A Simpler Way to Organize/Declutter - Week 1

Last week I started on a journey to a simpler, cleaner and clutter free home. You can read about it here. This is my first weekly update. I had decided when I finished last week's post that I would start with my nightstand corner. I choose this spot for two reasons: 
1. It was small and therefore would only require an hour to accomplish
2. I am having difficulty sleeping and part of that is the clutter that surrounds me when I put my head down to rest

That being said I almost chickened out and started on a project in the kitchen. Lulu was working on this:

When she is finished with this project it will go in the kitchen, but I realized that it was pointless to clean the white cabinet that this is intended for until this is ready, otherwise I'll just be cleaning it again when she finishes.

So instead I moved on to my nightstand corner:

That is one very cluttered nightstand, plus a bag of Mad Hatter Tea Party Props, and a lawn mower box with fruit boxes and trash in it. 

These are the Mad Hatter Tea Party Props that I made from cardboard when Thia's school was doing Alice in Wonderland Junior. The Middle School kids painted the tea cups and tea pots. I have thought about doing some paper mache work on the interiors of the cups, and around the spouts and handles. Then I was thinking I would paint them vibrant colors and maybe sell them on a Craft page for another play or just for decor in someone's room. 

 This was part of the reason I shied away from this as my first project. This means I now have a deadline to finish this craft or recycle it (because it is cardboard).

This is everything that was on top of my night stand:

The black book is the School for Good and Evil, which as the last book Thia and I read together. I guess we need to find a new one.  Then there is the instruction book and CD for my camera, my journal with Lulu, a candle, adhesive spray, gifts from Thia and a plastic file box top with assorted home improvement supplies and items to recycle.

This is what was inside the nightstand:

Empty American Girl outfit boxes (broken down and recycled), Two Harry Potter Books (destined to be part of a Little Library), an old journal of Thia's (reviewed and recycled), blue scarf, black silk scarf, and a dried out pot with 3 dried out bulbs in a plastic bag.

 Empty and ready for a good cleaning. Before I cleaned the nightstand I broke down the lawn mower box (and stashed it for use in our raised garden beds this spring) and dusted the floor and lamp. I also rearranged the lamp and nightstand. I moved the nightstand and therefore my alarm clock further from my bed. There is no way for me to reach the alarm clock and hit snooze.  I know that snooze is ultimately really bad for me, but I just have been so exhausted and in such a funk that I hit snooze (sometimes for up to an hour of just lying in bed waiting for the alarm to go off again). Now I have to get out of bed in order to turn off the alarm or hit snooze.  Hopefully this will motivate me to get up when I wake up. 

Clean and rearranged.

This is the scarf that was inside the nightstand. I'll be listing it for sale, if in two weeks it doesn't sell it will be marked and packaged for my garage sale. 

This is the final result:

Want to check in with Victoria? Here is the link to her week one project.

How about you? Did you do something to simplify, organize or clean your home this week?