30 Bags in 30 Days ~

A few weeks ago my sister asked if I wanted to join a group on Facebook; the goal of the group: decluttering. I said sure! I love to get rid of stuff! I get rid of clutter constantly around here. Clutter makes me crazy and drains me of my creative flow. So when I joined the group I didn't really think I had that much to get rid of because like I said, I'm always in the process of getting rid of stuff.

A crazy thing happened a few days before the challenge began (on Oct 1st) I started noticing drawers that wouldn't close. I started thinking that maybe I could benefit more from this challenge that I thought. And then I started thinking that if I went through a major purge around here our home would be ready for the holidays. Score!!

I've already made a trip to Goodwill and have two more bags ready to go...then yesterday I hit a road block.

I decided I would go through "the drawer." You know the one. The one that gets something added to it every time you walk by it. Before the day was over our king size bed was covered with piles of papers, pictures, receipts, little toys, birthday cards, thank you cards, report cards, broken pieces of who knows what...you name it, it was in the drawer. Not only was the bed covered, but the dresser was piled up as well. I told my sister that out of the entire house and all that needs to be decluttered this drawer was going to be the hardest thing to tackle.

I thought you would benefit from a visual (a grainy picture taken with my substandard phone camera because I didn't want to have to download from my real one.) Please take note of the pacifier on the bottom left of the photo. Yes, that was in the drawer along with a Christmas ornament, a ball of yarn and several pieces of canvas artwork. I really have no idea how all that got in there. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has been using that drawer as a catch all.


Let's move away from the problem and look towards the solution...I took a scrapbooking class at Big Picture Classes several years ago. The one thing I took away from the class is how to organize your kids' school papers. R and K both have plastic file boxes with files for each grade, so as I sort papers (from the last 3 years thank you very much) I'm filing them away. That's the easy part. I'm stuck with what to do with all the other little odd bits; that's why I'm blogging right now. :)

Here's the file boxes. Nothing fancy, but they do the trick (when used correctly.)

Now back to all the other stuff. I have no idea. I wish I could wiggle my nose and it all be gone. The inner hoarder (I think there's one in all of us) wants to get a plastic tote and with one swipe of the hand it all be neatly stored away in our storage building, but I know someday I will have to deal with it so that's not an option for me. I'm just going to have to suck it up and muddle through. I will be checking in with my FB group from time to time to get cyber support and inspiration.

Why, you might be asking yourself, would I share such an embarrassing picture of clutter on my dresser? Well, you know I'm all about keepin' it real and 99.99% of the time the top of that dresser is clean. I guess you could say that picture is the storm before the calm...or whatever. :)

Ok, I'm about to hit the publish button and get back to work...have a happy day. :)