Week 4- Kids' rooms/Spare Room

Week 4: Declutter Club~ Kids Rooms/spare room

I can hardly believe we are in week 4! How many bags have you tossed? Donated? I’ve enjoyed hearing stories this week from those of you that have taken things off your Big Plan List and incorporated them into your decluttering schedule. It is hard to find time for all those little projects, but once you get them started you will get on a roll. Seeing a room that can breathe brings peace and motivation.
This week is the kids’ rooms or the spare/guest room.

Prep: If you are starting with a room chalk full, grab all your baskets/totes from your last challenge. In this room, I start with goodwill/consignment/laundry/trash/recycle and paper bags with my friends’ names on them (for hand me downs). Grab your vacuum and dust rag. Bring your kids into the room and have them try on some clothes- the goal is to find the shortest pair of pants, shirt, waist etc you want to keep for them. Then, you kick them out and measure THAT pair of pants up to all the other ones.

Action - Task 1
1. Take everything out of the closets. Everything. You need to see everything in the room so you can decide what you need, and what you want to keep. Sometimes seeing all of this induces nausea so have that trash handy.
2. Clean the closet. Do a quick wipe down, vacuum and scurry those bugs out!
3. Take a minute to envision what the final closet will look like. What do you want for your closet, under the bed, walls. Make a plan.
4. The tough work begins now. Where did all this stuff come from? Start clearing out keeping in mind what you really need and what you will realistically use in the future. Think through the purpose and clear out. Get MAD at that clutter and purge it. Really. You will feel better when it is gone. If this is your first purge, focus on getting rid of 50%.
5. Consider how you want the remaining items to be organized. Do these things belong in this room? Do you need to find some hangers? Box, etc? Complete it. This is no time to become distracted- focus on putting everything away where it needs to go.
6. Grab your calendar and schedule goodwill drop offs- play dates with friends who you have hand me downs for. Take a few pictures and post things online to sell.

Task 2
Look around at the furniture, walls, ledges, under the bed etc. Do you enjoy looking at what is on the wall? Do you need all the furniture? Can you purge the insides of the dresser, then sell the dresser? Look at each piece in the room and decide its fate. Our consignment shop takes wall decorations and knick knacks too.

Task 3
Books: Can your kids get to all the books on the bookshelf? If not, consider donating or selling ½ of your books. Start with ones that are duplicate, annoying, too young or boring. Rediscover books at the bottom of the pile. Don’t organize them at this point; put that on your Big Plan List for later. For now, just sit them upright.

Toys: The same rules apply from the living room toy purge.
Monica’s Rules - get rid of:

1. Anything that is broken or has missing parts
2. Anything that is rarely played with and annoys the heck out of you
3. Anything that is rarely played with and wouldn't be missed
4. All but the favorite stuffed animals/dolls
Once you follow those 4 steps- see what is left. I keep a small box of infant toys in the closet. When a friend comes over with an infant baby, I can quickly pull out the box. These are toys the kids haven’t seen for a while, so they are more apt to play with the baby. Consider keeping a box of trains and track or big legos for toddler guests. These types of toys are timeless- but make sure to only keep in moderation.

In our room, toys fit in under bed storage. Each child has a sliding bin where their toys belong.

For Spare Rooms:
Do you subscribe to the “Out of sight, out of mind” philosophy? Do you cram old wedding gifts, art projects, confiscated toys and clutter in closets that can become quickly ignored? The spare room or guest room is often the least frequently used room and becomes a victim to our quick clean ups. Problem is these things fester behind the door and in the back of our minds. What projects are you hiding in your closet? Will you really get to those? Extra blankets? Pillows? What is there that you can release? Take everything out and focus on getting rid of ½ of the items in the closet so you can easily see and use what is in there. My mom uses her spare room closet for her computer room. She put a table across the parallel shelves and has everything she needs for an “office” tucked in there neatly (I won’t mention the status of the other closets). If you have a function or purpose for your closet, you will resist using it as a dumping zone.

We are in the thick of birthday season around here so I’ve encouraged the kids to clear out for the incoming windfall. Games with intact parts, toys and books have all gone to the consignment shop. Some helpful ideas for gifts are necessities and experiences. Simon is getting a new car seat for his birthday! He is so excited to get a ‘racer’ car seat and he picked out the colors himself. To me, this is a necessity, but for Simon (+my hype) he is so excited to open up the box. Instead of gifts, how about a trip- a hotel stay with a parent and a little friend or bowling with the family. Take lots of pictures and make a little scrapbook of your adventures. Cooking class, art class, music class are all fun adventures that don’t create clutter.

Have a great week and may you breathe easier this weekend!

Andie