It’s that time again! Time for another week of minimizing our homes… clearing out the clutter in order to free our homes from the burden of too much stuff!

I feel like I should take today’s post to explain the point of Minimizing Mondays for the newbies. This isn’t meant to simply be motivation to organize your things. What this is about is living with less! Not simply clearing out a junk drawer, but actually getting rid of things that are taking up space in your home but serving no real purpose, yes, even possibly things that you like but don’t necessarily need. I am here to inspire you to let go of the material things in your home that are cluttering up your life and taking valuable time away from your family.

Let me explain that. Having tons of clothes leads to piles and piles of dirty laundry to wash. Cabinets overloaded with cups, dishes, and tupperware containers cause you to waste time digging through them looking for one particular item. Shelves lined with doo-dads and whatchamacallit’s take plenty of time dusting and cleaning around. An excess of kid’s toys all over the floor… how many times do you clean them up every day? All of these things, when in overabundance, cause waste of time in our lives. I am urging you to rethink what you actually NEED in your home, not just what you like to be able to say you HAVE.

So, when I give a challenge, it is not merely to organize what you have (though it is wonderful to have your things nice and tidy and in their place), I am provoking you to rethink what you actually keep in your home and allow to take up space in your life. So don’t just rearrange the shirts in your closet… get rid of half of them! Don’t simply find a creative way to store the ridiculous amount of toys in your home… donate the majority of them, your kids won’t die, I promise!! Getting the gist of it? Less, less, less!

LIVING WITH LESS!! Free yourselves of the material burdens in your life! Give your time back to your family and kids and off of these things that distract you in little ways every day. Now, go for it!! I want to hear what you think and how you’re putting these thoughts into action in your own home! Let’s continue inspiring each other to have less and live more!!

You may remember my post My Toy Box Overfloweth! a while back, well, I thought I would post it again in honor of Minimizing Monday, for all of you who still need some encouragement to tackle your own toy box.

Go ahead and say it, I know you’re thinking it. It’s what I thought too, Oh my goodness! That’s ridiculous! How in the world did my kids get SO MANY TOYS? And believe me, I’m a purger. This isn’t because I’ve been hoarding everything. These are the things that have just accumulated in toy boxes and baskets. It’s time to DE-CLUTTER! I’m tired of the kids pulling EVERYTHING out, and then them being overwhelmed when it’s time to clean up the mess. I’m taking this thing by the horns.

So, I went through the house and found every toy that I could find. I know it’s not all of them, some are in my mother-in-law’s basement for storage, but unbelievably all of these toys were hiding in the corners of my humble home. So, I spread everything out (while the kids slept of course), and began the daunting task of separating into boxes: TO KEEP, NOT TO KEEP. As I went along, I found it to be harder than I thought. Emotionally I mean. As I sorted I found myself wanting to keep more than I had intended. The problem is that my daughter really does play with most of the things I wanted to oust. What do I do? Do I get rid of them just because there are too many? She honestly has a good time playing with them. And then there were the toys that she used to play with a lot when she was younger, but now has grown out of. Baby boy might like to play with them when he gets a little bigger, so I decided to keep them too. Oh, decisions, decisions!

So, I ended up keeping some, boxing some up to sell, and boxing some up to store. I guess this is a good compromise. Initially I thought, I will let my daughter keep 10 toys, and get rid of the rest. Well, it didn’t quite work out so nicely. I have a love for educational toys, so most of what I kept are “lesson time” teaching toys. That’s okay, right? I did let my daughter go through her My Little Pony collection, and choose only 3 to keep of the tons that she had. Surprisingly, she happily chose her three, very decidedly I must say, and had no problem with me getting rid of the rest. Good for her.

So, here’s what I boxed up. These boxes were actually quite big, though they don’t look it in the picture. Stuffed animals…see ya! Small toys, almost all are gone. All of the Fisher Price Little People things were sold on Craigslist. And a select few toys remain.

Need some more tips to clear out the toys? Free your home from it if:

• it is broken, or missing pieces (puzzles especially!).
• it hasn’t been played with in a while.
• you have more than one.
• there is something in your home that could double as a toy like it (ie: cookie cutters for play dough accessories).
• you can take it to grandma’s house for junior to play with there.
• your child can honestly live without it (they truly don’t need so many toys, so even if your child still plays with it, consider keeping only a few select favorites.)

