No clutter in 2015: week 35 update

It's been a while since I posted updates about my journey to declutter the house this year, but I need to get into decluttering mode again and talking about it regularly here on the bog is usually an incentive for me to get things done. 

Since my last update we went on vacation, came back, finished painting our living room and putting all the furniture back in place. Ever since, I have made an effort to limit the number of toys, games, remotes, electronic devices, etc that usually are scattered around the living room. I have also cleaned the coffee table and all that is allowed up there now is a doily + decorative bowl set. I've also eliminated the play-mat and now the living room seems more spacious and a lot lees cluttered. Small, easy changes that can really make a difference. 

We hosted a birthday party last weekend and are planning another one this weekend, so I have a lot of party stuff laying around right now, but hopefully by Sunday evening it will all be cleaned out and put away. 

And finally, I've been focusing on books again. I know I've mentioned this here before, but I had quite an extensive library (and still do). Since the beginning of the year I have not purchased a single paper book and everything I've read is in electronic format. Taking into account that I usually read about two books a week (if you want to have a look at what I'm reading, check out my book blog here), this has made a huge difference on my shelves. 

In addition, I've been trying to get rid of most of the paper books I already own. In some cases, I'm replacing them by the correspondent digital version (when I know I'll want to re-read them some day) and in other cases just tossing them out. In the beginning I tried to sell the books, and succeeded in selling a few of them, but most of my books are in English and are hard to sell in Portugal. Some I just gave away and I'm seriously planning on donating the rest before the year end. Because I will not start 2016 with those books still at home. 

Plans for the next week? Finish a couple of upcycling projects that are long overdue and organize my craft closet (again). We'll see what else I can fit and I'll update again next week, hopefully with a lot of good news!

Happy decluttering,