Decluttering: End of the Closet Purge Project

These represented my final project completed, and one (heirloom) dresser emptied!

A little backstory.  I guess I've talked about my closet purge project for awhile now.  The need for it started back when I was a friendless high school freshman.  My mom would give me $5 for lunch.  It was a fair amount of money to get a balanced, nutritious meal.  However, I would take $4 of that and save it up.  I would spend $1 of that on a cup o' noodles and a can of Hawaiian Punch.  It's amazing I made it out of high school as relatively healthy as I did.  Yikes.

I spent that remaining $4 on something cute at the thrift store.  I'd save it up and go on a Friday, sometimes.  The thrift store was my happy place, where all the clothes were my friends.  I later made friends who either understood my thrifting obsession or even "got it" and showed me tips and tricks!

This all translated into an overloaded closet, bedroom, and eventually boxes in the garage (when I lived at home).  My canopy bed served as an extra closet rack.  My poor closet with the 40 year-old wooden rod crashed down in the middle of the night.  I bought an extra (cute) wardrobe at Ikea to house more clothing.  It was a disease that could not be stopped.

All these clothes bought me joy.  Some weren't even my style, but were what I wanted to "be" like.  Some I bought because they were funny, others because they were cool or rare or vintage.  Most I never wore more than once.  If you think of how much money I spent over the span of twenty years (1996-2016), I could have taken some cool trips!

My poor mom!  How did she put up with this.  Only a mother could!

In 2010, when I started to move out, my mom jumped for joy at the thought of finally getting back a good portion of her garage!  I had to figure out what to do with all the crap clothes.  Storage for awhile.  Going through some for awhile.  Keeping some at my parents' for awhile (until they retired up north and said they weren't going to move my crap) (fair enough).

2011-2013 was going through all this stuff in earnest.  And the more I went through, the more I realized how little I actually wore and enjoyed. 

2014-2015 was my purge in earnest, and the discovery of "capsule wardrobes," less consumerism, and the like.

The last year or so has been my purge project in addition to our goal of downsizing.  We are hoping to move into a smaller house.  We currently have a large tract home (renting) and want to move into a smaller home that is more efficient, with less material possessions.  So, with that earnest goal in mind, the past year has been spent preparing for life in a house that was built before people had disposable fashion.  They made their own clothes and repaired items, and had quality, not quantity.

In addition to this goal and the "capsule wardrobe" movement, Kondo wrote her awesome book about Tidying Up.  I scanned it and loved what I saw.  It made perfect sense.  I'm loving the whole waste not want not, downsizing, mentality.  It frees you up for more important things.

I also found it helped to find someone who needed help moving, but had way too much stuff...  That will inspire you to get rid of your own stuff so you don't have to move it when the time comes.  In addition, what really helped for me was taking pictures of "cute" things I was getting rid of but didn't really jive with my style.  Then you have the picture.  Release the item!

Once I got rid of this, then some more bags, then that, and then another bag....  I figured why stop there?  And I made it my goal to get rid of a dresser.  That was a fun project that culminated with the two drawers you see, above.  I used to have a drawer each for:  stockings/tights, undies/bras, socks, slips, workout gear, woolens...  I combined those so they took up half the space, and this meant that finally I could get rid of my tall dresser.

The dresser is something my grandpa made by hand.  He was a hobbyist carpenter, back from a time when people had lots of talents, and he had many gifts.  I didn't get rid of it.  My mom is "holding" the dresser until either of us can find room for it.  It currently resides in her garage and my dad will probably use it for storage of some sort. 

It feels great being that much lighter, having that much less stuff.  And surprisingly, or not very, getting dressed in the morning is super easy.  I only have stuff I use!

Let's Keep it Clean

It's always a struggle to keep one's house clean.  Well, unless you're a neat freak, in which case, want to help me clean mine?  I have been called a neat freak, but trust me, that I am not.  Some weeks are too busy, with too many commitments and too many people to make happy, that I just don't have the time to do much past emptying the trash and cleaning up after dinner.  Then the weekend comes, and we have more commitments and guests and places to go, sometimes overnight.  Vacuuming out the cabinets becomes a non-priority.