Now it’s your turn, and I would LOVE to hear how you did! Just write a post on your blog, and then link back here to share with the rest of us, or you can tell us all about your job well done in the comments section. And as always, you are welcomed to share with us any other way that you have minimized your home as well. Encouraging each other to simplify our homes, one section at a time! Thanks for joining in!

Does this picture somewhat resemble your own bookshelf at home? If so, then perhaps it’s time to do some clearing out!! And what better time than now, right? So this is your challenge, today is the day you tackle your bookshelves at home, or even at work for that matter! And lucky for you, I’m here to encourage you in the process with step-by-step suggestions.

First thing’s first, and the first thing you need to do is completely clear off your shelves. I’m talking, taking every single thing off.

The next thing you need to do is get a dust rag and some cleaner, and clean off those shelves from the very top to the very bottom. Wow, look at all that dust! But it will look so much nicer, and is now all ready for it’s new display.

Now it’s time to really get down, and go through every single book, one by one. Make three stacks (if you have big boxes that would help), one for KEEPERS, one for SELL/DONATE, and one for NOT SURE.

• KEEPERS: These are the books that you find yourself reading often, or referring back to regularly. If you haven’t read it in years, no matter how useful you think it might be one day, you probably don’t need it.

• SELL/DONATE: These are the books that are in good condition, that you don’t need anymore.

• SELL: You can sell these books at a local bookstore, on ebay, Craigslist, or on sites like Cash4Books.net. Or you could always Yard Sale them.

• DONATE: If you have some books that you like to read, but don’t really read very often, consider donating them to your local library. That way they will always be near when you want to read them again, but not taking up space in your home.

If you have some good Christian books that you don’t read very often, see if your church has a library that you could donate them too. You can still check them out to read when you’d like to, but again they aren’t in your home just wasting space, and you will be able to bless somebody else by sharing the book. If your church does not have a library, maybe you could suggest that they start one! You could even organize a book drive

Of course you can always donate to charity, or list for free on Craigslist or in your local paper.

• NOT SURE: These are the books that you aren’t sure if you are ready to part with yet. Once you have gone through all of your books, and have them all in their own piles, go back through your “NOT SURE” pile and make your final decision about what you want to do with these. Really try to lean towards LESS!

• And of course if you have books that aren’t in such hot shape anymore, recycle them.

So, now that you have your KEEPERS lets put them back on the shelf. Hopefully you have significantly less books than you did before. If not, then maybe give it a day or two, and then revisit your KEEPERS pile to see what else you might be willing to part with.

Now, don’t just line your books back on the shelf in any old way. No, this is the time to beautify it!

Doesn’t this bookshelf look so much nicer than the first?! Here are some tips to get this look:

• Leave space between the books to put pretty little trinket, candles or picture frames.
• Place books together in descending order; from tallest to smallest, or vice versa.
• Place some books vertically; stack some horizontally.
• Use baskets, totes or other decorative containers to store items on the shelf.
• If you have magazines to store, consider making a magazine organizer (out of a cereal box!). This is a great way to keep all of these flimsy stacks neatly displayed. Use a cute scrapbook or wrapping paper to make it chic and fun!

Nice and tidy, now that’s so much better!!

Now it’s your turn, and I would LOVE to hear how you did! Just write a post on your blog, and then link back here to share with the rest of us, or you can tell us all about your job well done in the comments section. And as always, you are welcomed to share with us any other way that you have minimized your home as well. Encouraging each other to simplify our homes, one section at a time! Thanks for joining in!

For tomorrow’s Minimizing Monday challenge we will be clearing out our book shelves! Hope to see you here!

Okay, these aren’t my ideas. Wish they were! But, they are some really great tips, so I thought I’d share them with you guys. But you’ll have to GO HERE to read the article. Tipnut has some really great, practical and even crafty uses for old shower curtains. Check it out! And don’t forget to use my tips for washing a shower curtain, to make sure that it’s nice and clean for you to reuse!

Okay, I realize that this isn’t exactly a “priority” area of the home to be decluttering, nevertheless, if you have kids, then you probably have the same problem as I do of stacks of used up coloring books and buckets of broken crayons. In my home, cleaning them out was long overdue! And since I just cleared out my daughter’s collection of useless coloring paraphernalia, I figured I’d pass along some helpful little tips.

