i haven't given up on decluttering, but i'm not making much progress either

 a few paltry things i got rid of this summer - 

 some were thrown out, some were donated, some were given away.  

a whole 9 small items out of the house, bringing our total to 77. 

decluttering part 3

 The Misters coffee maker bit the dust, and I got rid of some old makeup and pharmaceuticals and lotions.

 i found this thing that looks like it attached something to something else, and an old manual.

 and an old pill splitter in a baggie, but we'll call that one item.

 a sad 8 items this time around, bringing our summer declutter to 68

decluttering part 2

 first we have this container i took out of the cupboard to use, opened the top and it promptly broke apart.

 11 old pieces of makeup in the trash - 

 and 12 items gone here - some tops, literal garbage, nail polish, a broken bracelet.

 

the last 8 things for today - a sweater, 3 books, 2 lotion samples, an old craft kit and some empty lip balm bottles 

32 items, plus the 7 books the other post is 39, our new de-cluttering total is 60 items gone!

getting rid of a few more cookbooks books 76-81

 part cookbook clean up and part de-clutter - i got rid of 7 cookbooks.

 it's all easy was previously a keeper, so i'll adjust that in the count  below.  i am slowly coming to terms with the fact that i am apparently more of an aesthetic Nigella cookbook person than an actual user of them.  and it hurt to get rid of the well filled tortilla and the trader vics books, but i have owned them for YEARS and never used them, so it was time to go.

 Back on the bookshelf - 19 Donated - 62

decluttering! here we go

 i hate clutter, but i also hate getting rid of things i have paid money for, have 2 kids and am married to someone with hoarder tendencies.  so we have clutter.  and i don't want clutter any more!  or, at least less.  i decided on june 1 that i would do that de-cluttering where for every day in a month you get rid of the number of the day of the month - i'm not writing that correctly, but on the 1st, you get rid of 1 thing, on the 2nd you get rid of 2 things, etc.  Here's the first week - 

we started easy, with a box i'd been saving in case i wanted to put things into a box.

then we donated a pair of slipper shoes that are too slippery on the bottom for me, and a bag that i was saving, in case i wanted to put things in a bag. 

then we added 3 old school books to the donation pile

 halloween face stickers, and some old makeup went into the garbage.

a bag in case i needed to put things in a bag, a wooden box that is hiding under the bag, and 3 plastic organizing trays went next.  

The last 6 things were a little canvas basket, more old makeup, and a beaded heart I managed to sneak past the girl into the garbage.

An easy 21 things out of the house!  

the corner of my kitchen

 There is a corner of my kitchen that has been the bane of my existence for years now.  YEARS.

It is where the fruit bowl and bread products are kept.  Above the counter is the cupboard full of glass jars, measuring cups and water bottles.  Below is the plastic container drawer.  

We used to use multiple bowls to hold the fruit, but that didn't work well, because then there were multiple bowls on the counter.  So I bought a multi level fruit bowl, but it was too tall, and blocked the cabinet door.  I was mad, and couldn't return the fruit bowl, so we kept it.  But I was only ever the only one that would MOVE the fruit bowl so jars and cups and stuff could be put in the cupboard.  Everyone else (The Mister) would leave them on the counter.  Same with the plastic containers, even though there was nothing blocking THAT drawer.  

The bread products were a similar disaster, usually tossed in a pile, until The Mister bought a giant humongous bowl that took up a bunch of room and then no one could see - or would look  to see - if anything was going moldy beneath the surface.  

Kitchen towels would get tossed there, the kids would leave chip and cracker bags there, and I hated it.  

Then a couple of weeks ago I realized - I don't have to live like this!  And bought 2 baskets from Amazon.  I took everything out of the corner, cleaned it all up and then it looked like this - 

I would be embarrassed it anyone knew how often I just stood in the kitchen that weekend and admired the corner.  It was a lot of time.

Does it still look this good now?  God no.  But does it look better than before?  A thousand yeses.

pantry clean up

 The hideous before photo of our gross messy pantry where ingredients and supplies get swallowed up, never to be seen again.

 It took 2 days, all of my patience, a trip to Canadian Tire for expense bins, trips to 2 separate dollar stores for cheaper supplies and a few schmamazon purchases and multiple arguments with The Mister about expired foods we found, but it ended up looking much better.

 Behold some of my expensive panicked container purchases from Canadian Tire.  And my first brown sugar saver!

 It looks/looked so good, so tidy....and not much room for more food, which has proven to be both good and bad.  And the kids don't give a hoot about putting things back in the bin/category/area that whatever they grabbed came from, so it got messy fast, and I'm getting tired of tidying it every day.