Project #1 The mud room floor.

Now I don't know about you, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE! seeing before and after pictures. As much as I hate for anyone to see my clutter, I'm sharing because I want you to see you are not alone! 

I also believe in doing projects and not whole rooms. I get overwhelmed! Seeing the whole room as a total and thinking "I have to clean the whole thing... By. My. Self." quickly sucks any motivation I had when I walked into the room. My hubby cleared that up for me one day by suggesting I do projects! (duh! Why didn't I think of that!?). 

So here is my first project. The laundry room. (I know, didn't she just say not the whole room?) Yes, I did, and I mean it. My laundry room actually has several projects to do.

The Floor

The shelves. Crafts and canned goods.

The washer and dryer.

And the bench. Yes, there is a bench there!

Today I'm starting with the laundry room floor. Can't do anything else until I can walk through the room! The stuff on the floor has been sitting there for about a year. Clutter always starts off small like a little bitty baby, and it grows and grows without you even realizing it, until one day it's a big fat elephant sitting there!

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Step 1: Remove large items. 

I removed all the big boxes and threw out the cardboard.

Step 2: Bag up loose items and take everything out off of the floor.

Step 3: Discover cubbie holes in bench!

Told you I had a bench! We're going to clear out the cubbies when we clear off the bench area. But that's a project for later.

I wanted to show you, I haven't actually decluttered a darn thing yet. All I've done thus far is move everything to the table and threw out cardboard and obvious garbage. We're gonna declutter this in a little bit. :o)

Step 4: Get the mop... and the broom.

I love my shark steamer. I try to use the least amount of chemicals in my house as far as cleaning goes. Mostly because my daughter has eczema from birth and we didn't know what was triggering it. So the chemicals went out first. AAAnnnd, I'm Fricken Frugal. The Shark uses just water and steams your floors clean!

(oh and if you have hard water like me, PLEASE use distilled water, not tap. The minerals in the tap water will ruin your equipment quicker than a flea jumping up to bite you in the knee.)

Step 5: Admire

Be in awe! You've done a great job! Get some socks on and slide across your floor. It looks beautiful!

My family is now safer because the exit to the outside world is free and clear. I can easily do laundry and I have all the access I need to the canned goods and the crafts. It took me about 30 minutes to remove and clean everything.

How have you done? Did you get your laundry room floor clean too? I would love to see your before and after pictures! Share your success! You are one step closer to being free.

And now, time to go through the boxes. Stay tuned!

With Love,

Emily