The time had come. Summer is gone and colder weather means more time indoors. I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way but the Fall home cleaning and organizing can seem like an overwhelming task.
I’m not here to promise you some fast and easy tips. But I can take you along with me and how I do it.
Fall Home Organizing
At some point you pause and look at the mess you’ve been walking around and dig in to deal with it. This was the state of just our living room a few weeks ago. I had had enough.
Problem is – We have a reno started in the basement. As most DIY projects go, it’s slow. This means our kids toys are in transition from the basement playroom to their bedrooms. On the way, they literally took over our living room.
Here’s a few areas I covered:
Bedrooms:
Sorted and rotated all the kids clothes. My husband and I have a fairly minimal wardrobe so ours didn’t need it. Also sorted toys and made the kids clean out under their beds. Plus switched around dressers.
Recycling:
Glass bin was taken to the recycling depot. We also took 7 bags for the bottle return to get some cash back from all the cans we collected during camping. FYI – we don’t drink that much. Our kids collect cans and then get a cut from the money we get back.
Textile recycling – I always keep a bag going of ripped, torn or stained clothes or bedsheets and recycle it to a local Thrift Store.
Thrift Store:
I ended up having 4 boxes in the end. Old decor, toys and kids stuff they have grown out of .
Dump Run:
This is becoming a regular thing around here. With an old house that needs work. At least twice a year now we are doing a dump run. We had a stash beside our house that needed to go.
1: Just START!!
I knew I needed to deal with my kids clothes. It’s like the snowball affect. Start in one spot and let it just keep rolling. I needed the clothes cleared out and switched over in our daughters room.
Then I went to the boys room. The process took MUCH longer. 2 boys sharing a room. Plus saving clothes for the next kid is still happening. At least with my daughter I can just pass off what doesn’t fit her and pop it into a bag for a friend.
I managed to get ALL her current clothes in the top 3 drawers plus one of the bottom drawers and the rest of the drawers in the next sizes for her. It’s much easier to manage now and pick out her outfits.
2: Clean as you Go!
This room got out of control with 2 boys sharing it. So much stuff was under the beds and so forth. This room took close to a week to deal with. It’s small, but they have a lot of stuff.
We included them too. We believe it’s important that they learn to take care of their stuff. That’s a big reason why it took so long. It’s only been a few days since it looks like this, hope it starts sinking in for the boys.
4: Sort through the unexpected areas
I ended up going through shoe bins, snow pants and toys. I had 2 pairs of size 3 and size 6 snow pants. I don’t have twins in my house. Those were taking up space!
Yes – My entrance is super small, so sorting and purging is very needed. We have a large house, yet this split level entry keeps my on my toes of keeping it clean and organized.
As I said – snowball affect. It’s fall and I even pulled out the winter bins to double check if I needed any shopping to do or if I had stuff to get rid of.
By this point I had 3 bags of clothes for a friend, 4 bins for the thrift store, 7 bags of bottles to return and a bin for glass recycling.
5: Make money
I’m personally not a huge fan of posting Facebook market place items online. But, when I have some items I’ve bought and still have decent value I’ll put them up for sale.
I was able to make some extra cash on hand for our family. I still have more items to post. I’ve learned to only post an item at a time and post the next one once the current one is sold and picked up.
No – We didn’t sell our Table. Just sharing this as a reminder of what great deals you can find for second hand. This set we found on Market Place.
6: Enjoy and Relax
This took close to a month, between back to school and my ministry work starting up again to get this together. Plus we have had a new addition to our family that I look forward to sharing soon.
So yes – sit back and enjoy all the hard work you have done, maybe spend that extra cash you made on your self.
Full Video found here!
Are you doing any home fall clean up and organizing?
Notefull Living 