The Monster Tamed

Did you think I was gone forever? Sorry I have been gone for so long. I got a new job with a crazy schedule and between that and all of the other things I have going on there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. But I couldn't leave you all hanging any longer on my last decluttering post.

You may remember the images of my outside storage closet and how it had become such a source of stress for me because it was so packed full of junk. Well I'm happy to report that it has been (mostly) tamed. There is still a fair amount of stuff in the closet and I hope to purge more as time goes on. However, it is starting to get colder and the holidays are approaching and I just needed to get it manageable before bad weather really sets in. I plan to purge the Christmas decorations when I get them out to decorate. Even though it is not as pared down as I would like it to be, it makes me feel so much better when I open the door now.

So for a refresher, here it is before...

And after...

I know it is kind of hard to tell how much better it really is, but trust me, I can get to the things I need now and it doesn't make me want to wretch when I open the door anymore. So with the exception of paring down things as I find myself not needing them, my massive decluttering project is essentially over. I'm still working on the digital decluttering process which sometimes seems hopeless. Don't leave me though. I plan to try to make a little time to blog as often as I can!

The Monster!

When I moved into my apartment I was very pleased to find that it had an outdoor storage building attached. I knew it would come in handy for storing Christmas decorations and the link. I did not know that my hoarding tendencies would turn it into the beast that it has become. As the following pictures will show, getting the Christmas decorations out takes an act of Congress. I also had to add a bunch of Weight Watchers gear recently and now it's just more than I can stand.

Today's holiday was supposed to be spent cleaning this space out, but I woke up to rain so I didn't expect to get anywhere on that. I finished the last detail of the boys room which was cleaning out their drawers and then since the rain had stopped I decided to get started. I didn't get very far before the rain started up again and I had to put it all back. I did get several bags ready for donation and a few bags of trash, so at least I made a start which feels good. This week is going to be insane so I have no idea when I'll get back to it. But, just so you can see what I'm up against, here are the before pictures...

Thoughts on Money

I live in a great little neighborhood. It's one that I've lived in off and on since I was born in some area or another. It's near a Mennonite university and a retirement home so we have a really interesting mix of older and younger people as well as families. We also have an interesting mix of money. While no one would really be considered "poor" in the area, it ranges from apartment dwellers to some really expensive and large houses. There's one particular hill of really fancy homes that has been there since I was very young and grown over the years.

I've always been in awe of this hill of homes. My Kindergarten "boyfriend" lived on the hill for a while as well as some of my other classmates in elementary school. I've walked the hill many times over the years and admired the beautiful houses and nice cars in the driveways. I have always wanted to live on the hill. My tastes have changed over the years and so I have a different favorite house depending on when you ask me. I always thought that if I were living on that hill I would know that I've made it.

I walked that hill last night and something had changed. None of the houses were my favorite anymore. Sure, they are all still beautiful and I don't fault a single owner for wanting to own them. But I don't want to live there anymore. I realized that the desire to be at the place where I could live there has caused me to make stupid choices and pretend like I had more money than I really do. It has put me into a horrible financial place, one I never thought I'd be in...ever.

My dream home has really changed in my mind since the beginning of my financial struggle and this process of decluttering my home and my life. It's much smaller and a lot less fancy than those houses on the hill. I'm not suggesting that if you can afford a home like that or still want to have one one day that there's something wrong with you. I'm just saying don't pretend like I did. Make smart choices to have what you desire and don't sacrifice on your way there.

And while we're talking dream homes. A blog dealing with minimalism wouldn't be complete without some videos of people living in tiny homes. Could you do it?

Boys Room Complete!

Now that school has started back for all of us (my classes started today) and the weather will soon get cooler I have an overwhelming desire to get this project complete! So, yesterday and today the boys and I worked on their room and I'm happy to announce that it is complete! Now, the rest of the house looks like a bomb went off in it because of all of the stuff that needs to go to the thrift store, but at least their room looks good!

