There is nothing like starting a project- the excitement before you realize halfway through repainting a room that your arm hurts, you’re covered in paint splatters and it just isn’t really that fun! I really want to get this clutter under control, so I went in with a positive attitude and a plan. Any successful project needs to have guidelines and a plan of action or it can easily get derailed and leave you with a half empty closet and the clutter on the dining room table. I seriously thought about what I wanted to accomplish, how I wanted the closet to look when I was done, and came up with these rules for myself:
- Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.
It’s just a closet!
- Make 4 piles-"Trash"," Give Away", "Keep", and "It Goes Somewhere Else".
- Touch it once and put it immediately into a pile.
As soon as I touched something it had to go into one of those piles with no hesitation. If I wasn’t sure about something I put it in the keep pile.
- Pick the easiest task first.
I am really bad about wanting to tackle the hard things first and end up overwhelmed, frustrated and usually give up. Pick something that you know that you can do that will make an immediate impact. I picked the trash pile and out it went. I felt better already!
- Where does it really go and am I ever going to use this?
Oftentimes things get shoved and hidden in closets that don’t belong there. I relocated everything that belonged somewhere else and the things that didn’t really have a home I asked myself if we really used/needed it. Almost every item that didn’t belong anywhere else, we never used. So out went the dust buster--does ANYONE use those? A hand held carpet cleaner, flashlights that didn’t work, and photo albums that I didn’t like and only bought because they were on clearance were among the items on the list.
- Think outside the box. Don’t let your ideas of what something should be make you stay with something that doesn’t work.
I thought hard about what had really not worked in the closet and the main thing was the bed linens. They were everywhere and I could never find what I needed. So I started brainstorming ways to make this easier. “Why” became the question and “what if” was the answer.
Why do the linens have to be kept in a linen closet?
What if, instead of hauling the sheets to the beds, they were already there????
That made me realize that a lot of times we try to force ourselves to live with something that doesn’t work for us because a contractor never thought about real family life (Hence why our laundry room is literally the farthest point of the house from the bedrooms). When I started this line of thought, it made such perfect sense that I felt stupid-do you ever have one of those moments? I already had the bins and realized that they would slide perfectly under the bed. Putting the linens under the beds they belonged with, solved ALL the problems. I would always have the right size, it would eliminate a huge amount of clutter and it would discourage any items being stored under beds that didn’t belong there. This new look at my closet excited me and I was determined to get the lids on the totes so they could fit under the beds. Looking through the sheets, I realized that I had way more sets than we could ever use. Because I knew exactly how much space I had, I eagerly got rid of sets that had seen better days, were missing matches or were gifts that were not our style at all. And you know what? It worked! I was happy with what was left, I had rediscovered some beautiful things and everything fit just like I had hoped.
- Eliminate the temptation to pull something back out of the Give Away pile.
Now that I had sorted through the sheets, I was left with a huge pile of give-away items. I bagged all those up and immediately took them to the car. This eliminated the second guessing of myself and family to be tempted by “just in case” or “remember when’s”.
- Set a time limit.
It is so easy to be overwhelmed not only by the clutter but the sense of time it will take to clean up. I had said that I would give it 2 hours and no more. I was surprised when I looked at the clock from the time I opened the door with a plan until I stood there looking at what was left, it was 47 minutes. Not 2 hours, not days or years. 47 minutes to make a change in our life. Wow!
- See if what you think will work, will work.
I had said earlier that I had picked up some things to help get the closet organized at the thrift store and with what I already had on hand, was eager to see if everything that I needed in the closet fit back in. One thing I did notice was that the very bottom shelf got in the way of the vacuum coming in. Easy fix, off it came. I have plenty of storage space with the remaining shelves, so it wasn’t a great loss. It went so quickly and was so much fun, I didn’t even count the time. I have been so happy, tickled, really that I constantly walk by just to look at it. I have some things to finish up but am so excited to reveal the finish project to you all.
- Be proud of yourself.
No matter how far you get, you have made an effort and once you get into it you will be surprised at how much fun it can be.
Check back this weekend to see the final results!!!
These are some of the items I bought to use-
Love it. I had not thought of keeping the sheets in the room they belong, I will have think on that.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do do is I have bins in the attic for "out of season" not winter and summer, but either/or. I bring down the bins take out the up coming season and replace with what "Might" fit next year. Each person has a bin, my husband keeps most of his down year round so there is extra room in his bin for any over flow from someone elses. I also have a bin for the linen closet "out of season" the beach towels and the blankets trade places in this bin. I take them out of the closet place them in the bin and replace with what was in the bin. I also have a "next season consignment" bin. I bring it down fluff the clothes in the dryer with a dryer sheet and take it down to consign. This has worked for 5 or 6 years, so I think I will keep it.