Before we left for our winter holiday, I cleared out at least 60 books from my many bookshelves. Of course, we returned and all of those books were sitting on a bench outside my office. I still need to box them up for upcoming donation opportunities. Prior to that, I went though all of the magazines in the house and cleared out what was deemed no longer useful. That’s the mood I’ve been in for the last month or so: PURGE and let go of anything that no longer serves a purpose in my life.
There is always something that needs cleaning, organizing, purging, it’s never-ending process!
With that in mind, I put together a master list of areas in my home that need tidying up. In a #konmari way? Yes, but really more in a #mamalee way. Encouraged by the #RockYourHappy2017 challenge number 7: Declutter and my Goals post to keep me accountable, I was able to knock a few things off the list over the weekend. Miraculously, a few things happened:
For the ‘declutter’ challenge, my desktop went from this:
to this:
Not bad for 45 minutes worth of focus. I know the condition of my desktop freaks people out but I regularly take screen prints as ideas, prompts, quotes and inspiration and will forget to zap – or file – them when I’m done. I really should use Pinterest for that purpose but this is a habit I’ve had since my very first 1G computer back in 1994! Once a quarter I go through the same process and I know that soon all of the 2016 folders will be filed away, too.
* * * * *
The next project was my closet which is about the same size as my first apartment. It is meant to be shared by two people and I’ve had it pretty full with just my stuff and because I didn’t have to pare down I never did. Now that I made the conscious decision to change it up, there is so much space! (Shoes had been previously pared down, so this time I focused on clothing.)
My closet went from this:
to this:
And from this:
to this:
And this:
to this:
With four big black garbage bags filled to take this away to the donation bin:
And, BONUS, while I was buried deep in my closet purging clothes that I don’t like or don’t fit or simply don’t look good on me, Claire, our family organization queen, went through both the front and back closets. Just imagine how huge that job was! She organized everything including all hats, mitts, gloves and scarves – and shoes, boots and flip flops; jackets and shopping bags – and managed to fill another huge black garbage bag for donation.
The best part? Within 12-hours of filling those garbage bags they were out of the house and dropped into the donation bin. No second thoughts. No time for regret. Done.
Exhale.
Wow. That feels so good to get it all done! Next up? The kitchen. Or maybe the laundry? Linen closet? Bathrooms? See? It’s a never ending process.
