Do you SpRiNg Clean!
I continued with my spring cleaning last week, tackling the Laundry/Craft/Sewing room, but got a bit side tracked, and before I knew it, I had dismantled the whole room! And a week later, it is still dismantled!
My goal was to organize the Photo/Scrap-Book closet, along with the Laundry/Sewing part of the room! It gets so out of control sometimes! Once done, I could then do the normal wipe down the walls, wash the window, you know, all the spring cleaning things that requires getting under and behind stuff.
But boy, had I just open a Pandora's Box or what!
"Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's Works and Days.[1] The "box" was actually a large jar (πίθοςpithos)[2] given to Pandora (Πανδώρα, "all-gifted", "all-giving"),[3] which contained all the evils of the world. Pandora opened the jar and all the evils flew out, leaving only "Hope" inside once she had closed it again."
Once closed, after all the evil clutter has been removed and controlled, it will leave behind "Hope". Hope that I don't ever let it get so out of hand again! Hope that it's new and refreshed look and contents will grow some creative books. Nothing but Hope!
Sorry, but I am just to embarrassed to share a photo of how horrifying it had become. I'm sure you have seen something similar to it many times on programs like Hoarders, and there is no way I want the world to see how much stuff I had collected in that 5' X 8' walk in closet!
For months, things just kept being piled into that space, even when there really wasn't any more space. It just went on top of other stuff. My scrap-booking supplies and the boxes of memories were overflowing their shelves. So over grown, I wouldn't even be able to roll it out of the closet without stuff falling off it. Before I could even roll it out, I had to move all the stuff stacked on the floor around it first.
SO MUCH STUFF!
In fact there was just way TOO MUCH STUFF!
I have opened that door too many times to count, only to shut it again because I wasn't ready to attack it!
However, it's spring and it was time to attack it, and attack I must!
As I pulled out one thing after another, it became apparent it wasn't all going to fit back in there without some upgrades and creative storage to organize it.
Have seen my Christmas Storage Shelf?
I LOVE it!
It holds all those precious memories that need to be in a climate controlled room and not in a stuffy, hot storage shed. It rolls perfectly into a closet area in the guest house. Everything has it's place and each year it gets wrapped backed up and rolled back out.
It worked so well, we invested in two more of them. One was for the scrap-booking stuff, and the other, which was bigger, was to hold my extra serveware for entertaining and parties. However, those items quickly out grew it's shelf and hubby made me a BIGGER cabinet right out side my back door, making it easily accessible.
Up till now the bigger rolling shelf had just been hanging out by the same closet area as the Christmas one, catching this and that, and other odd things. It took me another afternoon to clear it off, find homes for the stuff on it and roll it up to the house.
Then it took another day and a half to move, organize, thin out, and then rearrange all the stuff from the smaller shelf onto the bigger shelf. All while putting photos back in their proper tubs and those tubs back on their proper shelves in the closet. Photo albums, frames, and ancestry boxes are all back on their shelves.
PHEW!
I must say, I LOVE how nice it turned out, I still need to organize some of the photo tubs, but that can wait till another time. The scrapbooking shelf has room to grow and can easily be rolled out to create some more of those everlasting scrapbook pages the "Grand's" love to look through, as well as make.
Now to tackle the rest of the room!
Upgrading to the bigger shelve freed up space in two cabinets in the laundry area. They will be perfect for storing my sewing stuff. Then I decided to rearrange a corner to create a writing desk area and a place for my files, research, and other writing supplies. Right now all this stuff is on that smaller rolling shelf, hanging out while I get the desk done. I was hoping it would have been completed over the weekend, but as life is life, a cold grabbed both me and hubby. For me, having COPD, due to chronic bronchitis, even a small cold is no picnic. I am feeling so much better today, I might even go out looking for some of the supplies toward this desk goal.
Just another SpRiNg Cleaning Day Time on Our Journey Through LIFE!
