COTC Day has been on my agenda for quite a while now, but I have a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm to actually get in there and tackle it. Before SOTCAWBTBEOBB Day took over, I did go through and throw away the, no exaggeration, hundreds of wire hangars that years and years of dry cleaning had brought into our home (and I channeled my inner Joan Crawford ... "No wire hangars, EVER!") but that was the extent of my attempt at conquering the closet.
The closet in question is the master bedroom closet. It's big. It runs the length of our bedroom. It's easily the biggest storage area in the house which makes it the logical place to store, not only clothes, but all the other things that households keep but can't go in the garage or attic because of heat.
In addition to clothes and shoes and other normal master bedroom closet items, we also have ... stuff. There is a built in, floor to ceiling bookshelf that has school and office supplies on two of the shelves. There are *important* papers on two of the other shelves (user manuals for items we don't even have any longer and at least one packet called Welcome To Your Freshman Year of High School, from 2009) and the remaining two shelves have essential items like extra shoelaces and a sewing box and a skein of yarn, because I am going to learn to knit. Yes, I am. Yes, I really am!
We also have in that closet an old laptop computer that doesn't work. We have an even older desktop computer, that doesn't work. We have a hand-held video camera that's probably 15 years old that may or may not work. We have, inexplicably, at least a half dozen pillows, shoved into trash bags, in one corner. Where did they come from? Why are they there? I have no idea. We have bedding for beds we no longer have. (When I go to throw them away, I hear a voice saying, "But they're perfectly good sheets / pillows / whatever!!" and I think, "Yes, and if one day, for some reason, I need a twin sized sheet, won't it be handy to have these!").
We have a large box of cords and chargers and accessories to devices we don't even have. We don't even remember what some of the cords go to, but hey -- they're in The Box so they must go to something. If I could just get rid of the Box O'Cords and the mysterious pillow stash, that would clean up one whole corner!
We also have things of sentimental value in there -- two plastic bins of baby stuff: baby quilts made by my children's great grandma, the outfits they wore home from the hospital, cherished childhood blankets. Because there is so much clutter, tho, the baby boxes are in the middle of the floor of the closet. Again, if we got rid if the Box O'Cords and the pillow stash, the baby boxes could go into that corner.
I also have pictures. Old fashioned, pre digital camera snapshots. I have scanned them and have them all on a hard drive, but I don't know what to do with the literally thousands of photos. As of now, they're in suitcases and the suitcases are in the closet.
Do you see why COTC Day so overwhelmed me?
And this doesn't even include the clothes in the closet that I can't wear, will never again wear but don't want to get rid of, because ... well, what if one day I need to look like a refugee from a 1980's movie? I've got a full retro-wardrobe in my closet! (Not that they were retro when I bought them, but ...)
And the shoes. Yeah, I've got three, maybe four, pairs I wear on a regular basis -- and a bunch more that I'll never wear as long as I live because they hurt, but I can't bring myself to get rid of them because they look so good!
What's bizarre is, the rest of the house isn't bad. It's not cluttered and filled with random stuff. Even the other closets are fairly organized and tidy. I think because the master bedroom closet is so big, it was easy to stick stuff in there "until we figure out what to do with it".
My Beloved, Mr Über Organized, told me to tackle the closet the same way you'd eat an elephant -- one bite at a time. Don't get overwhelmed by the big picture, just take one corner, one shelf, one section at a time.
Just like eating an elephant.
My response? "Elephant. Eating an elephant. Oh, we used to get elephant ears at the county fair. Remember those? They were fried and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar??"
And that's how I started off with the best of good intentions to clean out the closet and I ended up in the kitchen, baking.
*sigh*
I clean out my closets once in a while, but there's nowhere to put the stuff I take out, so I stuff it back in. And since I'm usually mentally and emotionally as well as physically worn out by then, I generally just shove it all back in willy-nilly, and it's worse than before.
ReplyDeleteI would call you my inspiration, but I don't bake.