I added some square footage to my home this week.
I get so used to shifting my hips this way or that to get by a HUGE SUITCASE that has been sitting in the middle of the bathroom for months . . . that I don’t even realize it’s there. It just seems like part of the house.
But then, when I finally put it where it’s supposed to go, it’s like my home has grown in size.
I can walk through (what turns out to be) a very roomy bathroom easily. No twisting or sideways-shuffling necessary.
My big project for this week was to clear the floor in my own closet. It’s a walk-in closet, but I hadn’t been able to walk into it in a very long while.
A very long while.
My closet isn’t visible to the general public (I’d tackle somebody before they got past the master bedroom door) so it didn’t make it to the top of my priority list.
But I finally realized the residual effect my horrendously messy closet was having on the rest of the house.
Visual residual effect.
Clothes hanging on doorknobs near the laundry room. In full view from the living room, where I DO let random people sit. Clothes piled on top of a chair outside the closet. The place where fine washables go to die overloaded once again.
And then there’s the master bedroom. It’s bad y’all. For so many (illegitimate) reasons. But one big reason is that I’ve been folding things I would normally hang because I couldn’t get into the closet to hang anything. I love hanging everything but pajamas and bathing suits, but since I was folding workout clothes (I’m still actually working out consistently) and jeans and t-shirts and such, my drawers couldn’t handle it. (Top left picture.)
Unfortunately/irritatingly, knowing that they should be hanging in my closet helped me justify sticking them on top of open drawers. I guess I thought it was a temporary solution so it was okay. Makes no sense, I know.
Overflowing drawers most likely/definitely contribute to overall master bedroom chaos. (Which I totally am not in the mood to reveal at this moment in time.)
So my point is that even though the closet isn’t visible, its lack of usability affected the entire house. In a visible way.
I mean really. Inside the closet, a few random hangers held a few random things I don’t actually like. Other than that, my clothes were elsewhere.
Ugh.
So I spent an hour-and-a-half clearing the floor. I grabbed my black trash bag, my donate-able Donate Box, and got to work.
And I ONLY worried about clearing the floor. That was it. I didn’t solve any problems. I just decluttered.
And now, I can tap dance in my closet. Except that I won’t. I have a handy-dandy tap floor for that.
And the floor being clear meant I could move the HUGEmongous suitcase where I store my out of season clothes back into the closet and out of the path to the potty.
And now, living without the fear of noisy toe-stubbing during middle-of-the-night potty-breaks . . . I’m enjoying my significantly larger, roomier home.
It’s just crazy how that works.
What have you been decluttering this week? Leave your story in the comments!
--Nony
I’ve been slowly working on the kitchen. Specifically dishes. With only two people in the house, and since we never have people over for dinner (the apartment is too small for that), I am getting rid of most of our dishes. We really only need two of each item. Anything more than that makes piles in the sink to handwash since we don’t have a sink.
I’m getting rid of our old dishes and picking out things we like. It’s fun and inexpensive since there are only two of us!
Haha I just reread my old comment from last January. I *said* we don’t have a sink, but I obviously meant we don’t have a dishwasher. LOL.
Oh that is funny!!!
To be honest my big accomplishment this week has been finding the counters … And I can still see them 3 days later! Now to tackle the sink full of dishes. (Sigh. One deployed husband, one four year old, and 1 trimester of puking has led to a giant disaster.)
Today I need to (once again) work on dirty dishes. But this weekend I am going to tackle my bedroom and closets thanks to this. I bet hubby might even help.
Great minds think alike! My closet looked almost exactly like yours and I did the same this past Sunday!
I recently stumbled across your page and am finding it to be great motivation for me. Most of the people I know seem to not have the problem I do with clutter and then just getting overwhelmed and not doing anything about it. I haven’t yet accomplished many of my cluttered areas yet but mostly focusing on the basics and not letting those areas become a cluttered mess too. It is my hope that I can soon tackle my horrible walk in closet, spare room/computer room that I can’t even walk into more than 3 steps any more. Then once it warms up my horrible 3 stall garage that we can’t even park our cars in will be decluttered and organized if it kills me! There are many reasons that we have so much stuff but no excuses to why I haven’t done anything about it. I’m realizing I’m not alone and if you and others can tackle these issues why can’t I? I’m giving up the dream of a garage sale any time soon and just going to donate things and maybe try out Craig’s list or something similar for the items that may truly bring in some money. We can always use more money! Keep up the good work and encouragement for all of us!!! Oh, I actually have decluttered my bedroom over the last week and love how it feels to actually get some stuff cleared out and make the room feel spacious again.
