• Large kitchen cabinet and Pantry
• Buffet in dining room (aka Craft Storage)
• Toy Cabinets, DVD Cabinet

Here we go...

Decluttering: The Linen Closet

Alternate Title: How Many Towels does a Family of 4 Need?

Quite a few, apparently.

I got rid of 18 of them, and we still have plenty, as you see above.

Most of these towels will be donated. Unless someone would like to buy them at the yard sale, you never know! Maybe now when we put away towels in the linen closet, there will be space enough for them to remain properly folded, instead of being crammed in and getting all wrinkled.

Unfortunately, when our house was built 30 years ago, the builders failed to consider that future homeowners would want to photograph the interior of the linen closet and post it on a blog, so it's hard to see that my linen closet now has oodles of open space compared to previously. Here are the Before Pictures:

Here are the After Pictures:

The purging continues!