Back to Basics

I’ve been down right lazy and have not tackled a single project on my large organizing to do list. I was feeling guilty about it and even more so as it meant I had nothing to contribute to the blog. But yet again I remembered the idea behind Our 10 Things was to maybe make being organized and clutter free something you don’t have to stress about.

So I got out a giant garbage bag and took it upstairs. I cleaned out a jewelry box I had put away in my night stand and not opened for at least two years -- I dumped a lot of cheap nasty jewelry no one would ever want to wear, and put away the more quality pieces in my primary jewelry box. My husband and I then tossed out at least a dozen empty soap, shampoo and conditioner containers from the shower. It wasn’t hard work and it didn’t feel very gratifying until I got in the shower today, looked around, and thought, "Wow, it looks tons better!"

The garbage bag is sitting in the corner of the master bathroom waiting for 10 more things tonight.

Today's 10 Things - Clothing

These 10 things were hanging in my closet, because if they were things I actually wore, they'd be in a pile on top of my dryer, or in a pile on the floor. Sigh. For now I am putting them up on the guest bed, then will bag them and off to Goodwill or the trash can.

Long, black, leather jacket ala The Matrix (why do I own this?)
Long, suit type jacket ala The Matrix (why do I own this?)
Three button down, cotton dress shirts
Cotton sundress that ALWAYS looked horrible on me
Two sleeveless tops, one ugly, one with a broken zipper
Pink sweatshirt
Corduroy, structured jacket with arms that are too long for me (why do I buy these things?)

Baby steps ...

Airing My Dirty Laundry

First a few things unrelated to my dirty laundry: My friend Cheryl came over and took away my sister's chaise after she saw my blog about wanting rid of it. Thank you Cheryl! If it doesn't work in her house, she's donating it to her daughter's school.

While she was over she mentioned how this blog has inspired her to tackle her garage, which is currently serving as her office, laundry room, and craft room (she also mentioned how much she wants Jackie's Super Woman costume, ha).

Unfortunately, there is so much work for her to do on the garage that it's daunting. I reminded her that while a lot of the girls blogging here are tackling and finishing major projects, the original intent was to see if just throwing/donating/recycling 10 things a day would have an impact on our homes and lives. I've already noticed that instead of piling up papers that make their way into the house, I now make an immediate determination as to whether the item is trash and most things are going directly into the trash or recycling. Yay me!

My daunting project is my laundry. I have so much clothing, most of it old or ill fitting. Coupled with my severe dislike of folding and putting clothes away, it has gotten WAY out of control. WAY OUT OF CONTROL!!! The pictures you are about to see are the most embarrassing thing I will ever share.

This is my laundry room. The clothes and towels on top and in the basket are clean and need to be folded and put away:
This is my laundry cart. The bins are full of dirty clothes that need to be washed:
This is an extra bedroom we don't use. It has both clean clothes on the floor and dirty clothes. At this point, I'm not sure which are which and will probably have to just wash them all:

And this is my shame of shames. This is my closet with the floor covered with shoes and dirty clothes:
It starts off in a small pile, and then I rummage through the pile for things to wash, and then the pile is everywhere, so I just start taking my clothes off and throwing them on to the floor. Why not, it already looks like this? And Morgan was upset with her husband. Imagine how my husband feels about me?

But you have to start somewhere, so I sat down on my closet floor and tacked the clothes behind the closet door, and the bottom two drawers of my dresser, finishing one load of laundry and gathering the following 10+ items:

To be donated:

2 pretty sun-dresses that don't currently fit

1 ugly brown sweater I should never have purchsed

1 pair black biker shorts (??)

1 pair gray leggings

1 pair pink Adidas exercise shorts

1 child's jacket

1 child's sweater

1 pair child's pants

5 pair of ill fitting flannel pajama bottoms (I hoard pajama bottoms)

And for the trash:

Old white T Shirt

Old wool sweater
Baby steps ...

The Craft Room

J and I each have our own room in the house, he has an office, I have a "craft room." The craft room not only houses all my scrapbooking supplies, embroidery supplies, sewing supplies, and gift wrapping supplies, but also every other thing I'm not sure where to put. Most of it should be thrown away, but as you can tell, that's not something that comes naturally to me.

When Max fell asleep this afternoon, I decided I could easily find 10 things to throw away in the craft room. There was one bag I particularly wanted to go through.

