Cleaning Out

I am a pack rat.  I admit it.  I hate it, but I admit it.  And when trying to get the house ready to put on the market (hopefully this spring) being a packrat is not a good thing.

I hate throwing things away.  My father instilled in me to not throw things away that I could possibly use or need at a later time.

Before I go any further I assure you that I am not a hoarder.  Nor is my dad.  We are simply pack rats who have trouble getting rid of things.

Lately I have been trying to change that.  And this change comes from necessity.  You see, right now we are a family of 6 living in approximately 1100 square feet.  While I do like my house there are some quirks with it.  Our house is built on a slab so we have no basement (my washroom is in my kitchen, more on that another time).  And our attic is a crawlspace.  Our garage is now our playroom.  There are three bedrooms, but all have small closets.  We have one hall closet. And one linen closet.

So you see storage space is at a premium. 

Some days I feel like I am constantly tripping over things.  And it isn't just because my kids have a gazillion toys (that is a real number, just come to my house). It is because we are having trouble finding places to store the stuff.  Or at least store it in a way that doesn't resemble Monica's locked closet on Friends.  Remember that episode?  Sometimes I feel like my house is like that closet.

Last week there was a snowday which manet Jon was home in the middle of the week.  He took the older three out to play.  And I took advantage of the peace with only one child in the house.

I took time and cleaned out two closets in the house.  The boy's closet and the hall closet.   The three boys are sharing one bedroom and one closet which makes organizing it difficult at times.  By simply tossing out the 20 hangers with no clothes on them (I am not exaggerating I promise) there was suddenly extra space.  I was able to organize their clothes from smallest to largest and on my next trip to the dollar store will get door hangers to label the sizes (thank you pinterest).  I tossed several things, moved some items to better locations and put others in a donation box.  The shelves Jon built in there a few years ago were reorganized and now hold diapers, shoes, and toys in a neater method than before.  It isn't my ideal, but then again my ideal is a much bigger closet. 

The hall closet was another story.  It is a catchall for many things- coats, vacuum, rug cleaner, boxes of wires, random junk that we do need but I don't know where else to put, the jolly jumper that Wyatt loves,a gate and an air purifier that we no longer use but Jon insists on keeping.  I also have a shoe organizer hanging inside the door to hold all the craft supplies I use for the kids.  In this closet Jon and I both chose to donate several jackets and coats we never wear.  I tossed several more hangers that we do not need (I don't know why my house seems to have such an abundance of hangers, I really don't).  I found some boxes to use to organize the items on the top shelf neatly.  I used an extra hanger to store Wyatt's jolly jumper between the coats.  Now I can open the doors and not have things fall on me, always a plus.


I felt loads lighter after the closets were cleaned. 

Next on my list is to finish Madeline's closet and then move on to the closet Jon and I share.  I hate my closet, which is why I keep putting it off.  But it must be done.