Andrea Dekker

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My Full-House Purge (the 5-week update)

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Just over 5 weeks ago, I shared my plan to complete a full-house purge BEFORE the New Year!

Post Summary: focus on one room per week, every week until the New Year (16 weeks at the time) and purge up to 16 rooms before the New Year (most homes have 16 or fewer rooms).

Since then, I’ve completed 5 rooms in our house, and I’m here today to share my progress, as well as offer more motivation and encouragement for those of you who are following along with my one-room-per-week plan.

If you didn’t see my first post, or if you just didn’t get started 5 weeks ago, there is still PLENTY of time before the New Year (roughly 11 weeks yet). Go back and read my first post and get started with one room in your house this weekend.

Even if you don’t completely finish your full-house purge before the New Year, you’ll still accomplish more than if you did nothing at all!!! 

As you’ll read below, I divided my home up into 3 groups of 5 rooms each. This worked well for the layout of our house, and it will hopefully be a convenient way to share a few updates on the blog without sharing somewhat monotonous posts every single week. 🙂

I’ll share more of what I purged in the first group of 5 rooms at the end of the post.

First Group of 5 Rooms:

  1. Kitchen
  2. Dining Room
  3. Half Bathroom (bathroom and laundry room are flip-flopped on the blueprint below)
  4. Mudroom
  5. Basement

I wanted to tackle these areas first because they are all in constant use every day. Also, as you can see by the blueprint photos below, these rooms are located in close proximity to each other on one side of the main floor (the basement is obviously it’s own area, but it’s right off the mudroom).

We store very few things in our basement — only in the “tool room” and the “potential future family room” — so although it seems like a big space to tackle, it only took me about 1 hour to “clean”, purge, and better organize the basement. This was good timing for me too as I purged a bunch of holiday decorations I know we won’t use — which will hopefully make the decorating process go even quicker this year!

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Next Group of 5 Rooms:

  1. Living room
  2. Office + Game Closet
  3. Master Bedroom + Closet
  4. Master Bathroom
  5. Nursery + Closet

These 5 spaces make up the rest of our main floor — I’ll start working on these rooms this weekend and be back in 5 weeks with an update on what I purged! 

By starting with these 10 rooms, I’ll have the entire main floor (and basement) completely decluttered the week BEFORE Thanksgiving — which was my goal when starting this challenge. Then we can host holiday parties with less STUFF around!

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Last Group of 5 Rooms:

  1. Kids’ Bedroom + Closet (listed as “Nora’s bedroom” on the image below)
  2. Kid’s Bathroom
  3. Play Room (listed as “boys’ bedroom” in the image below)
  4. Landing Area
  5. Upstairs Storage Area

From Thanksgiving week through the New Year, I’ll tackle the entire upstairs — which is mainly “kid things”. I saved this for last as I know it will be MUCH easier for my children to purge knowing Nora’s birthday and Christmas are just around the corner.

They will be more willing to part with their beloved treasures and out-grown clothing if they know there’s a chance they will get new items in just a few weeks! Plus, Dave will be home over Thanksgiving break and Christmas break — which means he can occupy them downstairs (if need be) while I finish purging upstairs!

I hope to share my progress upstairs right around the New Year!

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An Update on the First 5 Rooms:

My plan for the 5-week purging updates is to share a brief summary and a photo or two of each space.

Feel free to ask more specific questions in the comments (or shoot me an email). However, I’m purposely not getting into too much of the nitty-gritty details in my post — otherwise we might be here all day! 

1. MUDROOM: 

The mudroom was probably the most time-consuming room in this group — simply because I used this time to swap out all our summer things for winter things. I spent about 1.5 hours working on this space, spread out over a couple different afternoons.

  • I put all swim suits, towels, goggles, life jackets, swimmies, and other pool/beach items away in our large storage bench.
  • I got out our winter gear and had the kids try everything on.
  • I organized the items into the closet and made a list of things we need to purchase for this winter.
  • I donated several out-grown items and tossed a handful of worn flip-flops, broken goggles, deflated rafts, etc.

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2. HALF BATHROOM: 

The half bathroom was super quick and easy since we JUST renovated this space! It took me roughly 10 minutes to do a once-over of this room. I actually didn’t purge anything, but I did better organize a few of the cleaning supplies.

I’m still LOVING all my empty shelves — I obviously haven’t decided what to store here yet!

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3. KITCHEN: 

Some of you might remember my massive kitchen purge back at the beginning of the year… I got rid of SO much stuff.

Because of that purge, this kitchen purge wasn’t nearly as intimidating as it could have been!

I’m still glad I took the time to go through EVERY cabinet and drawer in the kitchen though. I was able to use up several pantry items I had forgotten about, restock my baking supplies in time for the holiday season, and make better use out of a couple cabinets I was previously using for baby items (no need for those anymore!!!!!!!!)

