I would like all of these things.
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It’s also time to revisit some more decluttering! This week last year, I decluttered my two primary kitchen utensil drawers. I ended with them here:
…and a year later, here’s how they look:
Not too bad! 🙂Â
So, it was a year ago this week that I started my weekly decluttering projects for this blog. I got a lot of spaces decluttered over the first half of 2011, and I’m glad for that. I thought it would be good to revisit those spaces each week to 1) keep myself on task to be sure the clutter doesn’t creep back in, and 2) toot my own horn when applicable, since I am a well-known horn tooter.
My first decluttering project last year was my hall closet that had been my catch-all of randomness for 7 years. Here’s how that started:
…and here’s how it finished:
Now, let’s fast-forward — here’s that same closet today:
Well…it’s still better than it was before the decluttering…but I guess it is getting a little cluttered again. It may be time to do a quick sort and throw out anything that isn’t critical to…well, I guess just anything that’s not critical in general.
No horn tooting just yet.
Hi! I haven’t officially decluttered anything in a while, since there are really only big projects left, and I’m a slacker. I did, however, finally suck it up and tackle my office. Since I work from home AND I’m a huge computer geek, I spend the majority of every day in this office…and it had gotten a bit out of control. Don’t judge me.Â
I know, right? I love my office furniture; I splurged a few years ago and bought most of these pieces from the Bedford Collection at Pottery Barn. It’s great for lots of storage…or for lots of piling on of random things, as evidenced above. I also love this room – it’s the smallest bedroom in the house and it’s just kinda precious. It’s a nice size for a cozy office, but it starts to feel kinda tiny when my things are piled to the point of overflowing to the floor. So, let’s make this happen!
This was really mostly a matter of throwing away a bunch of stuff that was just sitting around. I had to make a few tough decisions and say goodbye to some cute things that mostly serve no purpose, such as:
I also found a few things that I didn’t even realize I had…like this stack of unopened Architectural Digest issues from 2003-2004. I really do love this magazine, but I think I just went through a phase where it was too much like heavy reading or something. BUT I WILL NOT THROW THESE AWAY – THEY COULD BE CLASSICS SOMEDAY!! *shakes fist to the sky*
I also went through all my other magazines that were laying around and organized them into my handy-dandy magazine organizers that I picked up at Ikea a few months ago. I’m keeping all my copies of Martha Stewart, Country Living, Cottage Living, House Beautiful, etc — 1) because I am a pack rat and 2) because I just think it’s awesome to keep them around for inspiration, and also for nostalgia some day down the road. See how I justify?
Here’s where I ended up:
Yay!! I have a tiny bit of an echo in here now, but that’s alright. 🙂 Some day I’ll get it painted and more decorated — it’s really not very welcoming right now, from a design perspective. Some day. For now, though, it does feel better to have things so nicely in order. All my desk drawers are still chaos, btw, but I can’t see that every time I walk in, so they can stay for now. See how I justify?
And – most importantly – the dogs still have their little nest under my project table, as demonstrated by Max.
Priorities.
Today’s decluttering is a little different than usual, but a critical (and long overdue, of course) decluttering nonetheless. We have a pool…and a patio…and a porch. On the patio, we have chairs…those chairs have cushions. I don’t want to leave the cushions out all the time, of course – they are “outdoor” cushions, so they’d be okay, I suppose…but they’d just be really dirty and always soggy after a rain, yada yada. So I’ve always kept the cushions on the porch when they’re not actively being used…I’ve tried big storage bags, but they were really more of a hassle than a benefit…so ultimately, the cushions have just been tossed somewhere out of the way, like behind the porch furniture.
Not terribly cluttered, but not good, really. The vacuum and bikes aren’t great right there, either…well, the bikes aren’t too bad, but the vacuum needs to go somewhere else. It’s actually usually in our shed, all the way across the yard, or in the basement storage room, which isn’t easy to get into…but I wish I had somewhere closer and handier to keep it, but that’ll have to be a post for another day.
Anyway…I wanted to do something with those cushions. So I did. I hit up Lowes and Home Depot online and checked their options for something that we could put on the patio, up against the house – small enough that it wouldn’t be an obstruction, but big enough to house these cushions, and hopefully some pool toys and/or containers of pool chemicals…stuff like that. Enter the Suncast 2 ft. 6 in. x 4 ft. 8 in. Cedar and Resin Vertical Shed – hell yeah.
