31 Days to Declutter Your Life - DAY 2 (The Dining Room)

Confession:  I hadn't really gone through the Good Housekeeping article before I had made my first post yesterday.  I thought if I didn't make that first post, I wouldn't end up doing it and this is the year of ACTION.  As I began reading through the article the 31 things they talked about to declutter were not very good at all.  They didn't mention anything about mudrooms, laundry rooms bedrooms or much to help with the bathroom. There were only a hand full of idea that I thought might be useful.  So I had to start doing some other research last night about decluttering some of these other rooms.  

I had thought about moving on to the Mudroom today, however, I want to get some of the bigger (messier) rooms done before I head back to school on Friday.  I just had my Thirty-One open house this past Sunday so I need to get all of my things that were on display in the dining room, put away.

On a normal day, there isn't this much Thirty-One stuff in this room, but the dinning room is definitely our 'catch all' room of the house.  Many nights as we get ready to sit down for dinner, I have to have my husband clear off the table by just taking everything off the table and putting it in a box for me to go through later.  I end up just digging through the boxes later to find what I want and they never really get put away.  We end up with boxes of random things all over the floor.  It is really sad and it ends up being something that stresses me out later.  

I went to a seminar a couple months ago call 'Declutter your Life' with Wendy Taddsucci (www.putclutterinitsplace.com).  I got some great ideas from her and thought I would start putting those into place while working on my dining room today. I'll start with the pictures.  *The quality is pretty bad because I am using my ipad.  I can't find my camera.  :(

My dining room is pretty plain.  There isn't anything on the walls aside from some of the pictures the girls have done and the shelf with the picture frames on them, but at this point I haven't wanted to get anything to put on the walls because I thought it would make the room look even more cluttered than it already is.  

HOW TO CLEAN IT

I am taking everything off the table and making 4 piles ( I learned this from Wendy)

Keep

Donate

Move -  It doesn't belong in this room.  

Trash

Sell - I am a part of an 'online garage sale' type group on facebook.  I sell some of my things that are still in good condition on there. 

I think the Move pile is the most important.  As I am cleaning and I see something that does not belong in the room I  am cleaning, I take it and put it away.  The problem with this method is that you will get distracted.  You will see something on your way to put that item away, that needs to be done (dishes, laundry, toys picked up) and you will start doing that.  Then you won't finish what you had originally started.  The Move pile keeps you from leaving the room you are in.  Anything that belongs anywhere else in the house just put in the move pile and you can move it later!!

My Move pile got the biggest, the quickest.  So every so often I had to take a quick break to actually put those items in their proper place.  

Once you have EVERYTHING in this room sorted and then put in its proper location (trash, bag in the car to be dropped off at Goodwill or put in its proper place), and it may take you a while (again, why I am doing this room on a day when I don't have to work) you can then start working on wiping things down.  This will be what we do on DAY 3.  So stay tuned on how to deep clean the dining room after you have decluttered.