The whole process took me about 1 hour — spread out over an afternoon with many breaks while I got new activities or crafts out for the boys, read them a couple books, turned on a show, got them a snack, and prepped some stuff for dinner.

Here’s a look at our pantry area before — sort of all jumbled up and disorganized.

I realize the “after photo” doesn’t look much different — but I made more room for snacks and canned good, consolidated half-bags of things, made a point to use up several items, and just straightened things up a bit. Nothing major, but it looks nicer now!

Another cabinet that got a mini transformations was the one to the left of our sink. I previously kept lots of baby items in this cabinet — formula, bottles, squeeze pouches, rice cereal, snacks, baby food, pumping supplies, etc.

Since I don’t need those things anymore, I emptied out the top 2 shelves and now use them for my growing supply of decorative bags and disposable containers I use to give food gifts.

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4. DINING ROOM: 

We really don’t “store” anything in our dining room except some craft supplies — so this was another very easy room to tackle.

I spent about 15 minutes quickly going through our craft supplies, and that was it. I purged broken crayons, dried up paint and markers, ripped or crumbled papers, sticker sheets that were almost empty, etc. etc.

I also removed all the old pictures and drawings from my magnet board on the side of the fridge and updated them with more recent creations.

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5. BASEMENT: 

As I mentioned above, we don’t store much in our basement, so my time down there was spent better organizing our pantry and freezer (I didn’t defrost it, just rearranged it) and purging some holiday decorations.

I also used a broom to get a few cobwebs down, swept the floors well, and threw out a handful of boxes we had been saving in case we needed them for organizational purposes.

All in all, the basement was about a 1-hour project, tackled in a couple 20-minute chunks of time.

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So that’s it for my first 5 rooms.

If you did the math, it took less than 4 hours of time for me to purge these 5 areas of our home — not bad at all! HOWEVER, there’s not a day in my life when I have 4 hours of uninterrupted, focused time to tackle 5 full areas of our house… that would have seemed so overwhelming to me (yes, even me)!

By spreading it out over several weeks and focusing on one room per week, it was much less overwhelming – which means I was less likely to procrastinate!

Who can relate to that!?!?!

If you’ve been following along with my challenge, I’d love to know what type of progress you’re making as well!

Happy Purging!

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Comments

  1. Donna Harwood says

    This maybe just what I need over the past year I’ve done a rather intense declutter. I don’t know about a maybe box, I will try it but I don’t like that you don’t make a decision about it and it’s gone. Or not gone. I included my garden into this decluttering as I have to get them set up for winter. Great idea So glad that I heard of it through Laura gyst.

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      yay — welcome from H2GYST! We love Laura 🙂
      Yes, give it a try — just do one room this week and see how it goes!

      Reply

  2. Wanda Benterud says

    Hi Andrea
    Thanks so much for your helpful tips!!
    I have lived in a house with four daughters now for 25 years and our youngest is still at home. I’ve gone through the house over and over again through these years. Now that we are down to one I have extra time and so am going through stuff again. I have furniture that I love and wonder if they will need plus alot of their old school textbooks and notebooks. Only one of them has a house to bring all of their stuff to. What are your thoughts about storing for the rest of them who are away at University or have a tiny apartment? Also my husband has a hard time giving things away. I am an artist and so have lot of works on paper and canvas. I’ve tried to develop some ways of storing but am feeling quite bogged down by it all.

    We are quite sentimental so started “save” boxes for each of us (file boxes that I could label) and have them stored downstairs. I’ve kept a few of their books and toys for when the grand babies arrive and a few craft items that are still in good shape. Since I”m going through the whole house again I’m back into my storage room which I go through usually a couple of times a year…. sigh…. I like to change my decor with the seasons since winter is so long here in the Edmonton area. I keep things because I never know if it will go with the next change of decor and I like to be creative with that stuff since I don’t change my furniture much.

    I may be doing just fine with all of this – with a family of six things do add up. But am wondering if you have any blogs or ideas to deal with some of the things I mentioned above?
    Thanks
    Wanda

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      Hi Wanda — good for you for being so diligent with decluttering your home every year!

      If you want my honest advice on the stuff for your children, I would caution you against saving much (unless they specifically ask you to save it). In my own experience and experience working with many in-home organizing clients over the years, the children usually do not care as much about their old things as the parents do — so they either take it and dump it, or just leave it at their parent’s home indefinitely.

      I know not everyone feels the same way, so you might just ask your children individually. If they say “no”, then sell or donate and be done with it all!

      As for the storage in your basement, it sounds like you have a really organized system that is working well for you (so you might not need to change anything). However, have you considered the fact that if you didn’t have so much in “storage” (even if it is organized storage) you would have much more time for other things versus consistently decluttering your basement storage.

