Master Bedroom Retreat

Um, hello dream room!

Julie Loves Home

I’ve blogged about my master bedroom before (you can find that post HERE).  But I never mentioned anything about the large recessed wall across from the bed.  There was a television, complete with visible ugly wires and a small audio stand housing our digital video recorder (DVR).  Blah.

Several months ago we ditched the satellite dish for a tiny Apple TV unit (it sits just on top of the television), which meant “ba-bye” to the DVR and the awkward audio stand.  The hubs got to work opening a section of the wall and did a little electrical work to hide all the wires  Then he repaired the wall, mudded and sanded and I finished up with a coat of primer and two coats of leftover bedroom paint.  I must say we did a pretty good job -you can’t even tell!

Now we were left with a clean…

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1. Prepare

Need some tips to prepare a big cleaning spree? Look here to start!

Commit. Create a manta to help keep your goal in mind. It can be something like “if I get the house decluttered then we can start seriously think about moving,” or “I have more then enough space. My problem is that I have too much stuff.” I find that if I organize a closet or room in colorful bins, boxes and buckets I can really see what I have. Because I have to think about what bin it goes in, I also have to think about its use (when was the last time I played Scene It?  Oh, right, back when I had a DVD player in my room. Six years ago when the big DVD player broke and I gave mine to the family room.) If I think about its use I can decide where it needs to go. It’s a game so it should go in the game cabinet and not in my bedroom. If you find homes for your stuff then it’s easier to remember where they are and how to get to them.

Visualize. What do you want your home to look like? Whether your style is visually tranquil, adorned with funky mementos, or extremely functional, picture where you’re going with this organization effort. Having a clear picture in mind of what you want your home to look like will help you get rid of anything that doesn’t fit your vision.

Donate. At least once a month companies will call and ask if you have any donations. All you have to do is give them your address and they take it! The ones we work with call the night before and you tell them if you have stuff to donate. We have a shelf in the garage where we put things. The night before they come, we move our stuff to the front porch and the next morning it’s gone and a small thank you card and information for tax write offs are left in their place. Don’t worry about what you think they will and will not take. If it’s something they don’t want or don’t think they can use they leave it – and if that’s the case there’s another charity that will take it. It really is a great solution for everyone.

Get a mantra. Choose a nifty slogan that will help you visualize your new home. Use your mantra to help you get there. My favorite: Zen living

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

As I said before, you always have those people who seem to have way too much time and money on their hands and think that anyone can do what they are blogging about. Well this is a blog for people who live in the real world.

Here is an example of one of those that I found

18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

I’ve written a lot about simplicity and decluttering (I can’t help it — I’m passionate about it!) and I’ve noticed that a lot of readers share my ideal of having an uncluttered home or workplace, but don’t know where to start.

When your home is filled with clutter, trying to tackle a mountain of stuff can be quite overwhelming.

So here’s my advice: start with just five minutes. Baby steps are important. Sure, five minutes won’t barely make a dent in your mountain, but it’s a start. Celebrate when you’ve made that start!

Then take another five minutes tomorrow. And another the next day. Before you know it, you’ll have cleared a whole closet or a room and then half your house and then … who knows? Maybe before long your house will be even more uncluttered than mine. We’ll have a challenge!

For those who are overwhelmed by their clutter, here are some great ways to get started, five minutes at a time.