If I'd had my way we would have eliminated a lot more stuff. But, they're kids and I think they did amazing in this process. My oldest is way past ready for it to be over. He has a lot less attachment to things than the rest of us, so as long as you don't touch his books he's OK. But, I still felt like I had to ask him about everything. Overall the got rid of a ton. There are some things they kept that I didn't really see the need for because it never gets used. So, I will observe for a few months and see if they do, if not, they may secretly disappear. So, here are the before and afters!

Bedroom Is Done!

I worked on my bedroom off and on yesterday and today and finally finished it up. So far, it has been the most stressful of rooms (I keep saying that don't I). I knew it was going to be rough because I have a lot of sentimental things in there. Under my bed I had two small storage bins with cards and letters, and a huge tote full of pictures in frames. I also have a big cedar chest that was full to the brim of various things.

The boxes weren't too hard. Once contained wedding invitations and other little things that I will use in my scrapbooks, so I kept all of that. There were only a few weddings in there anyway. The other box contained tons of cards and letters. Most were from my kids from various holidays and of course I had to keep all of those. There were a few from my best friend, my mom, my grandmother and my grandfather, so they all stayed too. But then there were also quite a few from my ex-husband. When I went through them last night I kept all of those. I figured that perhaps my kids would want to see them at some point. But then this morning I went through them all again and got rid of all but a few. I don't know how much of that stuff (if any) the boys will care about, so I figured one or two would be enough, and the ones I kept were about the kids so it was all relative.

The cedar chest proved to be much more difficult. There were a lot of things from my wedding, and a bunch of my baby clothes. I collect Gone With the Wind memorabilia so there was some of that in there too. I got rid of a few things that really didn't need to be saved, and then had to decide what to do with the remainder. I kept all the wedding pictures and the video for the boys sake, and got rid of everything else from the wedding.

The baby clothes were a bit tricky. Since I didn't have boys, I couldn't use them for my own child and they really don't have much sentimental value to me, because I don't remember wearing them. They mean a lot more to my mom, as I suspect the boys clothes will to me, so I'm giving them back to her to decide what to do with them. I could have kept them, but I know I have tons of sentimental things out in my storage shed and I want to try to contain all that stuff (not including things I keep of the boys) to this cedar chest. I know I have tons of stuff out there from high school, so I'm going to have to be very selective. Now I have about half the cedar chest empty for those things.

Enough chatter, I know you want to see pictures! The first is from a corner next to the closet and cedar chest.

These are from the side of the bed that I sleep on.

Lastly this is from a corner next to my dresser. At the moment I know it doesn't look that much better. However, what you don't see in the before picture is two baskets that were overflowing with fabric and used t-shirts that I use for sewing projects (well you can see part of one). They are now contained to the pink bin and its size is going to force me to work on those projects or get rid of that stuff too. Also, the workout step is still there in the box because I'm hoping to find a new home for it that allows it to be out of the way, and get used. If it doesn't, it's gone too! So I may have a better after picture of this space at some point.

Of all the rooms I've done so far this one still feels the most "full". Even though I cleaned almost everything out from under the bed and the closet was done some months ago, I still feel like there is too much stuff. It's funny how the more you get rid of, the more you want to get rid of!

Working on the Living Room

With the exception of my desk area and my sons trucks I've totally forgotten to take pictures of my living room declutter. I'm sorry about that because I know the pictures make it more fun, but I just got into it and realized I'd forgotten when I was about halfway through. So, I'll try to paint a mental picture.

There were books EVERYWHERE! I love books. I'm an English major, I have a Kindle, but I cannot get rid of books. I also buy more books almost every time I go to a thrift store. They make me happy and I will likely keep most of the ones I have during this process. But they were taking over. So were toys. We had a three drawer storage bin that was full of toys that the boys never play with, so we started with that. It was packed and we got it down to having about four things in it. We also had a toy box that was mine as a child that doubles as a coffee table. It took was packed full of toys that they never play with. So, that was next on the list. We got it down to where we were able to put everything into the three drawer bin with room to spare!!

