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Digging Our Way Out!

March 6, 2013 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

You know that feeling where you are always stepping on stuff and you feel claustrophobic in your own home?  Our house felt like it was swallowing us with all the stuff oozing out of cupboards, closets, drawers, and counters.  I’m not even kidding when I say, before putting our house on the market it was common to walk through the door and not have anywhere to sit my purse.

declutter

Our house attack process literally had us touching everything we own.  We pulled everything out of all the dark stuffed places.  I had stuff in all my old purses.  Just junk.  Like when I switched out purses, I never cleaned out the old one.  To date we have given away 24 bags/boxes of stuff to Goodwill.  I have four bins of kids stuff to sell at a local kids consignment sale this week.  We have filled two trailers full of stuff and taken it to the dump, and I have thrown countless other bags away in our trash cans.

trailer full of junk

Lastly, there are a few things like the kids rocking chairs, bean bags, picture frames that I didn’t want to part with but I knew in order to make this house feel bigger and let buyers picture themselves here, that stuff had to go elsewhere.  My in-laws are graciously storing some of our stuff in their basement until we are able to sell this house and move.  I have updated  Our Home tab at the top with pictures of our house.  Before you click over and see the pictures of our house now, check out some of the before shots.

Our boys’ bedroom was one of the worst rooms in the house.  Without having a playroom.  They currently share a bedroom AND it acts as storage for most of the toys in this house.  It was a mess!

boys messy bedroom

boys messy room

I am so proud that we got those dressers cleared out, all the toys organized, and the furniture rearranged to look so much better!  Another room that needed storage help and rearranging was Reagan’s room.  Here are some before shots of her room.

messy girls room

messy girls bedroom

There was so much stuff in this little house.  It feels so good to have cleaned out cupboards and closets, so now there is a place for things to be put away and so the counters are even clean!

The den/school room/craft room is by far the most used room in our house.  There were so many school supplies and things stored on counters and in boxes on the floor. I cleaned out the cupboards, so it all fits inside there now.  We also got rid of ALL those dvd cases and are now storing the dvds in a nice thin case.

living room with stuff

school supplies

homeschool areaThe after pictures are still astonishing to me.  At times I feel like this isn’t our house because “where is all our stuff?”  It feels so much better now.

If you too feel like decluttering, even if you are not moving, please go visit my friend Ann Marie over at White House Black Shutters.  If you follow me on twitter or instagram you probably have noticed I use the hashtag #40bags40days often.  Ann Marie started this whole movement of people decluttering their house of 40 bags of useless stuff in 40 days.  That is one bag a day.  Although I know I was kicked in high gear with getting our house on the market, it has been so encouraging to follow along as other people were doing the same tasks I have been doing.  Go check out her posts and tips through this series!

Now, PLEASE don’t leave without going to Our Home tab and checking out the AFTER pictures.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

*** The winners of our Out of The Box Art Studio Summer Camps have been announced in the rafflleocopter widget on the original post.  I will email the winners later today. Thank you to everyone who entered!

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The House Attack Process

February 15, 2013 By Erica Deuel 10 Comments

the house attack

I love the House Attack phrase because that is literally what it feels like we are doing.  We are attacking our house.  Usually on Fridays, I share some special craft I have completed, and although I will share one with you that I’m working on, the real craft this week is trying to declutter and get my house ready to go on the market.  We want to move.

To date, we have donated 13 bags/bins of stuff to Goodwill.  We have filled our trash cans up way before trash day, so we are now borrowing my in-laws trailer to fill up to take stuff to the dump.

junk trailer

We have already filled this guy up.  The process of decluttering is emotionally exhausting.  As we pick up literally everything we own, there is this moment where we have to decide if we will toss it, save it, donate it, store it elsewhere, or where it goes if it gets to stay.  As a side note, we tried to sell our house five years ago and nothing happened with it, so we decided to stay.  Caleb was a baby.  We have never tried to sell a house and move with three little kids-who are homeschooled.  We are in our house all day most days.

I have watched enough HGTV shows to know what helps with selling a house, so we are trying our best to clear out cabinets/closets and make our space look bigger.

bathroom closet

bathroom sink

hall closet

throwing out books

Going through books and closets were pretty easy.  It is perfectly normal to use jars to store things in bathroom closets, so they look nicer, right!?  What was hard was clearing out my craft supplies and inventory from art shows out of my bathroom shower.

spring cleaning

It is pretty normal to use the spare shower as a closet, right!?  Hahaha our little three bedroom ranch is tight.  Even as I show you these pictures, I realize that if our house wasn’t going up for sale, it would have been good to simplify our life and get rid of stuff.  It has always been so hard to clean up, because there is nowhere to put stuff.  Every closet and cupboard have been full.

clean shower

My bathroom’s shower can now be shown as a working shower, and I am so proud of my self for getting rid of fun jars, shells and other cute crafty things that I can collect again at another point in life.

My in-laws are being so sweet and letting us store stuff we don’t need now (but don’t really want to get rid of) in their basement.  I think I have sent over two truck loads with them already.

chairs

The kids’ cute rocking chairs and other chairs that have been taking up floor space have been cleared out to make the floors look bigger.

taking down frames

packaging up frames Pictures are coming down and getting packed away.  In that picture of huge wall pictures of my kids, you can see my DIY Feather Wreath gets to stay, and my craft I am slowly working on is being stored right inside our front door.

making a rugI hope to have the rug done by next Friday, and I will be sure to show you how I am doing it.  It is perfectly normal to be trying to pack up a house and also take on a huge craft that you think will help “stage” your house better for showings, right!?  I am feeling insane.  I know I should be packing or something else right now, but writing all this out will help me remember these days and is an outlet.  I think I would be going insane if I didn’t have an outlet for me during this time.

