Remodeling and De-Cluttering! – Pathways to Organization
I know the purpose of this blog is to help you as you travel the Pathways of Life, using organization as a tool.
And I thought I was organized somewhat. Until I did a remodel of my master bedroom and bathroom.
Wow. That was the hardest project I have ever attempted. Much harder than when we redid the kitchen after a water leak. And I believe the reason is all my earthly comforts in my life are in my bedroom and bathroom.
We had to move everything, I mean everything, out of our master walk-in closet, our bathroom, and our bedroom.
The only place to put all this stuff was in every bedroom upstairs, the den between bedrooms upstairs, and in our living room/dining room.
Then items we were buying for the new areas began arriving, as light fixtures, bathroom mirrors, etc. So now we had boxes, and boxes and more boxes filling up our foyer. We couldn’t walk anywhere!
And yes, our contractor was wonderful, so we have that to be thankful for. But where we thought this was a 4 week project, it turned out to be 14 weeks. That’s 3 months and 2 weeks long. Living in a crowded room upstairs and not knowing where anything we needed was. We had to walk side-ways to get in the bed!!!!
I know. I know. It’s a first world-problem and I shouldn’t complain at all. And I won’t! But I wanted to share with you, my dear blog readers, what I learned from this.
Action Plan
Last year during COVID, I was so proud of myself by cleaning out all the drawers and cabinets in the house. Well. There is a difference between straightening and getting rid of!
- Take everything out of your drawers and closets you don’t use anymore!We had to take the drawers out of the closet cabinet and my bedroom dresser to make moving easier. These were placed in a row upstairs in the den. It gave me a chance to really look in them! I had socks, neatly laid of course, that I have had for years! They were in awful condition. I just had never noticed. So finally, I whittled down.
- Only keep what you know you will wear. Do this in every drawer, cabinet, and closet in your house. And get rid of items in bad shape. It will give you so much more room.Then, when we put the drawers back in my dresser. Guess what? I saw a drawer with nothing but knee socks!! Yes, I love knee socks, but I hadn’t worn them since college. Since college!!! Why was I using up a whole drawer for these? Probably because I thought, “Oh, I’ll need them one day.” Well, that one day is never going to come. I started laughing at how silly this was and took a picture to show you.
And guess what else I found in another small cabinet? Hose! I haven’t worn hose in years, yet I had a whole drawer full. Why hadn’t I seen the space these were taking up?
- Try to de-clutter all your counters and tabletops. I tried to put less on the new bathroom counters. One thing that helped was some inexpensive clear trays from Target. I do have a fault in adding a lot to a room to decorate so I’m trying not to do that as much. Just keep what you really love in a room or area.
- Get rid of furniture. We got rid of some furniture in our master bedroom. We had a beautiful TV cabinet but decided to get rid of it because it was so big and took up a lot of room. We replaced it with a small accent table and a wall TV. It gave us about 3 more feet! We also got rid of a stand-alone mirror. Just too much in our bedroom. I can’t tell you how open and lighter the room is now!
- Use containers to keep drawers organized. I found the best under-cabinet containers also at Target. It has wheels on the back so you can pull it forward to reach for items in the back. I put one in each bathroom cabinet as well as the under-sink ones in the other bathrooms.
I hope these tips will help you de-clutter your home and give you more room and light. And believe me, I know it’s a hard project. But I promise you will feel so much better when it’s all done!
Manna from Heaven
“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” I Corinthians 14:33 and 14:40
