The kids are the tough part!!!!  And, of course, the room with the most amount of junk (my bedroom, honestly, not far behind).  I will not have another garage sale, so I think we're on the track of either selling on ebay/craigs list or just donating to our church Flea Market.  If it's something I think they can get good money for, we'll sell it on our own ~ also then being able to work on the goal of teaching them about money...

I am behind you all the way! Rock on! It will feel so good when you see spaces cleared of "stuff." And if mindset + time is a problem, you can always take each room one corner at a time, too.

 A great goal to work on for the Challenge Zin.  Best of luck to you.

 I have to start on this - just the toyroom is making me crazy.  Our youngest (the twins) are in grade one now.  I can probably start purging the kindergarden and board books along with a lot of the toys.  I think I'll be skipping the garage sale too.  Our neighbourhood has a FB page that does a swap and buy.  A lot of the moms from our nearby schools post items for sale on there.  Does your neighbourhood do the same?  If not, maybe consider starting a group. Ours caught on really quickly here.  It's all local so no need to worry about shipping charges. Just go by and pick things up/drop things off.

 I like your number 3!  I have that mindset ... the kids, not so much. 

great goal Zin...I am going to follow...and I think that I will work on "de-junking" as well. ..be sure to get the kids on board as well...make it fun...giving something to a needy family, or having a garage sale, to raise $ for something new. good luck with the challenge!

Dug in ever so slightly on my desk piles yesterday - every little bit, right?

 Dug into half of the boxes for the Christmas decoration packing.  Every lit bit for sure.

Yay, Andrea!!  Keep it up =)

This morning I put all the papers, etc. from my dining room table, brought them up to my room and sorted through it all, some to garbage, some got filed.  There was a food magazine I need a few more minutes to go through and pull out what I want to try cooking.

w00t! Dining room table victory!

 Sounds like you're making progress Zin.  You're doing better than me.  For me to get to the rest of those boxes, I need to drag myself away from this computer.  Keep up the great work and thanks for the motivation.

woohooo...keep it up Zinful! I have had some great success over the past couple of days with my baby steps...and am starting to feel cleansed with my "de-junking". Hope that you are rewarding yourself with encouraging words or a glass of wine (lol) once you have accomplished a stack of papers!

Today I put the kids to work.  I've been crazy busy with work, but since it's Saturday, I really needed to dig into something.  So, I had the kids take everything out of my front closet and sorted through everything and left out, to get rid of, a bunch of stuff. 

What a feeling!!!!

Awesome! Great job and great that you're letting yourself feel the victory. Maybe this is also good for your kids because they see you making it a priority. By the end of all this you'll have made a better home for them too.

zinful...so glad that you got the kids involved...I am sure that they alos found things that they had forgotten about as well. And, hopefully, you can start a new tradition, to have them help you with some of the sorting and chores. Glad it is coming along!

Happy to read that you've got the kids invloved too.  Great stuff.   

Got the kids working again today, no school and I took the day off work (and ended up working anyway).  So, today was Mudroom today.  They cleaned it all out and we worked together at putting it back together.  We ONLY put the stuff back that belongs in there, so it was a great day in ducluttering!!!! 

One thing about the kids involved, my older son seems to take pride it in.  He comes up with an idea that he thinks will make it better (I agreed with his change in the closet, but not so much in the mudroom).  I'm hoping that because they put in all this work, that they'll take pride in what they did and keep it up!  One can hope  =)

Yay! Decluttering success!! Great job. :)

so great to hear your progress Zin!!! And so excited that the kids are getting involved! so excited to continue to follow your progress...I am really liking this challege...lots to tackle...slowly but surely!

Way to go Zin!  Thought I would drop in and see what strategies you were using, and you are having great success.   You are right,  there are lots of us putting this as a priority in our lives. 

