Controling My Little Corner of the World

Welcome to one of the million and one blog posts about decluttering. Surely you can stay and read one more, right?

Both TMB and I tend to be pack rats. It probably extends from our early years of marriage. Frequent moves meant we left a lot of stuff behind. So now, twelve years later, when we obtain material possessions, we tend to hold on to them long after their usefulness has expired.

Here is how we roll in the turtle house: TMB and I accumulate stuff until it drives us insane. We get on a kick and start tossing stuff. For awhile, everything is neat and organized. Then we start collecting more stuff. The cycle repeats.

Usually, I go through this cycle more often than TMB but this week, inspiration struck us both.

We had been talking about cleaning out the laundry room for quite some time. It wasn’t the first time it had been cleaned out – and I can’t find the pictures of how it used to look – so this post will have after pictures, but not before. (Go figure – this side of perfect, remember?)

TMB received quite a few nifty gadgets for Christmas this year. The only problem with these nifty gadgets is that we have no place to put them in my small, limited kitchen. So, I tell TMB that I want to buy another metal rack.

So, off to Stuff Mart to go buy a metal rack. While we’re there, we buy a large, heavy-duty plastic shelving unit for the laundry room. I even weasel convince him to buy me a small plastic shelving unit for my laundry soaps.

As soon as we got home, we started emptying out the laundry room. The laundry room acts not only as a laundry room for us but also as a storage unit. Up until this point, we had no shelving in there and all our ‘stuff’ was piled (high) in the corner. It was very cluttered and very messy.

We’re both on a roll by now when TMB says, “I’m not putting these boxes back in the laundry room until we get plastic totes for them.”

I agree and go to Stuff Mart the next morning to buy some totes. I buy four – Christmas, breakables (I really need a curio cabinet), school stuff (TMB’s and mine – the kids’ is stashed under the bed; more on that), and wedding.

As you can see, it all fits quite nicely:

New shelving unit in laundry room

The fact that all of our ‘stuff’ fits into four storage bins is proof that we certainly don’t have a lot of material possessions (at least for storage). But this is also pared down. We made a commitment with each other that there was no use holding on to stuff that we didn’t need, want or use. The wedding and school stuff certainly isn’t used, but it’s memorable and we both made the decision to keep it all (I even have the receipt from some of our wedding purchases – like our unity candle. Silly to be sure. But sentimental as well. It stays).

Shelving for my laundry soaps, pet food, and toilet paper

There isn’t much space in this small room, but I feel that TMB and I have accomplished the task of keeping it relatively free of clutter and appealing to the eye.

My secret for organizing laundry

Sometimes, it’s the little things that do the most. When I walk into my laundry room now, instead of feeling dread and out of control, I feel peace. Silly, I know, but taking the couple of hours to organize this corner of my world has made a huge difference in the other corners.

Next week, I plan on tackling my closet  and under my bed (where there are more cardboard boxes). But first, I must save up for some more totes!

Until next time…