Streamlining Saturdays: Project Simplify (Part Two)

Boy howdy. Just about the time I think, "Wow. I've got this under control. I'm doing great!" I read a blog post like this one.

If you didn't click the link above, I'll fill you in: Jordan of Oh Happy Day is moving into a 450 sq ft apartment in San Francisco with her husband and two sons. Yep. Four of them. In 450 sq ft. Now, granted, they live in California and are probably not so sequestered indoors for the majority of the year like us Portlanders, and they have an art studio close by that they work out of, but still...

Don't get me wrong. I don't need a mansion. At all. In fact, my dream home would be just about as tiny as possible, but with everything perfectly placed and expertly crafted to provide maximum organization. I mean, I like a little room to breathe. But those Ikea model floor plans make me a little giddy. (Admittedly, my dream home is the apartment out of Friends. Yeah... one great room that's well organized and arranged and two bedrooms. With a view of Central Park Forest Park and a little balcony for entertaining.)
And then I think back to my simplification project. All of this stuff... no way would it ever fit in an Ikea home.

So I did some more cleansing and purging. Next step: closets.

I think I took over half the clothes out of my girls' closet. I realized I was dreading doing laundry because it was always such an insurmountable task. So I decided to get rid of the clothes that didn't fit them or I didn't really like in an effort to minimize the laundry I had to do. It's been nice.

And in my own closet I got rid of anything I haven't worn in a year. Way too many things were being saved "just in case." Or because I loved the color even though the article didn't actually fit. Or because it had some sort of sentimental value. I'm a grown up now (gasp!). I should probably act like one, especially when it comes to my wardrobe. No more uncomfortable shirts just because they're cheap. No more anything that isn't perfect. I've realized that if that dress/top/skirt/whatever didn't work out, there will come along one that will and I'll love it and I'll be sad if I wasted my money on something that didn't.

So the guidelines I used to clean out the closet go as follows:

• If you haven't worn it in a year, it's out.
• If it is showing wear and tear, it's out. 
• If it doesn't fit, it's out. 
• If you don't like it and don't feel pretty in it, it's out. 

Pretty simple, right? Well, I bet you'd be surprised how much of your closet would go under that criteria. My mom always said that you only wear something like 50% of your wardrobe. And I've come to realize that's true. I have the clothes I love because they fit well/comfortably, have multiple uses and make me feel pretty. The rest is surplus that could probably go. And when it does, you suddenly have more space for the things that matter. And less time doing laundry and more time having fun. That's something I can get on board with.

Other helpful hints for keeping your closet organized and in good use:
Make sure things don't get hidden. Once piles start to form things get lost and don't get used.
Build your wardrobe consciously. If you get home with something that doesn't really add to your closet (i.e. it doesn't go with anything you already have), return it. If you buy something really trendy you later decide you can't pull off, return it. Get something you'll actually love. I also like to keep a running list of pieces I would like to add to my wardrobe. So when a sale comes along I can hunt with purpose.
Have a place for everything. Color-code your hanging clothes so you can easily access what you need. Display your jewelry so you remember to wear it. You can even do something simple like use a cork board and some push pins to get your jewelry out and about. Keep things like belts and scarves in clear containers so you can see what you have. 

P.S. How do you add to your wardrobe? Nicole of Making it Lovely recommends these 8 Wardrobe Pieces Worth Investing In. What do you think the basic are? Or do you not care about basics? Is it all about fun and trendy styles?

P.P.S. After my make-up reducing purge of last week I saw this article (and this one) on Design Mom discussing beauty and makeup and what it says about us. A very interesting discussion. Check it out.

Streamlining Saturdays: Project Simplify

I've been inspired to do a real, heartless, deep spring cleaning. The kind that gets rid of everything that "might be useful someday" or is sentimental because someone gave it to me a long time ago.

Why? you may ask. Well, I'll tell you.

