Amy Slenker-Smith

I started my day with the usual morning routine.  Devotional, Water, Coffee, Coffee, Coffee and then brain dumped my to-do list and notes. Today is also laundry day. After a fun weekend skiing with my best guy, we are all back to work and school.  To start the week off right, we reset the house yesterday afternoon. Everyone pitched in to do dishes, sort laundry, take out the trash, vacuum and prep dinner while I finished un-decorating Christmas. We actually left the house a bit of a disaster on Friday with small piles of decorations everywhere. I took advantage of the warm weather and pulled down our outside lights but didn’t have time for repacking.  Going away for the weekend to visit family and ski with my son was far more important. Moreover, I knew we could handle a few chores Monday afternoon without much hassle. But life wasn’t always this way. Christmas decorations used to be a several day affair. House cleaning was outsourced. Laundry piles were …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Day 16 – Laundry

It's Day 15 and I wanted to check in with all of you! I issued some difficult decluttering challenges the first two weeks of January. Keep going! You are doing great! So far, you tackled the kitchen, home office, kid's artwork, games and more. You are embracing new habits, setting up simple filing systems and even getting out the door a little faster in the morning. Still with me!? Remember, Simply Enough's goal is to challenge you to live differently. I hope in the first two weeks you learned that downsizing is always better than organizing. Perhaps you spent today catching up on some challenges. Congrats! Don't forget to keep an ongoing donation box on every level of the house. They collect items ready to leave your house. At the end of each week, load the boxes in the car and drive to your nearest donation center or schedule a donation pick up. Today, I decluttered: 1 box of electronics 2 bags of Christmas decorations (posted to my local Buy Nothing Group.) …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Day 15 – Check In

I think accessories are a good place to start as we move into clothing challenges. When I look at accessories, I group them by color. My wardrobe consists of a lot of neutrals (black, gray and navy) with just my favorite accent colors (eggplant, blue, purple and red). I still own some brown, tan and other colors. But over time I migrated away from colors that I do not love or represent single items in my wardrobe. Which brings me to accessories and today's challenge. I have approximately 14 pairs of socks. 6 athletic style and 8 in neutral colors, mostly black and gray. 1 pair navy and 2 pair of brown. Minimizing accessories and socks by color helped me to easily downsize my wardrobe. It curbs impulse buys and results in more thoughtful purchases. If you eliminate a color from your wardrobe, you can also remove the coordinating purse, socks, belts, scarves and jewelry. Decluttering Challenge Day 14 Take an inventory of your accessories. Note colors you like and dislike. …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Accessories

For starters, I need to thank Erin Doland of Unclutterer for introducing me to Evernote about 10 years ago.  It took a little trial and error to fully adopt, but during that time Evernote introduced a mobile app. While I use the desktop version a lot, I love that the information is always with me. The addition of the Web Clipper changed everything because I can clip webpages and save them to meaningful notebooks such as Recipes, Travel, Family etc. After a few months use, it's easy to see which Notebooks really help me stay organized. I especially love Evernote for Recipe Organization because I can save many formats in one Notebook. Here's how my Recipe System works and what I like. Take pictures of recipe cards written by my grandma - (The entire family can have cards in her original hand-writing. Hold onto the memories, not the paper.) Write an original recipe in a Note - (For creative types, like my husband, who invent and …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Day 13 – Recipes

Our children create beautiful artwork and lots of it. Their backpacks carry paper every day. So, I'll stay with the theme of paper clutter. It was a popular comment when I asked readers about their most difficult clutter challenges. Day 10 gave you strategies to prevent paper clutter with a simple filing system. Day 11 offered a large project with small steps to tame your home office. Day 12 will address - Kid's Artwork and School Papers. Kid's artwork is simply a volume problem, especially for preschool/elementary aged children. If you have several kids, you know that multiplies the issue. Like all papers, I suggest you deal with it daily. Recycle 95% I'm not heartless, just practical. I look at worksheets as "evidence of learning" from the teachers. Acknowledge and recycle them. If my son is struggling with a math concept, I keep it to review with him. But if I keep every single piece of paper, they get in the way of helping him. I'd much rather spend time teaching him, than …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Day 12 – Kid’s Artwork

If you read Part 1 yesterday, I know what you're thinking... "What about the mountains of paper in my home office?" Every flat surface is covered and you don't know where to begin? Piles occupy even the chairs. The filing cabinet is jam packed or worse yet unused, because a filing system alludes you. Perhaps you walk carefully around the paper towers built on your office floor? Is your office so uninviting that you rarely work in it? Do you sit on the couch with your laptop instead? You cannot get anything done in there because you are surrounded by stuff. Papers everywhere, looming bookshelves and other random items live here. Stuff robs you of peace and focus. So, you avoid working here at all. Does this describe your home office space? Am I close? I have good news and bad news. Good news - We will will tackle this space in today's challenge. Bad news - it is not an easy one. When I work with clients to transform their offices, it's usually a multi-day assignment. And …

[Read more...] about Decluttering Challenge – Day 11 – Home Office