Wednesday, December 1, 2010

#47 - {Tentative} Check!!

Last night, I cleaned my house from top to bottom. And I tackled one of the most daunting tasks I've faced in a long time.

Cleaning my closet.

To say it was messy would be an understatement. It was a disasterpiece. And that is why it was #47 on my list - Organize my closet in a way that it STAYS organized for more than a week.

I'm not a messy person, really. I like things tidy and in order. Occasionally I let things get cluttered and out of hand, but I usually like to nip the messy-ness in the bud.

My mother calls me a pack rat, so I try to keep that in check, too. A few times a year I like to just haul everything out of all my little hiding places, go through it, and chuck whatever has become old or unnecessary. When I watch "Hoarders" on TLC and scoff at their disgusting habits, I also hear that little voice in my head reminding me that my tendencies to collect useless crap could land me on that show someday.

I won't let that happen.

So while I would have much rather spent the night on the couch watching a movie or reading a book - especially since it was a rainy, dreary night - I cleaned my room. And did a massive overhaul of the closet.

When I first moved into the house, and picked this room, the closet was one of the main features I loved about it. It's much bigger than the one I grew up with at home, and I never thought I'd be able to fill all the space.

Wrong.

Clothes piled on the shelf at the back of the closet. Bar weighed down by clothes haphazardly hung. Shoe boxes and gift bags and random other crap all over the floor. Then, the clothes piled on the shelf start overflowing, co-mingling with the crap on the floor.

It had got to the point where I couldn't find anything I wanted in there. Literally. And the rest of my room was starting to look like a dump, too, because I had no room in my closet to put stuff, like recently purchased Christmas gifts. It was driving me nuts.

This is all the crap on the floor that I couldn't put in my closet because there was no room...ahhh!!!
But the only time I seemed to get the urge to clean it was at 7 in the morning on a work day, when I didn't have time to dive into it.

So last night was the night. And I started by hauling everything out of the floor of the closet first. Shoes. Old gift bags and wrapping paper. Murder Mystery crap. Canada Day Committee stuff. Old Karate equipment. Purses and wallets and shoe bags. When did I ever end up with so much STUFF?!?
Before
After

After organizing the bottom of the closet, I started hauling out all the clothes off the shelf. I had a mountain of shirts on the floor. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. I spent over an hour sorting through clothes, tossing old stuff that no longer fit into one pile, and neatly folding the rest into specific piles: T-shirts, dressy shirts, tank tops, long-sleeve shirts, sweaters, pajamas. Everything piled neatly on my bed. You couldn't even see the comforter. It was incredible. I really need to think of that the next time I say I have nothing to wear!...
Before
After

So after transferring it all back into the closet, I was finally able to stand back and sigh with relief. A neat closet. Or at least neater than it had been in a long time.
I ended up with enough space to put all the Christmas gifts in there, and still have room for my laundry basket! Yessss!!
And then I turned around and saw all the "garbage" and unwanted clothes. Yikes. So I spent another long while packing up clothes to give away, throwing out the stuff that I wouldn't give to anyone, and getting the room back in order.

By 10:30 PM, I had it all dusted, vacuumed, mopped, and finally...finally...clean.
So this one gets a tentative check. Because while it's sparkling right now, time will only tell if it will still be in order by next week! ;)

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