The Decluttering Lion and The Linen Closet

My mom is "shocked and slightly embarassed at the sight of" my clutter and disarray being displayed for the world to see. I, on the other hand, think that you're like me and need to see that no matter how hard we try, we're not perfect and don't have to time for everything. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a clean and organized home comes from constant work and upkeep. My current process has been to methodically room by room, closet by closet, purge and declutter. If you are a packrat, just skip on to the pictures, close your ears and your eyes because you are not going to like what I am going to say.

Are all the packrats gone??

For YEARS, I mean since I was in high school, I have saved things. Special things, not special things, things I thought could be repurposed, broken things, ridiculous things, things for art projects, useful or not it got saved. I thought I "couldn't part with it". I linked memories, money, happiness, and lots of other things to all this STUFF.

THE RESULT-

A mess that I could not keep up with. When we bought our house, we bought a fixer-upper, because it had more character, and more square footage. That was 6 years ago. I couldn't believe all the closets, cabinets, and space, after living in my apartment and then dorm room before that. Then one day I woke up and the house was full. The attic, the closets, the basements, drawers, cabinets, every space full of STUFF!! For a long time I and those who loved me couldn't understand why I couldn't keep my house clean, why I couldn't just pick up as I went, why I let it get so bad, and why it didn't bother me unless company was coming.

I read books about it, I read blogs about it, searched for tips, tried little things like baskets for my medicine, it helped a little, but was not the cure.

They say necessity is the mother of all invention, and that's what happened with me. I got tired of not being comfortable in my home, of not being able to find what I needed, and not having a place to put things. (Being hospitalized for the 2nd year in a row helped this just a little)

I am by NO means finished. This is going to be a process, a long one. But I've accomplished a lot and gotten rid of a lot!! I think my current count is 6 bags of trash and about 8 bags/boxes of things for Goodwill, thrift, etc.

You saw my bedroom earlier in the week, but I forgot to tell you that I also tackled my linen closet-the dark abyss of forgotten linens. It is amazing what we accumulate, way to much of stuff that is used WAY to little. I got rid of icky sheets and towels, scratchy ones, and just kept the good stuff. I, in fact, did a little research about stocking a linen closet and how much of what you needed. This helped guide me a little in how much of what to keep. So check out the stuff I pulled out and the end result.

Before:

After: