Some Thoughts of Cleaning Out Closets

January has been a cold month here in north Florida. While indoors, I have used this month to take care of needed tasks inside so that when it does warm up I can go out and play. Bring on warmer temps now.

Stitcher friends, there is no stitching in this post. Come back soon for that. 

This is all "the over consumption of stuff over decades" cleaning out post.

Despite the issues with Mom's health the entire month has NOT  been all bad. I attended to some tasks of going through closets and drawers. For once I found a sense of finally feeling really good about some things. For the last 5 years I have gone systematically through the house room by room, closet by closet. This year my main level which is my upstairs was easy peasy.

Yes, easy peasy. For once, I felt it was a breeze. I had finally gotten to a point where what tucked away in a closet was something I wanted and it served a purpose. Our clothes closet is good. I have stuck to not bringing in a lot more and taking something I didn't love out if I brought something in.

I headed downstairs to the area where my son's room, bathroom, "playroom," and extra closets were. I think I didn't realize how much I had accomplished there. When I started going around little by little I was able to clear out a few more items.

I have to say that my son's closet is empty except for one storage bin of beanie babies. Remember those. We had tons. Most have no tags since Paul Allen didn't like the tags. What he did like was the size of them and spent hours driving them around in a dump truck, etc. The remainder of the closet now holds some empty storage bins that I don't want to get rid of and the air conditioner filters for the house. A basically empty closet!

His desk and chest drawers are empty except for one that holds some clothes such as his letterman jacket. The desk holds decorative items and his old high school yearbooks. I did throw away some old college textbooks, but I have to say he had cleared most of it out. I have one storage tub with baby items of his, but I had long moved them out of his closet.

Then I tackled his old bathroom. All clean with empty drawers...wow!

I then tackled two closets in the playroom area that contain an odd assortment of stuff. I reorganized a few so that the memorabilia I couldn't part with is easier to get to. I can now go down and browse through it and I labeled things better so that one day it will be easier to just throw out stuff.

I had one fairly large pile in the middle of the floor that this weekend I am going take to Goodwill.
It was an odd assortment of stuff that more or less just got looked over and nobody really wanted anymore.

The only thing I did not deal with that I probably should is records and old tapes.
The bottom of the bookcase in the above picture is full of records. Both Jeff and I had quite a collection. I have never really found anywhere to take them that was worth the trouble. I think because they are in that cabinet which was made to hold them ---they are out of sight. I really don't want to throw them in a landfill. I think they are probably a bit more marketable...maybe these days ---with the resurgence of young people listening to records.

That said, I probably will put that off again.

The other one was old tapes. The TV cabinet is full of VHS and DVDs. I was about to pull them all out when Paul Allen kind of winced and said he wasn't sure about that. I decided that they weren't hurting anything and that cabinet would be empty without them. I set up an old TV with a VCR and Tucker and I watched a few old ones while we were down there working. I actually think I will go down and watch a few DVD sets sometimes. The good thing is that they are now all in one spot!

I have put some of his toys as he has outgrown them in Paul Allen's closet since I might use them later for another grand at some point. They have all been given to me or bought at a second hand store. I can easily take them back there for resale later.

I walked through January for the first time feeling good about the past five years of getting rid of extra stuff that wasn't used.

***If one only has two closets that by no means are overflowing with stuff that is not used all that much then I say that is a win win.

The big room is not used all that much, but we do enjoy going down there every now and then. I have room to buy a small record player and have debated it over and over for some time. Maybe!?

One thing that I will say that has helped is being careful with what we purchase. I have finally gotten Jeff on board to think before we buy even the slightest thing to bring in to the house.

I am glad I was a pick rat in that I was able to decorate and furnish our Auburn home. We only bought some new shelves up there in the master bedroom. Everything else is stuff we had.

That is the story of 5 years of scaling it down and surprisingly feeling pretty good about stuff.

The 80s and 90s were definitely decades of buying stuff and collecting stuff. I have a few items in that pile downstairs that I am trying to sell on Ebay. I have listed an old clock that my in-laws had. It and a few more items have been in a closet. I do have a sell for sure. The bidding ends on Saturday. I am not getting rich off it but making more than I would have in a yard sale and enough to ship it properly.

Paul Allen's old room. Even MY trunk is almost empty. Just a blanket.

I would like to list a crystal fruit / banana dish and some pink Incolay Jasparware decorative plates. They both were leftover from their estate sale and just not my thing. The goal is to try and sell to someone who would enjoy them. Again more than a yard sale and enough to cover shipping, but not caring to get rich:)

The other side of his old room. Yearbooks and tons of notebook paper are all that are in the desk.  There is a light sitting on top that Jeff needs to put outside. 

One other funny thought...I always knew that giving out participation TROPHIES in sports was a terrible idea. I was always the team mom and tried to encourage all those moms to not want those little gems. BUT NOPE, every sport every year we had to have a party and hand out those little things. Now, they are lined up across that one bookcase and someone will deal with them in years to come. They are decoration now.

The funny thing is that my daughter never played sports and was always jealous of those little trophies. In 5th grade, she finally got her own trophy for Bible drill. She made it all the way to the district level at church and got recognized one Sunday morning. Her words were----"I finally have a trophy of my own!" Where is it? In her old room on the dresser. She too can deal with it one day:) Along with the academic ones she received and taking up space on her old bookcase.
I had an athlete and a academia, just not together in one child:)

January has been successful in that area of life.

I have made some changes that I hope will make things easier for me going forward. I have scaled back my potted plants inside and out and of course, redid those front rose beds. I have to say it is all making me feel a lot lighter. I will always love growing things, but can't do as much I as I ambitiously tried to do.

Those changes have made me feel so much more relaxed and on top of things. It has almost been a nesting thing as I feel I am about to be needed more by mom. It feels good to have that behind me so that I can concentrate on her more.

I will be back later with birthday cake talk, stitching, and something a bit more fun to talk about that decluttering closets.

I still love these little monthly stitches.

See ya in February,

Sandy