My Simplifying Home 8 Week Journey: Week 2, Day 7

Ben's terrarium: Copyright © by Phyllis Wheeler, June 2014

So much has happened since my original post that I should probably break this down into multiple posts but I will aim to be concise and still give you all the main points and lessons learned. First of all, I'm extremely thankful for Trina's encouragement in her opening to week two: "You do not have to complete every item on the list. This is all about jumping in with your best effort, whatever that may be." 

While I started this challenge with the intention of doing everything on the list for every week, my health did not cooperate. I did manage to get almost everything for week 1 done (except the foyer closet, which I'll need help to do) but I probably got less than 20% of week 2 done. However, once it became obvious to me that I wouldn't be able to follow her plan I thought about my living room and what areas would make the biggest difference to declutter/reorganize and focused there. I chose three areas: my side table by the couch, my needlecraft drawer and my aromatherapy/asthma treatment/cat treat cubby. 

I had gone through my whole living room earlier this year, excepting the needlecraft drawer, so it wasn't too bad. The three areas I selected get a lot of use and serve multiple purposes and I thought they could use a good clean out. The "worst" part of my end table was the shelf between the top and the drawer (the drawer is like a filing cabinet drawer and I put my current knitting project in there plus loose balls of yarn). You can see the "before" on the left and the "after" on the right in the pictures below. I got rid of everything that didn't belong there and categorized what remains to make things easier to find. I also unburied my owl craft and put it in front to remind me to work on it soon.

The needlecraft drawer didn't look bad but it was the area that had gone the longest between clean outs and everything was just tossed in where it could fit, instead of by category. I removed the non-needlecraft items and stuff I didn't think I'd ever use and then organized the remaining items by subtype of needlecraft. Now the drawer has separate knitting, crochet and cross stitch areas. It should be faster and easier to find the tools I need for future projects.

I haven't gotten to the aromatherapy/asthma treatment/cat treat cubby yet but am hoping to do that tonight. I have some dear friends visiting (they should arrive within the hour!) from out of state and don't want to be in the middle of that when they arrive. So if I feel up to it this evening, I'll feel really good about having completed my top three priority areas for the living room. And if not, at least I will have had a great visit with my friends. 

Like last week, I was really thankful to find that I already had some of thing simplifying home week two checklist items completed before I even started. This week, these items were:

• Air-cleansing houseplants: I have many houseplants, including some Chinese evergreens and false bamboo (air cleaning powerhouses). However, after reading Trina's separate houseplant post and following the links therein I've decided to get a peace lily in the near future. It does a special kind of air filtering that none of my other houseplants do and I've missed having one. I just have to figure out where I'll put it before I buy it.
• At home date night: Every night is an at home date night for my hubby and me. Because of my health challenges we don't go anywhere at night. There are advantages and disadvantages but the biggest advantage is that I have my favorite man at home with me every single night.

Hearty thanks to Trina of Beginner Beans for making this free resource available and her beautiful heart for God. May God bless her and may He bless you too! Thank you for sharing my Simplifying Home journey!

Related posts:
My Simplifying Home week 1 post: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-simplifying-home-8-week-journey-week.html
10 minute office supply organizing: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/08/10-minute-office-supply-cube.html
My home vision: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-home-vision-new-series-on.html