I'm on a major roll! Almost done all of the closets in the house. It is amazing how much easier day to day life is when you can actually get in your closets and find the things you need. Honestly, some of my closets were so bad, that I just did not go near them because I was afraid if I opened the door - I wouldn't be able to shut it again. What good is stuff in the closet to you if you won't even open the closet to get to it? I have hauled so much clutter out of here and every room is looking better for it. It is so much easier to houseclean when you don't have to pick up the whole room first. Especially my kids rooms - all of their toys are now organized in their closets and they know where to put things back when they are done with them, and they are enjoying having their rooms tidy. Housecleaning isn't even a chore when you don't have to pick everything off the floor first to put it away.
Most of the stuff I was having to pick up each time I cleaned wasn't even stuff they use anymore, they were just digging through bins of toys and throwing the stuff they didn't use on the floor to get to the stuff they wanted. Then once every 2 weeks, I would go in there to vacuum and have to pick up everything and throw it in bins all disorganized again. When you get rid of everything you don't use, it is amazing how much less work there is to do when you are cleaning.
I am starting to recognize my house again. I'm like "oh yeah!, I remember when it looked like this when we first moved in!" I'm also being motivated to fix all the things that were broken that I was just letting sit because everything else looked like such a bigger priority in a room. Like the knobs that had broken off my son's dresser. All of those annoying things that you keep thinking you will get to, but never do. I am starting to enjoy my house again.
The flylady website and watching Hoarders has helped me alot. OK, watching hoarders is just depressing, but it does make me move when I'm done. Not that I was ever even close to being as bad as these people on this show, but I do recognize the same mentality in my self with useless things that I was holding onto. These poor people also seem to have a mental illness that just takes the train of thought to another level - but it is the same excuses for holding on to stuff as I was making. "I might use it one day" "I don't wear that, but it could be cut up and used for something else" Why on Earth would you cut up something perfectly good for your own use (that will never occur) when you could (as flylady says) "Bless someone else with it" Off to Goodwill it goes! And I feel great about it! I don't follow Flylady to the letter (it seems like too much to take in) but when I need a little inpiration or need to get back to basics when I'm attacking a room or closet that just looks hopeless, I go back and read her rules which get me going again and I realize I can do it. Also her one saying is contantly ringing in my head when I am decluttering - "You can't organize clutter - you can only get rid of it" . It is so true. There is no way to take stuff you have no use for and make it look organized. It just takes up space from the things that should be in it's place in the closet that are used , that have a place in your life.
And yet I can relate!
I just keep going and going and going, regardless of time! (wheres the energizer bunny icon when I need it?!
