Still Working on the Closet

Who would have thought that it would take so long to clean up a closet? I did take a little break over the weekend, but then I quickly got back to cleaning on Monday. It sure does not take much to fill a 30-gallon trash bag. From the empty shoe boxes to the empty shopping bags, the bags fill quickly.

As of today, I filled a bag on Monday with shoe boxes, tee shirts that I'll never wear again, and that filled the bag. Today, I filled the bag with old sweaters, shopping bags, and some more old tee shirts as well as pants that don't fit anymore.

I have been surprised by the things that I've found on the floor under my dresses and pants, but most of the things I have not wanted to keep. I did find a couple of Yankee Candles and a purse, too.

I also placed a few items for sale on eBay today, like the vintage purse that I found in my desk drawer last week. I also listed Birkenstocks, a tri-fold wallet from the 1950s, and a Vera Bradley yoga bag.

Day 5: The Positive Side of Gaining Weight (Is there one?)

I'm dreading this clean out; I've decided to begin the work on my closet. Hubby and I share a walk-in closet, but I'm only cleaning out my side. Two years ago, I lost a lot of weight - about 30 pounds -  so, I got to buy all new clothes. I've been able to wear them for two years, until this spring. 

I spent almost the entire spring in a chair. My daughter played on three softball teams in April, two in May, and we're finally down to one in June, and my son played soccer and baseball. I also spent a significant amount of time writing - like I do now. I ate too much and did not exercise enough. So, I put on ten pounds, which means that all of those adorable clothes do not fit me anymore. I plan to get back down to my "fightin' weight," but I don't want to keep the mess of clothes that are in my closet. I'd rather make space and buy new ones - especially since I buy most of my clothes at Goodwill (they're easy to replace that way). 

Here are the before pictures, and yes, it's ugly in there:

I have three rods. One for longer items like dresses, the other two are for shorter pieces, like shirts and jackets. I also have three shelves - two on one side and one on the other. The single shelf is really high up for me. The lower of the two is where I keep a bunch of books - but, I think I'll change that.

Today, I simply cleaned off the top two shelves and filled an entire bag with clothes that are just too tight. I do not want to throw them away; they will be either donations or garage sale pieces. Most of them were originally from Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, and other favorite stores.

Even though I hate gaining weight, it does give me an easy way to clean out my closet. This will be a multi-day project, which is fine.

In my clean out, I did find a few treasures. One was the old Guess! Jeans bag from my high school days, which was over 20 years ago! Inside of the bag was a certificate that named my daughter an official pirate in December of 2002, when she was all of 23 months old. Ironically, the captain of the pirate ship was named Captain Morgan. I also found a small collection of Star Wars figures from Episode 1, the Phantom Menace. Since I have a collection of Star Wars things for my son, I'll add those to the mix. I could not throw away the certificate, so I put it on my hubby's desk and let him decide what to do with it (he'll probably throw it away).

Tomorrow, I'll fill another bag. And when I'm finished, I'll show the final product. But, right now, the top shelves are empty!

Bathrooms are FINISHED!

I wanted something easy today, so I finished the bathrooms. We have a master bath upstairs and a half bath downstairs. Fortunately, the master bath was recently remodeled in December 2011, so there wasn't much to throw away. The half bath downstairs does not get used much, so there wasn't much to throw away either.

I did manage to get a full bag of trash today because I threw away all of the magazines and the magazine basket that was in the master bath. No one reads in our bathrooms! So, the magazines that were taking up the space were from January 2012 and covered in dust. I also was able to toss a bunch of magazines from other rooms in the house.

This was the first gross cleaning that I had to do. One of the drawers in the master bath had something gooey on the bottom of it. I cleaned up the mystery goo and saved the few things like boxed toothbrushes that were not covered in the goo.

Tomorrow, I'll tackle something bigger....maybe I'll get started on my clothes closet. Ugh...

Day 3: Cleaned my Dresser & Found Some Treasure

Today's one bag was focused on my dresser. This is the spot where I keep my skivvies, tank tops, socks, swimwear, and jammies. So, needless-to-say, it gets messy quickly. And, just like the other flat surfaces in my house, the top of my dresser becomes a catch-all for junk that has nowhere else to go.

I started from the top and worked my way down the dresser. The top drawer is the skivvies drawer, so I kept the good ones and threw out the bad ones (nothing donate-able here). Then I worked through the rest of the drawers, getting rid of things that were no longer wearable. Every woman needs to clean out her undies drawers.

What I did find were a few unusual treasures. The biggest treasures of all (this may seem gross, but so isn't) were the letters to the tooth fairy and the baby teeth that came with them. My kids decided that it was a good idea to put their teeth in plastic bags with the letter to the tooth fairy. Since I was the tooth fairy - surprise, surprise - and I traded the letters for money in the middle of the night, the adorable letters they wrote and pictures they drew ended up in the top drawer of my dresser. I keep the big bottom drawer of this dresser filled with special things from my children's baby years - little hats, blankets, and favorite toys - so I also added the teeth and letters. When they are older, they will enjoy looking back on those sweet little wishes they sent to the tooth fairy.

