Intro to 31 Days to a Clutter Free Home - Day 1

Good morning everyone! In case it's your first time stopping by Making It Too Perfect, welcome! Be sure to Tour our Home while you're here and check out the fun mood boards I've been playing around with lately.

I'm participating in the 31 Days of Change series inspired by The Nester. Be sure to check out her site this month as she blogs on 31 days of Lovely Limitations.
Around here, today marks Day 1 of a 31 Day Journey toward a Clutter Free Home.

Here's the background of why I chose this topic...My decorating philosophy was forever changed about 5 years ago.  My husband, Dave & I, went on a tour of Bungolow style homes. I remember going into the homes, and besides falling in love with that type of architecture, I was absolutely amazed at how spacious the small homes felt. These were tiny bungalow homes (some smaller than our 3 bed/2 bath 1300 sq ft ranch), but they felt huge!

And I realized it was because there was virtually nothing sitting out. No visual clutter. You walked into the master bedroom and on the dresser, there was nothing. Just a wooden dresser, unencumbered. No candles on it. No jewelry box. No coin collecting jars. No cell phone. No watch. Nothing. And I loved it. A passion for clutter free living was born inside of me that day.

Now, maybe these people just put everything away since they knew they would have hundreds of strangers wandering through their homes, but....Dave & I were both struck with how much we loved the simplicity and peaceful feeling that no visual clutter evoked. So, we came home and took a good, hard look at our own space. And we did not like what we saw.

If you are planning to embark on this journey of 31 Days to a Clutter Free Home with me, you must do exactly the same thing. You need to literally get up from the computer (when you're done reading this!), go outside, and then walk back into your home pretending it is the first time you ever set foot in it. Pretend you are on a tour of homes. Do you like what you see? Be honest.

What stands out to you? Is it your beautiful furniture? The stunning architecture of your home? Your artwork?

source

Or do you see something a little more like this?

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Ok, LOL, I know, I know, that is a hoarder's dining room. Yours probably isn't that bad...BUT....

Is your home covered in the messy things of life? Piles of paperwork and dirty laundry begging to be dealt with? Is the bookshelf so completely crammed full that you're afraid to touch anything for fear you might knock it all down? Are you able to even close your closet doors? Do you use each room of your home to its full potential, or are there rooms that you close the door on when company comes over? Do you find yourself not dusting simply because it is overwhelming to think how long it would take to unload your mantle / end table / dresser / nightstand of all the clutter to even be able to dust? Or do you find yourself not vacuuming because you can't even see 80% of your bedroom floor due to piles of clothes taking over?

About 5 years ago, Dave & I set out on a journey of purging, editing, sorting, decluttering, reorganizing, donating, selling and recycling (along with remodeling and redecorating with more soothing colors)...all in an effort to achieve that sparce look that we fell in love with on the Bungalow home tour. We wanted to be able to walk into our home and breathe. Not walk into it and cringe because it was a reminder of an endless to-do list (laundry, dishes, bills, filing, dusting, vacuuming, etc.)

What started out looking like this:

and this

Now looks like this:

And this:

Nowadays we have our home on the market and we've staged it so that explains why we pretty much have NOTHING out, but honestly, I love it. I don't ever want to go back. There's so much less for our 1 year old to get into, there's less to dust around, etc. If our realtor calls and we have 45 minutes till the next showing, it is no problem. There's not much left to put away. And what we do have fits neatly inside our closets and drawers and cabinets.

Over the next 31 days I plan to share with you details about each and every room, cabinet, and closet in our home and how we have transformed it from the totally-chaotic-borderline-hoarding space that it was to the calm, clean, peaceful space that we desired. I will encourage you to do the same and I will be available to answer any questions you may have along the way.

What do you say? Are you with me? Are you ready to rise above all the excuses and conquer the clutter in your home once and for all? Are you ready to embrace a different way of living, with less stuff and more space to enjoy the simple things in life?

I'm linking this up to The Nester's site today. Stop on over there to explore all the other 31 Days of Change topics.

As the month goes by, you can come back to this page {if you want} and click on the days for the rest of the topics.

Day 1 - Intro
Day 2 - Purging Process
Day 3 - Office Clutter
Day 4 - Financial Clutter
Day 5 - Laundry Room
Day 6 - Laundry Reduction
Day 7 - Clutter Free Kitchen
Day 8 - An Organized Fridge
Day 9 - Clutter Free Kitchen Cabinets
Day 10 - Mini Mudroom
Day 11 - Master Bedroom Closet
Day 12 - Intentional Design
Day 13 - Clutter Free Bathrooms
Day 14 - Clutter Free Shower
Day 15 - Cleaning Closet
Day 16 - Clutter Free Lives - Create Some Margin
Day 17 - Clutter Free Kids' Rooms
Day 18 - Kids' Clothes
Day 19 - Kids' Toys
Day 20 - Clutter Free Guest Room
Day 21 - Clutter Free Living / Family Room
Day 22 - Clutter Free Dining Room
Day 23 - Clutter Free Schedule
Day 24 - Home Remodeling Tool Storage
Day 25 -Curb Appeal, Outdoor Spaces
Day 26 - Craft Storage
Day 27 - Home Offices Revisited
Day 28 - Clutter Free Storage Areas
Day 29 - A Clutter Free Pantry
Day 30 - Hobbies
Day 31 - Wrap Up