I had a cupboard full of fabric.  Although I threw a lot out, I sent the rest with my in-laws (except for a few pieces that I have plans for if this house doesn’t sell right away).  It was hard to let it go.  I kept thinking I hope this house sells fast, but clearing out a fabric cupboard gave me room to put all the homeschool manipulatives and school stuff that was once on the shelf hidden away.

homeschool room

school supplies cabinet

We are buying a dvd case to throw all those DVD cases from our movies (in the above picture) out too.  Have you done this yet?  I know it’s probably good to throw out the cases, but it feels weird too.

The biggest thing we have accomplished this week is replacing our 53-year-old ovens.

replace old ovens

antique ovens

53 year old ovensI say “we” but Matt is responsible for really all of this.  He researched the size, tracked down two new-er ovens on Craigslist that would fit the SMALL space (these are not normal size ovens), built a box for the new ovens to rest on, and installed them.

building a box

process of switching out an oven

I did help get the ovens inside, but my brilliant husband came up with this leverage way to hoist the new ovens up into the hole, so we didn’t break our backs.  He’s a genius.

switching out ovenscompareing ovens

The difference in the ovens is remarkable!  We still need to close out the hole at the bottom and give it a little paint, but it is crazy how that oven updated our kitchen so drastically.

Today, I am thankful for my mom to come and take the kids for a few hours so I can go through their rooms and all the toys without little “persuasion speeches” being made on behalf of broken or forgotten toys.

I know the list is still long of all we have to do, but I am encouraged to see all these pictures together of what we have done.

It’s hard to know how this will play out.  We have such a range of opinions coming at us.  They range from how our home “is in the best location” and we “could have a contract in three days” or even how there could be a “bidding war over the house” all the way to “an inspector will go crazy on your house” and “your house wont sell for what you are asking.”

This is emotional.

This is personal.

This is hard.

If you feel led, please pray for us as we go through this next week.  As I am sure you know, stress and crazy to do lists can easily bring shorter tones and less patience.  Above all of this house stuff, I want to love my little family well and grow tighter together through this.

I hope you have a good weekend!  We will be busily continuing with the House Attack.  On Monday, I am so excited to share with you what is making us do all this to try and sell our house.  To follow more closely with our daily process, you can follow my instagram or my husband’s.

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To Clean or Not to Clean?

November 29, 2012 By Erica Deuel 4 Comments

To clean or not to clean? I had the chance to think about it A LOT last week when I was preparing for hosting Matt’s whole extended family here for Thanksgiving and then having both our immediate families over for J’s birthday less than 48 hours later.  It was a crazy busy time with lots of picking up and cleaning.  I found myself wiping down the blinds which I only do twice a year, so maybe that is why they were in such need of it. Like me, do you make a mad rush to clean your home before you have guests over?  Why is that?

I found myself wondering “Why am I doing this?  Won’t my family accept me even with all my dirt exposed?  Of course they will!”  Do you ever ask yourself the same thing?  The crazy thing is that once the party is over, our houses will be dirty and messy once again.  Seems to make more sense if we just cleaned AFTER a party, right?  We don’t do that though.  Maybe I am using “we” because I don’t want to feel alone in this thought process.

Do we clean to make ourselves look better?  To make it seem like we have “it” all together?  To show every one we are really happy?  Do we want to impress others?  Do we want them to be envious of our life?  Depending on the day it might be a little of all of that, but as I cleaned and analyzed this situation, I decided this is why I was busting my butt…


I want people to feel comfortable in my house.  I want them to be relaxed, so they can enjoy themselves and make memories.

I don’t want my house to feel cluttered with stuff or all my piles where my guests don’t have room to sit down their purses, or be in an environment that feels dirty and stuffy.  I want it to be relaxing and natural, and for that all my dirt has to be taken away.  I want a home where little girls can giggle…

…and big girls can giggle with them.  A place where kids can play without worrying about breaking something or spilling something (on our usually huge mail pile).  This is the home I want to have for others to enjoy.

Easy decor tip for a last-minute wreath: Clip your daughter’s hair bows to a Dollar Store wreath. Yes, I did do that. 🙂

I want there to be love and hearts of servants flowing from these doors.

I will decorate and plan (and hopefully be a little more prepared next year) to love my kids by loving what they love, and showing them that by creating FOR them.

A few of my party prep helpers helping with our DIY Transformer’s necklaces.

Tradition passed down from my mom: make the center piece out of toys, art, pictures that represent the birthday boy! I used some of his favorite toys from previous years with also his latest favorites and some of his art and pictures from the years.

I want them to feel so loved by my actions and time that their hearts are over flowing into their little faces with eyes that light up and smiles that go from ear to ear.

If they feel so loved, wont they love others the same way they have been loved?  That is my prayer.

I will spend hours cleaning their pee off my toilets (surely one day their aim will improve) and stamping Autobot faces out of paper and taping them to toothpicks, so they feel honored.

I will do all this because I want memories with my kids.  I want to have and create parties where we laugh and play.  I want to have an environment somewhat clutter free, so we can all unplug and relax.

So, I’ve concluded, I will continue to clean and decorate for parties because it is part of the preparation for the memories, laughs, and stories that will come out on the other side, no matter the mess that is left behind! I just hope that my guests and family always feel loved and welcomed even if it has been six months since I last wiped down the blinds. 🙂

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