1. Designate a spot for incoming papers. Papers often account for a lot of our clutter. This is because we put them in different spots — on the counter, on the table, on our desk, in a drawer, on top of our dresser, in our car. No wonder we can’t find anything! Designate an in-box tray or spot in your home (or at your office, for that matter) and don’t put down papers anywhere but that spot. Got mail? Put it in the inbox. Got school papers? Put it in the inbox. Receipts, warranties, manuals, notices, flyers? In the inbox! This one little change can really transform your paperwork.
2. Start clearing a starting zone. What you want to do is clear one area. This is your no-clutter zone. It can be a counter, or your kitchen table, or the three-foot perimeter around your couch. Wherever you start, make a rule: nothing can be placed there that’s not actually in use. Everything must be put away. Once you have that clutter-free zone, keep it that way! Now, each day, slowly expand your no-clutter zone until it envelopes the whole house! Unfortunately, the neighbors don’t seem to like it when you try to expand the no-clutter zone to their house, and start hauling away their unused exercise equipment and torn underwear when they’re not at home. Some people don’t appreciate simplicity, I guess.
3. Clear off a counter. You want to get your house so that all flat spaces are clear of clutter. Maybe they have a toaster on them, maybe a decorative candle, but not a lot of clutter. So start with one counter. Clear off everything possible, except maybe one or two essential things. Have a blender you haven’t used since jazzercise was all the rage? Put it in the cupboard! Clear off all papers and all the other junk you’ve been tossing on the counter too.
4. Pick a shelf. Now that you’ve done a counter, try a shelf. It doesn’t matter what shelf. Could be a shelf in a closet, or on a bookshelf. Don’t tackle the whole bookshelf — just one shelf. Clear all non-essential things and leave it looking neat and clutter-free.
5. Schedule a decluttering weekend. Maybe you don’t feel like doing a huge decluttering session right now. But if you take the time to schedule it for later this month, you can clear your schedule, and if you have a family, get them involved too. The more hands pitching in, the better. Get boxes and trash bags ready, and plan a trip to a charity to drop off donated items. You might not get the entire house decluttered during the weekend, but you’ll probably make great progress.
6. Pick up 5 things, and find places for them. These should be things that you actually use, but that you just seem to put anywhere, because they don’t have good places. If you don’t know exactly where things belong, you have to designate a good spot. Take a minute to think it through — where would be a good spot? Then always put those things in those spots when you’re done using them. Do this for everything in your home, a few things at a time.
7. Spend a few minutes visualizing the room. When I’m decluttering, I like to take a moment to take a look at a room, and think about how I want it to look. What are the most essential pieces of furniture? What doesn’t belong in the room but has just gravitated there? What is on the floor (hint: only furniture and rugs belong there) and what is on the other flat surfaces? Once I’ve visualized how the room will look uncluttered, and figured out what is essential, I get rid of the rest.
8. Create a “maybe” box. Sometimes when you’re going through a pile of stuff, you know exactly what to keep (the stuff you love and use) and what to trash or donate. But then there’s the stuff you don’t use, but think you might want it or need it someday. You can’t bear to get rid of that stuff! So create a “maybe” box, and put this stuff there. Then store the box somewhere hidden, out of the way. Put a note on your calendar six months from now to look in the box. Then pull it out, six months later, and see if it’s anything you really needed. Usually, you can just dump the whole box, because you never needed that stuff.
9. Put a load in your car for charity. If you’ve decluttered a bunch of stuff, you might have a “to donate” pile that’s just taking up space in a corner of your room. Take a few minutes to box it up and put it in your trunk. Then tomorrow, drop it off.
10. Create a 30-day list. The problem with decluttering is that we can declutter our butts off (don’t actually try that — it’s painful) but it just comes back because we buy more stuff. So fight that tendency by nipping it in the bud: don’t buy the stuff in the first place. Take a minute to create a 30-day list, and every time you want to buy something that’s not absolutely necessary (and no, that new Macbook Air isn’t absolutely necessary), put it on the list with the date it was added to the list. Make a rule never to buy anything (except necessities) unless they’ve been on the list for 30 days. Often you’ll lose the urge to buy the stuff and you’ll save yourself a lot of money and clutter.
11. Teach your kids where things belong. This only applies to the parents among us, of course, but if you teach your kids where things go, and start teaching them the habit of putting them there, you’ll go a long way to keeping your house uncluttered. Of course, they won’t learn the habit overnight, so you’ll have to be very very patient with them and just keep teaching them until they’ve got it. And better yet, set the example for them and get into the habit yourself.
12. Set up some simple folders. Sometimes our papers pile up high because we don’t have good places to put them. Create some simple folders with labels for your major bills and similar paperwork. Put them in one spot. Your system doesn’t have to be complete, but keep some extra folders and labels in case you need to quickly create a new file.
13. Learn to file quickly. Once you’ve created your simple filing system, you just need to learn to use it regularly. Take a handful of papers from your pile, or your inbox, and go through them one at a time, starting from the top paper and working down. Make quick decisions: trash them, file them immediately, or make a note of the action required and put them in an “action” file. Don’t put anything back on the pile, and don’t put them anywhere but in a folder (and no cheating “to be filed” folders!) or in the trash/recycling bin.
14. Pull out some clothes you don’t wear. As you’re getting ready for work, and going through your closet for something to wear, spend a few minutes pulling out ones you haven’t worn in a few months. If they’re seasonal clothes, store them in a box. Get rid of the rest. Do this a little at a time until your closet (and then your drawers) only contains stuff you actually wear.
15. Clear out your medicine cabinet. If you don’t have one spot for medicines, create one now. Go through everything for the outdated medicines, the stuff you’ll never use again, the dirty-looking bandages, the creams that you’ve found you’re allergic to, the ointments that never had an effect on your energy or your eye wrinkles. Simplify to the essential.
16. Pull everything out of a drawer. Just take the drawer out and empty it on a table. Then sort the drawer into three piles: 1) stuff that really should go in the drawer; 2) stuff that belongs elsewhere; 3) stuff to get rid of. Clean the drawer out nice, then put the stuff in the first pile back neatly and orderly. Deal with the other piles immediately!
17. Learn to love the uncluttered look. Once you’ve gotten an area decluttered, you should take the time to enjoy that look. It’s a lovely look. Make that your standard! Learn to hate clutter! Then catch clutter and kill it wherever it crops up.
18. Have a conversation with your SO or roommate. Sometimes the problem isn’t just with us, it’s with the person or people we live with. An uncluttered home is the result of a shared philosophy of simplicity of all the people living in the house. If you take a few minutes to explain that you really want to have an uncluttered house, and that you could use their help, you can go a long way to getting to that point. Try to be persuasive and encouraging rather than nagging and negative. Read more about living with a pack rat.