2.5 feet deep -perfect. A little over 6 feet tall – might cover the corner of a shutter, but that’s okay. And 4’8″ was just wide enough for the little space at the bottom of our porch steps. FYI – I measured the space several times to be sure this was a fit – I’m overly cautious when the purchase is over, like, $20.
Mister was, of course, tasked with putting the new shed together, so he tackled it this past Saturday morning. It took about 5 hours, I think…here he is celebrating in-progress victory:
That was before he tackled the roof part, which was, in Mister’s words, “@#$%^& poor design.” So, another hour or two after that, we had this:
Ta da!! It really is just the perfect depth so that it doesn’t stick out on the way to the porch steps. It’s big enough for Misters, or Maxes…
…or outdoor cushions.
I like it! It would be nice to add a little shelf towards the top, maybe use that for pool chemicals…and if I get really ambitious someday, maybe I’ll paint it white so it blends in a little better with the house. But for now, it’s just right, and it’s nice not having that jumble of cushions on the porch. I didn’t take an “after” pic of the porch, since it’s really just the same pic as above, minus cushions behind the chairs. I think you can work that out. 🙂
Hi! A quick decluttering today, but one that was long overdue (aren’t they all?). Our downstairs bathroom closet has been the unofficial medicine cabinet for years, which really just means that we throw any and all medicine in there once the need for said medicine has passed. And so:
I checked each item for an expiration date, and anything past its expiration, even if only a little bit, was thrown out. I also found some bubble bath stuff in there, like bath salts and whatnot, from the brief phase where I wanted to be one of those chicks who takes luxurious bubble baths. I think I took one. Either way, I decided to keep that stuff, just because…well, just because. You never know.
Anyway, speaking of dates, I knew I’d find some fun ones. I thought this would be my doozy:
…until I found this one:
…which was filled in my father-in-law’s name. What? I couldn’t even tell what the drug was since the label was so faded. Weird.
I also found this:
..which isn’t especially remarkable, except that it’s a memento from our Canada-trip-from-hell a few years ago. During this trip, Mister essentially vomited his way (you’re welcome!) from Niagara to Toronto, then we spent about 8 hours in a Toronto emergency room, complete with all sorts of other mishaps and shenanigans…and afterward, at the doctor’s recommendation, we picked up some Gravol at a local pharmacy to help ease Mister’s nausea. See – it’s in French, too! Oh, Canada!
And finally, the most exciting find was this:
Doesn’t everyone keep their not-yet-inflated beach balls in the medicine cabinet/closet?
Now I have this nice, clean, (presumably) FDA-approved closet:
Hooray! One more space’s clutter knocked out!
Hi! For today’s decluttering, I’m being very liberal with what classifies as “decluttering”, in that I’m going to share my big Ikea purchases and convince you that they lend themselves favorably to my overall decluttering goal. Got it?
So…I bought some little basics, like baskets (4 for $10!!!) and more silverware and a few frying pans and the magazine holders I showed you before. We also decided, on a whim, to pick up a new coffee table for the living room. The one we had was showing some wear, and it’s really too small for the space….
So that one is out…and this one is in!
I think it’s much better suited for the space, and it looks nicer…and that equals decluttering, right? Right. And clearly, I desperately need a rug in here, too…but that’s a post for another time.
Our other spur-of-the-moment purchase was Mister’s idea…we’ve been saying that we need something at the foot of our bed, like a bench or whatnot, that would give Max something lower to jump on as he jumps up on the bed, which is pretty high. What we decided to do is grab two more ottomans like we already have in the living room, which happens to be Max’s favorite spot in the whole house, and we’ve just lined them up all bench-like.
Not super exciting, but the color works. It gives us a place to sit, when needed, plus these are storage ottomans, so we can use them to hold extra bedding and whatnot. See: DECLUTTER.
AND, best of all – less stress on Max’s bum leg. Yay!
Hi there. I have tons of stuff to share with you from last weekend and the Lucketts Spring Market, as well as from a trip to Ikea…and I will share it all soon. My week has been turned quite upside down, thus the absence of new blog posts. My Chloe has been in the doggy hospital since Tuesday, diagnosed with some extreme form of anemia, the full name of which I just can’t remember. She’s responding to treatment, and she hasn’t gotten any worse…but she also hasn’t really gotten much better. Please send all the positive thoughts and prayers that you can.
I did find a few minutes for a mini-decluttering. I told you before about all my magazines, and my quest for better storage. At Ikea this weekend, I went ahead and picked up some of their cute little magazine holders – just $2 each!
