Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 4 and a book giveaway!

My 'home office' is more like a desk that I use to 'collect' items to be put away at another time. You know the place, the one where you say, "I'll just put it here 'for now' and put it away later." After lots of 'I'll just put it here for now', this is what my desk looks like:

And here is the funny part...today's challenge was to remove 50 pieces of clutter from your home office. Want to see what my desk looked like after removing 50 pieces of clutter?

You might be saying, "Well, that looks better." But I only cleared away about half of what was on my desk!! I really need a better system of handling all of this paperwork...

So, because I didn't want to leave this area half done, I continued on until...

YES!! Ah, NOW it looks so much better! I stopped keeping track of how much I cleared from my desk. It is kind of embarrassing that there were more than 50 items on my desk that needed to be somewhere else.

But fortunate for my readers, I did find a few items I have acquired which I have duplicates of. So I will be doing a few giveaways!

First up, a brand new copy of Hope Rising by Dr. Scott Todd. Just post a comment below and I will draw a winner on Monday, January 18th (giveaway limited to residents of the United States).

And if you are wanting to participate in this Kickstart to Clutter Free Challenge? You really need to purchase Kathi's eCourse. She is such a great motivator to helping you along this journey. I hope you consider it!

Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 3

Today's area from Kathi's eCourse is one that I usually don't have too much trouble keeping clutter free. The kitchen counter top...

But then again, on this particular day, I was able to find homes for 19 things that really don't need to live on my counter.

Once I put each of these items away (and a few items ended up in the giveaway box), I cleared the remaining items off the counter and cleaned all the surfaces.

This is another before picture, but I wanted to show this to point out one thing. See the bananas hanging? Years ago, we put a large cup hook under the counter to keep the bananas off the counter. Honestly, I believe it helps keep the bananas from getting too ripe too quickly. Every now and then, we have a stray banana that doesn't like to stay with the group. Today, I gave that stray banana a new home...

...in the freezer! This will be a great way to have ripe bananas on hand for smoothies or banana bread, yum!

So what did the counter look like once I was done with this challenge?

Ah! And this took me no more than 15 minutes to acheive! 

Now some people might ask why my KitchenAide mixer is still on my counter? I use that thing every single week, and I really don't have the cabinet space to store it. Plus, I don't know if you have ever lifted one of those things, but they are heavy! I would rather have it on my counter and use it, than continually have to lift it out of a counter which might prevent me from using it as often.

The great thing about a challenge like this is we are able to tweak somethings to suit our own individual needs.

Stay tuned for Day 4!

Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 2

Today's area of focus from Kathi was 25 items from the surfaces in your bedroom...and I knew exactly what area I needed to tackle...and I am so embarrassed to post this photo of what the top of my dresser has looked like for way too long...

 I started by taking everything off the dresser and immediately throwing away the garbage (that padded envelope on top of the wooden jewelry box? the date on it was September 2014!) Once everything was off the dresser, the next step was...

...DUST!! Yep, that is disgusting, ew...

One thing I knew I needed to tackle was all the long necklaces I have acquired. So I enlisted the help of my handy son who put together a necklace hanger for my closet. With a few wooden door knobs and a scrap piece of wood from our garage, I now have this...

...a perfect place to store all of my long necklaces!

Before I put things back on top of my dresser, I dusted everything off and determined whether it was a keeper or a giveaway item. Then I started putting things back in their new places.

And here is the after! I can't even believe that this is actually the top of my dresser!

If this doesn't convince you to give Kathi's method a try, I am not sure what will! I still have 12 days to go on this challenge and will be sharing with you the before and after as I go through each step.

Stay tuned for Day 3!

Kickstart to Clutter Free - Day 1

There is nothing like traveling on a Compassion trip to realize how filled our homes are with stuff.

Now don't get me wrong...there are 'things' in my home that I love:

My piano that I learned to play on many years ago...

My library of books that give me an opportunity to sit with a cup of tea...

My KitchenAide mixer that helps me prepare many baked goods for my family and friends...

My family photos which remind me of many memories...

But there are many things in my home that distract me and cause me grief:

The piles of paper...

The unorganized craft items...

The clothes in my closet I haven't worn in years...

One book, though, has truly helped me look at clutter in my home with new eyes...

Clutter Free by Kathi Lipp 

After I read this book over the summer, I immediately cleared out a full bookcase of books. For people who know me in real life, they know that this was a huge step for me! 

So last week, when I learned that Kathi has launched a Kickstart to Clutter Free eCourse, I knew I wanted to sign up!

Her promise is to help you remove 500 things from your home in 14 days.

Today, I tackled Day 1 of the course...remove 100 pieces of paper!

I had quite a collection of sales flyers from Christmas sales that needed to be tossed.

The bulk of the paper in our home is contained in these files. Old bills. Yep, I had old bills in these files from 2011.

I started to shred these old bills and other paper items with our address on them...well, that is until the shredder started to overheat and stopped working, yikes! Guess I need a better system to handling these old bills.

The good news though...Day 1 of this Kickstart to Clutter Free challenge has been a success!! Over 100 pieces of paper are now in the recycle bin, phew!

So tomorrow, Day 2, the challenge is to remove 25 things from my bedroom.

Do you think this challenge is for you? Be sure to check out Kathi's web site. She can help you clear the clutter from your home so you can have more time and resources to focus on things you love.

Stuck in a rut...

How many times have you made dinner over the last 25 years?

If you made dinner every night for the last 25 years that would be over 9,000 dinners!!

Now I know I have not made dinner every single night over the last 25 years, but I know I have made many, many meals...and to be honest...I am stuck in a rut.

What should we have for dinner?

As much as I love making homemade meals for my family, I am really tired of the same things I have been making for years.

So...I got really excited when I saw this cookbook at Costco recently...

Fifty-two weeks of menus! This is exactly what I was looking for to add a bit of variety to my weekly menu...and each menu has a recipe for a main dish, a side, AND a dessert, oh yum!

Our first adventure was Menu 48...because why should we start at the very beginning...

Chicken Parmesan Crescents, Honey Cashew Green Beans...

... and Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Parfaits

Not only were these recipes easy to prepare, but my family (and my neighbors that we fed that night) loved them! I loved that not only was a main dish recipe provided, but a side dish also! Each menu does come with a dessert recipe, but I am not sure if I will prepare dessert each week. But it is nice to have some options in case we have friends over for dinner.

So this week, we are going to give Menu 18 a try...Grilled-Chicken Alfredo Pizza and BLT Salad...my daughter is really looking forward to this one.

If you are stuck in a rut for what to make for dinner, you might want to find this recipe book to add to your collection, A Year with Six Sisters' Stuff.