So true, Dana! You CAN conquer the clutter in your home. If your home is anything like mine, it won’t happen over night or even quickly. But keep at it….you will see improvement 🙂
I have been working on my office. 4 days later it is looking like a room to use not just storage. The room had been taken over by the “I don’t know what to do with it put It in the office” junk. Shelves organized. School supplies organized. Items listed on Facebook groups and gathered to get rid of and moved into the rooms of the children who put it in there to begin with. Haha now it’s their problem (evil laugh inserted here) kids are 7 and 18 (most of the stuff went to the 18 year olds room haha
For me, it’s been the office. I have a computer desk. Now I can use it! But more than that, I got a whole garbage bag’s worth of garbage out of the desk so now I can use the drawers as well. It keeps the kitchen table much cleaner, by proxy as you were describing in your post!
This is exactly what has happened to me! A lightbulb went off one day and it is taking time but slowly working on it!
This is exactly how I felt for so long, but I have been working on the main bedroom for a week now (skipped a day or two, ugh, I talked myself out of doing it) and I can SO RELATE to one main statement in your article more than any of the rest (but I relate to all of it). The one and only statement that always enters my mind after I break down and clean it is…
“And now, living without the fear of noisy toe-stubbing during middle-of-the-night potty-breaks . . . ”
My OCD friends would still freak out, but I feel I am coming a long way since finding your blog for inspiration. It’s the little things, ya know? I’ve tried Flylady, which is great, but I feel defeated when I skip anything and just give up. Your blog gives me HOPE and I laugh with you because it is so similar to my reality.
Thanks so much for your blog. It truly has helped me more than any of the other attempts combined. 🙂
My happy thought this week has been decluttering the desk large bookcase in my home office.
Even if the clutter wasnt visible, I knew it was lurking there and was bogging me down, Since I spend at least 8 hours a day in here, I made it my priority.
Now I have a space that makes me smile ( and placing it off limits to kids hasnt hurt either)
Yes I still have a couple of things lurking in the spare bedroom to be sorted and either passed on to bless someone else or simply thrown away…. but 90% of the work is done.
Looks great! I’ve been trying the “do it now” principle. My 2 year old broke a lamp. We threw it away immediately. I found 2 broken humidifiers. I threw them away immediately. That felt good!
I also decluttered the family room downstairs, specifically, the Little People and a bookshelf. Most importantly, Ithrew away a bunch of random/broken pieces to stuff that I was “keeping just in case I found the rest”. After 6 months, the rest are not to be found. Good-bye stuff!
That’s what I need to do, I have lots of broken electronics that cannot be fixed
Unfortunately my entire house needs to be decluttered. For now though I am in “doorbells gonna ring” mode. Im hosting Bunco here tonight and have a thirtyone party here Sunday. So I am pulling a total Nony and my master bedroom door will be locked. Its just too crazy. Lucky for me though I have a key! Oh and my office door will be shut too. Bedroom is 90% clothes clutter, office is everything else. And I mean everything. Crafts, Christmas decorations that I forgot to pack away in the tubs that are already in the garage, my donate pile, random boxes and stuff. It is going to take me days to go through it all but I plan on it being complete by next weekend. Wish me luck! If I can get a handle on it, I think the rest of the house will be easy peasy! 🙂
Im getting ready to sell my house. Ive gone through the whole thing over two months and packed up what I “couldn’t live without” and hauled loads to donate and dump. But guess what? There are only a few sentimental & practical items I remember packing. The rest doesn’t seem needed anymore! Now do I un tape those boxes or move them and then decide?
That’s a tough call! I don’t know that I’d be unpacking at this point, but it might save a lot of moving money!
I would try opening one at a time and finish dealing with it before you open another. That way you’ve reduced your load to move without getting in over your head if/when you run out of time. Once you move, there will be a lot less motivation to unpack those boxes and deal. You’ve done the emotional work of realizing you don’t need that stuff, so take advantage of it. It won’t be any easier unpacking boxes there than here except in terms of sheer time if your actual move is imminent.
