Closet Cleanout Part 1

Help me fund my Dream House! All prices including USPS Priority Mail shipping. Email me at klzabeth at sc dot rr dot com if interested. And check back next week. There's plenty more where these came from!


For your consideration:

J Crew brown leather boots. Size 8, never worn, $75


See soles below.





Banana Republic cream leather handbag. Worn once. Perfect condition. $55




Whitney silk faille dress. I have an 8 (never worn, didn't fit) and a 10 (never worn, event cancelled). $60 each




J Crew silk taffeta pencil skirt, 10, in papaya. Never worn, $30




J Crew, navy pinstripe, lightweight wool, unlined pants. Never worn, with tags, $35



Close up of fabric and tag.

Fail!

As you might have noticed, not One Single Post has occurred since last year --- in January. Geez. Epic Fail!

So here I start again FRESH! Lots has happened this year. Lots! The least of which (the least obtainable of which) is that I found my Barbie Dream House. Can't afford it yet, but I'm tackling the declutter thing this year in anticipation of putting our current house up for sale.

First up, clean this out:



and this:



Because the Green Room closet is set to become this:



on a much smaller scale, of course.

I've stepped up the sewing and decorating this year. The sewing machine def needs to be set up all the time.

The goal is to have all of my shoes, purses and accessories all in one half of our master closet. Good freakin' luck to me! I already have a load of stuff in the SS ready for the Goodwill, and I think I'm actually going to try to sell a lot of stuff. My next post will be the first round of Closet Cleanouts - featuring special ocassion J. Crew.

Whew....

Have you ever worked so hard on your day off you looked forward to going back to work? That was me this morning. Who has the cleanest baseboards, switchplates and blinds in town? Me....

We Interrupt This De-cluttering

This is my weekend to work so *no-go* on getting anything done in the house.

However, I took a load of things to my new little homeowner co-worker: bag of clothes, ottoman, 2 tables, magazine rack, candleholder and a monkey lamp (not as weird as it sounds). So I guess that is progress...

My weekend is tomorrow and Tuesday so "Back to our reguarly scheduled program".

The Ante - She's Been Upped!

Company is coming to town! Lovey's parents (and more) will be here at the end of the month to attend his retirement ceremony. Lovey is in the Armed Forces and is lucky enough to retire at 39!

So my mother-in-law likes to stay in the Green Room. It's still my favorite room in the house. I painted it Eccentric Lime by Benjamin Moore a few years ago. It had become a bit of a clutter magnet. There was no time like yesterday to tackle it and make it into a proper guest room (and pseudo-office for me).

I didn't get a "before". Here is an "in-progress":

Yipes!

and even more yipes!

But I am proud to say that I gutted this room like a fish! Eww, that was gross.

"After" pics are coming. I only have to have Lovey help me put the fresh, clean bedskirt on and I'm done!

A tip learned: if you have a featherbed, be sure to fluff it BEFORE you vacuum. Otherwise, it will look like a chicken exploded in your room and you'll have to vacuum again anyway.

Goals for the week:
*stay on diet track
*make bed every morning (eesh!)
*clean stovetop thoroughly each night after cooking

Baby steps, people, baby steps...

Ya Gotta Start Somewhere

Family room clean and accounted for. Thankfully, the Christmas decorations are back in the attic. Dog beds have been cleaned and odo-banned. Baseboards have been cleaned - as have the blinds. Who knew blinds could get so filthy? I even cleaned off the outlet covers and the switchplates. Yes, I did! Random to-do: take curtains down and wash.

This has become a prime weapon in my cleaning arsenal:



Behold, the Dyson (Dyswoon!) DC25, all floor vacuum. I have to admit Lovey scored an incredible deal on it. When bargain shoppers marry, sigh....

The Dyswoon is a godsend, especially if you have one of these


a couple of these


and, well, a Lovey.

The 12 Month Program

My name is K, and I’m a Clutterbug. (“Hi, Karen.”) It’s actually genetic in my family – on both sides. My in-laws are no better. When two clutterbugs marry (although one of them is in denial: Lovey) it’s not pretty.

The method of this blog is to document the madness of my journey from breaking out of my clutterbug routine and evolve into a pseudo-minimalist. Hey, just being realistic. Cuz I still like STUFF… I’ll document my successes (hopefully many!) and my failures (hopefully few!) on my journey.

Why am I doing this?

Because I’m tired of having to run around and clean in a flurry when company comes over.

Because I’m tired of spending every weekend cleaning this monster of a house instead of doing something fun.

Because I feel guilty when I sit down and read or watch TV when there is clearly something to clean or put away.

Because who really needs two (or three, eesh) dozen bras if they don’t really fit right and you only wear maybe 3-4?

Because I need to use my library card I so proudly acquired and stop increasing Amazon’s profit margin by purchasing book after book.

Because it’s super frustrating to dig around to find the Other Black Shoe in the bottomless closet when I am already running late.

Because it makes me sad to see all of this crap and be comsumed by it.

Because maybe I’ll sleep better at night.

Because maybe then I will eat right and exercise and feel better about myself because my surroundings are pretty.

Pretty heavy stuff…who knew?

So how do I plan to do this?

One room at a time, one day at a time. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. By this time next year, I want peace of mind and order in the McManse. A place for everything and everything in its place. All hokey sayings, yes. All appropriate to the situation, yes.

I’ll even take before and afters of everything I do. I ain’t skerred. Well, maybe a little. It’s gonna be a hard year. But maybe, hopefully (please, pretty please) it’ll be worth it.