Declutter #9 Games and Girls Gear

It's kind of sad to admit but I spent the last day of 2011 doing some decluttering. My kids have a 7 week summer holiday, which means that I need to be prepared for the new school year in about 28 days! (With one week off for a holiday by the beach with the extended family). So that gives me about 21 days!

So I started with the bedroom of my youngest child, Frances (turning 4 on Jan 4th) who starts Pre-Kindy in 2012 at her brother's school.

Fran and her Christmas cat 'Fluffy'

I needed to tackle the situation head on, so I used the 'declutter' method sanctioned by 'Cut the Clutter'. Arm yourself with 3 boxes - 1. Throw Away 2. Donate 3. Keep.

At the beginning

 I modified my 'boxes' by using mesh hampers that fold up and away neatly when I am done.

At the end of the session

I had my daughter on hand to ask her if she wanted to keep some of the toys...and also to try thing on to see if they still fit. Surprisingly, my 'donate' hamper had the most in it but the end. Sorting through the 'Keep' box will keep me busy for another session. Returning things to their rightful place always does!

Clothes

My daughter LOVES skirts...particularly if they are long and 'twirl'. Most of her dresses and skirts are handmade - you might recognise some Riley Blake 'Soul Blossoms', Michael Miller Cicely Mary Barker 'Fairies', Saffron Craig 'Magical Lands' and some Heather Ross 'Dogs and Spots'.

I finally relegated the 'small' clothes to the donate pile and 'large', and 'out of season' to a large storage bag on the shelf above. 

Shelves and Wardrobe Organiser

Hanger on Right - I had my daughter try on every hat and beanie  and found that most still fit.
Hanger on Left -  then we found that about half of the shoes no longer did.
Small hanging space - holds uniform shirts and jumpers.
Top shelf - holds bedding and cloth bags for Preschool/PreKindy. 
Third shelf -  Pink box holds her uniform shorts and pants. We also popped her new Disney Princesses into a handy plastic tub as well.
Second Shelf - Holds a tea set and favourite soft toys.
Bottom Shelf - Holds hard toys and hand puppets (in a drawstring bag).

Dress-Ups Box

This was growing out of control...so it was culled (donations to the PreKindy in 2012) and organised. 

With the need for more space, I put the dolls clothes into a separate drawstring bag in the cupboard.

The cardboard storage was a handy Christmas gift, from her grandparents, filled with dress-up shoes and jewellery. It made for a handy divider.

The big cane basket holds many many handmade soft toys...about a quarter of them were rescued from op-shops for a fraction of what they are really worth. They always make me smile. My favourites are Mr Badger, the Frog Prince and the scarecrows (who needed new eyes from my mum) who have little knitted mice, a crow, a ladybug, a bee and a basket of mushrooms.

Badly in need of a sorting through

The three big Teds. The one on the right lost an eye, so my mum re-stitched her a pirate patch....quirky!

The whole knitted gang!

My mum made all of these three. Raggedy Ann she made for me when I was a girl...so she is nearly 40 years old!

Donate or Give-Away

So here's the final tally of the stuff to give away, from my daughter's room.

Mostly toys, clothing, shoes and reusable cloth nappies

Put Away

Then I had to put away the other misplaced items. So I just emptied them all out onto the bed and then started creating piles according to rooms in the house where the items needed to be returned to. So, in all, this did not take more than ten minutes.

Games

Just quickly...our family has just gotten into playing wii but the drawer was a mess. A few spare shallow baskets organised things for us all.