14 B 14 - Everything in its place

#3 Everything In Its Place

What: get organized, make a plan to stay organized and get my life in order. really really learn how to manage the onslaught of clutter

Why: I'm noticing how interconnected all of my 14 goals are. Holding onto skinny clothes (of which I had an entire closet devoted) clutters my life which leads to stress and anxiety because of the clutter and shame that I can't keep a clean house.

Last year my mom saved me an article from Good Housekeeping. It wasn't a ten tips for a more organized life, or 50 ordinary household items used to create an organized pantry. Those are great articles and pins but lets face it unless a professional comes in and figures out my pantry it is going to be a constant mess. This article, Everything in Place, had 3 tips - an ah ha! moment for me.

Like I said, this issue is connected to so much of my dissatisfaction in life. I woke up one Saturday last month and shook David awake and said: "We are taking the closet doors off today."

I have hated our closet doors from day one in this house. They were so heavy I have to use a shoulder shove to push them open. In a marital compromise we decided to leave them in the middle of the closet so neither one of us has to heave them open. This solved that problem but left us both with just a tiny opening to reach any of our clothes and rendered the center most 2.5 feet of the closet a black hole.

Easy solution is to just take the dang doors down. Yes. I guess 50 years ago sliding closet doors weren't going anywhere and to get them down we'd have to take off the door jam and risk damaging sheetrock. Three years is all it takes to say to hell with the sheetrock, I need a closet!

And so they went.

Yes. That is unedited - and see the giant mound of crap in the floor that comes up to dp's knee? That is real life. (in this real life moment, dp does home improvement work in pjs and flip flops)

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT.

our room feels bigger

our closet doubled in size and in visibility

we finally got the dirty clothes hamper into the closet

we have a closet floor

it is phenomenally easy to get ready in the morning

and it has stayed this way for about a month!

On the same day as the closet door removal, big day, I did this.

That would be The Skinny Clothes. I don't know this picture doesn't do the 3 ft tall pile any justice. It was a lot of clothes. And it was hard. But I had to let go.

I still have a few things I just couldn't get rid of yet, and I'm allowing myself those things until the end of the year.


Neither of those goals are officially achieved but set in motion. Motion is a fantastic feeling.



ps- i weighed the doors. one door weighed 35 lbs. to open our closet i had to move SEVENTY FIVE POUNDS of door. ridiculousness