Yesterday, we worked as a family to start finding things we want to give away, throw away, or sell at the flea market. I have never seen the kids so excited to clean their rooms and get rid of their stuff. Seriously, THAT was a gift directly from God!
Today’s lesson gets us thinking of what to do with the stuff we have left… NOT Run Away, BUT Stow Away!
I love the author’s idea for a numbered storage system of bins, with accompanying list. I set this up in Evernote – with a note numbered 1-10 and a space to list the items that will go in each plastic tote. I absolutely love that there will be a master list for the items we are stowing away, so when I need something, I refer to the list then grab the bin and voila – the item I was looking for!
While searching for an image to go with this post, I found this one (the one I used). It shows plain cardboard boxes, dressed up with burlap, ribbon, and painted wooden numbers – for use above kitchen cabinets. Although I do not like to have storage up to the ceiling in a kitchen, there is plenty of room above my kitchen cabinets to do this AND have some ceiling clearance. This is definitely one of my projects that I am going to address in the near future since things like appliances that I don’t use often and cookie cutters that are only used a couple times a year – really need a new home. 🙂
Kevin and I both made stops by the storage facility today and it is almost all cleaned out! Time to go through the bins and weed out what we don’t need to hang onto any longer. We have more than enough bins for numbering and storing in our garage (or other hidden areas we find in our home) and I bought the giant black markers to do the numbering. I am so motivated to do this! It is a freeing feeling to be able to clear the clutter and get it away from us. It almost feels as if I am being rescued from drowning. Hmmm. Makes me wonder why I have held onto these things for so many years.
We made some progress today in our new under-the-stairs pantry. 🙂 Here’s a sneak peek:
Shelves up and carpet in place.
Here it is filled with all of our food stores from the garage – sheesh… it looks empty!
OMGoodness girlfriend that is SOOOO cool! What a way to use space – I want to see the doorway from the house to the pantry! Great job! The number the box idea I did when I started working at a small animation studio – they had boxes stacked in the kitchen with no tagging rhyme or reason to the order – so I got board and had nothing to do and asked if I could make a box index – I was able to learn about their other projects – throw unneeded stuff away and then could find all the stuff the boss needed quickly!
I have started the Yard Sale pile in the garage and I am starting to bring my Crystal back into the house and put it away to empty boxes in Garage – I am also NOT bringing the stuff back in the house if we do not need it anymore – emptying the house to be painted is helping with that too – I have scheduled Dec 15th and 16th with getting rid of stuff!!!!
I cannot wait to see it get better and better for us!
HUGS