Okay, I’m going to take the plunge and jump into SRB’s new blog challenge for 2014. It’s all about the clutter in our lives and how to better manage it all, and this is definitely a topic I could use some help with. Without further ado, here is my contribution to her first challenge!
Who Needs It? Challenge #1: Fess Up
- Identify the areas in your home that you feel are cluttered. This could be a drawer, a countertop, a closet, a whole room. Or many rooms. Or all the rooms.
- Take a photo of each area AS IS. No cleaning up before the housekeeper comes!
- For ONE of these areas (or more, if you like) make an itemized list of what you see in the photo. Really look at it.
- Post your pictures (and list) to your blog and link back here. (This step is OPTIONAL. If you don’t want to show the world your actual dirty laundry, perhaps write about how these areas make you FEEL. The EMOTIONS are a big part of this process.)
Our Cluttered Areas:
- CLOSETS!
- Guest Room Closet (I already tackled this once a month ago and it’s SO much better, but still ridiculously full of “stuff”)
- Game / blanket / misc. closet
- Shared bedroom closet
- Charlie’s work clothes closet
- Shared kids’ closet
- CABINETS!
- Under master bathroom sink
Under guest room sink (done!)
- GARAGE
-
- Josey’s side of the garage
- Charlie’s side of the garage
- DRAWERS!
- Stella’s drawer in kitchen (used to be bottle drawer)
- Tupperware drawer
- Pyrex drawer
- pots & pans drawer
- PANTRY
- ’nuff said
- ENTRYWAY
- coat rack
- shoe area
Do you notice a theme here? It’s mostly the hidden spaces that are a mess! Our open spaces aren’t too bad, honestly. I start getting jumpy & can’t sit down and relax and read blogs if I have too much stuff sitting out on countertops & tables, and because of that I’ve worked hard at eliminating having too much “stuff” sitting around. It helps that I’m a horrible decorator, so we really don’t have much in the way of home decor (minimalism as a result of poor decorating skills for the win!). I’ve also been working on pruning down the number of toys Stella has, though this will be a continual work in progress I’m sure, and it’s about to get more interesting as we add all the baby stuff back into the mix (swing/bumbo/boppy/bouncy chair/etc).
Without further ado, here are a few pictures of the areas I mentioned above: (garage & Stella’s closet not included because I forgot to take pics & now Stella’s sleeping and it’s too cold to go into the garage!)
- CLOSETS
- CABINETS
- DRAWERS
- PANTRY
- ENTRYWAY
So there ya go. I can’t even begin to think about listing all of the stuff I see in any of the pictures. That overwhelms me. I already know there is a lot of clutter in my closets, and I totally want to get a handle on that again. We live in a 1,400 sq. ft. house, and half the stuff in the closets we never use – EVER. It’s time for it to go so I can feel CALM when I open a closet/drawer instead of feeling overwhelmed.
As far as the #Emotions side of things goes, I’m not quite sure what to expect as I go through this purging process. I get hugely attached to photo books (see the huge collection of them in the “closets” pictures)… and I still have clothing from college a decade ago (maybe b/c I’m cheap & never shop? maybe because of emotional attachment?)… but I’m pretty darn merciless about getting rid of stuff once I get on a roll, so we shall see. Wish me luck. 🙂