How Decluttering Can Pay Off, Literally!

Lately, I have been hit by the decluttering bug. And by hit, I mean HIT hard. I am pretty good about decluttering, honestly, but about once or twice a year I just start to go a little nuts around the house. Just ask my husband! What I do is I imagine that we are going to be moving across the country! I give myself a deadline - say 2 months - and I start going room by room through every closet, cupboard and shelf! I think about whether I've used the item in the last six months, or even a year. Why am I keeping it? 

Having an organized Christmas and YOUR free gift!

Well, in honor of my favorite time of year, I'm going to try and tackle this subject from today {yes, the week before Thanksgiving} through December every Wednesday before Christmas. 

Would you be surprised if I told you that I begin my Christmas shopping in October? I'd do it earlier if I really thought it would help. I know some of you out there who shop in the summer, right? Well, my reasons are not because I'm "so" organized. It's out of motivation to save money AND I have to get all the Christmas gifts for my sister's kids {which now one of them has kids, too} by Thanksgiving. So, I'm motivated to get that started ASAP.

Now, here is my FREE gift to you to help you start organizing your Christmas shopping right now! It's a set of FREE printables! Yes, they are so cute, aren't they? 

{Friends Gift List Printable HERE}

{Family Gift List Printable HERE} 

{Work Gift List Printable HERE}

Please feel free to pin them and pass them around to your friends. They are great to print up, write down what your list is, then take it shopping with you. Check off each item when you get it done.  It will help take the pressure off, too, by having it organized.

Plus, NEXT week is Black Friday and I know how many of you probably camp outside the store to get the best deals {I don't, but I think about all of you who do}. 

Sit down this week and figure out your entire Christmas Budget for every gift. Decide how you will spend this. I have TEN nieces and nephews - and now a niece who is married with TWO kids. So, I have to keep my budget tight. I can't spend $40+ a kid, you know? So, the little ones I spend about $15 {or less} and the bigger ones {which they all seem to be getting bigger}, I spend about $20-25 {usually gift cards now}. I also do NOT buy a gift for my sister or sister in law and brothers. We all just agreed many years ago NOT to buy each other gifts - just to give them to our little ones. So, no hurt feelings and no extra stuff to buy. We can buy special things for birthdays, instead.

Source

I also give the grandparents the same gift each year - they get a photo album of our family that I've made at MyPublisher.com - they look forward to them.  

It's not super expensive, but it takes me a lot of time and they love those albums more than any gift I could think of to get them.  I can also buy several of them and save on shipping and they usually have a deal before Thanksgiving to buy one, get one free {Grandma and Grammy, pretend you didn't read this}. I have to plan ahead, though!

So, be sure to print your FREE printables and start planning your budget for Christmas!! Do you do Black Friday shopping? If so, what kinds of things are you hoping to get this year?

 

Like what you see here? Consider becoming a follower or subscribe via email!

And they shopped 'til they dropped! Ladies Boutique {part 4}

We chose to have the boutique on a Sunday afternoon from 1:30-4:30 PM.  It was all first come, first get!  So, I had a line of ladies waiting at the front by 1:30 PM.  I chose that time so they could go home and eat and several of them live a distance away so they could go to church, eat lunch with their family and come over!

We opened the doors and the ladies came in and began shopping.  No clothes' shopping trip would be complete if you didn't have dressing rooms, right?  So, I made SIX dressing rooms - three of our bathrooms and three bedrooms.  All but one had full length mirrors in them, too.

 {via freckle fotography}

At one point we even had a line of ladies waiting to try on clothes.  It was fantastic!  

Some of the ladies only had one or two items in their hands and so I stepped in and became their personal shopper!  These clothes were free, why not try on anything?  

Many ladies left with bags and bags full of clothing.  I requested everyone bring their own bags, since I had to use all my extra bags to put the left-over clothing in for charity. I had some ladies post-pregnancy there loving that they could get free clothes for that transitional time until they could fit into their normal size again, too.  Some just didn't have much, others just wanted to look, and still more teenage girls got so many cute things (their Moms were grateful for the LARGE savings not having to buy them clothes).

I let everyone know via email and such, that the following Monday morning between 10 AM and Noon, they could bring a friend who didn't attend our church.  Again, I didn't want strangers showing up, so they had to accompany their friends who came to go through the left-overs.  It was also open to those who couldn't make it the day before.  After noon, I closed up the "shop" and packed up all the left-over clothing.

I only had about a quarter of the clothing and accessories left to leave on my porch for the charity truck the next day.  I had booked that truck a few weeks before the boutique, knowing there would certainly be left-overs.  My hubby helped me load up the porch the night before, and that was it!  The picture above I took from my van as I was leaving for the day.  It was gone when I returned! (Note: I will not take a "tax credit" since I did not personally donate these clothes).  

