Last week, while I still had delusions about writing a Normal Day post, I took this picture:
This is my daughter, doing her homework, with one of my most consistent clutter collecting spots in the background.
Right. I’ve shown after pictures of this exact spot in previous posts. I even have a webisode of me decluttering it.
But decluttered spots don’t stay decluttered.
At least not in my house.
Anyway, when I took that “normal” picture of her doing homework, I saw the clutter in the background.
And I couldn’t think of one good reason to NOT tackle it right then. (Believe me, I tried.)
I found all sorts of good stuff. Like craft supplies and jerky guns and cookbooks that are supposed to be on the cookbook shelf eighteen inches away.
The cookbook shelf where I’d look for that cookbook if I needed it.
The cookbook shelf where I’d rest my arm while hanging my head in frustration over not being able to find the cookbook I needed.
(Y’know. While it sat at the bottom of a pile, less than two feet away . . . )
I also found this:
Also sitting just one hoist away from where it was supposed to go.
Except that this one had a somewhat-believable reason for not being where it should have been.
This is its box.
I’m pretty sure it was destroyed back when our kitchen (almost) flooded on the second day we lived in this house.
Seven years ago.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much damage other than this box since we caught the spewing, incorrectly-installed-fridge-water-thingy quickly.
I’m not sure why we kept the box.
But we did.
And as I groaned about the need to find tape and rig the box so it would actually do the job of a . . . box, I realized that it would be much easier to store it like this.
(What? You think that shelf needs its own decluttering post?)
I was proud and took a picture and had Hubby put the box out in the trash.
And then realized I’ll now HAVE to wash it every time I use it, because it will be dusty.
Whatever. It looks better.
Anyway, after a few more take-it-where-it-goes-right-this-very-minute trips, I took yet another after picture of this space.
Fine. Here’s the real after picture.
Not ideal, but it’s how we live.
--Nony
If you put something over the top, like a piece of cling wrap, or one of those shower cap style covers for leftovers, it won’t get so dusty sitting up there. Won’t look as pretty with the shower cap, but I saw that last photo…
Really cling wrap is worth the 45 seconds to find it, get the bowl down, put it on and put the bowl back.
Yes, great idea!!
my mother in law taught me that and I was shocked…and my mother was too..why had we not THOUGHT OF THIS..so yes saran wrap and put up top and they are ready to go
You are awesome.
Looking at your pictures, looking at my humungous seriously cluttered desk, looking at your pictures again. Are you for hire? Do you travel? 😀
I’m going to have to read this again tomorrow. And I want to say, before I forget, I like living the way you do. I don’t have enough time…or inclination to live in a perfectly cleaned house. There are too many other things in our brief time on earth that are more important than a spotless home. A comfortable, fairly neat, LIVED IN home works for me.
It’s always amazing to me how many things are just setting around, needing to be put away. I don’t see them when I walk through. I really don’t. But when I get started on a project like this, I can’t believe how much stuff I can ‘not see.’ It’s inspiring to see your decluttered space. I did a bit of my own decluttering yesterday, but I have a bunch of stuff in my family room that simply doesn’t HAVE a home, and I’m struggling to find one. :/ Living in a house with no storage is just hard.
Just keep it in a cabinet instead and it won’t get dusty!
I’m forever looking for a nice plastic square box with room for four layers of cups, one bunt ring for ice, and room for the ladel and cup hooks to house my punch bowl set. I was so excited to see your brilliant idea for an easier way to store the punch bowl et al. BUT then I
realized my accoutrements are too vast to fit in the bowl. Oh well. At least they won’t be dusty.
“The cookbook shelf where I’d rest my arm while hanging my head in frustration over not being able to find the cookbook I needed.
(Y’know. While it sat at the bottom of a pile, less than two feet away . . . )”
This is so me.
I got really frustrated because I lost my detachable flashgun (strobe in USian) for my camera for OVER A YEAR. It was under some papers on the surface less than four feet from where I sit at the computer every day, above the drawer where it’s supposed to live.
Worse, I only wear a swimsuit once a year, when on holiday. So last year when I was packing to go on holiday, I couldn’t find my swimsuit among my holiday stuff or anywhere else. Had to go without it, which was a particular shame as I could have swum every day. I discovered it just before I went on this year’s trip (whooppee!) on the floor, under a chair, about six feet behind where I sit at the computer. I hadn’t seen it for almost exactly two years.
Liz, Your story has motivated me to make an all-out effort to declutter in the vicinity where my NOOK power cord is most likely buried. The battery ran out last December. Though I’m very interested in finishing the NOOK book I was reading at the time, I still haven’t found the power cord.
Not related to this post in particular. I just wanted to let you know I love reading your posts. I am reading backwards from the beginning but now I have to limit myself to reading 5 posts at a time or I will just keep reading and never do what I am supposed to do ie: clean, eat, sleep or sadly some days read my bible. I am the same person that asked you how long you read your bible for each morning a couple of weeks ago. I grew up in a house that claimed to be Christian but wasn’t huge about going or reading our bibles. We used to read the children’s version when we were really young and went to several different churches when we were kids( mom and dad had to work most Sunday’s so we would go with whoever could take us; grandma or sister one was Presbyterian and the other was baptist but we were church of Christ). When I was about 8 we started going more consistently because mom didn’t have to work on Sunday’s anymore but I still didn’t really read my bible on my own. We would study at church and that was about it. My parents have started reading theirs more as I became an adult and I have always tried to read mine but would start and invariably fail. Probably because I am intelligent and a perfectionist so I had this crazy idea that I had to read it from beginning to end or it wouldn’t be good enough. I finally did read it that way though in nkjv like 2 years ago. Then I bought a chronological bible and have been reading it now for about a year and a half. (It is only supposed to take one year) I’m so happy to not feel as much guilt when I only read for 15-30 mins a day instead of like an hour. Thank you so much for your encouragement. I am like you in a lot of ways and in other ways I’m not (sometimes I’m way worse than you hehe). I am trying so hard to get myself under control and establish good habits and routines before I take on the never ending task of having children. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this comment, Rene!
I have those same square candlesticks!
My question is, after we declutter a surface, what CAN we set on it so it doesn’t look so empty and so like “Ooo that would be a good place to set these 10 items?” I mean, a vase of flowers, I guess, but I’m so bad about maintaining flowers that soon I’m going to have gross, dried up flowers in murky water sitting on all my clean surfaces. I don’t want to put anything decorative that I now have to move in order to dust the nice, uncluttered surface. So I guess for ME, I should just have plain, empty surfaces??