Thursday, March 29, 2012

Decluttering and purging ‘the good stuff’

Getting rid of stuff has always been easy for me. I do not packrat stuff away or think I am going to use stuff that has been sitting in a box for years… but what about when you are down to the stuff that you love and there still isn’t room? There is no more ‘easy weeding’ in the shelves and it’s now more about efficiency. I have had to adjust myself from doing things like just keeping the ‘good’ sheets, to only keeping two sets of sheets per bed, regardless of whether the ones I am giving away are in perfect shape or not. Being industrious, this is a bit harder for me to do than simple purging.  It’s pretty simple to think of how I could use an extra sheet, or how I should save those baby food jars for art projects later this summer…

It’s taking some time. But I think my efforts have been worth it. 

Our garage was the biggest storage spot in the house and it was a disaster!  It’s a 8ft tall, single car space built (along with our house) in the late 1950’s.  No car has or will ever fit there.  The walls are made of drywall with exposed beams most places. There were some shelves in there, but many were falling apart and couldn’t hold the things that were already on them, much less more. I refused to show the following pictures, even on Facebook, until the ‘afters’ could be shown along with them.  I was embarrassed about how bad it had gotten.  I spent many days cleaning spaces in the house only to put things that didn’t have an immediate home in a box in the garage.  And I am the one who will be remembered by my kids as saying (daily!)Don’t put it down, put it away!”. 

Sigh.  Such is the life of a mama of a toddler. 

It took 4 sets of shelves to get all set right, but now I have a functional space that I love.  Take a look:

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Before

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After

This space now holds all things homeschool.  From paperclips, to curriculum, it’s in here somewhere.  Most is labeled (LOVE my label maker!) and put together with like items now.  This shelf is just inside the garage door to the right… just feet from the school room and the kids workboxes!

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Before

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After

This space now holds all things canning.  All my empty jars, and just above the picture is my canner, pressure canner, huge bowls I use for canning, etc.  I even have a box with pectin and my food preservation binder there.  Under it are both the deep freeze (for meat) and the upright (for berries and veggies).  

Here is a few more ‘afters’ of spaces I couldn’t even get into the garage to take ‘befores’: 

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This is from the open garage door.  The first row holds the car and house stuff.  The second rows and a few more in are sewing, felting, and beading supplies.

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This is the pantry shelf.  Yes, both of these ones got bolted to the wallSmile

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Having this space in which my things that I do not use daily are stored is making my mind turn to all the other things that could use a bit more organization.  I think I’ve awakened the decluttering beast!  Winking smile

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3 comments

Unknown said...

Wow! You really did a good job! I love shelves and plastic boxes, bins
or crates, whichever you want to call them. Makes things so much neater and easer to find. Pat yourself on the back, you really did good!

Bethanthemum said...

You are inspiring me! I have a storage space next to my apartment that is about the size of a one-car garage. It's very unorganized, and practically nothing is labeled. It's also on the top of my to-do list for this summer. I hope mine turns out as organized as yours.

shellakers said...

Awesome! Looks like it was a really big chore:-) Good job with actually finishing a job... something I know nothing about! lol Shelves look terrific too, btw...

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