So, there you have it.  That's HOW to plan a FREE Ladies Boutique.  Easy?  I thought it wasn't so bad.  Fun?  Yep.  Organizing with lots of ladies was a great opportunity to fellowship with others they may not have seen around church.  Would I do it again?  Yes, but not next year.  I have plans for a DIFFERENT kind of boutique next year!  I know, I know...I'm crazy!

If you missed any of the other posts about the boutique, here you go:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Like what you see here? Consider becoming a follower or subscribe via email!

Join me on Facebook - where we interact and have lots of great fun. You can also see behind the scenes pictures and fun stuff I do on my Instagram!

There are some products that are linked to my Amazon affiliate link.

 

Speed Clean your house

I found this great link to help you speed clean your house:

Speed Cleaning: Real Simple

{click link}

{via}

It's a free guide that they will send you to your email.  You can print it up or keep it on your email.  If you print it up, stick it on the back of your cabinet or inside your pantry. 

Like what you see here? Consider becoming a follower or subscribe via email!

Join me on Facebook - where we interact and have lots of great fun. You can also see behind the scenes pictures and fun stuff I do on my Instagram!

There are some products that are linked to my Amazon affiliate link.

 

Organized and ready to go! Ladies Boutique {part 3}

Part 1:  Crazy Idea

Part 2:  Organizing all the clothing

The organizing of the boutique was amazing!  Every lady that showed up, came wanting to really work hard!  I was able to assign one lady to oversee all the living room - which was the hanging clothes.  She had her work cut out for her, but had lots of helpers in there.  We had hundreds of wire hangers donated, so we had plenty of those.  

I assigned another lady to help me organize the pants/capris, tops to be folded, camisoles, and other folding clothes in the kitchen area.  I also asked one other lady to organize all the shoes in my music room.  

So...here are the results!  I apologize up front that there are SO many pictures, BUT there was SO much to photograph!

{Large table in my kitchen filled with pants and capris}

{Can you tell what I used to hold these signs? I had to be creative}

{Purses, tops, shorts, camisoles}

{My mantle full of sweaters of all sizes}

{Racks and racks of dresses, skirts, and blouses}

{More racks with jackets, trousers, and blazers}

{Jackets and button up sweaters of all kinds}

{We used two vintage suitcases to display jewelry}

{We hung shoes from the other mantle and had rows and rows of them}

{We dubbed it the "Shoe Department, as my music room was overflowing with shoes}

Isn't it beautiful?  This is all set up for the wonderful ladies of my church to come and take part in this FREE boutique.  There were scarves, belts, purses, shoes, pants, tops, camisoles, dresses, and so much more!  It was amazing to see the generosity of everyone who gave from their hearts.  There were some who gave the very little they had and others who gave their very best and nicest things.  We mostly had beautiful clothing, not nearly so much junky stuff.  We had a few things that we found stained or not really worthy of setting out, but most everything was in great shape and beautiful.  

Next week, is the conclusion to this wonderful boutique!  See how many ladies showed up and all the stuff that was taken!  If you missed last week's post, click here to see that one, too! 

Part 4:  Shopped til they dropped

Like what you see here? Consider becoming a follower or subscribe via email!

Join me on Facebook - where we interact and have lots of great fun. You can also see behind the scenes pictures and fun stuff I do on my Instagram!

There are some products that are linked to my Amazon affiliate link.

 

The clothes come in...Ladies Boutique {part 2}

If you recall last week, I told you about how I challenged all the ladies in my church to get rid of any clothing that didn't fit, they didn't wear anymore, or simply just had too much of.  We have a couple of ladies that started a free cycle group on Yahoo several years ago that is now nearly 200 people in that group.  I sent out my email to all of those ladies, all the ladies on my facebook friends that go to my church, and all of our Sunday School class.  I encouraged them to pass along the email and tell everyone else in their church groups - Bible Studies, Sunday School classes, women's groups - and get on the wagon!  The response was amazing!  They left stuff on my porch, in my van while at church, and even handed some to me! 

I sent out weekly reminders to all the ladies so they would get motivated to get rid of their unneeded stuff!

 {This took up half my living room}

You want to organize what?

Yes...I'm a glutton for punishment!  Well, not really.  I have seen so many women from my church who just can't afford clothing for themselves and many other women who have way too much clothing.  So, I got this great idea.  Why not get them to swap the clothing from those who don't need it, to those who do? 

 {picture via freckle photography}

Clutter, clutter, clutter

Clutter....it's a very scary word!  It's one of those words that we all know what it is, even kids know!  We all have it in our houses, too!  Everyone has at least one area, AT LEAST - where clutter lurks.  It's not that clutter is so bad, it's just annoying. Well, for most of us it's annoying.