Thanks to you, I’ve decided to start my decluttering by just emptying the dishwasher in the morning, cleaning the kitchen counters, cleaning the kitchen table and sweeping the floors every morning. I’m on day 10 and I’m STILL doing it! YAY! I have a coat closet that doesn’t really serve a purpose right now so I’m going to be making it my cleaning and game closet tomorrow. I got an over-the-door shoe organizer that I’ll be hanging up and putting all my cleaning supplies in the pockets. Everything that is cleaning related will go in there from cleaners, rags, the broom, dust pan, mop, etc. I’m really excited about it! Plus, there is a high shelf that I’ve already organized that has all of our games on it. I’m slowly but surely getting this house organized! Thank you for being real and inspiring me to get my house clean and organized!
I linked to one of my projects and as soon as I finish my other post on my blog, I will link to it as well 🙂 Thanks for hosting this decluttering party. It is the motivation I needed to get my journey going.
I decluttered my pots and pans cabinet, was not what I had scheduled to do today, but I needed my red pot to make dinner, so I made the best of it while making dinner, I started working on it when I put the garlic bread in the oven and set the timer, I was done before the bread was.
This party is a blast!!
Most productive one I have ever been too 🙂
Yikes! That is definitely a huge transformation!! It’s amazing how clutter can take up so much sapce in your home!!
Yay for walk-inable closets! My progress for the decluttering week involved cleaning out the kitchen cabinets. But how do I convince my husband that the pot from his bachelor days is really not a good pot anymore? I’ve kept it this long because he doesn’t usually get attached to objects, but he gets annoyed if I a) let the baby play with it or b) leave it in the most inaccessible place because only he uses it, only once every couple of weeks.
But a single pot isn’t really worth a fight when I already got rid of three others, is it?
By any chance, is it a scratched teflon pot? If so, link him an article about the possible health risks. Otherwise, I’d be inclined to just let it go.
Yipee! Today I went through my boys clothes and took out anything that didn’t fit or almost didn’t fit or stuff they never wear and put it in a bag to be gotten rid of… now their clothes fit in their dressers. My goal was to take out enough clothes so the drawers closed and put extras in the closet, if it wasn’t missed for a month, I’ll donate it. Why does my 9 year old need 40 T shirts? I was only able to remove 10… they are so cute, so handsome, his favorite sports teams, his own jerseys. Cleared out pj drawers and pants drawers.. now to figure out a system for underwear and socks.
Oh did dishes and laundry and and AND cleared off my clothes loveseat. Thanks for the inspiration!
I’m just getting back from vacation and recovering from that. Flight got in Tuesday night and as of noon Friday I finally got everything unpacked, put where it belongs (not JUST out of the suitcases). The suitcases need to be put away, but that’s actually a larger project because some re-arranging of the storage room needs to happen. Which will also involve taking down the Halloween decorations. THIS IS NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS (it totally is) but we are pretty gothy people, so some of these “Halloween” decorations are year-round staples in our house. It’s just the bloody handprints on the vase that need put away (we use jelly window clings on non-window stuff for fun) and switched out for Birthday & Valentine’s Day decor, plus we finally have the house ready for some more candle-type stuff.
Wrote some New Year Resolutions on the plane out of boredom, hoping to get that post up on the blog soon, and some pictures of our apartment with a to-do list. Because it keeps me honest I guess. lol
I had plans to get Christmas decorations put away, complete all the tasks on my daily cleaning list everyday, and declutter two kitchen drawers this week. The frigid temps and both of the chairs I use for mobility decided to change my plans. Achy bones caused by the deep freeze and my chairs deciding to break down at the same time caused me to spend the week on my bed. And I will continue here for at least 3 more days. Luckily, I decided to begin decluttering my kitchen on Sunday, so I did get through a couple of spaces. It was painful, though. VERY painful. I”m linking above to the blog post about that experience. It might be a blessing in disguise that I’m out of commission for a while. It will give me a chance to prepare myself for the other surprises I’m sure I’ll find. 😉
Great job on all everyone did this week 🙂 May this next week be just as productive.
