2020 Declutter Challenge Week 5

This week, I am moving on to the garage. We aren't getting any work done inside the house because our garage workspace has become such a cluttered mess. So the goal this week is to clean out the workspace and then get to work. If you don't have a garage, you can cleanout the basement or wherever you consider your workspace.

2020 Declutter Challenge Week 4

While spiffing up the living room last week, I found a pile of gloves and scarves and the lamps that used to be on my foyer table in our last house. We don't have a foyer here or even a coat closet, and even though I kept the table, it won't fit beside the door. This week, I want to work on that area; I want to find a way to organize gloves, keys, coats, wet shoes, and mail that needs to go to the post office.

If you don't have a foyer, or even if you do, what are your tips and tricks for keeping it in order? If yours has become a dump zone too, join me in decluttering this first impression area of the house.

Resin Frogs to Bronze Frogs Makeover

I am such a bad blogger. Not only have I let this blog languish while concentrating on my quilting blog, I haven't been taking before and after photos of projects. Here is a project I just finished. I bought this little resin frog figure many years ago and put it on rock in my pond. Originally, it had been painted typical frog colors, dark green with light tummies for the frogs on a bright green lily pad. Over the years, it had faded to a whitish gray. I was going to put it in my stock tank pond, but it didn't show up against the galvanized tank, so I thought I'd give it a makeover - this time making it a bronze finish.

I sprayed it with primer, then Rustoleum copper, then aquamarine metallic - wiping off the excess. To tone down the brightness of the copper and aqua, I dabbed on some Precious Metals antiquing and buffed it. Now I like it so well, I think I'll keep it in the house.

Linking to:
Creative Compulsions at My Bijou Life

2020 Declutter Challenge Week 3

I thought I would do something for week 3 that makes a big difference in my daily enjoyment, the living room. My living room is very small, half the space of the one in my last house. I've always heard that smaller spaces are easier to keep clean, but this one sure isn't. Not only is it a couple of feet from the back door, it is also just a couple of feet from the door to the garage. That makes two places that have become dumping grounds for anything brought into the house, or stuff that needs to leave the house. With half the furniture we used to have, the clutter creep has taken over everything except Hubby's recliner, and that's only because he dumps things on the floor instead of on the chair.

This week I need to haul off all the stuff we have decluttered and boxed up for a charity shop, and find a place for all the stuff that has come into the house only to land just inside the door. Some of it goes into cabinets that haven't been built yet. In fact, some of it are parts for cabinets that haven't been built yet. So finding a place for it will be a real challenge.

What about your living room? Is there a place in it that seems to attract clutter? Have you got a plan to deal with things that come inside the house or need to be taken somewhere?

2020 Declutter Challenge Week 2

This week's mission is to tackle that mountain of paperwork I've been avoiding. It may be making a system for paying bills, or filing, or just sorting through that big pile on the desk. I normally pay bills and deal with paperwork at the kitchen table, and my "In" folder is on an antique desk beside my bed. I said antique desk because it's not much of a desk. No drawers, just a small, fold out top, which isn't convenient. I have a desk in the attic, but somehow, it has become the dumping ground for any and everything office related. It is the mountain I want to reduce to a mole hill this week.

How do you control your paperwork? Do you have a system that works so you don't end up with a pile you dread going through?

2020 Declutter Challenge Week 1

I started a declutter challenge on a facebook group and thought I'd share it here too. I am determined to get my house finished and livable in 2020 and that means NO CLUTTER.

We're starting with storage for week 1. Specifically, Christmas decoration storage. Whether it is in the attic, like mine, or in a basement, or in a closet. Now is the time to get all those bins and boxes together and organized to make it easier as we start taking down our Christmas decorations. It is also a good time to cull through the ornaments and other things that are broken or we no longer want.

Post your tips, strategies, or successes in the comments.