Creating a safer home

The other night I felt an urge to get rid of everything. Everything. I wanted the books, picture frames, files, magazines, souvenirs, change jars and dog toys gone. I felt claustrophobic, strangled by our belongings. I craved clear surfaces and space.

I’d lost my cell phone for the millionth time earlier that day. Motherhood, or perhaps the lack of sleep that comes with waking with an infant throughout the night, has made my mind even more scrambled than ever. I become furious when I misplace something, which is often.

I also spent a frustrated five minutes looking for the glass of water I’d just refilled. I asked my husband if he’d moved it. “You mean the water glass next to the bed?” he asked. Yes, that one. Yes, I put it there. Yes, I’m a mess.

I don’t have the energy or time to spare searching for keys, coupons, stamps, bills and cell phones. Frantically looking in piles and under laundry makes me crazy. I need to do something differently.

Peeper’s newfound mobility has pressed the issue of our disorganized and overfilled home.

She’s not zipping around the apartment yet. Her crawling is still pretty tentative, and she manages only a few “steps” at a time. But she’ll soon be bopping from room to room, trying to put everything in her mouth. Do I want her gnawing on the free weights under the TV stand or the unfilled picture frames sitting in the corner? Not really.

So I’m beginning my purge. Our apartment won’t look Apartment Therapy-ready anytime soon. Well, ever. But I hope that downsizing some of our belongings will make baby-proofing a little easier.

An added motivation is our need to keep dust to a minimum. We got our dog’s allergy test back last week, and it turns out that he’s allergic to dust mites (along with being off-the-charts reactive to flea bites). Finn has had four serious bouts of illness in the last seven or eight months, and I don’t want him to suffer through another. If getting rid of stuff—and the places where dust can collect—helps him, how could I begrudge giving something to Goodwill?

So here’s my commitment. Internet, every day for the next month I will take at least one step toward creating a home safer for my family.

I’m hoping that giving myself 30 days will make the project feel less overwhelming. I’ll do my best to check in weekly and report the progress I’ve made. (Yay accountability!)

Do you have any suggestions? What babyproofing projects did you focus on? How do you keep big home projects manageable? Do you have any decluttering tips?

0 thoughts on “Creating a safer home

  • February 24, 2014 at 9:18 am
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    Oh I can completely sympathize with you here! I don’t have any great words of wisdom, but what works for me is to simply take it day by day — little steps and tackling one area a day, that kind of thing — and then do BIG purges once a quarter. We make the big purges a family day and it’s a lot of work but SO satisfying at the end! Good luck!

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  • February 24, 2014 at 9:31 am
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    Buckets seem to help us keep things put away. Our dog is also allergic to dust mites, grass, trees, living in the Nw among a hundred other things. If you want to know what we just did to help him out I’m happy to share.

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    • February 24, 2014 at 2:11 pm
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      Buckets are a great idea to corral everything. Right now we use a big canvas bag to hold Peeper’s toys, which is convenient because I can sling it over a chair, too.

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  • February 24, 2014 at 10:53 am
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    My mom and I were just talking about this. She was reading about decluttering in a magazine and one of the tips there was, “everyone has a special place for forks. If you found a fork under the couch you’d know just where to put it. Every belonging in your home should have a spot just as specific and permanent or it will float around forever.” Maddening right? Another gem was “if you put a pile aside ‘to sort through later’ you’ve already lost the battle. Waaa waaah. Good luck mama!

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    • February 24, 2014 at 2:10 pm
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      Haha, I love that quote! I need to find a place for all my “forks.”

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  • February 24, 2014 at 12:11 pm
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    Again – commenting as a childless woman, so I’m sure everything will change for me once I someday have a baby! That being said, I LOVE organizing, and I think taking it in small steps is a great idea! It’s waaay too overwhelming if you look at the big picture. The main things that we focus on to keep things organized are: frequently giving away clothes/shoes we don’t wear, dealing with mail/bills as soon as they come in and keeping the kitchen clean/food storage organized. I recently cleaned out TJ Maxx of glass jars and reorganized our entire pantry. It was immensely satisfying. What I’ve noticed most about organizing is that if you commit to doing a project the right way, you’ll see lasting effects! In the past few years I’ve done major overhauls on my closet, our junk drawer, our bathroom stuff and the aforementioned pantry. It has been surprising how everything has pretty much stayed organized in the long term, instead of reverting to previous chaos. I also can’t say enough for PURGING. Keep in mind that lots of thrift stores/second hand shops will even pick up loads of stuff so you don’t have to drive to donate it. In my years of getting rid of stuff, I have NEVER regretted giving anything away. Whereas I will often pull something out of a drawer that I held onto and think “why on Earth do I still have this!!” So if you’re on the fence – get rid of it! Think of how happy someone else will be to have whatever you’re getting rid of and then send it on its way! Good luck – post an update with how it’s going!!

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  • February 24, 2014 at 12:34 pm
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    I think you’ve been given some great suggestions before I got here, and the only other thing I can thing of is to play some really fun, energetic music to keep you going as you are doing your clean-up. I was doing some cleanup and I confess that Britney helped me along!

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  • February 24, 2014 at 10:26 pm
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    I’m a work in progress with this issue~it’s so hard to stay on top of it!!!! Jeremy has tackled our favorite “piles” and is inspiring me, as you are, to live less cluttered. I remember the same emotions and energy with childproofing when Ollie started crawling, and felt so much relief after getting the toilet safety thingies, outlet covers, and little spongy things for the sharp corners of tables. And then realizing that the coffee table with those corners could be disassembled and stored under the couch where it will reside for the unforeseeable future!!! 🙂 dance party in the living room-there’s much more space now!

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    • February 26, 2014 at 4:00 pm
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      More room for dance parties – YES! I moved the coffee table out of the way for a play date today and now I want it out, too.

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  • February 24, 2014 at 11:16 pm
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    As a mom of 4… I can completely relate, especially because I’ve managed to watch all my kiddos well enough to avoid major injuries. Thank you!

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  • February 26, 2014 at 1:58 pm
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    I love to organize and declutter and the best way not to feel overwhelmed is start with one room and don’t move on until it’s done. You will feel better when one one room is done rather than parts of rooms kind of done. Good luck!

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    • February 26, 2014 at 2:37 pm
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      Maybe I’ll give that a try. I usually take a scattered approach = pick up something from one room, put it away in another room, try to put something away in that room, wander to the bathroom and pick up something there, etc. It is what I do naturally but is maybe not the most effective!

      Reply

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