Decluttering Success

When I started decluttering this house there was one goal I needed to achieve and that was to clear out the kids bedrooms. I'd noticed over time I'd allowed the kids to bring things into their bedrooms that just didn't belong and this was adding clutter to an already disorganised room. Luckily there was no food hidden away but the amount of clothing, toys, paper and pencils in each child's room was unbelievable. 

Both my daughters are really bad at bringing things into their rooms and hiding them away for later. My youngest daughter had pieces of clothing in her room that belonged to her sister, her little brother as well as having baby clothing in various sizes. She didn't even realise that these pieces didn't belong in her room. Her room was the first area I tackled as I needed to see how much clothing she actually had, whether or not the clothing she owned actually fitted her and what damage had been done to the room with her colouring pencils.

I followed a simple plan with each room as it forced me to stay on track and it also helped reduced the amount of time I spent in each room.

• pull everything out of the room

• sort like items into piles
• clarify what needs to be kept, donated or thrown out from each pile

• place kept items back into the room, put donated items into a bag, throw out items that aren't been kept
• MOST IMPORTANTLY rehouse items that don't belong in the room
• vacuum the bedroom
• dust furniture and skirting boards
• vacuum bedroom again
• dress the room
• vacuum the room again

Following these few simple steps allowed me to get some areas finished quicker than others. However, I did decide to take my time with a few rooms as I knew that I could accidentally throw out important items that the children wanted to keep.

Overall, I was really impressed with how the bedrooms come together so quickly and I'm proud to say that both my girls have managed to keep their bedrooms clean for three weeks now. I'm in the process of drawing up a routine for them so that they know what my expectations for their bedrooms are. I'll hopefully get them printed, laminated and placed within their rooms so that its easy to read and follow.

I would say that I'm really delighted with the way their rooms have come together BUT it's obvious that I need to pull my finger out and get started on adding some style and personality to these bedrooms. I've spoken to my Star Wars mad, Lego obsessed son and we've come up with a few ideas of how to decorate his room. So I'm hoping that come the end of the year I may have created a kid friendly space that will carry him through to his teenage years. I'd love any suggestions or helpful advice.

Megan