52 Weeks of Decluttering Project

After completing my Operation Minimize project in 2011 (Original Idea), I knew that I didn't want to accumulate that amount of items ever again and have to go through it all, but there are definitely areas in our house that are clutter magnets.

The 52 Weeks of Decluttering Project Was Born!!
So, instead of participating in that again, I decided to work on not letting areas in my home get cluttered, by working on a single area a week. Of course, this would entail repeating problem areas that accumulate items during the course of a week/month/year (i.e. pantry, freezer and dining room table, etc.).


Using THIS spreadsheet, I'm going to list areas in my home, weekly, that need to be addressed so that the clutter does not become permanent. I'm going to use this 2012 Weeks of the Year calendar as my dates, with the "week" going from Monday-Sunday so that each weekend can be a single project.


I already have the pantry listed as weeks 1, 12, 24, 36, 48 and both freezers listed as weeks 10, 23, 35 and 47, since these area can get out of control easily (unless I get it right the first time- fat chance). Maybe I need to buy a label maker??


There are some weeks where this will be a complete purge/redesign of an area (coat closet, master bedroom closet, basement, etc), but my purpose for this project is to just keep the clutter to a minimum.


There are some weeks that I will be out of town (12 and 37 right now), weeks when I move projects around, and some weeks where things won't be done (I'm being realistic), but I'm going to do my best to keep to my schedule.


My inspiration for this project is:



This 2011 OJ weekly series has inspired me to make the most out of my time, by trying to stay organized so that projects, that would have been HUGE (read- not worth it), are able to be completed easily.


I'm going to blog weekly about what areas were tackled, post before/after pictures and what it took to organize it.


Week #1- The Pantry (January 7-8)


Please feel free to comment with your current/past project. I'd love to hear about your solutions to clutter control.

Updated 2012 Family Weekend Calendar

Currently, our family does not need a standard calendar where activities can be listed every day, just on weekends. My husband wants to know what's on the schedule so that he can add/change items (of course with my permission).

Here is the 2012 Weekend Calendar (January - April)

• January 2012 Weekend Calendar
• February 2012 Weekend Calendar
• March 2012 Weekend Calendar
• April 2012 Weekend Calendar
  

I hope that this helps others in my same situation. I'd love to find a pre-printed calendar with this type of set up, but I'm not holding my breath.

January 2012 “Eat From The Pantry Challenge”

Now that Samuel's older (and I recently completed a freezer inventory on our kitchen freezer and soon to complete a pantry inventory and our basement freezer), I think that I can complete a Pantry Challenge with a little more success than what occurred in February 2010.

Here are our family’s goals for the “Eat From The Pantry Challenge”

• To build my menus from what we have in the freezers and pantry.
• To stop at the store a maximum of three times in January.
• To only buy dairy (milk, eggs, cheese, etc.), produce (fruits/vegetables), and bread.
• To spend a total of $150 or less on groceries during the month of January.
• Donate the extra money that we would usually spend on groceries to Sam’s college fund.

Besides saving money, completing this challenge will help me clean out our basement, chest freezer so that it can be defrosted. This hasn't been done since it was purchased in 2008. I want to make sure that it runs efficiently.

During the week, dinners will only be listed.

Menu Plan for January 1-7
Sunday-  Lunch @ Broncos Football game
                 Dinner- Laura's Quick Slow Cooker Turkey Chili
                        * Using ground turkey from freezer and beans from pantry
Monday- Turkey Chili leftovers
Tuesday- Pasta with Fast and Friendly Meatballs
                        * Using ground turkey from freezer

Wednesday- Pork Tenderloin and broccoli
                        * Using pork from freezer
Thursday- Pork Tenderloin leftovers

Friday- Salsa Chicken, rice and brussel sprouts
Saturday- Lunch- Lunchmeat sandwiches
                   Dinner- Salsa Chicken leftovers



Wish me luck!!

Operation Minimize- Week 52 (1,954- 2,023)

WE DID IT!!!

We got rid of 2,011 items from our home in 2011.

With 3 days to spare!!

