Week 2

Edit: I wrote this last Sunday. I meant to add pictures before publishing. Then I got lazy. Now it's a week later so I'm just publishing it. :)

It's the start of week 2 so I wanted to post the progress I've made on the decluttering front. Last week after my post, I took a tour of the attic. I knew we had several empty boxes and several half full boxes so I sifted through some to get a better idea as to what's going on up there. I found several I could go through that night so I brought them down and ended up with 1 box of give-away and 4 empty boxes. All the rest either found a home downstairs or was throw out. It felt so good doing something and was a great baby-step way of kicking this party off.

The rest of the week I didn't do much. I found some things here and there and at least sorted them into piles, but I knew I had a 3 day weekend to try to focus more. I didn't realized I wouldn't have as much time for decluttering this weekend as I hoped. Oh well. That's life getting in the way isn't it? :) But, don't despair! A good friend who has offered to help several times was available today so she came over for a few hours to help me tackle the room of doom otherwise known as the extra bedroom/wanna be nursery (Rachel never made it into her nursery so we're skipping that step and going straight to share a room with her brother). This room has always been the convenient dumping place being the spare room so it's constantly in disarray. When we bought the house, it was going to be a combined guest room and craft room but, as is the case for many people, the "spare room" is the storage room while you unpack and that just snowballs into the room of doom.

I always dreamed of having that fully-stocked-but-not-cluttered craft room like so many bloggers share pictures of. Pictures on the wall, an inspiration board, perfectly placed shelves for storing crafting books, projects and other knick knacks, a comfy chair and the perfect desk. But their are several problems with this dream. Buying all that perfect furniture can be expensive, even if you go "cheap". And if you go really cheap, you have to have the time to fix it up how you want it. Also, you need to live somewhere where there are amazing thrift and antique stores. I do not. I live where the thrift stores are full of used Walmart stuff and antique stores cost as much as buying something new. My options for makeshift and vintage-awesome are limited, which is disappointing have living so many places that had good used shopping options. Another problem is when you work hard to stock up but then don't have the time and/or space to work on the projects so you end up with clutter and good intentions. Finally, cleaning that room. If you're like me, your projects spread out and take over the space so you have to clean to keep the room looking pretty. So I still want a craft space, but my dreams have shifted to less fully stocked and more there when I have a project to work on. I want to have a space where my sewing machine can stay out and ready for use. I want to have supplies on hand like knitting needles, measuring tape and scissors. I want a space that's inviting for crafting and creative play. I also want it to be safe enough for the kids to have space in this room with me. Ethan loves painting. How fun would it be to craft together and not have it be at the kitchen table?

I also want to start finishing projects. I have so many things I bought with projects in mind and loved buying the supplies but feel guilty every time I look at it knowing I never even started, much less finished said project. I have made a promise to myself and Charlie that I will finish using what I have before I go out and buy more fabric or yarn. The only caveat to that is, if I need more of the same of what I currently have to finish a project, I will go buy just enough to finish.

But back to the room of doom. We worked for about 3 hours, sorting through to see what's there, rearranging so like items are together, trashing several bags of trash. I have a fairly huge pile of stuff I think might be destined for a new nursery home next weekend, 2 more boxes headed to the thrift store, hundreds of plastic bags headed to the grocery store for recycling, and a good stash of my reuseable bags finally emptied again and ready for use at the grocery store (to avoid any more plastic bags). We have a dresser that we were looking to get rid of as well that I had previously emptied, but I had to refill it with stuff for lack of other storage. Once the nursery stuff is gone though, I can look at setting up the crafting area and start cranking through those projects.

Small projects for this next week include going through piles and piles of clothes to separate out into keep, toss and give away, organize the linen closet and tidied up the kids' room a bit (book overflow!).