Spring Cleaning to Make Room

Once I came back home from traveling from work, I knew it was time to start tackling a few things. The priority items on the list were…

• Going through and cleaning up two years of mail that had piled up.
• Clearing out and organizing the guest room that had become a dumping ground for everything that didn’t have a home.
• Making closet space for my soon-to-be husband.

I still have a bit more to do but I have made tremendous progress.



This was my guest room before I started. Oddly enough, the picture doesn’t look as bad as it truly was. I went through everything you see piled there, everything in the guest closet and everything in my master closet and I shredded/recycled everything that I could.



I made three trips to the recycling center. I couldn’t believe how much paper crap I had accumulated over the years. I had bank statements and cancelled checks from over 11 years ago. I had paperwork from college that was no longer needed and I had Christmas cards from people that I don’t even remember where I met them. I got rid of all that I could. The main things that I have held on to are tax documents and documentation from past credit problems that I had. I consolidated all that was left into one container and I will be tackling that with GTD in the near future.

My biggest challenge in sorting the closets was what to with my growing collection of purses and bags. Now, I have already admitted that I have a problem so please don’t judge me. There stacked on the end of my bed are all the different bags and purses that I own. I did not count them this time. I have topped over 100 before.



Piled separately on the floor is my collection of Vera Bradley.



And in a separate pile already put away in a closet, is my collection of wallets, clutches and smaller pouch-type bags.



The key to making room for the boy was finding a new home for all of these bags outside of the master bedroom (with exception of the wallet shelf--that stays in the smaller bedroom closet).

Between the hallway linen closet and the guest bedroom, I found a place to store all of these bags. I’m hoping this is just temporary storage as I really need to cut this collection down by more than half.



So, now that these are settled, there is (ALMOST) enough room for the boy. I still have lots of items I don’t need so you’ll see more about my pare down in the near future.

How is your spring cleaning going?