The Best Way to Clean this Play-Doh “Doolally”:
First, thank the mother of the child who gave it to your child.
Then, allow your child to enjoy the “moment” and play with it to her heart’s content.
At clean up time, remove this tool and the other 15 parts of the toy and place them in a cabinet that looks something like this:
Pile various items on top. Adding items gradually works just as well.
When child asks to play with the item again, vaguely imply that you’ve never heard of such a toy.
Eventually, she will forget the item, as will you.
Wait 2 to 3 years, and then declutter the cabinet. Upon unearthing the toy, any play-doh left inside will be sufficiently dried to pop right out.
If you came through my Works for Me Wednesday link because you really wanted Play-doh cleanup advice . . . sorry.
Today was an unexpected day at home with a sick child, so I took on a huge project.
My “Craft Closet” (seen above) was ridiculously out of hand. Nothing could be found in it, and often I couldn’t even shut the door.
I’ve been considering doing away with it altogether. I have a dresser in the office that also stored craft supplies. Knowing that both had quite a few things that could be gotten rid of, I decided to consolidate.
I spent all morning and into the afternoon pulling EVERYTHING out of both (except the top shelf of the cabinet) and sorting. As I’ve been going through this de–slobification process, I’ve avoided huge projects, trying to do small amounts at a time. Mostly because in the past, I’ve started organization projects very gung-ho and ended up with a huge mess in the floor that stays there for . . . let’s say . . . “a while.”
But this project required the big pull-out since it involved merging and decluttering two spaces. I’m happy to report that both areas have been “almost completely” cleared.
I got rid of quite a bit. I kept the things we have used multiple times, and tried to keep to the same two questions I asked myself yesterday during the drawer clean-out.
Where would I look if I needed this item?
If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already have one?
Here’s the cabinet now, ready to be used for replenishing my stockpile.
And here’s the dresser that I consolidated everything into:
As you can see, even combining the two spaces, there are 3 completely empty drawers.
Ahhh . . . empty space.
I did decide to keep the kids’ crayon box in the pantry/former-craft-closet for now, because that’s where they look for them.
My main frustration is the huge amount of loose recipes that I found. They’re just a big pile of papers, but in reality, they’re the best recipes. Not sure what to do with them.
Check out great tips (better than my Play-doh one) at Works for Me Wednesday.
The playdough thing is too funny. Sounds just like what I would do.
Oh my, I sure giggled when I read your playdough solution. I have to admit to doing something similar as well.
I'm pretty new to your blog, and I am really enjoying the sharing you do. Not only because you are very funny, but also because you are VERY REAL and a lot like me in your thinking, it seems.
I'm impressed you were able to consolidate your craft supplies so well. I assume they must be for the kids. I have a whole craft room I'm in the middle of purging and it's almost completely overwhelming.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Your doing great. I want to declutter but when I look I get frustrated and walk away and nothing gets done and I get frustrtated with myself. My house needs to be decluttered. I did get my dresser done and I took a garbage bag of clothes that I don't wear.
You crack me up. :>) Awesome job on the merger!
Hi Anon. Don't get discouraged. It might help if you went back to the beginning of the blog, last August, and you'll find that I know exactly how you feel. I'm doing little bit by little bit, and am in it for the long haul. I have a VERY long way to go.
And Jeanne, yes, it was mostly kids craft supplies. I got rid of a lot of stuff that I've never used. Craft stuff is so hard to let go of. I'm sure I'll write a post about that sometime.
You can put the recipes in a multi-pocket expandable file in various categories – appetizers, desserts, casseroles, meat, poultry and eggs, fruits and veggies, etc. This has worked pretty well for me, at least when I refile the recipes after I use them. Sometimes they just get stuck in the cabinet for "a while", to use your term. The only problem is that my exandable file has expanded too much because I've got lots of "to try" items. I'm going through it in the evening a pockt or two at a time. I'm taking the most frequently used recipes and putting them in a binder. I also plan to enter them on the computer so I can save them to a disk "just in case".
I loved your box tops story the other day. I stick them in a glass canning jar and then aparently totally forget them because when I went through them early this week, I found 4 expired ones, although mine were only for 6/30/09.
Anonymous, just do one drawer, corner of a drawer, shelf, etc. It will take a long time, but not as long as if you never started! Once you get started, you very likely well gather momentum and be able to do 2 drawers at a time! As the commercial says "Just do it!"
I was cleaning out my junk drawer today when I found a box top and I thought of you! Haha. 🙂 Great job on the closet. I love the two questions you ask yourself, I am going to "borrow" them if you don't mind. 🙂
As for the recipes, you could do a binder with dividers and plastic page protectors to organize. Or if you have the free time (haha!) you could type them out and organize them on the computer.
Borrow away! And thanks for following, Angela. I know there are tons of question lists for decluttering out there, but with my "issues" I lose focus halfway down the list. Better to stick to the two "duh" type questions.
This post is over a year old, but it you haven't found a solution for your recipes and you have a smart phone you should look at Evernote. It is a computer program and phone app. You can clip things from the web and see them using the app on your phone. I got it because I have the same recipe problem. The pieces of paper junk up my house and the files junk up my computer!
Evernote is wonderful. I am working on putting my family favorites in it and its search is wonderful. I also use it for crochet, knit, and quilt patterns I want to try.
Recipes: I got a three ring binder and a bunch of page protectors and puzzle pieced them all in there. I have a red meat section, a poultry section, etc. I think like you do and often I know I have that recipe for picante chicken “somewhere” and logically, to my brain, I’ll find it in the “poultry” section and — sure enough! I don’t even have tabs or anything since it’s easy enough to see when the recipes switch from category to category. It is similar to a decluttering project. One that has to be sat down and dealt with. Works well for an evening where I can’t sleep or need busy work (kid is sick so I won’t be going anywhere anyway…) 🙂
I have the same- a three ring binder with page protectors. The only problem is that ONE magazine, by a super 30-minute chef, has pages that are just slightly larger. GAH.
Anyway. I don’t sort mine, but I am a visual person and can handle just flipping through. However, my tip is to take out a recipe when you use it, move it to the front. In time, you’ll know which ones you use and which ones can be tossed. Very similar to the backwards hangers in your closet.
i have SEVERAL boxes, mostly shoe box size, of recipes. they have been sorted into categories and now need to be put into photo albums. many are hand written by my grandmother who passed away 12 years ago. my sentimental streak just won’t allow me to retype them on the computer. there’s something very comforting in making a recipe that is in my meme’s own handwriting.
keep up the good work!
I recently organized 29 years (yes) worth of recipes into a binder using dividers and sheet protectors. I’m so glad I did!
Here’s another recipe solution:
Take a photo of the recipe card, and upload it to your Pinterest account.
You don’t have to make it public, and you can file it any way you want.
Then you can throw away the scraps of paper!
I put my favourite recipes that I’ve cut out of magazines into a photo album that has pocket sheets in it. I can just pull them out when I want to use them. But there are still lots more recipes inside the front cover than there are pockets. So it’s still a bit of a mess. But at least I know where to look for the ones I make often.
Hey! For those loose recipes I just grabbed one of the kids’ old binders and some sheet protectors. They really ARE the best recipes. I used post-it to make tabs to divide into categories since the sheet protectors are longer than page dividers. Voila! New cookbook!