My first clue that her coloring books needed to be tossed, was when she would sit down to color and would flip through the whole book, then complain that there were no clean pages to draw on. Why in the world did I keep putting it back into the overstuffed coloring box? I finally got the hint, and went through all of her coloring books. The books that were mostly colored, I pulled out the pages that were still good. And the books that only had a few pages that had been colored on, I pulled out the used up pages. Here is my before and after:

These are the ones that I tossed, and the pages that I pulled from them that were still useful. Now I can actually close the plastic container that holds all of the coloring supplies! And Jada doesn’t have to flip through twenty books to find one clean page to color.

Next I took a look at all of her crayons filling their box. Just about all of them were broken, mostly into tiny little pieces that I know she wouldn’t pick up and color with. I decided they had to go. I set aside two sets of big, full sized crayons (two of each color), then I took the rest out. Now her little box is nice and tidy, and she doesn’t have to swim through waves of broken crayons just to find one big enough to color with. Here’s my before:

I did not get rid of the broken crayons though. No, I have another purpose in mind for them. I filled up three large yogurt containers with these crayons, and put them in the craft drawer. For Jada’s next birthday, I plan on her helping me make Crayon Muffins with these, to give to her guests as party favors. I think she will really enjoy making them, and I think it will make her feel good to give her guests something from herself.

Glad that little project is over! And now Jada can actually sit down and color without having to sort through a bunch of trash.

Maybe you’ve been inspired in some way to clean out the junk from your home as well. If so, I’d love to hear from you. Just write a post on your blog, and then link back here to tell us about it! Hope to have you join in! Minimizing our homes, one section at a time.

I’ve been going crazy for the past couple of months trying to figure out how to decorate my work-in-progress, new-to-me home. I’ve scoured the internet for design ideas, paint tips, etc. Tonight I just happened to come across this FREE 120+ page full color book by KraftMaid packed with ideas for kitchens, baths, home office, entertainment centers, bedrooms, laundry rooms and more. It looks like it might have some great decorating and design ideas to check out. Hope it comes soon!!

Okay you guys, it’s that time again! This week my challenge to you all is to clean out your jewelry boxes! Somehow most of us girls end up with a ton of jewelry, the majority of which we really don’t wear. Now, I know some of you LOVE to accessorize, so maybe this is a two-part challenge. If you are one who loves a lot of jewelry, remember what the Lord told us in 1 Peter 3:3-4, “Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God”. Don’t you see? You don’t need to dress yourself up with flashy jewelry. It is so vain to carry pride in how you adorn yourself. Perhaps it is time for some of us to begin embellishing ourselves with the beauty of who we are inside, instead of hiding behind some sparkly “bling”!

So hopefully now we are prepared to purge the unnecessary. Now, I’m a pretty simple girl when it comes to jewelry. I wear my wedding band, and my hoop earrings. Everyday. That’s it. Well, except for special occasions. But, I still had a lot of jewelry just hanging out in a big jewelry box that I’ve had forever. When I started getting my yard sale stuff together a few weeks ago, I decided it was time for that big ‘ol jewelry box to go, along with most of the stuff in it. (Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the purge when I did it, but I’ll try to make you feel like you were there . When I started going through my jewelry collection, I was really surprised at how much of the stuff that I had been keeping was actually things that I have not really worn in many years. Here are some of the things that I was able to clear out:

• Jewelry from ex-boyfriends.
• Stuff that I’d been hanging onto just because I’ve had it forever.
• Duplicate style things (ie: blue stone necklaces, dangly diamond earrings…)
• Things that didn’t “go with” any clothing that I own.
• Broken pieces; an earring without it’s match.
• Stuff I haven’t worn in the past year (or two).

And here are the things that I kept:

• Anything legitly sentimental (like jewelry from grandma).
• Things that I wear often.
• One or two sets of fancy jewelry for special occasions.
• One or two casual, cute pieces for times when I just feel like wearing a little more.

And now is a great time to be purging your unwanted gold. I ended up with a palm full of gold necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings that I plan on selling for a little extra mula. Here is an excellent resource for how to sell your gold jewelry wisely. I haven’t sold mine yet, but I’m anxious to see what it’s worth.

And, like always, if you revisit your jewelry box again for a second and even third purging, you may, like me, find that there are even more things that you are willing to let go of.

