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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Day 16: Your Choice. My Choice: The Painting Things

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 15: Simplify you Make-Up, Simplify your Life or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Regular reader of the blog will remember that I started working on my back hallway and stairwell back in July.

The end of July, to be sure, but still.

This weekend, yes, on Thanksgiving Monday, we finally finished painting the risers and trim on the stairs.

We still had one tiny detail to take care of--the second coat on the attic hatch.

This attic hatch.

It had never been painted before so it took a coat of primer and two of paint.

What I really, really wanted to do was clean up these paint supplies outside the bathroom door. I'd tripped on them a couple of times. (Not a fun place to trip, really).

But of course, I couldn't remove them without finishing the job, now could I?

So. There. Done.

We have to remove the tape from everything, wash everything and do touch ups. Just a couple of small projects yet--and then I'm done with the back hallway and stairwell.

Wait 'til you see.
It's awesome.

Read the next entry in this series Day 17: Clear Out the Coats.

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Day 15: Simplify your Make-Up, Simplify your Life.

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 14: The Medicine Cabinets: A Quick Win or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


There are things in our lives which make them complicated. Some of them cannot be avoided. But some of them can be--or at least parts of them can be controlled.

You can choose to make somethings in your life simpler--and make up is one of them.

I never actually wore make-up on a regular basis until I started working two years ago. My routine is dead simple. I am blessed with excellent skin tone: on days when I need a little something something, I use mineral powder on a foundation of moisturizer.

On a regular basis I use liquid eye-liner, mascara, eye shadow and an eyelash curler. That's it. I can put on my make up in about three to four minutes flat. I carry lip butter in my purse.

Now I realise this spartan routine is not for everyone. Some of you like make-up as much as I love paint and if that's your jam, that's fine. Just go through it regularly and make sure your stay safe and keep old and out of date product away from your face.

And if it's overwhelming you, pause a minute, think about what you need, bare minimim--and maybe give that a whirl for a few days--then pare down. Simplify your make-up, simplify your life.

  Read the next entry in this series Day 16: Your Choice. My Choice? The Painting Things.

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ORC Week 2: Down and Out, or is that Out and Down?

Wow.
A week already.

For those who don't know, I am creating a dressing room from a wide hallway for my Mom during the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda of Calling It Home. We have five weeks. Linda selects twenty name designers to take on the challenge. They post their progress on Wednesdays. On Thursdays Linda flings open the door to anyone crazy enough to accept. Like me (and more than 150 others).

If you remember the before pictures (here, in Week One), Mom hadn't quite managed to clear everything out of the room--and the closet was still chocker block full.

I'm working over there when I can. This week, I was only able to get over there for a day and a half. On my first visit, I emptied the shelves and the closet.

I put everything here:

I didn't have the room to move things like shelves themselves, too far, unfortunately!

I just squeeze by.

This is the wide hallway. It's just under five feet wide. It leads to a closet, as you can see. You can also see that maintaining access to the closet makes this space frustrating to use well.

On the right in the picture above is the deep side of the old closet. It's about 24" deep. When we are done, it'll only be 13" deep. The plan is to use this space for long hanging things and shoes.

Below is a view of the hallway/room taken standing inside the closet looking out. On the other side of the stairwell is a lovely area Mom uses as a sitting room/guest room (it has a fold out couch). She recently had new windows installed in this room, so while I could load up the couch with stuff--I couldn't go right up to the windows or block access because the workman needs to return to finish the drywall and trim work for them.

On the second day, I moved the desk out by the railing and put up some plastic.

oops, sorry for the blur!

I had a terrible time with the bifold door. I finally googled "how to remove a bifold door" and found out it was too easy. Definitely one of those doh moments! Things moved quickly once it was gone.

Out of respect for Mom's lungs, I did my best to remove the drywall as intact as possible--I also didn't want a big mess to clean up. I managed to find most of the screws--so I just unscrewed it from the studs.

I removed the carpet from the closet--but left the underlay for my poor knees.

I started to work on the 2x6s (yes, 2x6s--who uses 2x6s to build a closet?) but the reciprocating saw we had just wasn't powerful enough. I'm going to rent one from Home Depot--and I bet we'll have that baby down in no time!

Progress may be slower than it ought to be as Mom isn't able to help. She's having a terrible time with her lungs.

But she did pick her colours--pink and white, surprise!

Here's a bit of pretty for you.

Traditional Closet by Edina General Contractors REFINED LLC

Bringing this baby in on time is truly going to be a challenge!

Punch List:

Empty out every last little thing

Take down remaining shelving

Tear down closet   Almost there! 

Repair dry wall and rebuild closet bit

Prep and paint walls --We've bought half the paint!

Tear out carpet

Lay down new flooring

Install new light fixture (in the old closet)
Install drapes for privacy and doorway

Find a bench/make one

Assemble Pax Wardrobes

Install closet rod(s)

Install shoe shelves

Figure out Jewellery storage/display

Move clothes back in.

