/**/ The Purposeful Wife: Nesting: Get Organized

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Nesting: Get Organized

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The thing about kids is that kids seem to bring hither-to-fore unknown amounts of STUFF along with them. Clothing, toys, furniture, books, accessories, shoes... the rapid pace of their development and changes in sizes, phases, and interests means you have a constantly fluctuating, constantly growing collection. When you plan on having more children, frugality and common sense dictate hanging onto all of the outgrown things too. Yikes. 

On top of all of our kid's stuff, most of us also have a personal stuff problem. And probably a husband with his own stuff problems. 

I've always felt like if I can't fix a problem now, it is only going to get more impossible to tackle the longer I put it off. This is especially true when adding another person to your family. More kids= less time + more stuff. 

Keeping a neat and tidy home space is much easier the less stuff you have. With less clutter, I have less to pick up before cleaning, and less to move during cleaning. 

When I was a first time mom, I pretty much kept everything anyone gave me. We are talking about garbage bags galore of clothing, huge bins of toys, and every silly little baby "must-have" invention. If it was free, it might come in handy someday. 

As my family grows I'm becoming pickier and pickier, and much more of a minimalist. 

Instead of having all three of her wide dresser drawers packed with clothing and accessories like she did as a baby, my daughter now has one drawer. Drawer 2 is for the new baby, and drawer 3 houses games and puzzles. My son has two narrower dresser drawers. I hang almost all of my kids' clothing in the single large closet in my daughter's bedroom, their drawers are for undergarments, socks, pajamas and pants. 

My best advice for paring down clothes is to ask yourself how many outfits your child actually needs. If you do laundry regularly, they most likely don't need more than 10. Maybe 20 if they tend to be extra messy, have re-flux issues, or are potty training. :) Pare down ruthlessly and keep only what you LOVE. If you love dressing your child in an outfit, they will get a lot of wear out of it. If it is stained, torn, or just not your favorite... it is just taking up space. 

As for toys, I went into greater detail on how we cut back and organized in this post

During this pregnancy I did a 30 Day minimalist challenge. It made a huge dent in our stuff problem! I'm also currently reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (who isn't or hasn't... am I right?) and finding lots of good inspiration in it. 

With my due date looming, my days to declutter and organize are seriously numbered. But I would love to get a few more large garbage bags and boxes dropped at Goodwill before welcoming this new little lady! 

Recommended Reading:
Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider

Helpful links:


CLICK HERE
 to see the rest of the posts in this series, and get some serious nesting motivation!

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