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

Charity starts at home... teaching your children to give.

 

 

 

With only 15 sleeps until Christmas Day I am spending time with the children trying to get them to see past the monetary and commercial aspects of Christmas Day and instead look more at the CHARITABLE side of Christmas. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'. For the last 18 years I have been participating in the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal and this year The Salvation Army and Kmart are celebrating their 25 year anniversary.

 

 

I started my 'tradition of giving' the year after I'd finished high school way back in December 1994, I was working casually that a supermarket and I knew as soon as I saw the tree that I wanted to be part of The Salvation Army's event. Every year I've participated I have looked at what I can afford and I've bought gifts according to my budget. It's amazing the feelings that you experience during the whole process of looking for a present, wrapping the gift, placing your tag on the gift and then putting it under the Christmas Tree at your local store.

 

So this year I am taking the children to the shops, they will have a $15 budget and we are going to buy a gift for a child or adult of their choosing. As the shopping centres are busy and school officially finishes on Friday I am aiming to take Caelan and Viveca to the shops for a few hours on Friday while Mackenna finishes Kindy. Then on Saturday I will take Mackenna and Quinlan to our local shopping centre so that they can pick their gifts.

 

This then allows me the weekend to wrap the presents before sending them off with daddy on Monday so that he can place the presents under the Wishing Tree at Chermside. I have talked to the children about why we are doing this, explaining to them that there are people who are less fortunate than ourselves and I've answered their questions. I'm pretty sure that Caelan and Mackenna understand what we are doing and why BUT I'm sure that Viveca may protest somewhat when she realises that the pretty doll she has just paid for isn't for her.

 

So do you do anything charitable at Christmas? Do you do other things during the year? Leave a comment and share with me the things you and your family do to help others at Christmas time. I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas cheer and a great recipe!

 

 

Megan