Craft Supply Overload

I was working last night and got tired of sitting, so I thought I'd do another quick clean out as a break. Turns out that was a bad idea because what I decided to work on was NOT quick at all. Because I live in a small apartment, there just isn't room for a lot of the things we have. I know I'm going to have more than I want in here but that's the way it is. Our kitchen doubles as a craft space and it had reached critical mass.

Totally insane isn't it? You can see where I was keeping the pet food that I mentioned in the pantry clean out. It took forever, but here's the after! I felt so good when I finally went to bed that you would have thought tomorrow was Christmas! I wish I didn't have to have so much of this in the kitchen, but for now, this is where it will be. Perhaps as this process continues I'll find a better home for it all.

Digital Clutter and a Request

Sadly my clutter is not limited to the world you can touch, it extends into the virtual world as well. I used to be the queen of managing my e-mail inbox and took pride in the fact that it was almost always empty or organized into nice neat folders. That is a thing of the past. Now my e-mail is always full of stuff I think I might read, newsletters I've signed up for and never read, and things that are actually important, but lost in the shuffle.

So since I'm on the computer for most of the day anyway, I have decided that as soon as an e-mail comes into my box it will be dealt with. If it is a newsletter I do not read, I will immediately unsubscribe. If it needs to be responded to, I will respond. If I just can't do something with it at that moment, then I'll leave it, but I'm going to try to avoid that if I can.

On another note, I've been hearing from a lot of people that this blog is inspiring them to get rid of some things as well. I only have five followers through Google, but I know more are reading. So, I'd like to hear from you! Please leave a comment, or even better, send me your stories and pictures so I can share them! I'd love to see what others are up to!

highmaintenancehippieblog@gmail.com

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!

Feeling Liberated!!!

When I started this process the anxiety of it all was weighing heavily on me. I'm still anxious about it, but less now about getting rid of the things, but more about getting it done faster! I have moved into a place of really feeling liberated and now I want more of that feeling! It's amazing to be able to put dishes away without having to take everything out of the cabinet to do so.

Tonight has been especially great so far. I decided to go through a cabinet that just makes me insane. It has a lot of frequently used items, as well as items that I would likely use a lot if I could get to them, but don't because I can't. This cabinet was so bad that things were falling out of it when I opened the doors. What you cannot see is that it goes way back to the right because it is next to my stove, so there was a ton of stuff back there. Only three things remain out of sight now.

This is the first time where I really didn't put everything back to show perspective. That's because I really wanted to move things to locations where I could use them since this stuff is used a lot. First was the plastic stuff. Remember my candle cabinet? Looks like a lot, but I got rid of a ton and these all get used a fair amount. There are a few that may go still, but we'll see.

And this is what went back into the cabinet. I also added my panini press, quesadilla maker, and the waffle and cupcake makers. They were either on the counter or hidden in another cabinet where they were hard to get to.

I cannot tell you how happy I am about this and how good I feel!

The Stress of the Mess!

I have a LOT of stuff and very limited time in which to go through it. I know this is going to be a long process and I'm doing my best to accept that. However, the process itself creates a mess!!!! I have to pull everything out and go through it, then the stuff sits a little while before I can take it to the thrift store. Plus it stirs up dirt and dust and the time I spend doing this means time I spend away from other stuff in the house that needs to get done. So even though I feel very good about doing this, the act is causing me a whole lot of anxiety and stress while it's happening. I sure love dropping things off at the thrift store every day though!

I managed to get through one more cabinet last night. I did add one thing to this when done. I had my magic bullet (generic of course) on the counter in the way, and now I had room for it in a cabinet!

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!

Anxiety High Alert

Today was a high anxiety level day so I felt like it would be good for me to purge something, but not anything that would be too sentimental or hard for me. So I decided to tackle the cabinet above the stove. This started out as my cookbook cabinet, but the cookbooks long spilled out onto another space (that I'll purge later) and then I ran out of spaces for bowls. Here's the before...

This space also contained a lot of recipe magazines and warranty or instruction papers for electronics and such. Here's the after...

I actually do use all of the bowls on a regular basis so they stayed. I only needed 1/4 of the warranty papers I'd saved, and only use a few of the cookbooks. With the exception of a few cookbooks I listed on Amazon, everything will be at Gift & Thrift tomorrow! It feels good!