Simplify

Knick Knacks: Clean Home, Fresh Start and a Giveaway!

April 28, 2010

This giveaway is now closed. The winners are; Emily, Cindy, Mercedes, Brandi, and Deborah!

Knickknack – a small trivial article usually intended for ornament.

Photo courtesy of Orin Zebest.

I have noticed that once you get one type of knickknack, people think that you are a collector, then for every birthday, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc… you receive more knickknacks to add to your collection. Before you know it, your shelves are overflowing with small or large decorative pieces. One day you will look around your home and think, “Do I really love Pez Dispensers this much?”

The problem is, sometimes the first knickknack was a gift and you didn’t necessarily love it. You end up with an entire house full of items you don’t really love, or that aren’t worth the hassle of dusting every week.

I have noticed one thing that makes a big difference in a home appearing clean is the absence of dust on shelves, furniture, pictures, and knickknacks. When I got married I had boxes full of knickknacks, a few of them I loved, but most of them I just kept because people had given them to me. It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t really want to dust these pieces on a regular basis. Over time I kept only the pieces that were truly special to me.

If you were to visit my house now, you would find very few items on my shelves and tables. I don’t like to dust so I don’t collect knickknacks. Because there are so few things to move and clean even my toddlers are able to help with the dusting. I like things simple, and for me simplifying means less visual clutter in my home.

When was the last time you went through and decluttered your shelves, tables, curio cabinets, dressers, side tables, and fireplace mantles? Go through your home and think about the things you collect. Do they bring you more joy than the stress of cleaning them? If the knickknacks are only a source of clutter and stress find them a new home.

To help you clean those shelves, Endust is giving away five coupons for a FREE Endust product. They have a new product, Endust Free Dusting and Cleaning spray, which reduces allergens on surfaces and in the air. This cleaning spray recently received the asthma & allergy friendly Certification Mark from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, making it the first fragrance-free, hypoallergenic dusting and cleaning product scientifically-proven to work.

To enter to win a coupon for a FREE Endust product leave me a comment and tell me what you collect. Giveaway ends Saturday, May 1, 2010.

Disclaimer: I do not dislike knickknacks, I dislike dusting them. I enjoy looking at other people’s collections. My mother-in-law has a collection of Santas that is one of my favorite things in her home.

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

Five Minute Pick-Up: Clean Home, Fresh Start

April 21, 2010

During the day my dining room usually looks like this.

Throughout our day we have five minute pick-ups. These clean-up times help little messes from becoming big messes. At the end of the day it only takes a few minutes to get the house put back together.

What do you do to stay on top of cleaning during the day?

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

730/365 Challenge February Update

March 3, 2010

Paper clutter is my biggest downfall…. I need to get better at filing immediately instead of waiting for a better time.

Can I just admit to a complete de-clutter FAIL this month? Exactly four things left my home and some of them were things I was returning: a piano music stand, homeschool curriculum I mailed to a friend, and shoes and a phone charger I borrowed from my sister- in-law.

I still have the same two boxes sitting in my basement waiting to go to Goodwill plus an additional bag in my bedroom. I could blame it on the snow, or being out of town, my husband’s knee surgery, the company we had last week, or lack of time. But as my pastor once said, lack of time is lack of desire.

Next week, four of my blogging turned real life friends will be coming for a visit, and I don’t want them to know about my yet to be dropped off at Goodwill boxes. So getting these boxes out of the house is now a priority!

The biggest problem with my clutter is that it is hidden. If you walked into my home you would think it was very clean and organized. I do a good job of organizing my clutter. But there are pockets of junk that need to be attacked and defeated in my home. The top drawer of my dresser, the tupperware cabinet, the school supply bin, and more. I find that I waste time and money when things are not in order. I tend to buy duplicates (things like printer ink when I can’t find the spare cartridges) or we waste time looking for things. One child who will not be named has spent over 30 minutes looking for a pencil with an eraser. Is that because we don’t have any…. no, it is because they aren’t put away correctly and we are unable to find them.

It is my goal in March to have the kids help me with all the clutter busting. If they have to spend time cleaning out, they will probably be more likely to keep it neat and organized once it is finished.

January Total: 23
February Total: 4
Total so far: 27

What left your house this month? What are your problem areas?

Visit Amy’s Finer Things for more 730/365 Challenge.

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

Motivated Moms 2010 Planner

January 4, 2010

I absolutely love the Motivated Moms 2010 Planner. For the past 16 years my family has struggled to stay on top of the chores. It seems like if we miss one weekly cleaning our house looks like this:

With nine people it doesn’t take much for the house to go from good to really, really bad.

Last year I found a solution to my cleaning dilemma. The Motivated Moms Planner. There are very few things that I think every homemaker (and working mom) must have, and this is one of them!

The Motivated Moms Planner is a year long planner that helps keep me organized and on top of daily activities. I use the Motivated Moms one week on each page planner. I print out each week and we all mark our names on the chores we are tackling each week. The chores are broken down into easy to accomplish tasks that take a short amount of time each day.
A example of a daily chores list from the planner:

Inventory refrigerator contents and plan meals around leftovers
Vacuum main/public rooms or 1st floor
De-clutter/organize desk
Dust office
Clean toilets
Replenish stock of toilet paper in bathrooms

My younger children are able to replace toilet paper, dust, and vacuum. My older kids can clean the toilets, which leaves me with inventory the fridge and de-clutter the desk. Our daily chores are finished in under 30 minutes.

If you diligently complete each day’s chores you end up with a super organized, clutter free, and clean home! I used this last year until I moved and I totally regret not starting back up in the new house. We spent most of our Saturdays plugging away at the cleaning… not fun!

The best part about this planner is that it is only eight dollars! I think that is a great deal for something that saves me hours each week and keeps my house organized!

If you want to see a sample page you can view it here. They have many different planner styles ranging from a page per day to a page per week. I like the page per week style, but every style is only eight dollars. You can visit their site to view all the different planner styles.

The folks at Motivated Moms have given me a coupon code to share with you. You can save $1 on your order by entering the code NEWYEAR. This code is good until January 14th 2010.

This post may contain a link to an affiliate. See my disclosure policy for more information.

Knick Knacks: Clean Home, Fresh Start and a Giveaway!

Five Minute Pick-Up: Clean Home, Fresh Start

730/365 Challenge February Update

Motivated Moms 2010 Planner

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