Hey guys, welcome back to our channel. Today we're gonna talk about decluttering. Behind me is going to be our test subject...
Which is actually a room in my parents house. This is my mom sort of multi-purpose sewing room and office
And today we're going to work on getting it organized and usable because, as you can see right now,
It is NOT. Either of those (laughing)
So our first step is going to be emptying out the room. We're gonna get everything out of there into the patio
And then from there we're gonna go about organizing and putting it back in in a usable way
So come take a look and let us know what you think
It's become a junk room, because you know life happens and you get busy and you, you just ... I don't know.
It becomes a junk room. Any way Joseph and Melisa....
They're here in town and Joseph and Melisa are gonna help me get organized
We're going to get this room together so I can start sewing again.
I need to finish my baby sister's...
quilt I have hanging on the wall. I made a wall hanging for my brother Mike and
(Crying) Why am I getting teary eyed from a stupid quilt?
(Melisa) It's okay, Donna.
(Joseph) So Mama, how long have you been wanting to finish the quilt?
(Donna) Probably four years maybe. Maybe longer than that
It's been a while
because my friend Teresa helped me start it and ...
It it's a pretty quilt and I picked out all the patterns for my sister
(Donna) (crying) This is so stupid.
(Melisa) It's not...
You know what I think this shows how important it is to clean this room out because this is like an emotional connection
Totally
All right, Donna
We're gonna get started then cuz this is obviously... this is important. (Donna) Yes...
Debbie, I'll finish your quilt. I promise. (Melisa) Yes. Let's go.
We are just about done with the first phase
basically
We just put everything outside. Took it out of the room, and we categorized it by kitchenware, home wares, ...
holiday decorations, and things like that. And so now we are gonna go into the really difficult stage
This is the nitty-gritty of decluttering, of organizing and that is for Donna to go through each category and decide what to throw away, ...
donate, keep, or sell
So let's go
A good tip is to save your mementos - things like photographs,
maybe anything that holds a real emotional connection - save sorting through that for last
Because those can really slow up your process because people do have a bigger emotional attachment to that and sort of try to go through
your your easier things first things like maybe kitchenware or
Vacuums or just general stuff that maybe wouldn't hold his deep of a connection. Do all that sorting and donating first and then go through
Your mementos last so you're not slowing up the whole process
One of the tactics were using in organizing so many things in a small amount of time is...
the Marie Kondo method which is from her book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. We use that when we...
decluttered and downsized into our trailer, and we're doing that here. So for example, you can see in a category of "coolers"...
That's what I actually made a category of coolers for Donna because you can see there's several
coolers right here.
Many of them are the similar size as well. Some of the newer, some of them older so when Donna comes and actually...
goes through everything and decides what to keep and what not to keep she can very quickly and visually see that she doesn't need a...
dozen coolers. So it makes things a lot easier.
I think the hardest part about decluttering is...
Choosing what to give up or to get rid of or sell or whatever, whatever's going to be leaving the house
I think people when they buy things or they're given things as gifts they make an emotional connection to it in some way or another
and so they find hard to get rid of things
Even if you're not going to you haven't used them in 5, 10,...
15 years even
Sometimes, it's hard to get rid of stuff because you remember
when you bought it or who gave it to you or whatever the special meaning is it has for you or
Even if you're just worried that you might want to use it one day
So I think that's the biggest thing is just realizing that most of stuff you're not going to use
And you just need to get rid of it because it's just taking up space.
All right. So the room has been cleared out. You can hear a slight echo in here
It's so clear and now we're going to go through this room and deep clean the space
We're going to sweep, mop, polish, and just dust and make sure that everything is as clean as possible
So when we're bringing things back in everything has a really nice clean spot for it
So when it comes to organizing, it's really important to have a system in place. In our trailer
a 30-foot travel trailer, we have to make sure we're super organized in order to live in that space comfortably
So we're kind of taking those principles bringing them here into Donna's space
So one of the things we're doing is, we have dedicated this cabinet over here to
Projects that she is currently working on. So for example in this bag is
Everything that is related to one specific
Scrapbooking project and then in here we have bins
And each bin is dedicated to their own
Project. So everything is organized when she comes in the room, and she feels like working on something all she has to do is come
to this section right here open this cabinet up and pull the appropriate bag or bin out that she wants to work on so
it makes it really easy, and
it makes it more likely to actually follow through and finish
Projects when you have an organized system going on
Another tip that we implement into this space is
To make sure that the cabinets don't have too much in them
So we have a bin here that has specific things in it - one category
So when you want to get those things - just pull the bin out and there's nothing else in here.
