Depending on where someone first lands in this blog, he/she might be totally impressed or totally horrified by my organizing skills.
And then there’s Hubby. He sees the good days and the bad days, the failed attempts and the overall progress.
Thankfully, he’s my biggest supporter and believer, but I still get an extra thrill when he acknowledges my Organizing Cred.
Cred = Credibility. I’m just trying to sound cool.
I’ve shared how grasping the One In One Out Rule has been big for me. I also apply this rule when decorating for Christmas. The rest-of-the-year items go in the box where the Christmas items were stored. I switch them out. It can’t all fit.
That box goes back in the attic until the New Year, and then I switch out the items one for one again while un-decorating.
Last year, I created a new box. My husband has a love for mugs. People know this, and he gets a lot of them as gifts, especially at Christmas. Until last year, I kept the Christmas mugs out all year, shoved on the shelf with our other mugs.
But finally, I declared I couldn’t bear the mug overload ANYmore and packed away all of the Christmas ones.
So this year, when he was excited to find the box full of “his” mugs, I casually said that for every Christmas mug he pulled out of storage, he needed to pack away one of our rest-of-the-year mugs.
He looked at me for a moment. In silence. Eyes narrowed.
I offhandedly (on purpose) remarked that we don’t have room in the cabinet for both.
He kept staring.
I kept casually unpacking Wizard of Oz figurines.
And then . . . he said . . . “OK.”
I did write the book on decluttering, after all.
Still, it takes him a minute to accept my anti-clutter wisdom. To accept this life-changing concept being explained by the woman whose towel he steps over each morning on his bathroom floor.
--Nony
Girl, you got organizin’ CRED in my book!
What a great concept you have gotten your head around. And it’s it just SO COOL when your husband, or anyone for that matter, sees your hard fought for progress! Even if there is a ways to go (ie, the towel thing).
Where have you BEEN all my life?!? Stumbled across your blog while searching “kids Christmas crafts” on Pinterest. Funny. I’ve been looking for good “organizing/cleaning” podcasts off and on for a few years. Just downloaded yours and am excited to listen. I can clean like there’s no tomorrow…..I’d love to scrub down a bathroom or kitchen floor but “stuff” just keeps taking over! And my husband and I are fairly okay at getting rid of stuff. Anyway, am excited to glean more from this blog and your podcasts. Thanks!
Welcome, MG!
That’s a great rule for everything…and too funny about your husband hesitating about packing away a mug for a mug. I’m glad he supported your efforts to get your house under control. 🙂
I remember a time when I would do the same thing when decorating for Christmas (except for the attic part…thank you, God for the closet under the stairs when we lived in town!). Now I find I’m not terribly thrilled with dusting so there are a whole lot more Christmas decorations than there are year-round decorations. 🙂
I have a love of mugs and have a huge stash of them as well, so I know what that’s like. When we moved in August, I realized that we didn’t have as much room for them all and had to pack away all of my mugs that were holiday-ish (Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc). It’s nice to be able to start pulling them out again and do the one in – one out concept. Thanks Nony!
Like “Mr. Nony”, I do love my coffee mugs. Thanks to your influence, I purged my collection last year and painfully downsized – and survived!
But it really does help to pack up everyday items as we decorate with our Christmas items – including Christmas Mugs. My older daughters taught me this a few years back, don’t know how they got so smart, but they figured it out before their mother did!
Cool thing is, when we pack away holiday stuff, it’s really fun (and comforting) getting re-united with my old friends.
Have a very merry Christmas!
Is there a reason the “Blue Christmas” Elvis mug is in the background? It seems like it would be appropriate for that mug to be in the foreground in honor of your husband.
Hmmmph.
Bwahahahaha! Methinks MyElvisLife may be Mr. Noni.
So, you agree that the mug should be in the foreground?
Hi Nony,
I love your blog. I appreciate your honesty about your deslobification journey. About two years ago I had a similar epiphany about the glass/mug cabinet in our kitchen! Anyway, I just recently started my own blog(fastfrugalfashion.blogspot.com) and have yours listed as one of my favorites.
Hope you have a great Christmas!
Valerie
Thanks so much for listing my blog! And I wish you the best. This blogging thing is so so fun!
i think i\m in love with you, because you make the cluttered parts of me that i always hated, seem lovable.
hee hee
Yeah, I forgot to pack mine away this year. I usually pack the Christmas mugs with our other décor, but after everything was nice and packed away in the attic, I noticed them. What I should do is take one of the boxes down and put them away…but it’s far too much work when I’ve got room to store them for the next year in the upper cabinets of my kitchen. -Tabitha
This is brilliant! I have some Chrisrmas platters that someone gave me, and I never remember to use them because they are in the back of my cabinet. I need to put them with the Christmas decorations. That way getting them out as we decorate will remind me that we have them and I’ll actually use them.
OMG – this is so simple yet it never occurred to me that we don’t need everyday mugs when the Christmas ones come out of storage! I am now feeling enlightened and stupid in equal measures! This year I am on it! Thank you and Happy Christmas!
Bawahaha
“To accept this life-changing concept being explained by the woman whose towel he steps over each morning on his bathroom floor.”
Bawahahaha
I do the exact same! I always packed away my Christmas stuff but only a few years ago started packing my rest of year stuff away. I have a mug rack that holds 8 mugs out in the open. When I got it I got rid of all my mismatched mugs and filled it with a matching set. then I liked that the rack was out in the open to show off my Christmas mugs, but by then I didnt have a mug shelf in my kitchen so I threw the boring mugs in the Christmas box.
I now have fall color mugs and do the same.
And valentine mugs.
And I do the same with throw blankets.
Dana, Your posts and blogs have been such an encouragement for me. I’m an empty nester who has cleared out so much lately I don’t even have to use my attic for non Christmas storage in December anymore! Just tucked things in an empty drawer in the guest room.
Yep I’ve always packed away the household decorations, dishes etc when unpacking the Christmas decorations. What a concept. Now to just get some of the other concepts down. Thanks Nony!
Wish I’d read this last year before I declutterred all but two of the dozen or so Christmas mugs I’d bought the year before (at thrift stores, for a party) plus the long-owned ones. There were way too many and we were retiring from parties. It felt good at the time, but this year we’re doing an unexpected ‘nother party and I’d like having those mugs back! I’ll probably resort to disposables but if I do find any I like at the local thrift stores this year, I’ll definitely use this strategy in the future. Doing the same currently with other “rest of the year” items. It’s genius.