The other treasures were cute items that my daughter could wear. These treasures were from the tank tops and jammies drawers. I was surprised when she described them as being "cool." I guess a few Aeropostale tanks and rubber ducky jammie bottoms will make a 12-year-old happy.

Now that I have picked through the good, the bad, and the ugly, I would really like to add some of those drawer dividers to keep my skivvies better organized. The undies drawers and sock drawers get so messy so quickly. I'm going to need to search around Pinterest for a cheap way to divy up the skivvies.

I did fill one bag with the junk in this dresser and I found it amazing that I had that much stuff to throw away. Here's the finished product and yes, that is a Thirty-One bag on the top. Love the Thirty-One bags!

Tackling the Desk of Doom

Today, I was motivated to clean my desk. The desk is the my kitchen, next to the fridge. The drawers have been full for years and the top ends up being a catchall for anything that needs a place to go. Here is the before picture:

The desk is built in and made of maple. The things on top include books, magazines, empty boxes, hats, school supplies, etc. Inside of the desk are more school supplies, boxes, unused cards, CDs, DVDs, and even some vintage purses and wallets!

I began by cleaning out the drawers and used by one-year rule. I threw away a lot of things! We used to have a fish tank, so there were unused fish tank decorations, old Hello Kitty things from the $1 area at Target, and more junk.

Then, I cleared off the top, because some of the things that I have on top were school supplies that we will use. I ended up throwing away not just one, but one and half bags of trash. I also found a box full of things to donate to Goodwill - like children's books, art supplies for younger kids, and other goodies. I also found a few iPhone chargers and cords to keep.

So, after about 45 minutes and 45 gallons worth of trash and one big box of donations, here is the view of the desk:

Now, the plates are the focal point! They are all antique souvenir plates from places we have been. Most of them are antique Florida plates because my entire kitchen has a beach-theme to it. There are a few plates from other locations like Hoover Dam, Mammoth Caves, and the Bahamas. Some of the plates have beautiful cut work and most have bold colors.

My daughter was so excited to see the top of the desk and empty space in the drawers because now she can actually use the desk to do her work!!

Room One: The Yellow Bathroom

As a high school teacher, I am blessed with being able to have summers off to restore myself for the next school year. As my task for the summer, I decided to take on the task of cleaning out my house one bag per day - starting today! I have the goal of cleaning and reorganizing all of the ten closets in my house, my kitchen cabinets, my three bathrooms, one playroom, four bedrooms, living room, and laundry room between today and August 25, 2013.

The Rules

I am using 30 gallon trash bags and the one-year rule. If I haven't used something in one year, I am either going to throw it away, recycle it, or donate it. My children are asking me to have a garage sale, so that is a possible way to recycle items, but I really just want to clean house and get rid of things that have been sitting around occupying space. It has been almost exactly 13 years since we moved into the house - we moved in during June of 2000, so our family of 4 has accumulated a lot of "stuff" in that time.

Room One: The Yellow Bathroom

Today, I started with the cabinets and drawers in our "yellow" bathroom. This room is where my 12-year-old daughter and I get ready each morning (at different times). It has a full bath/shower that no one uses because we all shower in our master bath. So, this is the bathroom that is filled with bottles of beauty supplies, lotions, perfumes, nail polishes, cotton balls, etc.

Since the tub is never used, it has become a holding cell for bottles (mostly Avon stuff) that we never use. This is where I began. The lotions were all in a boot box and I know that all of the bottles are over one year old, so I simply threw them in the garbage bag. Then, I moved to the six drawers and the cabinet under the sink on the vanity. These drawers had recently be cleaned (in the last two years), so they were not as bad as tub. But, there were some old collections of Ulta makeup, hair products from the days when I had curly hair (haven't had that in three years), and more old Avon stuff. In the trash it went!

I did find a few things to keep, like hair ties, a comb, and some lip balm. I also found a few nail polish colors that I could keep. (I do love painting my toe nails). I reorganized the drawers so that my daughter and I can find what we are looking for more easily. Since there wasn't much left, it was quite easy to reorganize. I also had a few more drawer bins available keep each drawer neat.

The fun part was the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. I never open that thing, so it was strange to see what was still in it. My daughter used to suck her thumb as a toddler, so the nasty tasting anti-thumb sucking nail polish from ten years ago was still in there. Ironically, as I was cleaning out the medicine cabinet, my nine-year-old son came to see my progress. As he walked in, I looked at the medicine bottles (most of them empty) and the dates. There were things in that cabinet that were older than my son! I threw away everything in the cabinet, then put in a couple of boxes of bandaids I found in the drawers and the two brand new bottles of Swimmer's Ear that I found, too.

The entire process today took less than 30 minutes. I do feel badly about the fact that I am throwing away so many unused or partially used personal care items, but since they get old, sticky, and ineffective over time, I cannot donate them.