Decluttering is ALWAYS a goal of mine. I always feel like I have too much clutter in my life - not only physical clutter - as in 'stuff' - but cluttered lives as well. Too much going on - not enough time to accomplish everything - makes my life feel cluttered.
My house is tiny - and this leads to accumulated clutter very quickly. We don't have a lot of storage - or closets in our house - so I am always looking for creative storage solutions - pieces of furniture that do double duty as extra storage - shelves, baskets, etc - that give extra space. We just purchased an ottoman for the sunroom that has a shelf underneath as well as a small amount of storage inside - it will be perfect for magazines, the remote controls etc. Here is a picture of it from the manufacturer. I may look for some baskets to fit on the shelf to hide some of the items I want to store there.
I am also a big believer in under the bed storage. My kids always had several under their beds - for toy storage or off season clothes. I use one under our bed for off-season shoes and extra bedding.
Right now most of my house is very organized. Because the house is tiny you can see most rooms from the downstairs hallway. Therefore the 1st floor rooms are almost always straightened up and clutter free. Once in a while newspapers pile up right before recycling day - I need to find a solution for this.
But our 2nd floor and the basement are out of control right now. And it is driving me crazy! Our 2nd floor has only two rooms. The steps open right up into our bedroom - which is huge! There is also a small bedroom off of ours -which has been used as a nursery as well as an office area. Right now it is a room in transition. It eventually will be a craft studio for me. All my supplies are in there - some are even organized - but there are piles of other supplies as well as books, magazines, pictures and the ironing basket and ironing board. My husband's closet is also in this room. My goal is to switch out closets with my husband - move his stuff into the closet in our bedroom and move my clothes to the closet in the craft room - then all my stuff will be together.
Once his things are out of there I think it will be easier to organize since I won't have to share space. I have some ideas for how I want it organized - but need to really sit down and think about what I want to do in there. All of this will most likely happen after the new year since December is such a busy month.
Each night I am trying to take a small area in the house and declutter - even if it is just one or two drawers in the kitchen or a closet. Small steps!