Decluttered my own dresser and part of my sons closet. Listed a “lot” of women’s clothes on my work bulletin board and sold it for $20.00. Listed hubby’s too small camo raincoat and sold it for $12.00. Hoping the other items sell quickly! The money is nice but boy do my shoulders feel about 50 pounds lighter! Wish I didn’t have this cough otherwise I might have started on my closet. Thanks for keeping it real :o)
I had foot surgery Wednesday & have to keep it elevated for 2 weeks. Yesterday I had my husband clear the top of my 4′ bedside bookcase and dump it on my bed. Forced decluttering! Shelf 2 today! I can finally use all the cute organizating baskets I bought for it at least a year ago!
Love the difference in your closet! It’s very motivating to get some decluttering done in my bedroom this week. Last week I reclaimed some square footage when we hauled stuff to the unused side of the garage. I’ve been wanting out of the house forever, and with weekend guests coming for one final Christmas celebration, it seemed like a good time. Probably not the best solution, but it’s out of the house….and since we live in the house and not in the garage, I’m okay with that. 🙂
Now if someone could just get me motivated to do something with my office-turned-household-storage-facility.
Made the kids clean their rooms today. I usually just close the doors, but told them today they were blocking the flow of the house. My laundry is getting piled up. I can’t wash laundry-because it is already stacked up in the living room-because I can’t get to their closets to hang it up. I am having them clean (at least) in front of the closets and dressers. Then I can put up the piles of clean laundry I already have, and start some more. So much easier when they just pick up, then I can wash, dry, hang up and repeat. Instead of wash, dry, fold, stack, fall over piles, dog lays on them, wash dry, fold same pile!
I cleaned out the spice cabinet today, and the majority of the spices were several years past their dates. I don’t know that it’s “bad” to use old spices, but at least, it’s hardly worth using them when they get old and lose their flavor.
So now I need new spices. A few years ago, I got one of those spice racks that offer free spices for several years. I went to their website to order. 11 spices for $13.00 plus shipping. But I noticed they come in bags instead of canisters. I had this picture in my head of bags of spices in the cabinet waiting for me to take the time to transfer them to jars.
So . . . I decided it is worth it for my sanity to just buy them from the grocery store, already in canisters, even though it’s more expensive. 🙂
If you have a kid in your life who’s old enough, you could probably get them to put everything in jars.
That would be a great kid job! Unfortunately I don’t have access to any old enough to manage it. LOL. 🙂
I did this today too! I am short and I was so tired of not being able to find what I needed quickly!! I put in a shelf and a spinner so I can see what we have (or don’t have, sorry honey, I couldn’t see that we were out of garlic powder for chex mix!)!!
This month working on decluttering the master bedroom. I vowed to take my room back this year. BTW…. My closet looks very similar to ur before pic.
I’ve been working in my dining room. We have gorgeous French doors at one end of the dining room, but there are hugenormous piles of crap in front of them. And my husband likes to keep the dining table extended and I don’t – I finally realised it’s because half of the base table is covered in even more crap. So that’s the plan for this week (and is already half complete)
I love how you and your readers make me feel normal. Like I’m not alone. Thank you. I don’t have to be perfect. One project at a time …. I put away food left on the counter that belonged in the pantry along with a rice cooker and waffle maker. (Can’t remember when I made waffles last…) and tossed some paper my 4 yr old scribbled on. (Even though I know she will be mad if she notices. )
I wish I could say, “at least I’m not her.” Instead all I can say is, “relate relate relate! “
Lol me you Andrea!my problem is clearing it, it’s keeping it done. 🙁 I’ve seen it cleared and organized and i still let it get bad.
I recently decluttered and organized my vanity. This is the first time that’s happened since I got it…um…4 years ago? (Did I really just admit that it’s been messy for 4 years?!) Thing is, once I finally got down to it, I was able to declutter and organize my makeup along with the vanity, all within 2 hours! Now, not only do I have a beautiful, clutter-free place to get ready, it’s faster too because I’m not digging through stuff trying to find my makeup.
frozen pipes led to a cancelled trip, and also the possibility of workmen in my basement (where all dreams of neatness, tidiness, and organization go to die)… so i am now frantically attempting a declutter of my basement. popped back upstairs only to warm up for a bit… it’s no wonder the pipes froze.