A Closet and a Carpet.

It was supposed to be a 30 minute job. It took me 50.

I am a bit surprised it took me that long.
It is a pretty straight forward closet--awkward to photograph, though.

It is, first and foremost, our coat closet.

But it is also our games closet,

and the broom/cleaning tool closet.

it's like those pegs fell out just so I could put that space to better use! The orange Miele bag holds the vacuum cleaner attachments and various mop heads.

oh and it is also our access hatch to the bathroom tub and shower taps and water supply lines.

It took me nearly an hour to clear out some games,

that black bag holds our picnic/backyard snuggle under while there's a firepit going blanket

relocate a few coats, clean the lint off my husband's coat, and vacuum and clean the floor,

and, oh yeah, hang the Ikea bag holder. As you can see, it was hit or miss (and mostly miss) getting the bags into that thing at the back of the closet where I was anxious it would tip through the hole into the basement.

I've been wanting to put a piece of wood up at the back of the closet ever since we enlarged the hole to get access to the pipes when we did the bathroom in the winter of, ahem, 2011-12. I am adding it to the project list.

Just for fun, I looked back through to see what closets I tackled in past cures. In 2015, it was the linen closet.  In 2016, it was the closet adjacent to this, the cleaning closet. Other than the closet in each of our bedrooms, these are the only closets we have. Nice that each have had a turn!

In other news, I continued with the floor assignment.

I borrowed my Mom's Steam vac to clean my living room carpet.

It arrived with an abundance of cleaners.

I watched a you tube video...which wasn't all that terribly helpful so I tried to watch another one. But man, it is boring watching people push a machine back and forth and back and forth and back and....what was I saying? Oh yeah. So I just called my mother.

I vacuumed. Twice.

There were all sorts of stains.

I think this is from hot chocolate? Or maybe coffee?

General dinginess.

see how the white bits of the carpet are actually white over there on the right? They get greyer and dingier  as you go left. Same thing happens at the other end, only in reverse.

I used one of the bottles to pretreat the various spots.

I went over the rug about four times with the steam vac. The first time, I didn't pull the trigger. The second time, I pulled the trigger but didn't use the "spot clean/clean surge" button. The third time, I pulled the trigger and used the spot clean/surge clean button, both, at the same time. The fourth I just went over it without the trigger, again.

This was the waste water.

One of the videos advised me to empty all the water out of the machine, turn off the brushes and go over the carpet one more time. He said that would draw water out of the carpet and help dry it. When I talked to my Mom, she said she didn't bother.

I am so glad I did. This is what the water looked like after being sucked out of the carpet.

Imagine if I'd left that!

I think the rug looks really good--but not as good as new. The specific spots are gone, it's true, but that fade to dinge is still there--though its much less noticeable, to be sure. (At this end of the carpet it goes left, white, to right, grey.) Now that I know how it's done--I want to do it again before the week is over.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found a solution to keeping this carpet clean. I love me a good looking rug...and a good sized is next to impossible to find here for what I can afford. This was purchased at Target in 2014 when they were here. The rug conundrum is one of the reasons I was so upset they left.

Tomorrow is the media fast, so catch you on the 12th, I hope.

Cleaning the Cleaning Closet

The stars aligned.

One of the projects on my project list just so happened to be an assigned Cure Project!

I first organized this closet--I call it the Cleaning Closet because it holds most of my household cleaning supplies--as well as other essentials like lightbulbs and hand towels and vaccuum cleaner bags--back during the Spring Cure of 2011.

It has been working well for me all these years--and I hadn't touched a thing, since.

So, as you can imagine, things were, ahem, dirty. Namely, the carousels, or lazy susans, if you prefer.

This project was only supposed to last 30 minutes. Didn't matter if we didn't get done, Janel said. Just start.

So I started at the top. Emptied everything out. Wiped down the shelf paper. Washed the carousels.

After 30 minutes I had this:

and this:

and this:

I couldn't very well leave it like that, now could I?

So, I swept out the bottom and then, carefully, put everything back.

I managed to fill one bag with trash (doorknob) and two bag with donations (floor). It was mostly stuff related to the dog we don't use anymore--including two stuffies. The animal shelter should enjoy them!

That felt good. A big win.

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Day 18: Letting Go of the Linens

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 17: Clear Out the Coats or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Like my mother, I love fabric.

I especially love fabric when it comes in the form of a blanket, or a duvet cover. Even sheets and pillowcases pile up because I can always, always use them.

Like my couch, I like to have a seasonal bed.

Summer:

Hmmm, I had to reach all the way back to 2013 to find a shot of the bed with the yellow duvet cover. Is that a clue to let it go?

Fall:

Winter:

Spring:

My kids are different. My daughter just wants one set of sheets and a duvet cover. My son wants two sets of sheets (one for winter, one for summer), one comforter cover and a favourite blanket for winter which I think I've tossed, unfortunately.

Like anyone in a small home, I have storage challenges.

This is the linen closet. This is on the second floor between the bedrooms.

This is also a linen "closet." It's in the basement between the pantry and the freezer.

When someone says to me: I can't declutter because I don't know what I need, I don't know what I want--I look at my blankets and throws and pillowcases and know exactly what they mean.  It's overwhelming and there's no criteria to make a decision.

Except: how much is enough?

Do I really need four duvet covers with coordinating pillowcases and throws for the bottom of the bed?

Maybe I do. Maybe you don't. Maybe you need room for 16 towels but I don't.

The only other question is then: do we have the room?


Read the next entry in this series Day 19: Declutter the Desk Drawers or Surface, Your Choice.

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Day 17: Clear out the Coats

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 16: Your Choice. My Choice: The Painting Things
or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


There are under-buyer and over-buyers.

