Help your home shed those extra pounds!!

So this sounds strange but it is true.  Year after year your home gains weight, not like us but it does accumulate extra clutter which in many ways is just like gaining extra pounds. We over look the clutter because we just get used to it. It's time to get organized again! This weight is easy to shed, too...follow these simple steps and you will be amazed at how much lighter your home will look and feel!

Try tackling one or two of these tasks at a time will keep the de-cluttering stress to a minimum and; you will feel a huge sense of accomplishment after each completed task which will motivate you.  Just a few changes will make a big impact and you will want to do more around the home

Living room
1 Don't cultivate a hospital waiting room aesthetic: recycle your old magazines. Scan design magazines first and rip out tear sheets for your project-inspiration book.

2 Banish kids' toys to the family room, kids' bedrooms - or Goodwill!  I aim to do this in November or least before Christmas.  I know my children will be blessed with many gifts and enough is enough, time to let someone else enjoy!

3 It should go without saying, but if that Christmas tree is still up, evict it ASAP. I try to have the tree down around the time the kids o back to school.  Once you remove your holiday decor you will be amazed at how much decorative stuff you actually have.



Dining room
4 Clear dining room paperwork piles. The dining table may rock as a work-from-home HQ or homework station, but don't let clutter from old projects linger. Recycle, shred, or file away. I also have a corner in my kitchen that accumulates paper, I try to go through it every 2 weeks.

5 Move wool or shag area rugs and/or runners into storage. Opt for bare floors or lighter, coastal-inspired sea grass, sisal or cotton rugs especially in the summer. Get those rugs cleaned once a year, you will feel and smell a huge difference (I usually do this in the spring or summer)

Kitchen
6 Don't just clean your fridge, purge it of condiments you don't use. Even preserves go bad or lose their flavour. If you haven't used a condiment in three months or more, free up fridge space by disposing of it. Be ruthless!

7 Ditch those novelty cups. Chances are the plastic ones - often bearing the recycling numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, or 7 - contain Bisphenol-A anyway, making them potential health hazards as well as space hogs.

8 Donate small appliances you use less than once a year. Sure, you could sell that long-neglected slow cooker for $10 online, but if you donate it to the Salvation Army, you'll gain a donor high worth double that!






Bathrooms
9 Clear out medicine chests and cabinets of no-longer-used cosmetics, personal-care items and medication. If you stopped using a product and put it away last year, chances are you aren't going to like it later. Just dump the contents and recycle the packaging. (Medication should never be dumped down the drain or thrown into the trash, however. Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies accept leftover medication and sharps for safe disposal.

Bedrooms
10 Edit the pile of junk under your bed. Nothing under your bed? Treat yourself to a latte!

11 Clunky table lamps? Swap them for tidy wall-mounted reading lights. Or just give them a good dusting and cleaning treatment.

12 Edit your dresser contents. Make three piles: garbage, donations, keep-and-repair. Make this the year you cultivate a smaller wardrobe of better quality clothes you can mix up with accessories.

 Closets
13 Get rid of those boxes and boxes of kids' crafts and pictures. It's amazing how they pile up! If you're feeling sentimental, hold on to a couple choice art pieces-preferably by framing and displaying, not storing. (And if you absolutely MUST keep an exhaustive record for posterity, take digital shots of everything and archive your images by burning them onto CDs.)

14 Got coats or boots you didn't wear at all this winter? Donate those in good, wearable condition, throw out the rest. (If we all got rid of clothing we didn't wear but were holding onto "just in case," the average home would probably need 50% less closet space!)




Home office
15 Toss the Yellow Pages into the recycling bin and bookmark yellowpages.ca instead.

16 Unload old office electronics - but avoid the landfill. The Electronic Recycling Association repairs and refurbishes old desktops, laptops, fax machines and more. Your hard drives and personal data are irretrievably wiped beforehand to RCMP security standards. The new-again items are donated to community organizations across Canada, while the unsalvageable bits are sent off for environmentally responsible recycling and disposal.

17 Shred old income tax records. Just keep returns and documentation from the past six years - everything else can go.

Garage/basement
18 Throw out your VHS collection. Yeah, that one sitting in a plastic bin under the stairs. It's time to let go.

19 Donate useable leftover paint to your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Paint and varnish can also be dropped off at the Special Services desk at any Home Depot for safe disposal.

20 Get rid of old bikes and large kids' toys. While it's true old toys can increase in value down the road, that usually takes a half century or more! In the meantime, if you clear the clutter, you'll have room to enjoy a new hobby (refinishing flea market furniture, for instance).

If you are looking for even more great organizing ideas, check out Better Homes and Gardens Storage and Kitchen and bath ideas.  I used their special interest issue on storage last year and it was full of incredible ideas, probably the best $8.99 I have ever spent