It’s true. I have one. I didn’t used to have one -- it starts so innocently. Oh, people are coming over, I’ll just throw this bag in the closet! Oh, so and so is stopping by? I’ll just throw this thing in the closet. Oh we’re hosting dinner? I’ll just throw ALL THE THINGS in the closet.
The renovation didn’t help – but it brought it to a point where nothing else would fit in there (dangit!) so I had to address it. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m in a serious fall nesting mode right now too – all I want to do is clean, decrapify, meal plan, bake, all that goodness. None of it is really happening but the desire is there. ;)
We could still hang coats in the coat closet and we could still shut the door so that’s something, right?:
I knew it was getting bad when things would creep out from under the door and I’d desperately cram them back in with my feet.
Usually the vacuum lives in there but it hasn’t been put away for approximately six months. Apparently lots of people came over in that time. ;)
I’ve been so focused on finishing up stuff in the family room that I have neglected all the CRAP that has been piling up around our house. The other day I seriously couldn’t handle it any longer. Out it all came from the closet:
I’ve told you for years that I’m a bagger. It gives me great joy to throw all the I-have-NO-idea-what-to-do-with-you stuff in a bag. It makes me feel organized when I’m not. And then one day when I can’t take it anymore I clean out the bag. Probably not the best organizational process ever but it’s how I do. I’ve come to embrace it.
But listen, this time I let it go waaaaay to long. So I sat down in front of that pile and started the process of sorting. If I don’t know what to do with it immediately when I touch it, it goes into a deal with you later pile. Of course that’s the biggest one:
The others were toys/kid stuff, recycling, file, put away, donate, decorative stuff to put in the storage room and a teeny tiny pile of stuff for the husband to deal with. Of course his pile has the least amount of stuff in it. Of. course.
Here’s the pile I was left with:
This is the pile that makes my brain hurt when I look at it.
Seriously, what are these??:
They’re trash now, that’s what they are. I used to keep every little gadget, afraid I’d need it later. I don’t anymore.
I made it through most of that last pile pretty easily – it’s when I got to this last bit that I stood there for a good five minutes just staring at all of it:
CORDS. Bleh, you know I hate them. Gah. And the Christmas tree cord was in there too – I might as well just leave it out at this point.
But I got through it. It’s all put away and one cluttered, messy spot is clean! The vacuum is now back in it’s home:
I even wrapped up the cord instead of hanging it from the top of the vacuum – you KNOW I’m feeling accomplished when that happens!
And now things don’t fall out when we open the door!:
I’m serious – I feel like I could conquer the world right now. I almost pulled the cookbooks out and started the meal planning. Almost. First I need to get rid of some more crap.
Spots like this can be daunting – I find that if I make sure I have the time to address it and pile things I can get through it a lot faster. It completely overwhelms me to pull individual items out and then put them away one by one. This was a step in the right direction – now to get that fireplace and the rest of the family room done!! Thanks for all your comments on that by the way!
Do you have a Monica closet? (If you never watched Friends you may not know what that is.) Or a Monica room perhaps? I’ve had those too. ;)
P.S. To see how I use the shoe cubbies for non-shoe storage and what those big hooks are, check out this post.
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