Here is Week One: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos, if you want to catch up.

Here is the link to all the other, ahem, guests participating in this craziness.

Day 14: The Medicine Cabinets: A Quick Win

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 13: Declutter the Nightstand or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.
Now that was satisfying!

Not a lot came out of the cabinets at all--but it felt so good to tidy up!

I have two bathroomsand so I have two medicine cabinets.

Downstairs:

There were just a few things for the dog and some doctors samples of a medication none of us could remember why we had it. (expired.)  It was in both cabinets, actually.

Upstairs was a disaster. We'd run out of toothpaste and had been using those sample sizes the dentist send you home with until Chris finally remembered we needed some and brought a tube home yesterday.

I also had forgotten about some paint brushes I'd put there to dry.

see that stuff in the mirror? That's tomorrow's easy win! Makeup and stuff.

There was really nothing in the cabinet except the mystery medication--oh and some expired anti-itch polysporin.

Such a good feeling to take care of it.

I like to clean out the medicine cabinets about twice a year.

How often do you declutter your medicine cabinet(s)?


Read the next entry in this series Day 15: Simplify Your Make-Up, Simplify your Life.

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Day 13: Declutter the Nightstand.

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 12: Declutter your Handbags and Shoes or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Back when I made up the decluttering schedule, my nightstand looked like this:

But then, I went and bought these tall sleek beauties.

source

(I'd been thinking about it for a couple of years. I still hadn't made up my mind--but I went for it anyway! Then I committed and put the old ones out on the curb the very next day.)

And now that I have this one, I really didn't need to declutter it, so much as clean it up.

yep, I still need to lower those pictures

Mainly, I just needed something to corral the magazines. Fortunately, I remembered I had this tray I'd primed down in the basement.

I still don't know what colour to paint it and I'd like to put feet on it--but that's a project for another day.

One of the reasons I dithered over buying this particular nightstand was because it didn't have as many shelves as my old one. It just wouldn't be able to hold as much stuff. I'm always reading either a book or a magazine (or both--and usually more than one of each at a time). Sometimes, a smaller surface--or, in this case, fewer places to stuff things results in fewer things cluttering up the space around you. I found that's what happened when I decreased almost all of my shelf space in my dining room a while back--and it's been great.

But there's another school of thought that says you should buy enough storage for what you need. That skimping will just create more mess, more clutter. And I can totally see that.

I don't know what will happen here. When I get less busy, I will have more reading material on the go. We'll see then whether this little beauty can keep up.

What do you think? Should you buy furniture with lots of storage to keep things neat--or should you buy furniture without quite so much storage to discourage a messy build-up?


Read the next entry in this series Day 14: Declutter the Medicine Cabinet

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Day 12: Handbags and Shoes

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 11: Declutter your Dresser Drawers or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Back when Apartment Therapy did their Closet Cure, I decluttered three pairs of shoes. One pair of house shoes which no longer supported my feet, my running shoes which had fallen apart, and a pair of beautiful high heeled sandals I'd worn to a wedding this summer which crippled me.

And I hadn't touched my handbags at all.

For a wardrobe minimalist, I sure have a lot of shoes!

See those black patent pumps in the lower right corner?
They are a size 7 1/2.

I bought them when I was eighteen. I had grand plans of becoming a lawyer--and a lawyer would need good long-lasting shoes, right? It was the early eighties and I paid $70.00 for them. A fortune at the time! (I think I was making $3.75 or $4.25/hr back then.)

My feet are now a size ten. I work at a big box store selling paint.
Life did not go as I'd expected.

My handbag collection also has the black patent leather purse I bought at the same time to "go with" the shoes.

It's the saddlebag in the lower left hand corner. That black one in the middle is from a by-gone era when I used a smaller purse, The red one on the right is a favourite but the handles are too worn.

It's well past the season for carrying a straw bag. I'd like to transfer to the orange tote--but it needs a good cleaning. So does the red striped one--though it's more suited to be a book bag than a hand bag.

Decluttering my shoes was easy.

Those white shoes are on loan from my Mom. I need more slip-on shoes. I love shoes. I'd love to have more, but a long bout of plantar fasciitis many years ago and flat feet have made them very fussy.

The brightly coloured one there in the back is great for carrying stuff back and forth to the pool. I'd love to go to a pool again.

Depending on how often you buy hand bags and shoes, this is one of those decluttering sessions that should be done once a year--or, every couple of years just to remind yourself what you have and what you want to do with it. I usually use my purses until something breaks or stops working (the zipper, usually) though since I've switched to these suitcase sized totes, that doesn't happen. This is probably the first time in my life I've ever considered all my handbags at once like that.

Do you have a lot of bags and shoes?
Are they hard to part with?

  Read the next entry in this series Day 13: Declutter Your Nightstand

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