My second week of the purge started off pretty slow. I did quite a bit of work last weekend in the office, but about halfway through I hit a barrier. I was tired, frustrated, and growing overwhelmed. It just seemed like the mess was growing and the room was getting smaller around me.
I love organizing, and I think an organized home can really help make a small space more livable-- but my small space was making me feel a little claustrophobic. So I took a break.
I realized that what was so overwhelming was that I wanted an end result that just isn't possible right now. I wanted my office to have a clear and defined identity-- but I couldn't quite figure out what that should be. I'll talk more about that later. In the meantime, I had to settle on a "good enough for now" space and try to make it a little less cluttered. Back to the purge...
I decided that will all this declutterization and inspiration from other bloggers, I would host a yard sale sometime when the weather is better. So far, I've got 112 items in my yard sale pile. That's not counting the 2 garbage bags of research, two broken vases, and a host of other things I dumped that weren't quite yard-sale worthy.
In the office I am eliminating:
- a few books
- tons of empty binders
- a wobbly plant stand
- some iron scrollwork from my apartment
- a cool barnwood framed bird print from a yardsale
- some empty plastic bins without lids, a few lids without bins
- a basket (gasp!)
- a memo board from my old kitchen
- a chalk line
- a few glass jars
- and the slipcover bag that I swore I would use for something.
Spillover into the living room (from the hall closet, 3rd bedroom, and my purgatory include:
- About 15 candles of various sizes
- two sets of curtains
- a blue toile shower curtain
- a full bedskirt
- two giant vases
- picture frames
- curtain rods
- lightbulbs and cleaning supplies
- another box of books!
I still have a long way to go-- I'd like to tackle a few of my purge-atory drawers in the bedroom (hello clothes that haven't been worn since highschool!), my excessive handsoaps in the bathroom, and maybe a few undisovered areas of hoarding over the next few weeks.
For now, I am going to try to celebrate the progress so far. I'm not at my ideal, but I'm getting there.
The linen closet before:
The top half was full of cleaning supplies I rarely used.
The bottom had more cleaning supplies, a few unpacked boxes, and other things just stashed in the free spaces.
During (the disaster zone and a helper):
After:
Empty bins for growth! And cleaning supplies I'll actually use.
The bottom shelves hold my favorite frames, empty gift boxes, a few tall candle holders, and my gifting bins: cards, ribbons, bags and gifts.
The office closet before:
And for now (with room to grow):
The office before:
Soo much stuff!!!
The office (for now). If nothing else, it's not as cluttered!
And now, for hanging in there through a terribly picture heavy post, I give you:
"fat cat in a little basket"
You're welcome.
5 comments:
Your newly purged and organized spaces make the anal retentive part of me so giddy! (Let's be honest...that's a fairly large part.)
I spent my Sunday doing laundry and reorganizing my closet, though I didn't have the nerve to get rid of anything yet. It's hard to get rid of clothes when you don't ever grow. Oh well, at least everything is organized by season, style, and color. (For now...)
Wow. That looks like it was a ton of work. Your closets look great - and that reminds me, I need to stock up on some cleaning supplies! :-) Thanks for linking up!
Thumb's up!
well done, we purged our clothes this weekend, we had a fashion show and voted which ones had to go and are donating them to hanna homes.
love the new office.
Sophia -- organized by season, style and color is far from where I'm at in my closet. Right now I'm doing good to have everything hanging up!
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