Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Cleaning Frenzy

So I redid the basement over Christmas.  Not to brag, but compared to how it looked before, it looks amazing.  This has inspired me to unclutter the rest of the house that has already been redone.  There were rooms that just got stuff shoved into them when we moved.  Things were crammed into closets to make rooms look presentable so we could host my graduation party a month after the move.  This has been slowly driving me crazy.

Over the weekend I cleaned the laundry room.  I know, it shouldn't be a weekend long project to clean the laundry room.  I had started a new project in there and it had just caused a bigger mess.  I am a laundry failure so I thought it would make life easier and more efficient to pre-sort all the laundry so I could just throw a load in every day and it would never be a huge job.  Great idea.  Except I hate doing laundry.  I don't mind the washing and drying part.  I just hate the folding and putting away part.  So clothes would stay in the dryer for days and I would end up dumping clothes on the floor because the right basket wasn't available.  Well, I tackled the laundry somewhat over the weekend.  And organized my laundry room closet.  I threw out tons of junk, sent other stuff (like tools and screws?) to the basement where they belong.  That made space for me to store some of our excessive amount of small appliances in that closet.  I also tucked some, more used and lighter ones, into the upper cabinets in the kitchen.  Pretty excited about the way that room is looking.  All that's really left is to tackle the basket of mismatched socks and decide to just throw them away or something.

Today it has been the hall closet and the office.  The hall closet is not very big, we store all of our coats there, some luggage, and a random assortment of accessories.  Oh and hunting gear.  That's kind of a lot for a little closet.  For some reason it was also where I chose to store clothes that don't fit.  Those got weeded out and put in a bag for Goodwill.  I also cleaned out a bag of stuff to just throw away -- mismatched gloves, old sunglasses, just junk.  And I sorted the closet.  Now there's a his and hers side.  Then each side is organized by occasion -- Chiefs games, hunting, casual, and dress.  I put a hook on the door and hung up all my scarves.  Then I have a bin for purses and another for winter gear.  I shoved the luggage up on the upper shelves.  I keep opening the door to admire it.

And now it's time for the office.  Ug.  I organized the closet and threw away more than I really would like to admit existed.  Let's just say I emptied at least two milk crates full of stuff that I'm not sure why I still had.  It would look like I have achieved more if I hadn't pulled out the huge box of wedding stuff the other day and dumped it in the middle of the floor.  Maybe not my best choice.  But I'm making progress.  We don't use our office  very often but when we do, I don't want it to feel chaotic.  Right now it's still terrible.  But I'm thinking a little more time this afternoon and I will feel so much better about it.  It's one of the few rooms that is actually decorated.  You just can't really tell for all the mess.