The beginning of the Declutter Calendar

So last year I found this really nice website www.simplerlife.com and signed up for their weekly emails.  This woman had also created a declutter calendar and unfortunately I didn't sign up for it at the beginning of the year but in April, so yes I did get the calendar, but I had a hard time starting it.  This year it may be day 12, but I've already completed the first 12 days of the calendar and my goal is to stick with it.  It feels so good to check off what I've completed and the results are awesome.  Some examples was to create a plan for what I want my kitchen to look like, clean out refrigerator shelves and clear everything on the outside of the furniture and reorganize what I want on it.

So......

Today I printed out the 2013 calendar and got to work.  I hate my kitchen, I don't like to be in it, but I like to cook.  My kitchen is super super tiny!!!! My plan for my kitchen is really just to make it work better and be more efficient.  I have so much stuff crammed in there, but it's not organized and it drives me nuts.  The extension of my kitchen is my dining room table that I inherited from my great grandma and I love the table even though we don't actually sit at it.  Hopefully this year I can re-stain it and keep it from being so cluttered.  So January 7th-11th dealt with my kitchen.  First on the 7th was to make a plan, then on the 8th and 9th I was to clean out two shelves, on the 10th clean out my condiment shelves and then yesterday I was to clear everything off the outside, wipe it down and put less back on.  Long story short, I did all of those this morning.  And for good measure I also cleaned out my freezer.  Found a lot that I don't eat and a lot that I use that I didn't know I had.  The results are phenomenal.  Almost makes me want to finish the rest of my kitchen, but I know that I need to pace myself because I'm really bad about thinking I should keep going when I really need to stop and take a breath.

Here are a few photos of the before and after.  Struggling with finding good software for putting pictures together and this one I found wouldn't let me type anything.

 My clean refrigerator, sorry didn't take before photos, it was just too embarrassing.  Had a lot of things I use but didn't know I had, so can't wait to cook tonight!!!

 

My clean freezer.  The pictures on the left are the before.  It may not look like a huge difference, but there was a lot of stuff crammed onto those shelves that you really can't see.  Now everything has a spot and I threw away a ton of stuff I've had in there since 2008.  Oops!!!

More Decluttering to come!!!