Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider gave me the game plan for simplifying and decluttering our home. It was so therapeutic getting things pared down… but it was also a lot of work. You wouldn’t think that an 800 square foot apartment could hide away so many unneeded “treasures.” When all was said and done the back of our mini van was full of things to be donated, and we had several bags go the consignment shop (which we ended up making 80 euros from… not bad).

Here’s a list of a few little changes we have made since the first time I read the book:

-took the throw pillows off our bed (in a later season in life I hope to add them back on…). It’s one less hurdle to have the bed made and clears clutter from the floor

-Dave makes a large pot of oatmeal for our family in the morning

-created separate drawers for Dave, the kids and me for our outer wear gear: hats, mitten, etc. The kids have a little Eiffel Tower sticker on their drawer to help them know which drawer is theirs

-moved my belts from my closet to the drawer with my jeans

-put a large Ikea storage bin in the kids’ closet where I toss all outgrown clothes. When it’s full I organise the clothes by size/gender and store the clothes accordingly

-toy bins were added under our buffet with little tags to help everyone know what goes where

-I also have a permanent “give away” and “consignment shop” bag; it makes it easy to move unnecessary things out of the house

-if I think of it, I’ll measure out all the dry ingredients for two recipes at a time. Example: if I’m making pancakes, I’ll measure out what we need for that morning and at the same time, I’ll measure out the same dry ingredients in a Ziplock bag for another morning. The trick is to label very clearly what still needs to be added : )

-we gave away our coffee table. Instead, we move our small end tables if we need a “coffee table.” It freed up a lot of space for the kids to play

-we have a bottle of table cleaner/disinfectant (50/50 water & vinegar) stashed in our buffet to make cleaning the table easier

-lastly, meal planning! Yep, it has made my life so much easier. Check out my previous post on meal planning if you’re interested (fyi, they aren’t running their Black Friday sale anymore but they do have a free 30 day trial)

It’s great to look back and remember the ways the hard work is still paying off. However, two years later, it is time to get at it again! After putting away the Christmas decorations this week, I’ve organised the kids’ craft closet, my craft closet and cleared off the buffet. Stay tuned to see what spaces are next! The key is one space at a time. One space at a time… not the whole apartment at once.

What are a few ways you’ve simplified?