Just a thought on the dining room table.  I had the same dumping zone problem on mine a few years ago.  Kids, hubby, myself, we would all leave books, and papers on it.  It also became the dump zone for things I didn't know what to do with in the kitchen when I was cleaning it.  Then one day, I had just had enough.  I cleaned the dinning room spotless, set the table with my beautiful table cloth, settings, glass and silverware (all those things we got as wedding gifts 20 years ago, and  used only a 3 times a year)  The table looks lovely all the time....no one puts anything on it anymore.  When company drops by, it is the first room they see in the house, and it leaves an impression.......even if the rest of the house is a little "lived in".   The table always gets reset after we use it now, .and we now use it often.  Very different from when it was cluttered.

Happy de-cluttering!

Robin that is a beautiful idea! I may need to use that when I clear off my table!

Our dining room table is our everyday table.  I don't have an eat in kitchen and we do eat together every night as a family.  But, I do like this idea.  I may take it to say that each night after we clean up dinner, we actually set the table for the next night's dinner.  This may deter the "drop zone".  Thanks for the input, I like it!!!

Going through my spice cabinet.  So, how long can you keep these spices, anyway???

I was just dropping in to check on your progress and reading your updates.  I love, love LOVE Robin's tip on how to keep the dining room table from being a drop zone.  LOVE IT.  Plus, there's the added bonus of getting to see all those beautiful things that are normally put away ALL the time.  Love that.  Next on my list for sure:  the dining room.  Once I dig down through the piles of art projects, puzzle pieces, homework piles and nurses supplies and put that all away, I swear, I'm going to pull all good stuff out of the china cabinets and the smelly candles too and set it like we're expecing someone truly special.  I'm also so happy to read that you guys eat together as a family each night too.  That is awesome.  I don't think many people do that near us any more.  It's a little strange for me actually because growing up, dinner time was always when I had to be home and friends who may have been over had to get home to their families.  We kind of all 'caught up' each night at the table.  It was important growing up, I think, knowing that certain things had to happen at certain times.  As for the spices, they are fine as long as they've been stored properly and are dry.

ahhhh, the kitchen cabinets are getting done?  Great idea, and good question about the spices.  I don't think they ever go bad, but I think they lose their "power" over time.  Not sure what the recommended life of them are though.........I am sure I have lots of worn out ones in my pantry. 

I agree with Andrea, I too think it is great that you eat together as a family every night.  I think my family is doing great if we can get more than two dinners together in a week.  

I love checking in on your progress because it reminds me that de-cluttering opportunities are everywhere, and that small spaces add up to a big picture.

 You have inspired me Zinful.  I am starting on my own decluttering.  Thank you for the motivation.

Way to go Zin! Tame those disorganized spices! I've heard that spices are fine just like Andrea said as long as they still keep their smell (then they're not rotten but the "power" is gone). I don't have a sense of smell--I've never had one, so it's like being blind or deaf--so I always have to be careful with food to make sure I don't eat something that's gone bad. So I have a habit of throwing out things exactly when they expire or soon afterward. But your question made me curious about averages, so I did a little Googling and it looks like whole spices stay fresh for years and years, and ground ones you can generally keep for 2 years. The smell technique probably works for you though.

Yea, I think there's some spices to be gotten ride of...  I think some of these I've had well over 2 years!!  Time to throw out...

So, yesterday, I cleaned the dining room.  This morning with my family all home, all together, I declared the DR Table a "No Drop Zone" and explained in detail what this means.  Also, in my side board I have collected quite a few wine glasses from tastings at various vineyards.  I like these, but don't need them, so off they go. 

What's also very exciting now for me is that every year my church does a flea market in April/May, and I got the word today that we can start bringing our donations.  What amazingly perfect timing this is...

Nice update Zinfull, you de-clutter and give to a worthy cause.  Bybass the landfill when you can and keep up the good work! Hopefully your family will cooperate with the "no-drop" zone! 

Perfect timing for the flea market and donations.  I have to ask... what did you do with the glasses?  Give them away or are they going to the flea market too?

