It Works So Well

Since I moved to the blogger platform, I've been on a little hiatus. Also helping out with that was a massive house clean prior to our oldest son having a sleepover that the boy's helped out with. In the following days I announced "I quit" with house chores and fully relinquished the responsibility of keeping up after their minute messes to them before any right to play. So far it's worked out.

Now to still take care of myself. The whole before and after photo thing is just SO motivating, that I have to come back to it. I try without it, and get side-tracked almost instantly wondering what the heck I was doing. So for today, it was my desk. The best thing about having fully de-cluttered it already was it took less than five minutes to get it from before to after. The other great thing about before and after photos is I pay attention to little things I wouldn't normally pay attention to, but rather call it good enough - like extra wires hanging out of the USB, paper I rarely print with hanging out at the printer (it fits conveniently out of sight in the top copier portion of the printer), and telephone charger cords slipping out of the desk). There was a ton of trash, per the usual. I was going to post a photo, but then realized it had too many personal items in it.

 Before my desk was clean

After my desk was clean!

And, yes, I did change the website to a site that I came across while clearing magazines off the desk, as I had purposefully put one of the magazines there to remember to check out this website. Success!

House

In honor of Brando's birthday, I decided to repickup my recently decluttered spaces. I can't believe they got  that bad in such a short time, but they did. The fortunate part is how EASY they were to pick up since they were already decluttered. All that was there was trash, dirty clothes, and things to put away. Sound kind of gross? Yeah. But it's picked up now.

Our bedroom before

before 

 before

before 

 before

 Our bedroom after - and with a decent white balance

 after

 after

 after

Our lobby/office area before 

 before

 before

 before

Our lobby/office area after 

 after - with Brando's birthday gifts!

 after

 after

after 

 after

 Shoe area/hallway before

 after

 Kitchen island before

 after

 Living room before

before

 after

 after

after

Two in One

Yesterday, I did my office. Brando came up with the brilliant idea of putting the photos together side by side in a before and after duo. A "Bam!" in-your-face kinda before and after. I love it. Now to just figure out how to do it. Sorry to tease you, but I haven't yet!

Here are many different angles of the before of the desk:





The insane amounts of trash from those surfaces:





This trash is from the bookcase alone:





That small, tiny, seemingly harmless wooden mailbox divider? Held this disgusting amount of stuff.



An in-between thought-I-was-done few shots, but then realized the Pokemon poster still cluttered things up way too much and the magnets on the board were all wonky:





And, finally, the finished product. Whew!







For today, my project was much simpler, as I've already had a busy day. It involved the dresser that holds the boys room... in our living room. Yes, it's the way we keep their clothes from piling up on their dresser like crazy-town -- by being able to monitor it on a daily basis. Even then, it gets this bad, which isn't too bad considering the horrific mess I just showed you:



I put away all the stuff, removed the hook falling off from the wall, and threw all the trash:



And the finished product, with an added puppy:

Themes I Like

Misty Look

Ocean Mist

Structure

Tarski (Current)

This is what portions of the house look like 90% of the time

Most times we start out with all good intentions of keeping things clear, but unless it's VERY CLEARLY decorated it normally doesn't stay that way. This is how it ends up 90% of the time:

Fortunately, as long as we started with a clean slate, it's easy to get it back there. If we didn't start with a clean slate (such as the piles of ... in the garage) that's another story.

First, I put the few items of clothing away. Then, since trash was the majority of the culprit here I immediately attacked it. All this trash sat on top of that one lonely counter. Crazy.



Finally, I found a home for the pillows, the fan, and the guitar hero guitar.

Here is my fabulous after. The beach towels don't really have a home and they add a pop of color in an otherwise completely neutral area, so there they stay until they have a proper basket. Oh, and I listed the TV on Craigslist, so that will either be sold or donated soon.