As much as I love paperless planning and Pinterest, for some things there is just no substitute for actual paper planning.

I love technology, but when it comes to things like holiday recipes written in my grandmother’s hand, family wedding invitations, and articles from the print resources I use, I find it is just more practical, even meaningful, for me when they are in their original paper form.

And, truth be told, even though I am a blogger, I like to have certain aspects of my life “unplugged” and power-cord free.

However, those bits and pieces of paper that serve as part of the tool kit I use to keep organized during the year could easily dominate my desk, kitchen counters, and my life if it weren’t for a simple system I discovered four years ago: the file crate system.

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The following guest post is written by my friend Stephanie Langford of Keeper of the Home.

I‘ve read plenty of good advice on wardrobe management and how to purge your closet, but there’s one piece of advice that doesn’t jive with this mama of four: get rid of anything that doesn’t fit or that you haven’t worn in the last year.

If I followed their advice, I would have to dispose of the four different sizes of clothing I rotate through to accomodate my various seasons of motherhood… skinny pre-pregnancy, early pregnancy (not showing, but nothing fits), full-on maternity, and post-baby (how did my hips spread this wide?).

It’s a fact of life. When you are in the midst of bearing sweet babies, your pant size goes up. And then down. And then back up again.

Being nine weeks out of having my fourth baby, I know this full well. The maternity clothes are now baggy and frumpy, yet the skinny clothes barely get over my hips. I’m lost somewhere in the middle. Fellow mothers, I know you feel my pain. Purging my closet fully isn’t an option, but I still needed a way to make peace with my wardrobe in the meantime.
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Written by Jeannett Gibson of Life Rearranged.

This post is part of a series where we are working our way through Tsh’s ebook, One Bite at a Time.  I get to write here and share how I felt about a task, if it was helpful, or even…if it was a complete bust for me and my very real and very crazy family.

As always, you are more than welcome to play along too!  You don’t have to carry out the tasks in order, so you can jump in right now and be just fine. Come on, everything’s more fun when you do it together, right?  Well, most everything…

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It’s the end of March, which means it’s also the end of Project Simplify. Seriously, how did that happen? Fastest March ever, it seems.

In my household we’re busy sorting and decluttering because we’re getting ready to move. This also means we’re making some Ikea purchases and not necessarily reorganizing into “after” picture bliss.

So while my home isn’t completely decluttered (Is it ever? Not really…), it’s good enough for now. We honestly don’t have much stuff—our house is just small. I like looking around and confidently saying we value everything we have. I look forward to moving into a home that works better for us, so that we can truly enjoy those blessings.

Because of all this… I decided to declutter something different.
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