(Hi, guys: This is the second in an occasional series on tackling clutter in small, easy bites. For the first in this series, go here.)
This is the bookshelf just to the left of my desk, in my family room. Until recently the shelving was an overly crowded, hodge-podgy mess of too much stuff, too little style. A few months ago I "fluffed" it, eliminating some of the clutter and concentrating on showing off vintage treasures and favorite books.
I really like the way it came out:
In this split-level mayhem and foolishness I find, on the top shelf, cut-out magazine articles, vacation memorabilia, boxes from phones I don't own any more...
So I'm giving myself a pass on the bottom shelf, which is another project for another week.
1. Drag everything out. And I do mean everything. Because if you don't, you can't very well do the next step:
2. Dust or clean it as needed. Now, clear an area nearby (a tabletop or even a section of the floor will do, if you don't have pets or kids). Proceed to the next step:
3. Sort like things into piles. Sometimes you don't know what piles you're going to have until you get going. Don't worry; your ability to sense patterns, drilled into you in grade school, will kick in. Soon you'll be sorting like a professional six-year-old!
I found I had the following piles:
Crafting materials,
Magazine articles (fashion, self-help, and just pretty pictures),
Family wills and inventories (mine and my parents'),
Vacation mementos,
Antiquated CDs (computer games the kids played when they were little), and
Two old cell phones (instructions and packing materials included).
5. Put everything else someplace that makes more sense. And the job is not finished until you do this critical, fifth step. Otherwise, you've just moved clutter around from one spot to the next. So, in my case, that meant:
o Crafts materials: File one cabinet over to the left, where all crafting stuff is supposed to stay.
o Magazine articles: Tuck into my "To Be Filed" file. (Seriously one of the more genius things I ever came up with.) A "To Be Filed" file means you KNOW it's supposed to go somewhere else, but you can't do it right now, and you don't want to derail yourself from the project you're on, and someday a month or two from now you'll brew yourself a big pot of something caffeinated and file away for hours like you did during that first, lousy job you ever had, when you were a File Clerk and you ruined your cuticles jamming sh** into manila folders 8 hours a day, all summer long.
Ahem.
Going on.
These also got moved:
o Wills and inventories: Onto my desktop, where I can see them and remember to work on them (my holiday present to The Hubby is to inventory every single blinking thing in the house, for insurance).
o Vacation stuff: Back into the "Vacation" cabinet, from whence it slithered out, I don't know how.
o CDs and cell phones: Into the "Donate" box.
All that was left--and made sense to store in the cabinet--was the box and instructions to my current phone and a 3-hole punch.
That.
Is.
It.
So here's what the shelf looked like after:
Remember, I'm taking a pass--for now--on the lower shelf, filled with photos waiting to be framed.
I also unearthed three storage things that I wasn't really using. The magazine holder, I realized, gives me the creeps because it is made of unfinished, raw wood. Every time I touch it, I shudder. I hate the feel of it. So it will go into the "Donate" box, too:
VERY nice! Its such a great feeling to be "busted" from one's clutter! (I'm working on the same, but my results are slower and less dramatic....*sigh*)
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