Back to the books. I have two large shelves in the living room back two deep and with books shoved in the space on top as well. I also had a basket that was overflowing and a stack against the wall that was nearly as tall as one of the shelves. All of the books in the basket, those stacked against the wall, and many that were in the space at the top of the other books have now been relocated to the toy box. I still get to keep them and read them, but they're not in the way anymore! It's fantastic!

The last part of the living room that needs to be tackled is this table that used to be used for scrapbooking. It still contains all of my scrapbook stuff (which I hope to relocate once my storage shed is cleaned out) and our bird. I'm going to clean it out and organize it the best I can so that it will be easy to move around once I have the ability to do so.

Overall it has been a productive day and once I move to the bathroom I'll remember to start taking pictures again!

Today's Donations

I should have taken pictures of everything that was going out of the house as well as the before and afters. I only realized this this morning when I was looking at the pile I had to load into the car. I filled a huge rolling rack at Gift & Thrift by myself. Bear in mind, I've already donated a similar sized pile and this is just from the kitchen! Ignore the rest of the mess, my kids had stuff everywhere!

There were five trash bags, a box and a paper bag. I felt like a ton had been lifted off me after we drove away. I also mailed three cookbooks I sold on Amazon, gave away an ice cream maker to a friend, and a few things to my mom. It's so nice walking into my kitchen now!

If you're interested in where all of these things are headed, I donate to Gift & Thrift. All of the proceeds go to Mennonite Central Committee and it's such a nice and well organized store.

Pantry Clean Out

So last night after my post I was feeling good and decided I'd keep going. I went for the cabinet under my sink and found a few interesting things. The first was that I probably won't have to buy glass cleaner until the boys go to college. And the second is that I had five containers of Lysol...and I don't use Lysol. Those will be going to our SPCA. So here are the before and afters of the cabinet under the sink.

I didn't get rid of all of those cleaning supplies as they are useful. I re-homed them above the sink with the rest of those products.

Now for the pantry. This space is probably what started it all. It depressed me every time I walked into it. I knew that there was a lot of stuff that needed to be thrown out because it was expired, but I couldn't make myself do it. I knew I had to though, and so I did it finally. It was very depressing and a good reminder to myself about why I'm doing this. The excess in my house was causing me to waste, repurchase and throw out perfectly good things because I forgot about them. I felt sick while taking this on, but now that it's done I feel so much better and know it will keep it from happening again. Note that when I took the before pictures I forgot there was a light in there!

And after (though I left the vacuum and trash can out so you could see better. They did go back in.

A few things did come into the pantry that were not there before. I moved my dehydrator from a spot you'll see later and the animal food from the same spot into more logical spaces in the pantry. It's great to walk in there now!

Lots of stuff on it's way out!

This was a good evening for getting rid of stuff! I decided to go through some of the cabinets I avoided last night. I wanted all of the upper cabinets finished and I did that plus one lower. I also did the other two drawers (but forgot to take a picture of one). These before and afters aren't quite as impressive as the others because these contain things I really do use on a pretty regular basis. Not to mention that some of this stuff was layers deep so you can't really see everything. But, a whole lot of stuff did come out.

The flower bowls in these pictures do not get used all that often, but my aunt painted them for me and I refuse to get rid of them. I said I was paring down, I didn't say I'd go full blown minimalist!

These cabinets go pretty far back, so there was a lot of stuff here that you couldn't even see.

This one is the one I'm most proud of. I still might get rid of more plastic stuff in here, but everything that is left does get used. I had held onto that notion that you have to have an eight piece place setting so I'd kept an eight piece setting. I decided that was insane, kept four of everything except the mugs and now I'm happy.

I had things in this drawer that not only had I never used, but I didn't even know what they were!

Really only got rid of a few things here because the rest of this stuff is in heavy rotation. Giving my mom my salad spinner and George Foreman. Threw a way a sandwich maker that was broken. I guess I do keep some broken things after all!

While part of me wishes I could get rid of even more here, I think I made good progress and am left with things I actually use. I may pare down more as I see what I do use over the next few months, but this was progress. I only have two more cabinets in the kitchen, but one is the worst of all. I hope I survive!