I was reminded of the need to put things on a schedule thanks to this handy chart.  It starts out innocently enough, reminding you to wipe down counters daily (doable), and even ends by reminding you to do things seasonally like clean out the pantry.  But it lost me at "scrubbing tile grout" because we have a rental with rotted grout, and it's not on us to repair/replace/regrout.  We just have to make do.  As Bay Area residents, we are far from alone in being renters.  It also lost me at "wipe down inside of medicine cabinets."  We have one very small one, which I guess I wipe down once in awhile, but if you don't have too much junk, the actual cleaning of things is not too ornery a task.

If you just modify a list and make it work for you, that's a good start.  Some weekends, I can set aside two hours to clean the house--this weekend, I did the bathroom and kitchen.  But, some weekends are too busy (unless you want to be that weirdo cleaning the bathroom when everyone is enjoying a potluck?).  In that case, we break up the cleaning--bathroom sink and counter and toilet one day, shower/tub the other, kitchen floor another, and so on.  Once in awhile if I'm feeling zesty, I'll even scrub the baseboards.  Use your eyes and nose to help guide you on what really needs to be done.

I personally think it's all about simplifying things--your surroundings and your possessions, so that the cleaning and tidying is super easy to do.  Then, simplify the cleaning and tidying.  Find multi-taskers that can clean both floors and counters.  No need to have three cabinets' full of cleaning supplies for every surface.  For us, we use a Method brand cleaner on the tub and tile, and Dr. Bronner's peppermint cleaner on the floors (the whole house smells like a candy cane when done).  Bon Ami works great on our stainless steel sink. 

Natural products like vinegar, lemon, and salt, also do some great cleaning.  Vinegar is king!  Just google to find out ratios for cleaning different household surfaces.  The internet is awesome.

For some good tips on how to whip your kitchen into shape, I really liked these ideas.  Also, this article on how to care for kitchen items.  I'll talk about kitchen stuff in a later post.  I just wanted to focus on general house stuff in this one.

The Struggle: Decluttering

We all have problems, at various levels, with controlling clutter that enters our house.  I think there are a few problems that make life as a middle-class American especially cluttered.  I want to talk about this here and there on this blog as I myself struggle to declutter our house and not be owned by our things.

The first problem is that shopping is a pastime in this country.  People shop on vacation for souvenirs, people shop for gifts for every occasion (whether the item is meaningful or needed, or not), people shop with their friends as a way to pass the time on a Saturday afternoon.  People shop because they're bored.  They shop because there is a sale they couldn't pass up (how could you afford not to?).  People put stuff on credit because they just had to have it.

I have one word for this:

NO!  STOP!

Okay, that's two words.

I speak from the standpoint of someone who used to be a shopaholic.  But what is a shopaholic?  I was able to quit cold turkey a few years ago, and I definitely did not develop the shakes or the sweats.  I did notice something growing exponentially:  my bank account!  Imagine that.  When you spend less money, you are able to save more money.

Over the past few years, I have decided to not be owned by my stuff.  At first, this meant just not buying new stuff.  Maybe this even meant allowing things like shoes and coats to show some wear before buying new ones.  However, I didn't get rid of the things I had already purchased.

As an aside, let me tell you that when I stopped being a shopaholic, I also went through some moves.  I moved out of my parents' house and into my friend's house to rent a room.  I moved out of there and into my other friend's condo that she was selling.  Then out of there (all the while some things being stuck in storage) and into my own one bedroom apartment (and out of the storage unit too).  And the best one:  out of my one bedroom and into a two bedroom just across the complex, as my brother moved in with me.  This involved walking my belongings across the parking lot, from one second-story unit to another.  Finally, I moved all my items in with my then-boyfriend-now-husband and his brother.  All the while, my long-suffering friends had to move pounds and pounds of JUNK.  Sorry guys.

Now, let me introduce you to my new addiction:  I am addicted to getting rid of stuff!  I decided I want to live a more clean life.  I guess in current terminology, I want to be more MINDFUL.  But I think that word has become so clichéd as to lose its meaning.  So, let's just say I want to not be wasteful in anything I do.  I will go into my individual processes in subsequent posts, and believe me, it's a process.  But I want to leave you with a good tip I just ran across today over on the blog Seventeenth & Irving:  to clean out your bedroom, take everything out of the room except your actual bed and sheets and blanket, two nightstands, and their respective lamps.  Then only put back the stuff you really need.  Read more at the link for more information.

I guess the moral of the story for now is, we actually need a lot less STUFF than we think we do.  Stay tuned for more posts as I continue on my decluttering journey.