As I mentioned in my New Year's Goals post, I want to take a room a month and really give it a good cleaning and decluttering.
For January, I have chosen my nemesis-- the room/closet off of the bathroom. There is a small room off the bathroom that has become a catch-all storage room. It is a disaster. Here is the before:
This was taken from the bathroom doorway into the closet/room. It only shows half of the room, as I couldn't walk into the room. The other half is full of stuff as well.
Yesterday, I had some free time in the afternoon, so I headed up to do battle with the room. I worked in there for an hour, and I don't feel like I really made a dent. I did collect several boxes and trash bags full of stuff to donate. I also collected a small bag of trash.
It was a good start but there is still a lot of work to do in there. I am hoping to get in there this weekend to do another session, now that I can actually walk into the room :-)
Today, Bill, Benjamin and I took the donations that I had collected to Goodwill.
The back of my van was packed and I had to put 2 of the bags in the seat next to Benjamin. While we were in Goodwill, I only came out with 2 pairs of workout pants for me, a pair of jeans for Rebecca (all of which were needs) and a coloring book for Ben, which was a treat and only $0.50. I only spent $8.50, which was less than half of what one pair of workout pants that I was looking at at Walmart cost. So I think I did pretty well. As I keep reminding myself, it is time to get all of this stuff out of my house and not bring in near as much.
So there you have it with update #1, hopefully I can keep up the momentum and return and share more results from the closet of doom next Friday.
I seem to remember a post about this very same closet about a year ago. I can see why it's your nemesis. lol. You did a great job tackling it though. You're off to a terrific start!
ReplyDeleteYes there was! I have talked about it before. I get it cleaned and then it gets crammed full of stuff again. This time I am striving to keep it clean, organized, and not cluttered.
DeleteThat looks like a great challenge project! Nice work with all of the decluttering & donating. We are in a similar situation with renting. My goal is that every time I'm home alone (super rarely, given schedules), I make it a challenge to find 50 items that can leave the house. 90% of this is typically recycling/trash (homework, school papers, etc), but I also try to find books no one is reading, clothes that are too small, etc& either donate or sell. Slow but steady!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Slow and steady is for sure the way I have to go as we are always busy. Finding 50 items is a good challenge. For the first time in a long time, I am being very picky about what I am keeping. And it helps that for the first time in a really long time my Dear Hubby is on board with my mission to declutter. :-)
DeleteI think just about every house has a dumping spot. I need to be inspired by you to get busy as there is one area off of my laundry room where I keep all the Christmas stuff - i've got everything in bins but I need to get it onto shelves. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I was able to clean out where our Christmas bins are before we packed all our stuff away for the season. I am just taking it a little at a time and giving myself the month to get it done so I dont get overwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea Rachel! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to check Goodwill for workout clothes! Why pay more in a size that I don't intend to be for very long :-)!
ReplyDelete