Peanut Butter and Simplicity!

Its been a peanut butter day! Peanut butter you ask, well this morning I made the most delicious muffins with peanut butter chips and toasted coconut. I found the recipe on Simple Bites Monday when I was looking for a recipe for raspberry oatmeal muffins. Google lead me to my new addiction Simple Media . The big kismet thing about coming across this network of websites was they were having a de-clutter challenge on the exact day that I decided to tear apart my closet.

So procrastination set in. I had taken everything out of the closet that was frustrating me, and I decided to bake. I baked the most lovely raspberry chocolate oatmeal muffins ever off of Simple bites. So addictive! So addictive in fact Brendan and I ate the whole batch. Usually when I bake anything I save a few for Brendan and I and then I go give the rest to friends and family. I love to bake but its hard when its just the two of us eating it. While my amazing muffins were baking in the oven I decided to check out  more of  Simple Bites , great recipes, great articles and very inspiring. This lead me to Simple Mom where the challenge to declutter was happening. I loved the idea moms all over the world taking time to declutter their homes! Right up my alley. Unfortunately their first hot spot was the master closet, I was already in the middle of clearing it out. (I love to purge) So here are my sort of before pictures:

Okay so here is the back story on my closet. We live in the most beautiful hundred year old house. I love my house, it is my nest! The thing about houses that were built a hundred years ago was they don't have much storage. So my closet is actually this awkward thing that was added on, I would guess about thirty years ago. Its a walk in, well sort of,  a poorly laid out one. Storage goes high so a lot of my closet is not accessible without a ladder. Due to the lack of storage spaces in our home our closet has become a catch all for linens, books, camping equipment, baby clothes that don't fit Helaina but I am saving for the next baby, etc.... So usually when you go into my closet there is a big pile of blankets and pillows in the middle. My  clothing bar in the closet is at the back. I wasn't really using it much because I couldn't reach it over the pile of stuff on the floor in the middle.

Here are the underused shelves that you need a ladder  to access. My work books are on the side. I do have things in baskets. So it is organized somewhat....

This is the shelf of chaos as I like to call it!

To give you some perspective this is half of the stuff I took out of the middle of the floor.

So what does my closet look like now. Not terribly different but I have donated several blankets to the Goodwill along with a garbage bag full of baby clothes and garbage bag full of Adult clothes. Here are some photos.

So my clothes are all hanging up and I have removed all maternity wear! The big deal is being able to access my clothes  because the floor is clear.

My self of chaos is a little less chaotic thanks to relocating my work books to Helaina's library as the majority were children's books. The few that were theory or practice books are now in my office. This freed up the top shelf for baby clothes, maternity wear and blankets for guests. The lower shelf that I cleared off of the shelf of chaos is now our towel shelf!

I also relocated all guest bed linens to a under the bed storage container.

So there is my adventures in decluttering. This does not give the full picture of what I have accomplished in my bedroom. As I am starting to prepare for Helaina to one day move into her own room, I did some baby steps in her alcove of our room. Our dressers and and side tables I overhauled as well. I will post pictures of that another time.

Anyways I ended the evening with peanut butter again. As I baked some flour less peanut butter and jam thumbprint cookies for Brendan and I  to have with our evening tea!