The donation dropoff opens just as you're doing all this good work? Sounds like a sign!

Congrats on getting a whole room done!  Being able to look at a room and say "that's all done"  must be so satisfying.  Lets hope eveyone co-operates with the NDZ policy.  I agree with the perfect timing for the flea market.....it was meant to be.

Andrea - I will be donating the glasses for the flea market.  The only ones we'll keep are the really smaller sized-ones for when we do wine tastings at our house ~ which we usually do once a year.  We do a wine vs. beer & cheese tasting, so we use 2 glasses per guest (one for wine, one for beer). 

Well, I'm off to Ohio for business.  Now, I just have to hope that my house remains intact while I'm away!!!  I might actually freak out if there's anyting on the dining room table when I get home on Thursday!

 I`m actually chuckling at your update, Zin.  I`m sure you`ll come home to a clutter free dining room table after all your work.  That`ll certainly be the case if hubby knows what`s good for him, lol.  Hope you enjoy your trip.

Maybe they will surprise you and will have taken care of another room for you while you are gone.  One can always hope, right?  Have a great trip.

I'm late to this thread, and you're probably well past organizing the kitchen, but I know for sure that spices are pretty much useless after 6 months, especially things like crushed red pepper, thyme and sage. Anything fully ground has a shelf life of 3 months. Full spices like whole peppercorns and whole nutmeg can make it around a year. Another spice-related trivia question: Did you know cinnamon has more antioxidants than blueberries? So get using those spices for good health effects! 

Great that you can donate your extra goods to the church. I'm sure all your treasures will go to good homes and for a good cause. I also think it's terrific that you got the family involved! You weren't the only one who made the mess, it's important for everyone to feel invested in the upkeep. My daughter (little mini type A that she is) used to organize her crazyons by fat and skinny when she was a toddler. I played on that quality big time and she keeps track of all her own stuff. She doesn't always want to, I mean, really, who does? I may gather up what has made its way to strewn around the house, but she's the one who has to put it all away ... if only I could get the OTHER people in the house to do as much! :)

 So tomorrow is the day of reckoning: did they keep the Dining Room clean?

I can honestly say I didn't notice if the dining room table was clean or not!!!!  I got in late last night, went right to bed, back at work now...

I did notice homework was there, just because I had to remind D to pack it up this morning, but other than that, I'm just glad to be home. 

Weekend is here, though, last 5 days of the challenge and I'm pumped to keep my goals going on full throttle these next few days...  and beyond.

 Welcome home Zin.  Ok, dying to know... how's the dining room table looking?  Cheers to the home stretch baby.

It was OK.  Just a few papers, etc. the kids didn't know what to do with.  I actually just went to get everyone to do something about it!

Woo-hoo! An OK dining room table the first time you leave them alone with the new rule is a pretty good result. ^_^ And now those papers are going to be gone... So congratulations!

congrats on the dining table accomplishment...now to get the habit engrained into your kids heads...lol! Love Ericbuckland's idea of having it always set. Hope u r enjoying a little vino after you long wk...and best of luck with the final 5 dys of the challenge ;)

Bathroom done.  I have a relatively, OK, really small, bathroom.  I brought out 2 bags of garbage out of it.  I chose to do this one myself rather than making the kids helps, for 2 reasons.

1 - Medicine.  I needed to check it closely for exp. dates.

2 - Woman stuff.  Really no need to make the boys go through that!

yeah...another accomplishment! congrats on the bathroom. feels good to be able to throw things out :)

Isn't it amazing how even small spaces can end up yeiding bags of stuff to get rid of?  Way to go on that accomplishment. 

