Project Simplify: Hot Spot #5

Since the beginning of March, Tsh from Simple Mom has been encouraging her readers to participate in a 'simplifying' project, whereby she's challenged us to 'tackle different areas of our homes', in order to both remove clutter and simplify our lives in however small a way.


Over the last five weeks, we have took on our Master Closet, Paper Clutter, Kids Clothes & Toys and Pantry & Fridge, leaving this last week to our own devises in respect to choosing which area to tackle.  Considering the long list of areas which I really need to declutter, I narrowed it down to the main bookshelf in my bedroom.

Before

I am a self-confessed hoarder and have found it difficult to part with 'things' in the past however, since finding Tsh's blog and reading the posts, I have become more malleable in respect to considering whether or not I really need to keep an item - or whether someone else may be able to use it better than I do, especially when it has just been 'sitting there' for more than a few years.

My bookshelf seemed to be the a main collection point in my bedroom as you can see ...

The bottom shelf was piled high, the drawer chock-a-block full, and with all that weight on the shelf, I had to jerk the draw in order to get it to close!  Also, since I hadn't attacked it properly for almost three years (during my 'nesting' phase!) apart from the occasional dusting, it definitely would not have passed a 'white glove' inspection!

After

Well ... after quite a few hours, a few uplifting music cds and quite a few glasses of Pepsi Max, I have successfully de-cluttered and simplified my bookshelf, leaving it looking FABULOUS!!!  

I almost can't believe this is my bookshelf!!!!  In my life I have NEVER been able to purge this much stuff - this many books!!!

I have one whole Huggies Nappies box + one QBD plastic shopping bag chock-a-block full of stuff to go to the Op shop.

I also got rid of two plastic bags worth of rubbish, or things that really couldn't be passed on, eg., workbooks or journals partially filled out in years past.

I even organised my books a lot more efficiently - at least for me.

Christian books sit on the top shelf -primarily non-fiction titles, though some Christian fiction titles made the cut.

The second shelf holds titles on such topics as:

• "activities to do with children" 
• "craft titles"
• "motherhood and being-a-woman advice titles"
• "fiction and inspirational titles"
• "good food and recipe books", and finally
• various titles which don't fit anywhere else.

The last shelf holds my Harry Potter books, classical music collection, further inspirational titles and my youth Bible.

The drawer is also a LOT less cluttered and more organised than before.  I actually purged half a plastic bag of medicines which were all out of date, some dating back to 2008!!  

The cupboard below has also been purged and is almost as unobstructed as the third shelf above.

It is amazing how good I feel now that this bookshelf is no longer dis-organised and confused.  I still have to drop off the items to the op shop - my car has been out of commission since end of Feb - but I know that once I get through the difficulty of handing over the items, I will feel even more cleansed!

Previous Hot-Spots

Although I didn't get through the weeks' dedicated to the Master closet and Pantry/Fridge, I was able to tackle my second closet which houses my daughter's clothes and my desks in the lounge where the majority of my paper clutter collects.

I didn't get a before photo of the closet, but if you can imagine this space (almost 60 x 140cms in size) chock-a-block full then you can get an idea of how tight it got in this area.

I could barely get my daughter's clothes in there to hang them up, let alone getting into anything that was in there.  The laundry hamper (woven hamper in the bottom left) was previously sitting outside the closet, as space prevented it to be hidden inside.  One of the major purges was my bags collection, which now fits in the black & white bag and the top clear box - 4 went to my daughter's dress-up collection, 2 went to my fabric stash to repurpose, and 11 bags are headed to the op shop.

The second area I really got stuck into was my desk area in the lounge-room where I do my university studies, watch dvds and do my crafts.  The first two images show the 'before', while the last shows my nicely clean and clear 'after' table space.

To finish off this, rather large, post I want to thank Tsh for her timing in promoting and directing this mass de-cluttering project.  Your words have inspired me to continue this simplification throughout all areas of my physical world.

** To see other participants' efforts this week click here.