The next two photos are what you see walking into the room. It actually looks better today than in days past.

The chaise you see is my sister's. I was storing it for her but she doesn't want it anymore. I guess I need to Craig's List it, or drop it off at goodwill.

This is the craft room closet with lots of boxes to go through. You can see the bag right under the Care Bear plush doll, the Care Bear that Wolfie chewed the face off of.
This is the other corner of the closet. Whats funny about this is that I have a large plastic container specifically designed to hold wrapping paper. Why isn't this wrapping paper in the container? I have no idea.
Funny thing about that bag I wanted to go through ... uh, it was trash. It was completely filled with trash. What was it doing still in the closet? Its contents have now been split between the trash and recycling bins. With Max still asleep, I decided I might go through some of the boxes and stacks on the table.
I guess J got inspired by my organizing and did a little bit of organizing and throwing out in his office. I snuck up on him to take this picture. I think his expression is hysterical.
Uh oh, someone just woke up and is extra cranky. Looks like that's all the time I'll get today.
In the end, I got rid of tons of useless paper, along with two cheap baskets, but there's still a ways to go.

The "No, I'm Not a Hooker" Post

Next stop on this wonderful journey ... shoes. There are nine pair total here. I'm counting the boxes as my tenth item. There are more that should go, but I need to consider my choices a bit longer.

There is a story behind these shoes:

A long horrible story that involves a Pennsylvania fire house and last minute mall shopping. I only wore them 10 minutes. It was 10 minutes too long.

The tan Hush Puppies in the pic above were also never worn seeing as they were too big when I bought them. They were the result of a shopping trip with friends. The kind where your friends are making purchases and you make a purchase just to fit in.

The pink shoes were purchased at the same time as the hooker shoes. I told you, it's a long story. The black shoes are probably decent work shoes, but the few times I wore them I got THE WORST blisters. There a bit out of style now, too. The brown shoes I love, but they also never fit right. These will all be donated.

These shoes and boxes are getting tossed/recycled: two pairs of old sneakers, flip flops, and a fun pair of sparkly strappy sandals that have seen better days.

Now to buy some new shoes. I kid. I kid.

And on the 3rd day ...

she rested, with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. But then felt guilty on the fourth day so is already making a mental list of shoes whose time have come.

Day 2 (Karen C.)

1. Recycled old Yellow Pages in the garage and the kitchen.

2. Recycled several magazines and catologs.

3. Recycled two empty boxes, one of which could easily have been used to wrap a gift in the future. Oh the humanity.

4. Recycled a mailing envelope with the address of a friend not yet in my address book (friend is now in my address book). Thanks again for the CMU stickers and T-shirt Paige!

5. Recycled 1st Birthday Cards, except the ones from the Grandparents -- more scrapbooking?

6. Fully deflated and tossed nearly deflated birthday party balloons.

7. Recycled Build-a-Bear Box that Darth Vader Puppy came in.

8. Recycled *empty* wine bottle.

9. Tossed several old Karl Christmas photo greeting cards.

10. Composted strawberry tops and bell pepper core.

I figure I can include No. 10 in the list because the sum total of all the items is well above 10. Not on the list, eight nearly new pair of ill fitting undies. I just can't find it in me to toss them despite the surely sage advice I got to just get rid of the panties.

And so it begins ...

My house in an unorganized shamble. I hate throwing stuff away because I have plenty of space so if I was organized it would be fine. The goal is to throw out 10 things and to continue throwing out 10 things a day until my house, and hopefully my life, is more manageable.

Since it was the first night, I expected the newness of the challenge, and the incredible disarray of my house, would result in far more than 10 items going out the door. I was right.

No, all of that trash/recycling didn't come from my dining room, but that room is the one room I managed to completely declutter. Now it's ready for a good cleaning, now that you can see all the dust.

There are a few things I didn't throw out that I'm not sure I should have kept. 1) A Happy First Birthday card I got Max but never signed. Surely there is going to be a baby that turns one in the near future and I'll need a card? 2) One of the R2D2 bags so that I could use it as a birthday party scrapbook background/decoration. Scrapbooking as a hobby is not going to help this mission.

What say you all, should they have been tossed?

P.S. I "had" to eat two cookies in order to throw out some cookie boxes. Oh the sacrifices I make ...