I started this challenge mid year, and was a little bit worried that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time, but thanks to Samuel growing like a weed and contributing a lot of outgrown clothes and our basement being a disaster, we made it.

I also cleaned out the freezer in our kitchen (as apposed to the chest freezer in our basement). While doing this, I wrote down everything that was staying in the freezer on this Freezer Inventory Sheet (something I'm going to do monthly, or at least quarterly). This act of purging put us over the mark!

I don't think that I'll be able to do this same challenge next year. We got rid of a lot of items, but the act of removing these items from our home has allowed me to find a new space for us to make into a usable space


Here is a list of the final items that put us over the line.


Recycle
4 Magazines
6 Christmas boxes


Donate
Sony Walkman Sport


Sell to Children's Consignment Store
6 Pairs of Shorts- Size 2T
15 T-Shirts- Size 2T
3 Toys
1 Cloth Diaper
2 Cloth Diaper Inserts



Trash from our Freezer- I threw out anything dated before 2011, 2 trash bags.
Thank goodness trash day was this morning.

2 Packs of Open Frozen Peas- Expired 2009
2 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Pork- Dated 2009
3 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Red Meat- Dated 2009

2 Packages of Opened Tater Tots- Expired 2010
2 Package of Tilapia- Expired 2009 and 2010
3 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Chicken- Dated 2009
5 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Soups (various)- Dated 2009
2 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Unknown (no information)- No Date
1 Package of Vacuum Sealed Avocados- No Date (but most likely 2010)
2 Packages of Vacuum Sealed Pumpkin- No Date (but most likely 2010)
1 Package of Diced Chicken- Dated 2010
5 Packages of Chicken (prepared various ways), Not Vacuum Sealed- No Dates
1 Package of Fruit- Dated 2009
1 Package of ???- Dated 2006 - We must have sealed this just after we received the sealer- YUCK!!

After Shot of Freezer.
Imagine What It Looked Like Before The Purge.

70 Items

Wordless Wednesday- Fun in (and with) the Snow

Daddy pulled Sam around in his sled for the first time this winter.

Small Victory

Last night, I counted a victory.

I was able to take a few minutes and clean off our dining room table.

It has always been a dumping ground for items that did not need to be taken care of immediately. Hopefully, this will soon be remedied by a "Command Center" with places specifically for the mail (divided between me and my husband), cork board for upcoming events, a family calendar, and a notebook with quarterly home improvement projects and art projects for Samuel.

Once this is set up, I hope that it will stop us from putting a lot of stuff on the counter as well.

Operation Minimize- Week 51 (1,902-1,953 )- More Basement Junk!!

I was able to unload items from my three most important categories

Donate, Recycle, and Trash

This will definitely get me closer to my 2011 goal. Here is the breakdown.

Donate

13 Frames

2 Candles

1 Sony CD Walkman

1 CD Holder

1 CD (Michael Jackson)

1 Zion National Park Water Bottle

Notebook

3 Sets of Stationery

Hairdryer

Soap Holder

Nail File

Loofah

Glow in the Dark Lipstick

1 Makeup Bag

Recycle

Pentax Box

Razor Phone Box

Dell Laptop Box

Water Heater Box

Trash

2 Pairs of Shoes

14 Tampons

Bottle of Hair Goo

Bottle of Bath Salts

51 More Items GONE. I Rule!

58 More Items and I'm DONE.

"Lost" Photos

I was given several CDs, from my MIL Andrea, with photos that I hadn't seen. We hope that you like them like we do.

June - October 2011 Photos

New Organizer for 2012

Along with a normal 2012 calendar (about $5 that works great for me), I'm having my office purchase me THIS, undated, planning notebook with circle the date and my annual work calendar.

I'm going to use this notebook to start planning my weekly meals. I really hate going to the store multiple times in a week to get things for dinner. Hopefully, with this, I can organize meals better and use my crock pot more. I'm hoping to schedule meals in 2 week increments.


First, I need to go through my freezer and cookbooks to determine what food we already have at the house and what meals can be fixed with those items.

I guess it's time to bookmark A Year Of Slow Cooking Blog and a few other slow cooker recipe sites- This, This, and This.

Wordless Wednesday- Not My iPad Anymore