A few months ago we decided we desperately needed to clear out the clutter and provide our kids some much needed “creative” space. Both of them love to create things with paper, stickers, glue and various drawing instruments; the problem was that all of the supplies they used were scattered around the house in too many different places and the kids didn’t really know where to put things when they were finished with them.
We had supplies on our desk, in a closet, on the kitchen counter and when they sat down to work on something they might be at the kitchen table, on the living room floor, in the play room, at my desk (very bad place!) or even outside. We needed to create a spot they knew they could always use and give their things a “home” so they could put them away when they were finished.
We spent 3 months going through the house finding all of the things we don’t use (or don’t use very often) and started prepping for a huge garage sale. Along the way we gathered up many things we spent a considerable amount of money on but just didn’t make good use of.
After many weeks and days organizing our garage sale using Katherine’s great tips we opened for business EARLY last Saturday morning.
The sale was a huge success and we have plenty left over for another sale this week. But, that’s not the point of this story.
We sold several things that were taking up unnecessary space in our family/play room to make space for the aforementioned creative space including a large Step 2 train table, several Fisher-Price play houses, a pretend kitchen, a massage chair, a large baker’s rack, several buckets of toys, a full box of books and a cheaply made and unattractive bookshelf.
We made more than enough at our sale to cover the cost of the three things we needed to help organize the kids’ area.
- a kid size craft table
- 2 small chairs
- a bookshelf
- an art easel
I had been searching on Craigslist for the items I wanted but even used, the cost was more than we really wanted to spend. All of these items together seemed to be more expensive than I had expected.
We are VERY lucky to have an IKEA store here in Phoenix, and that was our first stop. We know from past experience that IKEA has durable, stylish furniture for small spaces and the budget conscious.
At IKEA we came across some lucky finds: two small chairs (durable and cute) for $15 each, two small tables (lightweight and colorful) for $7.99 each, an art easel for $14.99 and a bookshelf for $49.99 (this was the ONE thing we knew were buying when we headed to IKEA).
We furnished an entire creative space (half the room) using just $110.00 of the more than $500 we made at the sale. My kids love their new space and it looks nice, too. It’s much more organized, and we purchased items that are multifunctional and will last for some time.
I realize that buying new things to replace old ones is not always considered de-cluttering but for us, the point was to create a more functional, practical space only using what we needed.
Mission accomplished!
Read more on de-cluttering and minimalism here.
