War On Clutter

Not much writing has been done lately because I finally decided to attack all the clutter in my life. Sunday and Monday I made my way through the garage, which has been my domain since I started working in the yard so much. I tend to just throw my stuff all over the place, whereas my husband hates clutter so he stuffs things wherever he can find an empty space. Needless to say, there were garden tools and pots covering the floor and any available table space. I managed to empty the shelves and stack all the Rubbermaid containers together. It looks so much better and there is soooooo much room now.

Then I hit the bedroom. I decided that I want the bedroom to be as minimalist as possible, which is a challenge since the room is also my library/dressing room/sanctuary. It serves a lot of purposes. The little nick knacks were the first to be abandoned. I like the look of each piece individually, but they hold no real significance and all of them together are too much. I want all surfaces to be clear except for my plants and maybe one or two items. I cleared off a small bookcase and managed to move it into our spare room. I threw everything in my closet onto the bed and started sorting. It is hard to be honest enough to admit that you are never going to wear something or that it will never fit. Even after I cleared out two garbage bags full of clothes, there is still more in the closet that needs to go, but I will make a second run at it later. One of my obsessions has always been purses, so I let myself keep about half of them. Some cover a coat rack and there is also a box left in the closet. I gave the others away to people at work (who think I am crazy for giving away really nice purses, but they didn't complain).

After tackling my clothes in my closet, I decided I might as well go through the boxes of clothes in the garage. I allowed myself to keep one really large Rubbermaid bin, but I had to go through each box thoroughly so I didn't get rid of anything special or that I might still want. I ended up with eleven garbage bags of clothes that are going to Goodwill this weekend. I am almost embarrassed that I have that much clothing I don't wear. Some even still had tags on them!

There is still quite a bit to do, but the hard part will be keeping things clutter free.