First off, I saw this post by Sherry of Young House Love. The whole thing is about how they simplify their lives by sticking to the same basic cleaners, detergents and soaps all the time and so on and so forth.... but what really knocked my socks off (and into the garbage because they're hole-y and have got to go), was the description of Sherry's makeup bag that has... get ready for it... 7 things in it. That's right. 7. My makeup bag... more like 700 things. Ok, that's an exaggeration. I promise. But it got me thinking about how many things I keep just because I might need them one day or because of this or that.

And then it hit me. I'm a grown woman. With enough money to go buy myself some new mascara if I need it. So there is no reason to horde old mascaras in case of emergency. It's not like I'm preparing for a Y2K-esque panic or anything... I just horde things unnecessarily.

After some paring down, my make up bag now looks like this:

A little better than before, although I didn't take a picture of that. Just a few things:

1. Mary Kay Foundation Primer
2. MK Liquid Foundation
3. MK Powder Foundation
4. MK Bronzer
5. MK Eye Shadow Quartet in Amethyst (old)
6. Bare Minerals Eye Shadow
7. MK Satin Lips Lip Balm
8. Eye Shadow Brush by Mary Kay
9. Powder Brush by Mary Kay
10. Sephora Black Waterproof Eyeliner
11. Sephora Lip Gloss
12. Tweezers by La Cross
13. Eyelash Curler
14. Voluminous False Fibers Mascara by L'Oreal 
15. Sponge

So I may have twice as much stuff as Sherry does... but I think I'm doing a lot better.  Admitedly, I'm a little "in to" makeup. My mom has been a consultant with Mary Kay for a long time... so I get a good discount and love trying new products. My current loves are the Foundation Primer (which is so great for helping your makeup last throughout the day) and as always, the Satin Lips Lip Balm - I will never use anything else for my lips. It's the best!

But tell me... do I use just tons more makeup than anyone else? The secret is, this isn't even all of my makeup. This is just the basic stuff. Although I did get rid of a lot of the rest, I still have extra eye shadows and blushes for special occasions. And, when I'm at home, I use more brushes. This is really my very basic makeup bag that I could grab in a hurry. Do I need help? Or is this normal?

Either way, I really have cleaned out a lot and gotten down to the very basics (at least for me). The rest of my bathroom countertop looks like this:

1. Mary Kay Time Wise Cleanser and Moisturizer for Normal to Dry Skin
2. Dreams Unlimited perfume by  The Body Shop
3. Bumble and Bumble Thickening Hairspray
4. Bumble and Bumble Does It All Hairspray
5. Cotton balls, duh
6. A clock, because, well, without one I would never, ever be on time anywhere

So yeah. That was step one. Getting the makeup/body products hording under control. I'm pretty happy with how cleaned out things have become. And then I tackled the clothes. More on that next Saturday. Until then, want to join me in the simplification process? It feels absolutely divine!

Streamlining Saturdays: Reducing Paper Waste (Sustainability Edition)

I mentioned last Saturday that we are composting now and attempting to reduce our waste in general. One of the main things that fills up our garbage can each week is paper waste: paper towels, plates, and napkins, cotton balls, Kleenex, etc. So we're going paperless.

Going paperless hasn't turned out to be very hard at all. You just have to replace your general disposable paper with permanent things. We aren't getting paper towels anymore. Instead, I have a color-coded washcloth system that makes them obsolete.

• Baby washclothes to clean the girls up after meals and before bedtime, washing hands and faces.
• White washclothes to wash my  face every morning/evening instead of using disposable makeup removing clothes or cotton balls.
• Striped dish washclothes and towels for the kitchen (obviously) and cleaning the table after meals.
• Pink waschlothes for cleaning the bathroom.
• Orange washclothes for dusting, windows and other little household messes.
• Blue washclothes are for cleaning the floor.

As long as you wash your washclothes in hot water and detergent, there is really no reason to not use them again and again. I separate bath towels and the white and baby waschlothes from the cleaning washclothes to avoid them coming into contact with the harsh chemicals used for cleaning.

We have also decided not to buy paper plates anymore. We use regular dinner plates if just a few people are coming over. And if there is going to be a party we have thin, plastic, reusable plates from CostCo. They take up much less space than regular plates but can be hand-washed and reused. 

Reducing paper waste is much less expensive, and in the long run, more convenient than constantly running out of paper towels or plates. We still use paper napkins at dinner time, but at least they are compostable along with any leftovers from the meal.

So that's what we're up to lately... Happy Saturday!

Streamlining Saturdays: Changing Habits (Sustainability Edition)

For those of you who don't know, we live in Portland, Oregon. Our city just started a composting service that couldn't be easier - just throw all your food and biodegradable waste in a green bin that gets picked up every week. To encourage people to compost they have reduced regular garbage pick up to only every other week. Meaning only compost and recyclables get picked up every week. Meaning we need to greatly reduce our waste.

I'm so excited about this challenge. And a challenge it will be. So much of the waste we have is a result of conveniences we have gotten used to, but certainly don't need. I immediately put a system in place to change our garbage habits so that we'll be able to compost and recycle and greatly reduce the amount we send to landfills (*shudder*).

First part of the plan:
Move your garbage can. You will quickly realize that most waste could either by recycled or composted if you took a little extra time to put it in a different location. We have compost and recycling receptacles under the kitchen sink, but I moved the garbage can all the way out to the garage. This little change means I am aware every time I throw something away (since the garbage can is not in it's regular place in the kitchen) and so I consciously decide whether it really belongs in the trash or in the compost or recycling. I am proud to say that this simple change helped us reduce our waste to only half a garbage bag, even after a week of having people over for Steve's birthday.

Come back next week for more parts of the plan! (This makes me sound like an evil genius, which I am not.)

Streamlining Saturdays: Closet Maintenance (Grown-Ups Edition)

We have a really small closet that my husband and I share. No big walk-in for us. Sometimes it is not very fun, but most of the time it helps us keep our clothes pared down to the ones we actually really wear.

I'm one of five kids and until I was in high school we lived in a tiny little three bedroom house. All four girls shared one (big) bedroom and one closet. As crazy as that sounds now, my mom really made it work. She taught us a few simple tips that I still follow today to keep my tiny closet managable: 

• If you don't like something - and I mean everything about that something (style, fit, color, feel) - get rid of it. There is no reason to hang on to clothes you don't like and don't feel good wearing. (To help with this, I keep a constant "donate/consign" basket under my bed. When I come across something that I realize I really just don't like, I toss it in there.)
• When you go shopping, don't buy things unless they actually fit into your existing wardrobe. You don't want those lone pieces that never get worn floating around.
• Use a replacement system: when you do purchase something you love, use it as an opportunity to get rid of/donate/consign something you don't like quite so much.
• Build your basics. Simple, go-to pieces that can be dressed up or down based on your accessories should fill up the majority of your closet. Use accessories to bring in the color and flash to your wardrobe. They generally take up much less room, so the fact that you wear them more occasionally doesn't matter as much.

Even if you don't have limited closet space, free your mind and your time by keeping your closet simple so you can spend less time getting dressed and more time enjoying everything else life has to offer! Yay!

Streamlining Saturdays: Closet Maintenance (Kids Edition)

I know it's been a bit quiet around here the last few days, but I thought I'd stop by with a few tips on maintaining kids' closets. They can get pretty overwhelming, sometimes. But with a few simple rules, it is easy to maintain closets that are easily accessible and fully functional (i.e., you are able to actually see and use everything in them!).

 My two girls are still pretty little, so their clothing size changes frequently. We could quickly be overloaded with clothes, so to keep it simple, I try to stick to the following rules for keeping clutter and excess to a minimum.

First off, choose a color scheme and stick to it. For Olivia, who is wearing size 6-9 months, I have chosen pastels. For Ellie, who is in 2T, I have gone with deep hues, like magenta, navy, persimmon and army green. Sticking to a color scheme makes fewer clothes go farther because they mix and match. Since leggings and tunics are pretty trendy right now, I invest in a few pairs of good leggins and then get several tunics, dresses, shirts or sweaters to go with them. This keeps their closets paired down because every item has many possible outfits it's a part of (read: money-saving!).