Your table, and a few papers that the kids didn't know what to do with, reminded me of something I did about 5 years ago while I was away for a week and have never used again.......and now I don't know why.  My sister was watching the kids, and so I put a letter holder, you know those cheap plastic holders that you can put mail into?  on the kitchen counter for all the school stuff that they needed me to see when I got back.  News, permission slips etc.  The idea was that the papers wouldn't get stacked up and piled somewhere that I wouldn't see them, and it would keep them off the table.  When I got home, they were all there in a neat verticle holder, taking up no space, and it made it easy for them, since they knew where they were to put them.  I think I will have to use that again, even when I am home, that way, the kids can unload their own back packs and put the stuff I need to take care of in one spot.  Thanks for the trigger, and I am so happy that they are working with you in maintaining the de-cluttered lifestyle.

 Love Robin's idea about the 'in bin' or 'in file.' Congratulations on all your progress on this goal Zin.  

Great job Zin! Declutted bathroom = awesome!

 Congratulations on all the progress you've made with this goal Zin.  It's been a pleasure to follow you.

Zin, I feel so proud to think I inspired you, and I'm happy I got to watch your progress as you made it. Way to go taming some of those clutter demons this month!

I'm haviang company tomorrow night, so you know what that means - everything goes into the bedroom!!!!  I really hate those days, but at least the rest of my house will look awesome.  But, maybe it's a good thing, then I can spend the next week working strictly on the bedroom, and just maintaining the rest of the house. 

Good way to look at it Zin!

When you toss everything into the bedroom, do you try to keep things sorted by "room this actually belongs in" to make it easier to focus your put-away effort later? Maybe you could grab some crates/boxes and label them "Living Room," "Study," etc. That way as you're putting it all in the bedroom you'll have to be a little more disciplined, and that might help you feel better about doing it, too.

Most of the junk that gets tossed into the bedroom is usually piles of paper, receipts, or clothes/shoes.  Some of it, actual garbage I don't have time to go through to sort to figure it out.  There were also sleeping bags that my boys used on their last camping trips that never got put away. 

So, I have a receipt filing system that's in my bedroom anyway, so it's really just a little closer to it's "away" spot.  The sleeping bags go to the attic, which is accessed from my room.  So, again, a little closer to it's final destination.  Honestly, since last weekend, I haven't had one second to work on this goal.  So, I've been living in this messy bedroom, and it's making me crazy.  I've decided instead of exercising tonight, I plan to focus all my energy into cleaning, and only focusing on my bedroom.  I know I can get a lot done, though not all in the time that I'll set aside for it. 

Then, I'll reward my self ~ light a smelly candle, read a book, maybe even a glass of wine and just enjoy the cleanliness that surrounds me.  I can visualize it already....

Tons done in the bedroom last week.  Hoping to accompish more this evening.  Loving the feeling of less clutter, just have to keep working on it.  Seems a never-ending process. 

I totally know what you mean about the never-ending thing. Woo-hoo on how much you got done in that bedroom! And I'm glad you're already enjoying the results. I mainly focus on my living room, but I am thinking lately that I should shift my attention to the bedroom for a while, because I think it would be so much more relaxing to be in a cleaner, more pared-down space to sleep in. Easier to control allergies, too.

Found this article today.   http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-us/homeorganization/pages/get-organized-in-30-days.aspx

Some of it is sales (swiffer, etc), but it's got some great tips.  30 days may be unrealistic and there are certain days in the life of real people that you just can't take the time to de-clutter.  That being said, it's a great guide and/or check-off list to know it will be done...  eventually. 

Kids & I really sorted through the kitchen on Saturday.  Not just the spices, but the all the cabinets.  Some old "kids" plates I can donate to the flea market at church.  I also did finally empty those wine glasses out of the dining room, wrapped them all up.  I brought 3 bags of stuff over to church yesterday for donation. 

Lots of other stuff I got rid of out of the kitchen.  It's sad, really, the waste...

Three bags? Way to go! You guys really made some huge progress. ^_^

(As someone who just 5 minutes ago went looking for something in her kitchen only to find out a year had passed and it had gone bad... I am more than on board with you about the waste. :( )