Decluttering

I spent yesterday decluttering. You would think that in a day I could possibly have made real, noticable progress, but alas, it is not so. Now I remember why I rarely spend a day decluttering, LOL--lack of visible reward! I tackled the coat/shoe closet in our laundry room first. Since that is how you get to our garage, it is where all the shoes and coats end up, and it was a real mess. It didn't help that apparently the last several times the boys have outgrown tennis shoes, I have not thrown the old pairs away, but rather have kept them around, in case they needed them for . . . ? Yesterday I must have tossed a good 7 pairs of ratty old shoes and consigned several pairs of sandals and church shoes that even Jonathan has outgrown back down to the dreaded shoe tubs of the basement. Bob hung up a better set of hooks on the wall of the laundry room, so hopefully the winter coats will stay up on those this year. It all looks so organized! Let's see how long it stays that way . . .

I also worked in the study. We have a set of yaffa blocks (stackable crates, basically) that have all our art supplies in them. I was ruthless over there, asking myself, "If we were moving, would I keep this?" I think that's the real problem--we haven't moved in 4 years, so the stuff has built up! Then I moved on to the top of the computer desk, which also has a big hutch on it. I was able to (drum roll please . . . ) clean off the top of the desk and the bottom shelf of the hutch. Yes! That's as far as I was able to get! So as long as you don't look up very high, the desk looks great! I will say that the amount of paper we generate and accumulate really is spectacular. We should win some sort of medal or something.

So a day of cleaning and decluttering produced one clean closet, a decluttered corner of the study, and a clean desktop and shelf. At that rate, I think it would take a year for me to get through the whole house! Maybe Monday I will be motivated to tackle more. Maybe.