“We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.” – Donald Horban

Okay, where to start?

• Celebrate? No! That’s the main problem! You clean out a drawer and then celebrate by throwing the back in the basement and not finishing the project! Only adding more clutter to the basement and giving you a new junk drawer! Do not celebrate! Instead, reward yourself with a favorite TV show or a shower or glass of ice mint water. But celebrating gives off the illusion that you are done. You’re not done. You’re back at square one, if not farther back.
• In what world will spending five minuets a day cleaning your house fix it?
• Papers? That is an issue! We do tend to stash them everywhere and anywhere but for a reason. I know in my house if there are papers on the counter, they are usually not top priority and can be put off until the end of the week. If they are really important they go on the breakfast table (AKA my mom’s office).  And same thing goes for the other spaces. If a piece of paper is in the car it means a few things: one it has to do with the car, it’s a check that needs to be cashed, notes from a meeting or random junk that needs to be tossed out. We have two stacks, one in a cup holder on my side and the other is the sun-visor on my mom’s side.
• The rest of the article just isn’t realistic in my lifestyle – it may work for her and her family but not me.

Why Can’t My House Look Like THAT?

You see it all the time. Those makeover shows on TV that make a person’s house perfect for that week and then – BAM – they’re just cluttered with nicer stuff – and they still didn’t get rid of their old stuff.

You try to make your bedroom look romantic so you look online. The main piece of advice I got was to keep the laundry in the laundry room. Which is fine… if you have a Pinterest House. For those of you who don’t know what Pinterest is, you have to ask yourself this question: am I a project person? If so – welcome! To the utopia of the World Wide Web. If not – SAVE YOURSELVES!

For those of you who are fellow pinners, you know the endless list of pros and the short list of cons. But how many times have you “nail it?” and made your house look like that pin or that board or even what you have in your head? Sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all. I am a firm believer in Pinterest and even planned my teacher’s wedding using nothing but one magazine clipping of a barn and a Pinterest account.

But I digress…

I’m just a girl trying to make her Pinterest House – and get OUT.