Project {HOME}

One of my New Years Resolutions was to get my house in order. I wanted to get it organized, simplified and decorated more.

I decided to take one room every other month and attack it! For Jan/Feb my room is my kitchen. I set a budget of $60 to use for organizing containers and decoration. I wanted to start earlier but have been getting over being sick and just felt up to it this week.

I will update my progress at the end of the month. Here is the PLAN:

Organize: Get rid of unused items. Group items where they will be most accessible.

Simplify: If clutter tends to fall in a certain spot no matter how hard I try to change it.... work around it. If mail always ends up on the counter, put a basket there for it. Find a home for things, get rid of extra stuff. Don't have too many files, "homes", spots to put things! Get rid of things that just add clutter.

Decorate: Add some color to the walls, vinyl, new decoration or just rearrange what I already have.

Here is what I have done so far!

I used to have a scrapbook room with an amazing scrapbook desk and things. I had room to be messy and then I could just close the door and hide it. Then I had to change my scrapbook room into a bedroom (not that I minded!). I then decided that I was able to get more pages done in my scrapbook if I had it downstairs. So I moved downstairs to my kitchen where I could scrapbook and still be part of my kids life. This was great!! I got so much done. The only problem was the MESS!!

And this was an improvement!

(I actually started cleaning up when I realized I forgot to take a picture...)

I decided that this would be my main area of focus for right now. It is my biggest eye sore in my kitchen/dining room area. Whenever I see it I think of all the things I should be scrapbooking and how far behind I am... My Mom came over and suggested that I buy a big trunk or something and put it all in there. We headed out shopping moments later!

I finally found what I was looking for (or close enough). Here is what I did:

Container #1: On the bottom, all my heavy paper! I am going to go through it later and get rid of a bunch of it. My main goal for this week was to get it put away someplace before my company came this weekend.

Container #2: Some more paper, "in progress" pages, and sets of paper. I will eventually make it so that there is only paper in the bottom, and the top will be for "in progress" or partially finished pages and my other scrapbook supplies- which currently have to occupy a cupboard in my kitchen.

The end result:

I LOVE IT!! The top container is for mail. The total cost was more than what I budgeted. The bottom container was a gift and then I purchased the top two which met my budget. Now I am out of money and need to finish up the rest of my kitchen. Wish me luck!

Feel free to join me in my quest for a cleaner, more beautiful home. If you do, please send me pictures so I can share them- OR - if you blog about it, share your link and I will help you show off your new look!