Yes
there's extra space, but we don't want to put too much in there because then it gets messy, gets complicated, and...
It's really easy to make things disorganized. So you can see on the top
We have two baskets. Each has their organized things in them
Sometimes it's about the little things and in this case we decided that we're gonna change out the hardware in here
At one time Donna loved this sort of gold
Finish on here, and it worked really well for a number of years, but now she wants something
Different maybe a little bit more updated, a little bit more modern
So we're gonna go ahead and go to the store and update the hardware and that's something that's really easy to do
It's the ... the cost is minimal and it's gonna make a really big difference on the aesthetic of the room
So yeah
Just don't be afraid to try to make those little changes. Doing a paint job or taking wallpaper off - which we have in here
But we're not gonna we're not going to do that this time - It can be really overwhelming and
Make you not want to do anything, but something like this is really easy and it really does make a big difference
(Joseph) What do you think? (Donna) I love it!
(Joseph) Was it more or less work than you thought it was gonna be? (Donna) I knew it was gonna be lot of work.
We had a lot of stuff in here to clean out, but now
With y'all's help. I've got my...
Projects all organized where I can get to. I found some projects that I've been working on
(Melisa) Was it difficult to get rid of things Donna?
(Donna) Not too difficult. (laughing)
(Joseph) It wasn't it for me it was for her. (Donna) Joseph wanted to throw everything away.
(Melisa) How did you feel in this space before when it had ... when it was cluttered with lots of things? (Joseph) If you could get in this space.
(Melisa) What were the emotions?
(Donna) Anxiety. (Melisa) Anxiety? (Donna) Yeah, I didn't want to come back here.
(Melisa) Yeah, you just kinda like avoided it. (Donna) Yeah. Yeah. (Melisa) How do you feel now?
(Donna) I love it.
I'm Anxious to start working in it. Joseph's been using it for office.
(Joseph) Yeah, I've been working in here. It's really nice actually.
It's in the back of the house
so it's nice and quiet compared to the rest of the place, and it's also...
One of the least cluttered rooms in the house now, so it's it's a lot easier to get around in and stuff.
It's comfortable. It's its own little space. It's got a door, and it's just ... it's not anybody else's way, which is nice
(Melisa) We are now in the laundry room which comes right off of the
Other room, the sewing room, and we went through this space. We organized it, and we also put up inspiring wall art
I love this - laundry really stinks. Let's get ready to tumble (laughing)
Do you like them? (Donna) I love 'em.
We just found this one today to fit that space, and it's kind of cute.
(Melisa) How funny is that? (Donna) A laundry schedule (Melisa and Donna together) sort: today, wash: later, fold: eventually, iron: hahaha. (Laughing)
(Donna) Yeah, like thats gonna happen. Till you need it. And this one's a cute retro sign - the laundry service.
It's one of those metal. (Melisa) Yeah good 'ole Hobby Lobby
(Melisa) But we actually didn't buy a lot. There was already a lot of things to use for the space to organize it so
That was good. Once we went through everything
We saw that we had a lot of stuff to work with, but now everything's organized. This whole system here
Everything has its place so Donna, hopefully it's easier in the future...
to keep it up
Cuz, I know it gets really ... that's what's so hard about organizing is ... the maintenance. It's like losing weight
It's easier to lose weight initially, but it's hard to keep it off.
Same thing with organizing
But yeah, I really like the space, and I hope you do. (Donna) Oh, yeah, definitely. (Melisa) Have you ever seen your laundry room like this? (Donna) No...
Especially the inside. Did you show the inside of that cabinet? (Melisa) Go show them the inside. (Donna) Yeah, this is so cool
It's just got the little
liners in there and got everything simple
(Melisa) Often times we put too many things in the cabinets and then it gets messy. So everything has its place
We hope these tips were inspiring to you guys this project and
We loved it, even though it was tiring. We deserve like a
spa day. (Donna) I think I lost like 5 pounds over the course of this thing. (Melisa) It's like we ran a marathon.
And we're gonna be completely honest with you guys. It's a lot of work
But in the end, it's totally worth it and we're happy ... happy with it
It created a functional space and an inspiring space in your sewing room, and I'm happy. We're happy that you're happy
(Donna) It's nice. Thank you
(Melisa) Okay, let us know in the comment section down below if you guys like the transformation and if you enjoyed this video
Make sure to give us a like on the video and don't forget to click that subscribe button
We'll see you guys in the next one. Bye. (Donna) Bye Bye.