They’re my favorite color, they’re sturdy, and oh yeah, they’re cheap. I grabbed 20 of them, which I think should take care of all my magazines, with some room to grow. I think. Now, my office is a COMPLETE wreck, so I’ve carefully positioned these photos to show as little of the room as possible, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Just ashamed to show it. Anyway, here’s an idea of my current magazine storage:
There are 9 cubbies on each side of my project table, and maybe 6 of them right now are (haphazardly) filled with magazines. I also then have stacks of mags on my floor, my lateral file cabinet, on top of the scanner, etc. I went ahead and popped together a few of the Ikea holders…filled one up (fits 12 Martha Stewart issues perfectly) and went to slide the holder back into the cubby.
Oops. Clearly, someone didn’t measure before making her purchase. I figured the holders were the same height as the magazine…and I know the magazines fit…so A = B = C, so A = C, right? Wrong. (They’re much taller than the magazines. Who knew?)
No problem, though! I have different shelves and cubbies on the other side of the room!
Perfect fit! Again, I’m showing just a tiny portion of this bookshelf because omg it’s a mess over there. Still, whenever I get around to cleaning this place up, I’ll know exactly where to store my magazines. Take that, clutter!
Max supports this.
I always feel like I’m cheating when I do a quick-and-easy decluttering…BUT, if ya think about it, even the small spaces need to be decluttered…and at least it means that more clutter is being moved out…so I’m still awesome.
Today I did a quick declutter on my perfume/body lotion cabinet. I have a few fragrances I wear most often, but I do like to mix it up sometimes. So, I’ve built a collection over the years: scents that I only wear during winter, or during summer…or that I only wear when I’m feeling fancy or feeling nostalgic. I knew a lot of these bottles had been sitting in there for a while, un-used, so it was time.
I found a few bottles in the back where it looked like the lotion had…turned, I guess is the right word. So those went in the trash. I also had a few items that I remember were impulse buys, and then once I got home and wore them maybe once or twice, I fell out of love with the scent. So those went, too. I found that I had a few bottles of the same scent, in various levels of emptiness, so I combined those and got rid of a few bottles. Now I’m left with the stuff that I know is 1) still good…2) something I will wear…3) not in a bottle with a broken top and therefore leaking all over the bottom of the cabinet (it was like a gardenia-scented silly putty). That leaves:
Easy to reach, easy to remember what I have in there, and therefore easy to smell like a flower…or a banana. Mmmmmm.
Ohhi! I took an easy route for decluttering today, but I did declutter, by golly. I decided to hit my jewelry drawer. I don’t wear much jewelry at all these days, but back in my go-to-the-office days, I did. I’m all about the costume jewelry (read “easy on my wallet”), and have just a few very precious pieces, like my wedding and 10th anniversary rings and other fancy stuff that Mister has given me over the years. Those precious pieces have very specific little boxes where they stay…and all the costume jewelry has just sort of been tossed around in this drawer for a few years. That gives us this:
I pulled everything out…just threw away any pieces that seemed hopelessly tangled…put aside pieces that I’ve never worn, or haven’t worn in years, or just don’t see myself wearing ever again…and then organized the stuff that I want to keep. I had a lot more little individual boxes in that drawer than I realized, so I was able to give everything that I’m keeping its own little nesting place. Ta da!
Of course, after I finished and was back in my office downloading the pics from my camera, I realized that I had totally neglected the little wooden chest I have on my dresser that has even more jewelry. SO, that will have to be a separate exercise –Â but the bulk of my jewelry was in the drawer. Therefore, I still win this decluttering round. I’ve got my Goodwill pile of items, too, that we’ll drop off at some point:
Done!
Check out some really cute inspiration pics for other ways to store your jewelry:
*image via A Time For Everything
*image via Tipple & Snack on Etsy
I LOVE THIS ONE (above)!
*image via Design*Sponge
*image via Down and Out Chic
*image via Happy Day Vintage on Etsy
This one makes me want to find an old, cheap wood jewelry armoire and refurbish it! That may actually be a really smart beginner project for me. *wheels spinning*
As it turns out, my friends — it is not. You are witnessing possibly the world’s greatest tandem procrastination as Mister and I continue to ignore the laundry room. *bows* I was going to try and knock out a small drawer or something for this week…but, well, I didn’t. Here’s hoping to a more productive decluttering next week!
In the meantime, since you’re here — here’s some fun stuff I’ve found via Pinterest. Enjoy!
To-do List 