In accordance with this, don't hang on to any one piece of clothing that doesn't really go with anything else. And don't hang on to things you've been given that you don't really like. Don't feel guilty about donating or consigning something you know you won't use. (Somebody else may be able to get tons of use out of it.) 

And save yourself future hassle and clutter by being selective about what you put into storage for future kids. Don't keep anything that was never worn. (If you didn't like it this past summer you are even less likely to want to use it two summers from now). Don't keep anything that is really worn out. Even second and third kids deserve a few new clothes to fill in the gaps that hand-me-downs leave, so if it's got holes or stains it can stand to be retired. 

More next week on adult closets. Yay! I don't know about you, but I absolutely love living clutter-free. It gives me more time and brain space to enjoy the things that really matter.

Streamlining Saturdays: Kitchen Clean Up

I'm one of the messiest cooks in existence. Seriously. I can't seem to adopt that "clean as you go" mentality. This is why most of the cooking happens when Steve is not around - he can't stand how messy I make the kitchen. I try to convince him that you can't be both creative and neat at the same time, but this argument doesn't win him over. Anyway... the moral of this post is that I have been trying to figure out little ways I can make clean up easier after all is said and done.

The main problem of my messy cooking is dirty dishes: dirty bowls and pots and many, many dirty spoons, spatulas and whisks. I'm one of those types who gets out a new spoon every time something needs to be tested for consistency. Or I lose my spoon each time I set it down and before you know it every single spoon in the entire kitchen is used up and I'm still not done making whatever it is that I was making. So, I figured out that using a small glass to hold my utensils keeps them from 1) getting the counter sticky, 2) getting lost. Even if I have to use a few different utensils for the actual creation process, I at least don't end up using 8 spatulas to scrape one pan.

See... so handy. Now I only use one of each. And my favorite part... while cleaning up I can just add water to the glass to make the dish washing much easier when the time comes. :-)

Streamlining Saturdays: Toy Maintenance

If you have kids then you know that the toy situation can very quickly get out of hand. And by that I mean that there can be a lot of toys and they can be everywhere. As a solution to this problem, I have designated toy containers in the house: a trunk of toys in the living room and a few baskets of toys in each of the girls' rooms. To make sure that the toys always fit in their designated areas, I rotate toys. That means that once a toy is no longer age appropriate or well-loved, I either put it in storage (for later use) or donate it. Especially after birthdays or Christmas I purge the old toys out. If they are great toys that just don't get much use, I keep them for re-introduction at the next purge. This makes it seem like the girls get brand-new toys every few months, when, in fact, they've just forgotten about them and get to enjoy them anew.

Streamlining Saturdays: Silverware

In an effort to streamline the putting-dishes-away process, I have learned that sorting the silverware as you put it in dishwasher makes it so much easier to put away afterwards.

Streamlining Saturdays: Socks

Well, we've got Speechless Sundays and I think soon I'll start Mommy Mondays to discuss all things having to do with being a mom - the ups and downs, the joys and trials. As a mom I try to find any way possibly to make my time more effective - whether that be housekeeping, laundry, crafting, raising children... whatever. So, as I encounter great tips for streamlining tasks - household or otherwise - I'll share them with you here. If you have a tip you'd like to share, feel free to email it to me (I'll give you credit!).

To begin this series I'd like to share with you my absolute favorite tip. Ever. Ready? Ok.

Instead of spending tons of time matching socks after you've done your laundry, do this: Fold each pair together as you toss them into the laundry hamper. On laundry day, take your pairs of socks and use a safety pin to clip them together at the toe. Once they have been washed and dried, they're already paired up and ready to be put away!

This tip, which I learned from my mother when I was in high school, has literally saved me hundreds of hours of sock-pairing time. Before our house was revolutionized by this thought we spent many a weekend pairing mismatched socks while watching movies. And, inevitably, we ended up throwing away many socks that had become mate-less. I honestly don't think I've lost a sock since starting this. It has undoubtedly streamlined my laundry process, giving me that much more time to do things I love, or at least watch movies in peace.