The desire to spruce things up has kicked into high gear for me. I am having my upstairs painted, which consists of three bedrooms and a full bath. So, you know what that means - each has a closet that needs to be de-cluttered and organized.
I found the bathroom medicine cabinet to be simple because there was not an emotional attachment to anything. Discarding expired prescriptions and over-the-counter items was just a matter of reading the labels, and anything that was a lotion or hair tonic that I had not used in a year, I let go.
While cleaning the linen closet, I didn't realize how many sheets I had been holding onto that I didn't have beds for anymore. I found that to be interesting. Regardless, any sheets that didn't serve a purpose went into the donation pile. I had a lot of towels that were frayed or wearing thin, so I put them aside with the cleaning supplies to use as rags.
The amazing thing was that all this time, I convinced myself that I had a hefty supply of linens, when actually I needed to replenish.
Moving right along, I went to the wardrobe closets that were just screaming to be purged.
Beginning with my daughter's, I reviewed the remnants (or so I thought) of the clothes she no longer wanted after taking what she did want with her to college.
Boy, was I in for a surprise. Here, I found old prom dresses, sweet-16 attire, graduation gowns and countless handbags and shoes among the remaining everyday outfits.
I decided the best way to conquer this project and not have her feel I was invading her space and not respecting her things, was to schedule an hour telephone call so we could review her contents and come up with a plan.
To my delight, not only was it well received, but also long overdue on her part. As long as she was involved, she was looking forward to coming home to a closet that would allow for extra storage since she was tired of "looking for things" she could not find in her cluttered closet.
We both knew when it came to her wardrobe with significant memories, without being present, it was unrealistic to make such a big decision, so we decided that anything that fell into this category would go into a memory trunk, and I would store it until she came home to make the final decision.
Anything else that overlapped such as pocketbooks, shoes and scarves, she decided to let go of. If it wasn't important enough to bring with her, then the likelihood of her using it again would be nil.
We thought it only fair, that her summer items could be left for her to deal with when she returned home for her next go around, and any clothes being brought home from the previous seasons would get one more "looking over" before retiring them.
Overall, I was pleased with the reclaimed space since it made it so much easier to organize and put things away once everything was painted.
As far as my closets, well, I will have to keep you posted on that topic.
Author Resource:
Patricia Diesel, The Organizing Expert, is author of A Simple Guide to an Organized life and CEO of Keep It Simple Now. Patricia provides professional organizing and life coaching to individuals, entrepreneurs, and corporate arenas. Accomplishments, services, merchandise, and additional information about Patricia can be found at http://www.keepitsimplenow.com .
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