      I’m not a minimalist, but more and more, I realize how much time is taken up by our stuff — cleaning it, organizing it, maintaining it, sorting it, decluttering it, thinking about it, etc. etc. The less stuff you have, the less time you’ll waste dealing with it.

      But again, that’s just my opinion!
      Hope it helps 🙂

      Reply

  3. Kirsten says

    This is great! Love seeing the photos. Can you tell me how your shoe caddies are attached? I’ve only ever had the kind that have little metal pieces that hook over the top of the door, but they always seem to scrape up the door frame. Yours seem to be suspended in mid air!!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      haha — we have a really old house (130 years old) and apparently when they re-dug our basement (soon after a HUGE tornado went through our town 60+ years ago), they put a tornado shelter in. It’s basically a solid concrete room that we could go into and be safe from debris falling on us.
      We honestly don’t keep supplies in there, but if we knew a tornado could happen, we could quickly gather a few things and head down there.

      Reply

  5. Shelley says

    I haven’t been quite as busy as you, as I live in a small flat, but I’ve definitely made a lot of progress! I’ve finished our living room/dining area, kitchen and bedroom. Just the bathroom, spare bedroom and hallway cupboard to go, I’m so motivated to carry on. Thank you for sharing this challenge.

    I’m so intrigued by your tornado shelter! I’m from the UK so we don’t have anything like that. Do you keep any supplies in there in case you need them?

    Thanks again for sharing the challenge!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      yay for progress! Living in a smaller space means purging is even more important — sounds like you’re doing a good job!

      Reply

  6. Ann says

    I managed to get through all 16 spaces in my house in 7 weeks!! And it was many , many split up minutes and hours , a few Saturday’s when I could really focus because I had help with keeping kids entertained. It was also that time is year for the clothes to get swapped for the changing season. I also went ahead and scheduled an appointment with a attorney recommended to us, we now have a living trust/will AND a folder with all our important papers!! Whew! It’s been a busy 7 weeks. You inspired me to do both of these projects and I am so glad it’s done now

    Reply

  8. Kim M. says

    The original post inspired me to do a full house purge/fall cleaning. I am embarrassed to say that there are areas I haven’t cleaned since we moved in two years ago. It makes such a mental difference to see space in freshly purged areas and know those areas are clean! Thank you!

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      yay!! and honestly, there are times when I realize I haven’t touched a space in a LOOOONG time too. I still don’t understand how it happens as I feel like I purge all the time!

      Reply

  9. Heather says

    You might address this when you get there, but how do you purge your kids’ stuff? Do you involve them or just do it on your own without them? My girls’ room makes me cringe whenever I walk in there (literally!), but I don’t even know how to start cleaning it out.

    Reply

  10. Erin says

    Great post but I haven’t started purging yet. Moving next year so thank you so much for the motivation to get started!! I also love the craft tower basket you have in your kitchen. Perfect for my daughter. Thank you for all the great ideas!

    Reply

  11. Karen says

    I love seeing your progress! The initial post inspired me to do a full house purge as well. I’m proud to say I conquered all of my spaces – except for the garage. (And I have a weekend penciled in on the calendar – we just this past week got out of the high 90’s – I’m not cleaning my garage out when it’s that hot!!!)

    What I love about it is I can now see and start working on smaller organizational projects – like digitizing my daughter’s art work – because it’s all in one place and I have a clean and organized work space. And I’m looking forward to the holidays – because I’m not stressed out about a cluttered home. Thank you!!!

    Reply

  12. Stephanie says

    Love these types of posts. Very inspiring! Also great reminder to purge before the holidays. I love your craft supply holder. I’m going to start going through my house again and rethinking things to make it even more simple. Always a process.

    Reply

  13. Chris says

    I love having empty cabinets! Except mine don’t stay empty. In my lower kitchen cabinet corner, which is really hard to get to, I store some things (not kitchen related). Also, in my bar cabinet, I have some of my son’s baby books for when he gets married, etc. I think the only kitchen thing in there is a cake stand. In all the upper cabinets to the right of my stove, being right by the door, my husband stores things like bug spray, crazy glue, etc. I do actually still have some blank space in my kitchen cabinets too though. I love it!

    Reply

  15. Trina says

    Can’t tell you how helpful this was for me. I’m inspired. I’m going to make a plan this weekend and start. It helps the way you broke it down.

    Reply

  16. Grandma Ann says

    An inspiration for me to get busy at home! Can you tell me where you got the sheet metal for hanging the children’s art work and the frame in the mudroom?

    Reply

  17. Samantha says

    Love that you shared your rooms for this end of the year purge! I love the idea, but at first thought my low-clutter home didn’t need it. If you’re doing it- I can do it! I also love that some of your rooms took less than 1 hour.

    Reply

    • Andrea says

      in my opinion, every room can ALWAYS be purged — even if it’s just some trash or 1 or 2 unneeded items! Especially this time of year when more stuff is bound to enter our homes sooner or later!

      Reply

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