Day Six of the 500 Pound Declutter - The Beast

I had dinner (well, I got there late due to kid and work schedule juggling, when they were ordering dessert, so I had French Fries) with some women from work tonight.  I was sitting next to my friend, Andrea and we got talking about home projects and my decluttering.  And she commented that she never thought of me as one of those people who had "those areas."


And really, hell, I don't like to think of myself like that either.  I have become a master stuffer, a great hider, and a pretty good "manage the places that matter" person.  But as I have gone through this process I have been able to recognize my weak spots (and to be fair, those of my family, too).


Thus far, I have tackled some of the spots that drive me the most crazy...kitchen, bedroom...  But there is one particular area that has absolutely been putting me over the edge.  Let's face it, it probably drives most of us over the edge.  But ever since Brian began the process of opening his business and I started being home with the kids solo more and more, it has gotten worse and worse.


The storage/laundry room.  I can't quite believe I am about to share these photos.  But it's all about accountability at this point.  I'll preface it by saying this is a multi-night job.  So I will tackle it bit by bit.  But I started tonight.

Overwhelming, yes.  So I decided to start small and begin by attacking the luggage shelves.

We love to travel.  That said, since having, one, then two, then three kids, our travel has certainly been limited it not changed all together.  I laughed as I sorted through stuff and found my European voltage nebulizer that had to be bought during an emergency asthma attack when I was in college (and we discovered at just the wrong moment that our converter didn't convert at the right frequency for a medical device).  Ah, to be in Europe, having an asthma attack.

I also found my very heavy laptop bag I got from Arthur Andersen when I worked there.  This was ironic on so many levels.  First, they never gave me a laptop when I worked there, so why I have the bag is beyond me.  Second, clearly, Arthur Andersen is no longer.  Part of the reason I think I have kept the bag.  It's a bit of history.  But am I really going to carry it now?  "Hi I worked for a company that was found to be very unethical and shredding happy and eventually closed, even though I was on maternity leave and had nothing to do with that whole deal..."  Nope probably not.

I also found this beauty.

It, at some point was a "great deal" filled with cheap makeup and so I bought it.  And then it took up half a shelf for two years.  See, I am learning about myself in this process.  Bye bye bag.

Also found this.  On the luggage rack.  Of course.

A flat screen TV mount.  Note how it was priced for a garage sale and didn't sell.  My dad gave this to me along the way.  Not as a gift but as a "here, I don't know why we have this, do you want it?" thing.  And so I have it.  Not that we needed or wanted it either.    On to someone who will...

However, this was my favorite.  Awhile ago, we found an IKEA table we liked as an art desk for the "Boys' Lounge" room upstairs.  However, it didn't offer or match up with any legs in the shorter kid-length that would fit it.  So we bought regular height legs for it and Brian sawed them off.  But digging in, I found the other halves of the legs.  Just in case, I am guessing, we ever wanted to put it back together???

And along I went until I finally finished up this one tiny area and made it look like this:

Better?  Yes.  Perfect?  No.  But hey, it is our storage room.  It's not a regular part of the home tours.

All in all, I ended up with...

Now this one needs a drumroll, it was my biggest weigh in yet...

32 pounds!!!

That brings us to a grand total of 82 pounds gone in just 6 days of cleaning.