Ever since I have had my own small person who is now 4 years old, I have had a lot of stuff in the house. I used to have a house that was clutter free and an extra bedroom. Now, my house is full of colorful plastic toys, and little bits and pieces from toy sets. Most of my B’s toys are contained in her room, but I have been feeling very cramped in my house lately. On Monday, I decided to do a major clean out one room at a time in my house.
Monday, I started with the kitchen and took everything out of the cluttered kitchen cabinets and re categorized everything on each shelf. Now each of my kitchen cabinet shelves have oils separate from spices, snacks separate from drink mixes, pastas separate from flour and so on. I also threw out expired medicine, foods, and baby bottles. From there, I cleaned out the refrigerator and the freezer taking all the food out and checking all the dates and cleaning each of the shelves. After that, I tackled the dishes, cutlery, and the platters. This whole task took 6 hours and I was exhausted but very happy afterwards. There was also 5 bags of expired food, baby bottles, mismatched plastic baby cups, old baby food, and the rest.
Tuesday, I reorganized my bathroom drawers and my bedroom closet. From the bathroom, I threw out expired medicine, reorganized all my feminine products, and threw out lots of plastic bath toys. From my bedroom closet, I weeded out clothing that had not been worn or tried on for over a year, and categorized the bags into goodwill, consignment, and garage sale items. I also threw out old make up, and old underwear that have not been used since 1999. This cleaning up of the bathroom and the bedroom closet took about 5 hours on Tuesday.
Today, I reorgaznied my daughter’s bedroom. Her room was a really daunting task. She had clothing in her closet from 18 months. I took every piece of clothing out of her closet and separated the piles by sizes and bagged the clothing into giveaway, keep, and garage sale bags. I threw out lots of terrible bits and pieces of toys that were no longer sets, and threw away all the toys that she got free from a restaurant or a goody bag. I then took out baskets for each of her toy shelves and filled them by categories of food play, dolls, and the rest. I set up a place for her shoes in her closet, and hung her clothes according to category.
Next week Wednesday, I am going to tackle the garage and figure out what I am going to giveaway, consign, and garage sale.
When I told my mother what I had done on the phone today, she asked me what had gotten into me. I explained I had a bit of writer’s block and she laughed. The funny thing is, this has helped me with my writer’s block and I truly believe that a cluttered home makes for a cluttered mind.
Now, I am wondering how much I will actually sell and how much I will giveaway. My B has so much great stuff that I have kept hoping to give to one of my siblings when they give birth to their own little person. However, lately, I have started to realize I cannot wait until they are ready and that I need to make other plans for my B’s belongings. I have promised to keep the coveted stroller and crib set for my sister B, but beyond that, the clothing and miscellaneous toys will probably have to go to a cousin’s baby or something, because the fashions may change by the time one of them gives birth.
I feel very good about my New Year’s cleaning. My mind feels clear, I have bags of clothes that are now going to be sorted to be sent to a cousin in the midwest, and another few bags ready for the garage sale, and after the garage sale whatever is left will go to Goodwill.
If you have the time, tackle one room at a time, try this very cathartic exercise. I really feel great.
Puppies and Worms 