The Target Method

With downsizing from a larger house when we moved here and a year and a half of birthdays and Christmases behind us, the girlies' rooms are a disaster. They are in that weird age range, where they are kind of outgrowing toys, but not all toys, but they both are interested in different toys, but, but, but, ad infinitum. I have been weeding out here and there as we go, but the time has come for a covert intervention. I've done this a few times over the last 13 years, using different tips and tricks from this blogger and that blogger, but I never really found anything that was complete AND broke it down into manageable steps, so as to not make the task as overwhelming as it seems.

As I was starting to purge our house in Virginia, I was wandering through Target one day with the intention of buying yet more storage bins, and I was contemplating the sheer volume of stuff that Target has. Then, right there in the shoe department (Didn't you know that's where they keep the storage bins?) a lightbulb went off and The Target Method was born.

The Target Method is based on the simple fact that Target has EVERYTHING and yet it is all neatly arranged in easy-to-find departments. SOOOOOO, why not approach decluttering, not just my kids' rooms, but my entire house that way? I went home, and low and behold, Target.com, has neatly categorized lists of things to organize, hidden right there in it's categories.

For instance, say I want to declutter my girlies' rooms. Click on the KIDS tab at the top and TA-DA! Everything that could possibly be in their rooms, broken down into small, easily manageable categories.

I am about to embark on the task of decluttering their rooms again. Since my OCD is on overdrive at the moment, I am breaking out my handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet that has all the categories and subcatgories neatly displayed and alphabetized for my organizing pleasure. I am going to be tackling Summer's room first, since it is the smallest. I also like to incorporate Fly Lady's "Baby Steps" and the three category system touted by several blogs of Keep, Donate, and Trash boxes. So, here's my master plan - Once or twice a day, in 15 minute clips, I am going to head into her room and, using my Target list, clean and fling. When the timer goes off, I stop, unless I am right in the middle of something. In that case, I will stop once I finish that particular category. Then, I will take the trash box immediately to the trash and immediately put the donate box in the back of my car to be dropped off as soon as possible. I will take pics along the way and when I am finished, I will do a big reveal here on Bluebonnets and Haggis. I am hoping to have it knocked out in a week, but that may be a tall order. 

Wish me luck!