Operation Purge My Stuff: Phase 1 Begins

So, getting back to this post. I don't have all the answers yet. I don't care. I'm fed up with feeling jumbly and overrun with "just in case" items. I am embarking on a 5 month challenge for Phase 1 and there is a good chance it won't even take me that long. (Phase 2 involves the basement and the breezeway/garage and that may may each take five months!) The five months was going to start in February, one month for each room on my main floor, but I've already finished one so I'll just be going along with the calendar. Theoretically, I should be in good shape to even get some extra things done before the kids are off for the summer.

For a brief moment, I am going to defend myself as I have been spending a lot of time wondering how I ended up hoarding all this stuff. Some of it, like a lot of people, is sentimental. I know I am going to struggle with that a bit, but I am going to try to be tough. It is strange to think that I moved to this house less than three years ago and that I brought all this jumble with me. But that's just it. I did. We moved under financial duress, I had thee babes under 5 and had spent the better part of a year often in single parent mode with those babes while Mike worked on THIS house and I stressed about cleaning to show the other one. It was really awful. I don't know how I did it. I think when we moved I just didn't have the energy or the presence of mind to truly examine what was necessary and what wasn't. I took us until earlier this year to go through a big pile of boxes in the basement that had never even been unpacked! I think I am probably not as overrun as some people with stuff, but I certainly have more than I need. I am looking forward to paring thing down.

Without further ado and no pre shot tidying... I present January's room: the bathroom. My bathroom is very small and narrow, but it has these big storage cupboards behind the door. Convenient location? No. Fabulous storage? Yeah. Here is the before:

There is also a small medicine cabinet on the opposite wall. And I recently moved a small antique cupboard underneath that, which is not pictured.

While the after pictures look neater, things really are purged. I pulled out only two sets of winter sheets for each of us and packed away the non-flannels in a trunk in basement storage. I threw away outdated medicines and recycled the bottles and boxboard that I could. I was able to move up all the extra toiletries from a basement cupboard and still had room for guest pillows, bulk tissues and bulk toilet paper.

And, while I may need to break my habit of buying some things in bulk for a sale, as I am pretty sure I end up just spending the money somewhere else, this will also help me identify more quickly the things that I have plenty of and should think twice about purchasing more of.

This feels super good. I would love to just keep plowing through rooms like this. I think my bedroom will be easy too. The kitchen and my sewing room seriously scare me as I know I will be faced with a lot of sentimental hoarding and will probably lose my nerve a little bit. I THINK i'd like to tackle the sewing room in February though as I have so many sewing projects coming up that would really benefit from an uncluttered room.

Now off to fight my losing battle with dog hair. I am really hoping she's just shedding her puppy coat and this isn't a permanent thing. There seems to be a problem when I only have two 8 by 10 area rugs, but I am longing for a Dyson ;-)