Thanks for reading along, and if you have joined in the fun, I’d love to hear from you! Just write a post on your blog, then link back here to share your accomplishments with us all! Minimizing our homes, one section at a time. I can’t wait to see how you did!

I know you have one too… a big pile of magazines hiding somewhere in your home. Mine is in a cute woven basket, overflowing with useless pages. Most of them I’ve never even flipped through, it simply went from mailbox to basket. But I just let them accumulate, thinking It might have something useful to me that I might read one day. Bitten by the clutterbug! But no more of this. It’s time to lose the useless. So, I’m encouraging you to go through your collection of magazines, yes, every single one of them, and toss what you don’t need! No more stacks of junk taking up space in your home. I do realize that this may take a while. Depending on the size of your mountain, it may take days to conquer it. But, won’t it feel good to have all of that junk cleared out?! Now’s the time, so let’s get to work.

If you don’t have several hours to dedicate to going through all of your magazines in one sitting, break it up into little pieces of time here and there. When you go to the bathroom, take a magazine with you. When the kids are napping, sit down for a few minutes and go through a couple of magazines at a time. It may take a while (it’s taken me a couple of weeks, and I really didn’t have that many to go through!), but set your mind to finishing the job. Flip through each page and tear out only the things that you want to keep for future reference. What’s left of the magazines can be recycled or given away… just don’t keep them!

As I’ve been going through my mag’s I’ve quickly realized that most of the magazines had like one tiny little article or idea in it that I was interested in. I had been keeping the entire magazine for one little note out of it. Silly. So, I tore out all of the pages of interest, and am giving away what remains of the magazines. I like to keep little tips that I find: craft ideas, recipes, decorating ideas, stuff like that. But what do you do with all of those loose pages that you’ve saved? I have a couple ideas…

1. Create a binder with tabs dividing sections by category: Food (recipes and ideas), Crafts, Decorating, Kids/Baby, Gardening, Birthday Party Ideas, etc… Place each page into it’s particular category so it is easy to find when you are looking for a tip. You can use page protectors or hole punch each page to keep them in the binder. For the smaller sections I’ve cut out, I tape them to a notebook paper before putting it into the binder. This is a great way to keep everything organized in a way that makes the information easy to find.
2. Digitize it. For even less clutter, create a folder on your computer with the categories of interest, and scan and save your clippings to file away electronically. This way you can toss the actual page. It’s like creating the same binder as mentioned above, but without physically having one to take up more space. Just be sure to back up your documents onto a disk so that you don’t chance losing them. This is a great idea for people looking for ways to get rid of more “things” from their home. (Personally though, I think I like having the actual pages to reference.)

Magazines are so easy to accumulate, and so quickly take over your home, especially when they are FREE and just keep coming! The best way to deal with them is to go through them as soon as they come, and only keep what you want from it. If we can stay on top of the pile, then it won’t have a chance to get out of hand.

A couple more ideas before you toss your mag’s:

• Crystal has a really cute idea mentioned on her site about using magazine clippings to make cards. Hers are Valentine’s Day cards, but really this could be done for any kind of greeting card. So before you completely purge the mag’s, consider keeping some craft materials!
• Tipnut has the great idea of shredding your magazines to use for packaging material.
• This site has the coolest idea for making paper beads out of old magazines. This is really worth checking out!

Do you have another way to organize your magazines and clippings? I’d love to hear your ideas!!

Here are my “before” and “after” piles:

I know it doesn’t look like a lot, but that’s 54 more things gone from my home! Now I’m ready to reclaim my basket for another, more useful purpose!

If you have already done some purging, or if you are ready to join in, I’d love to hear from you! Just post about your efforts on your site, and link back here to share with the rest of us! I can’t wait to hear how you’ve done! And of course, if you have minimized your home in some other way we’d love to hear about that too. Let’s continue to encourage each other to simplify our homes, and our lives, one area at a time!

I’ll give you a head start on next week’s Minimizing Monday… you might need it! We’re going to be talking about minimizing our magazines. You know, all of those stacks of free magazines that you’ve been stashing somewhere in your home, thinking that you will read them one day. Well, it’s time to really go through them and get rid of the piles! This may take a few days of sitting down every now and then to really go through each magazine, and tear out only what you want to keep. We will talk about what to do with your “keepers” on Monday. Good luck!