 I am an underbuyer. I always thought it was because I was poor--but now that I am able to afford reasonably priced things, I find myself just unwilling to shop.

The coat closet is also home to the vacuum, the vacuum attachments, the mop, broom, dustpan, the feather duster, grocery bags and games.

I don't mind looking on-line--but to schlep from store to store just makes me tired. And I am not a fan of weaving and dodging the crowds in malls.

All this to say: I did not throw out my winter coat.

Some of these things are not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. Well, OK, more than one. I asked my husband about each of the things he keeps here, too, and he was willing to part with one of his winter jackets. (It's torn and worn and stained.)

I should have.

The zipper doesn't work anymore. I've sewn each of the three buttons on more than once. In fact, some of them need to be reattached. The pockets are treacherous. (I finally found my car keys in the lining, once.) The cord for the hood was lost long ago.

 I should have bought a new coat last year.

 But, I haven't shopped for a new one yet--and as a plus size it is probably too late to find anything for this winter. Thank heavens I have use of a car to go back and forth to work. Last year, I relied on public transit and there were a few days I was colder than I wanted to be.

 So it stays. I'll wear it as I did last year as a layer over several other things.

Maybe I'll get a new winter coat.

 Next year.


Read the next entry in this series Day 18: Letting Go of the Linens. Oh, there are some hard choices to make there.

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Comings and Goings

today's sunrise. 

Assignment #14.

Create a Landing Strip.

The idea, of course, is to have a place near your exits and entrances for all the stuff that finds its way into your home, no matter who brings it in.

This is a multi-faceted problem. Let's take this systematically.

The Front Door.

Who uses it?

Myself and the kids.

What comes in? (What do you need a place for?)

1) Boots and shoes

2) Coats, Jackets (Personal items like scarves, hats and gloves are stored in the coat pocket and/or sleeve.)

3) Papers my son delivers once a week

4) mail

5) my purse and my daughter's backpack


What goes out?

6) outgoing mail

7) library books to be returned

8) things to be returned to various people

What do we need to store? 

1-8

What have we got?

A narrow hallway right by the front door and around a corner,  a wider hallway with a coat closet. Let's take it in turn.

By the front door we have the carpet for boots, the small wooden child's chair for all sorts of things (currently holding my son's papers. When I am getting ready to leave for work in the morning I put my purse and lunch kit on it. Sometimes, it is a place to put my purse down so I can get my boots off.) The child's chair is in the entrance arch to the living room. Across from it is the doorway to the dining room/home office.

That shelf is mostly decorative, but it does hold outgoing mail at the moment. The bin underneath it holds some library books and a bag of borrowed items to be returned to its owner.



Around the corner is really where the hard work happens.

yes, the two hallways are different colours. That will likely be changed during the Spring One Room Challenge in April.

That dresser (and the calendar above) is command central. School papers which need signing go into my folders--and then get returned to the kids' folders. (Well, that supposed to be how it works. In my son's case, he tends to give them to me right when he comes home from school and immediately retunrs them to his back pack. My daughter wakes me up the morning they are due and frantically waves a pen in my face. We're working on it.) My husband and I also have our own folders. I highly recommend that everyone in a household have a place like this for their own papers.

We collect grocery and gas receipts (separate from our other receipts) so there are envelopes to catch them set up here, too.


One drawer in this dresser is devoted to hats, mitts and scarves, year round. I go through and purge it in the fall. (This way, too, if I do find the odd hat or glove lying around, I have a place to put it without having to find its owner or her coat.)

The coat closet also doubles as a broom closet, so I have all sorts of things here. Most importantly, it is the home for our coats, bags we use to take to the grocery store, bags we re-use, empty backpacks and my purse.

The Back Door.

This is the way to the back yard and the garage.

Who uses it?

Mostly my husband, the dog, sometimes me and the kids.

What comes in?

My husband and his workboots (which he likes to change out of before he goes out to play with the dog), his lunch bag and book bag. Groceries. dirty, filthy dogs paws.

What goes out?

All of the above, plus, in summer, sports stuff.

What do we need to store?

In addition to the above, I need access to gardening supplies, (gloves, a hat, secateurs, and a trowel), a table cloth and roasting forks.

What do we have to work with?

A teeny tiny entry way, and stairs going up to the kitchen and down to the basement.

The shoe pocket organizer holds mostly mosquito repellant and odd bits at the moment. The drawer underneath holds things we won't need until summer.

First, the stairs leading up to the kitchen.

On the left wall, a strip of wood with cup hooks holding keys and the dog's leash. On the right, a towel bar with the long shoe horn and a rag both for the dog's paws and my husband's boots. On the ledge, the spray bottle is to discourage the Beagle's barking. (On the floor to the left is a bucket with cleaning cloths to be taken to the basement laundry room.) Those are my husband's work boots and winter boots/shoes on the stairs.

As you go down the stairs there's boot shelf with a curtain rod above it on the right.

Those sandals are being held up by a bent hanger, the boots by a hanger clip. Sandals and keds live in the pink magazine holders. Beneath the shelf are hooks for bike helmets and a bag holding fishing gear.

Opposite this are the baskets, also suspended from the flooring joists.

They hold hats, summer work gloves, ball mitts and rollar blades and knee pads. They've held all sorts of sports equipment through the years.

(That mess underneath the baskets belongs to the epic basement clean up project which is next month!)

As far as curing goes, I dusted the navy shelf, cleaned off the top of the white dresser, and sorted through the paper work. I decluttered the baskets at the back door, vacummed the magazine/shoe holders and the wire baskets. Then I washed the walls and swept and washed the stairs. I vacuumed the hallway and the coat closet floor, too. Yep. I'm tired.

So, there we have it. I think I've covered how we --and all our stuff-- come and go.

Any questions? I'll answer in the comments.