One Project Done

I have officially completed one project of Operation Get Rid of Stuff, aka, clean house. It feels so great! Last night M and I went through the last of the books and now have about 3.5 book shelves full of books instead of the 6 before. Huge difference. Now we have things that matter to us on display on the bookshelves in our dining room and it makes the whole living space feel more like us.

Tonight we are going to sell a few bags of them and then try to sell the rest this weekend when we have more time. We have a lot of books to sell and I don't think they will all fit in my Bug. So tonight is stage one and this weekend will be stage two.

It is great having all this extra space and every time I get rid of something I feel a little bit more like I own my stuff instead of the other way around. I have done a few more projects around the house but the books were by far the biggest accomplishment.

All the money we get from the books will go into our savings for buying our own little plot of land. Homesteading is just one step closer.

Simpler Living

Yesterday M and I discussed about feeling disconnected from ourselves and each other. We decided to do something to get us back into feeling better and getting more refreshed. We started off by declaring that no t.v. or computer time will be allowed (besides allowing to put music on and to watch a work out video). The outcome was amazing.

So what did we do in that time? I started and defeated casting on my first toe up sock. I cleaned out the entire second bedroom closet and threw away 2 more bags of garbage (where does this junk come from?), started working on the foot of the sock, read some more about tiny living and minimalism, and made a wonderful cod dinner as well as organized most of our books.

The closet it self was a big project. We had the entire shelf above the clothes bar full of papers, half filled note books and things we just generally did not need anymore and had forgotten about. I went through every piece of paper and threw out everything we had not used in the last year (which was almost all of it). The top of the closet is now almost bare. M even asked last night what we were going to do with that space and I smiled and replied "I do not know." It is nice having the extra space.

Next was the books. I went through the book shelves and put books in order based on fantasy/fictional books and educations books and homesteading/craft books. That took a while. I am not even close to be done with it all either. Next weekend (because we have company coming over Sunday for game day!) we are going go to through the books and decide what ones we want to sell and plan on selling at least 75% of them. We have a lot. By a lot I mean 6 bookshelves, 1 closet and a few stacks hidden places as well. And these book shelves don't just have a few books on them, no. They are stuffed with books on top of books to use up as much space as possible. We love our books but it is time to let go of the ones we do not plan on reading again.

The dinner was delicious. Wild Caught Cod with olive oil, some herbs and a fresh orange made a delicious dinner and helped us relax after working so hard on trying to organize and clean.

We finished off the evening by M reading and I knitting on the couch just enjoying the quietness of the evening. Ronnie (my dog) cuddled on the couch with us and we just enjoyed being. It was a great feeling and one that I plan on recreating again tonight. A night without technology really brings bliss.

The Front Coat Closet - Oh The Nightmare

Oh the nightmare is right. This closet is a mess. Coats flung in there in no neat organized matter, the top shelf just cluttered with anything that will fit up there that doesn't have a home. And the floor? I didn't know the floor could get so cluttered either. Good thing it has been summer and I haven't had to go in there for anything.

See what I mean? It is a mess. Oh big pile of mess on top of mess. 

Goals:

Have the closet a nice organized place where gloves, hats, scarves are in easy, organized access. Coats organized by person and on nice hangers. See what needs to be dry cleaned and have it done. 

Plans to Achieve Goals:

Take all coats out of the closet. What do we still use? What can be donated to a family that actually needs it? Take everything out of the closet. Sort out what is closet items and what are not. Make pile of dry clean items to be brought in to be cleaned. Find baskets to hold mittens, scarves, and hats (basket for each). Figure out something to do with the extra shoes in the closet (donate, store, etc)

End Result:

Wow. What a difference! 

I have yet to dry clean the coats or put them in a different pile even but the difference is amazing. I cleaned all the crap, and lets face it most of it was crap, out from the closet and put it on my stack of "Need To Sort Out." I then took the box that was hats and mittens and went through them and sorted them out by if they were hats, scarves and mittens/gloves. I then neatly folded them all and put them in a corresponding bins. I then cleaned out all the clutter and threw most of it away because it was just that clutter. Something things I forgot I had and most things I went "Why the hell did I keep that?" I much happier with this current closet and so much more organized. I have things to donate and I have things still that I need to sort through but my closet is looking much better.

Next task, master bedroom closet. At least it doesn't look at bad as this closet started out. 

Organizing The Game Closet

So I have this closet. It is a closet that had become so ridden with junk and debris I couldn't even really call it a closet. I shudder every time I had to open the door because I know it is so cluttered and full of stuff we never use that I just don't want to even go there. However, we love games. And our games are forced to be stored in this closet but so does everything else. So my mission was to clean it out and make it into a useful space and hopefully free up some space in other parts of our apartment too.

I suck by the way at taking before and after pictures. I completed this just last week but because I forgot to take before pictures you can't see its glorious make over. I do promise for the next project I will take before pictures.

Like I describe before it was a mess. Movies we never watched cluttered the shelves. Computer and Video games we haven't played in years shoved so close together that I swear some of the disks were close to breaking. But that wasn't all that stood in the way of our game closet and organization. No, not even close. I had a bin. I will admit it was my bin and not anyone else's of complete crap. I do mean that. I tend to be a pack rat who likes to keep everything (working on it) and store it places I think I will use it again. Broken alarm clock? Really? Papers that were old receipt of useless items I no longer even cared I had (might have even thrown some of those items out.) It was bad. Bad might be even an understatement.

My plan:

To remove said movies and games and clean out bin and not have it anywhere close to that closet and use the bin for actually organization instead of cluttered junk.

The Outcome:

I removed all the movies and put them in some extra Tupperware containers we had. The huge storage kind. Moved all the CD's, games, movies, everything related to media in there. I kept out the few blue rays we have and some movies we actually do watch quite often. (remind self to actually go through those bins sometime and throw out cases with no movies left in them.). Removing the movies gave me four shelves to do with what I will.

Well M, my partner in crime and fiance, is studying in the IT field. He has lots, and I do mean lots of IT books. School books, hobby books, text books, Cert Studying books, the whole nine yards. Before this drastic make over they were scattered throughout the entire apartment. There were computer books in our bedroom on our bookshelf, in the storage closet, in the dining room bookshelves. They were in nearly every room of the house. So I came up with the great idea to use those shelves for those books that didn't have a home but yet were still in easy access of him using them and finding them.

Now the shelves are lined with his computer books. But wait there is more. M also loves chess so naturally in our book fiendish ways he has tons of chess books. Those also found a home in the closet. So now the closet is half computer books, partially chess books and our games. The games are not in a neat stack by any means yet but I don't know if they ever will. When you have huge board games it is hard to find a place to organize them perfectly, especially in an apartment.

See how lovely it looks?  My next project is the front coat closet. I promise I will take pictures.

Anyone else have any similar projects they have done or wish to do? Let me know! I would love to see the before and after pictures!