With 2013 being the year of change, streamlining, and lessening the chaos, I have been throwing out, donating, and reducing items in our household little by little. Nothing major – simple, yet effective decluttering is how I’ve been going about it. For example, as I’m washing and folding laundry, if I notice that some items no longer fit the kids (or myself), I take that chance to put them in a donation bag. Or perhaps if I see some toys that the kids don’t seem to be playing with much, I go ahead and toss them to make room in the toy bin. It feels good to take little steps for lessening the overall clutter in the house.

A problem area that has been sitting untouched for months, though, is my downstairs work desk. I have an informal home office space in the living room for my laptop, where I mostly do my work each day. Having this desk downstairs allows me to work with baby boy at home without restricting him to the upstairs office. This work area also allows for baby girl to do any online homework on my laptop, or some days, she plays games while I cook – all with me in the room and able to supervise. It’s worked out quite well, except for the clutter that has accumulated!

Because the desk is easily accessible, it means lots of times paperwork, flyers, mail, and other miscellaneous items are tossed onto my desk. I’m partly to blame for this too – not just the kids and my husband! We’ve all contributed to the clutter and my work space has become a mix of important papers, in-progress notes, extra electronics, and the kids’ artwork. So, I had to do something to change that.

Through a declutter challenge offered up by Walmart, I took the opportunity to focus on reorganizing, decluttering, and re-purposing my home office area. I decided to make it functional for both my work and for the kids. If I give them the space and designate areas for them to have their papers, then perhaps it will lessen the clutter and mess.

I found a new desk organizer and wall-hanging file sorter on Walmart.com that I thought would help. I chose this desk organizer because it has drawers I thought would be useful for smaller papers, plus it has a space to hold notebooks in a standing position, which will help avoid a large stack. Though this desk organizer has less shelves than the one I previously had, I thought that would actually be a good thing since it means there’s less room for dumping mail, loose papers, and such.

The wall file sorter I purchased will be used to better organize those in-progress notes, mail, and to-do items. I also designated one of the pockets for the kids, so they have a reserve of printables and activity sheets they can easily access. I labeled each pocket on the wall file holder to help my daughter know which pocket was for her use, and help me see at a quick glance where everything is stored.

My desk is now clear of clutter, is better organized, and will hopefully remain that way with the organizational system I’ve set up. I’m hoping it really works for the entire family and provides me a cleaner space to be productive in 2013! Check out the before and after – much better, don’t you think?

What area in your house could use some decluttering and reorganization?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

We’re 17 days into 2013 and I’m still working on overall plans for self- and home-organization. I’ve been able to organize a few aspects of daily life, but others still need work.

Something I’ve started doing at the end of each week, is reflecting on what worked and what could have been improved upon during the past week. It’s really helped to dissuade those feelings of not having accomplished enough. When I take inventory of what the entire week involved, I quickly notice that things did get done, even if there were parts that could have gone better.

Planned Changes

In 2013, I plan to do a few things differently in an effort to not feel like there’s chaos in every single corner of my life. Some of those changes include:

Getting back to menu planning

I am not sure why I ever stopped creating a weekly menu plan. I know that it made it so much easier to know what to cook each day and have the grocery shopping done in advance.

Following a cleaning schedule

Though it seems unnecessary to have a cleaning schedule, sometimes the housework can go ignored with work, kids, and everyday responsibilities. I know that I personally tend to put off housework in favor of other tasks or for fun with the kids, etc. Because of that, an area that wasn’t in dire need of cleaning, piles up and then becomes a daunting task of catch-up cleaning. Following a cleaning schedule where the housework can be divided up into chunks throughout the week seems to help avoid a huge pile-up.

Using an editorial calendar for blog content

Amazingly, I don’t have a formal editorial calendar for my own sites, though I am used to working with one when freelance writing for other sites. I’d like to create one this year, even if just for a few months at a time, so that I can better plan upcoming content and how to fit in various requests.

Creating a self-care routine

Something else that tends to be pushed aside is caring for myself. As an example, I can easily go a week or more without properly washing my hair (and let’s not even talk about the deep conditioning treatments I should be doing). Now that I’m in my 30s, I think it’s time I have a regular beauty/self-care routine where I take care of things like my skin and hair on a regular basis. I certainly want to avoid future issues as I “get older.”

Exercising

This is always an issue for me, but I really need to get over it and just get myself used to a regular exercise routine. I don’t want to exercise just for losing weight (though I do want to lose some), but more so for my overall health and to show my kids that exercise is important.

What changes have you put into effect for 2013?

Photo: StormKatt/Flickr