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I’m answering Jacqui’s question today.
Things mentioned in this podcast:
My book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
The Big Game Room Decluttering Project
--Nony
Dana White
A Slob Comes Clean is the completely honest (and never-ending) story of my deslobification process. As I find ways to keep my home under control, I share the truth about cleaning and organization methods that actually work for a real-life slob. And I'm funny.
Reader Interactions
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Thank you so much for answering my question! I listened to the podcast on Sunday and have been feeling convicted since (which I’m sure wasn’t what you were trying to do!) about spending time enjoying the present with my little girl. I’ve taken your advice and started redecluttering, starting with the kitchen windowsill, which doesn’t sound like it should take 30 minutes but it did! I set my timer and did it in two stints.
I spent a couple of minutes in the spare room yesterday while my husband helped our daughter with bath time and I replaced the ink in the printer, and I emptied a drawer – half of it for donating and half to go down to the utility room. I put some of my fabric stash in there. I made a tiny bit of progress and it feels very good! I now have somewhere tidy in the spare room that I can put things away, so that will help it to keep from getting worse.
I remembered thinking about some friends with multiple children who have some of them sharing a room so that they can have a guest room. I have thought that this was a waste, to have a room being empty when it could be used. Then I realised that I am doing the same – only worse, because it couldn’t even be used if guests did come! So, to define the room: I have (with my husband) decided to call it a “day room”. It will be a playroom, which also contains my craft things – a room for me to be in during the day with our daughter, which will keep us away from spending the day watching the TV. This can easily translate into her bedroom or a homeschool room at a later date, can be a guest room when needed without affecting the rest of the family, and will change our dining room/playroom into just a dining room, which will be much better as the playroom aspect of the dining room hasn’t really worked, the room is too small. I have also realised that just because some of the things in the day room are not meant to be there permanently, it doesn’t mean that I can leave it as a mess! When we come to decorate the master bedroom we will need to be able to put our furniture in there, which means that being able to see the carpet would be useful.
To answer your questions, I live in the UK, and decorate can mean anything really but in this case remodel is probably more accurate, there are pipes running through the room which we will remove, and probably more things waiting to be discovered under the wallpaper!
Thank you again, I believe that I was using my paralysis about that room to keep me from making any progress or having to do any more work on the house. Now I have a plan, motivation and a much clearer picture of my destination!
So I have done some redecluttering, I’ve also done a lot of work on our School Room! I posted about it with before and after pictures if you wondered why I felt paralysed. Thank you for helping me to define the room, Dana!
This was my answer to a lot of my issues. Definition of the room for how ever long that my be has helped me so much. I’m so glad I found your podcast and blog…I’m not a failure because I choose to use all the diaper boxes as my filing system. I can just go through them one at a time. What fun?
So we’re not the only ones using diaper boxes… 😊 Our diaper boxes have been used to hold DVDs – now we use clear, handled bags just for that purpose, which we love- and kids’ shoes organized by size, which we still do.
We’re putting in a new basement as part of an addition. We’ll have to decide what it’s for. Not storage, I’m determined. I have enough of that.
I’m considering a children’s/teen’s entertainment area.