I started my June purge last week and here is what I got done.
This first picture is a mess. It's so hard to get a picture of the coat closet in the hallway. The left side is the before and the right is the after.
Not too much changed in here. But we did get rid of some jackets- it was overstuffed but now we even have some empty hangers! I also got rid of the last of the games that no one has played in 5 years. That made room for our duffel bags we use for travel that can now take their space on the top shelf! The floor area has a highchair for my grandkids, two leaves for the table, a 5 gallon bucket of gift wrap, an ironing board, and my mop and bucket.
I only have two extra closets in this house; the coat closet and the linen closet. At first when we moved here I was thinking we would have to find more storage somewhere but now that I have gotten rid of so much stuff over the years, I am finding that there is plenty of space!
Next I went through the linen closet. It's very narrow and shallow.. You can fit two stacks of towels side by side and that's it.
Now it's better organized. I moved the duffel bags to the coat closet and that made room for the sheets (they were in the brown basket) onto that shelf and then I could put the rags that had been in a grocery bag into the brown basket. Some of the shelf space is taken up for storage for future projects. Two rugs I am saving for the new sauna and some leftover shelf brackets from the kitchen that I may want to use in the sauna for wall shelves. Also two new sconces for the main bathroom- we are slowly getting ready to update a few things in there.
I didn't get rid of as much as I hoped to but everything in there is stuff that we really do use. It does feel good to know that I went through everything in these two closets to be sure of that, though!
When I got to the living room I decided to try an old trick.
I decided to take everything off the top of the flat surfaces except for the houseplants. My living room has been feeling too cluttered lately. I also felt that the living room was growing stagnant and needed to be freshened up a bit.
As soon as I brought everything into the kitchen, there were a few things that I knew right away I could get rid of! It's amazing. Looking at and dusting these things all the time, I didn't notice but as soon as these things were away from their usual spot I could see they needed to go.
These are the things I got rid of.
These are the things I am keeping. I brought them all into the extra bed room to rest for a few days and then I will slowly bring out each thing and see where I like it best.
Here are the before and afters.
This angle didn't change much because the only thing missing is the indian bust from behind the plant on the little end table.
This wall looks fine- there's plenty going on.
But this angle looks stark to me.
This wall looks fine by itself though.
It's only when combined with this wall that it looks bad. Definitely needs something.
This angle, the plant on the book case looks a little lonely.
But I am going to leave everything like this for a few days so when I go back to my decorations it will be with a fresh eye.
So at the end of week 1:
This is the stuff I have gotten rid of so far. (Not the bench though!)