Organizing Stuff For People.

I've been following this blog series the entire month of October:

I have found her posts to be encouraging and easy to follow--and I've actually been DOING THEM! Her initial post in the series is what got me hooked. I know I need to organize our stuff. I know I need to purge our  stuff. Blah blah blah. But her first post got me hooked--she made a comment that, "When we clear out stuff, we make room for people."

Kind of an Oprah "ah-ha" moment for me. 

Our stuff takes up valuable PEOPLE ROOM, peeps. Duh.

 I've really taken this idea to heart. I've cleaned out kitchen cupboards (tackling only ONE per day). I cleaned out our master closet. I cleaned out drawers. I purged kids clothes. I sorted toys. I organized the office paperwork. The Halloween decorations I didn't put out this year will be donated. Little things like that.  Am I finished? No way. Life gets in the way of clearing out stuff, and I'm okay with that. 

Here's one of my small projects I completed. It's a cupboard in my kitchen; the counter below it is used as a diaper changing station. We've left the diaper "stuff" sitting out for years and it drives.me.batty.  I've never actually cleaned out this particular cupboard. Never. Once. In 11 years. (scary, yes!) Here's the before of this cupboard:

It's a very tall cupboard; I'm 5'11" and I need a chair to reach the top. Needless to say, there were lots of surprises in it when I cleaned it out. It's not TOO messy, but it's basically just a junk holder. Stuff is everywhere. Stuff falls out when you look for other stuff. I'm ashamed to show it to you!

The cupboard door on the left holds 2 emergency doses of Benadryl for Bryce. (click here to learn about Bryce's Food Allergies)This has been one of my more clever ideas-Benadryl is right by the phone and right above our short list of emergency numbers. I didn't take a photo of those, but they are on an index card below the Benadryl. 

The right cupboard door holds our calendar. I do use a Google calendar, but I really like having a paper calendar for everyone to access. I hang it with one of those Command hooks (love those!) and I use a clip to keep schedules for soccer, confirmation, preschool, etc right where I need them. That's pretty organized of me!

But let's go back to the mess. Sure, my doors functioned, but the cabinet itself does not. I emptied it with the help of my oldest and wiped down all the shelves. Then I sorted everything into categories and purged away. I found pieces to games we lost and rolls of tape and all sorts of treasure! Amazing. 

Here's the after:

I have an EMPTY SHELF people. AN EMPTY SHELF. I amaze even myself!

 The bottom shelf of the cabinet holds diaper supplies and in that little basket--Epi-Pens for my 2 allergic kiddos.

 Batteries are located on the bottom shelf so Brett can reach them. They're even labelled! The second shelf has my cookbooks, a basket with undies (for my potty-training Bryce!) and a plastic basket for camera stuff. The white box holds tape and *some* misc things that we need to access, but don't require their own basket. The top shelf has a plastic basket with our dog items. While we don't have a dog right now, we will eventually, and it doesn't make sense to donate grooming supplies and leashes! Next to that is Brendan's You Be The Chemist study guides. It will eventually get it's own home in the office. 

Not too shabby. It's been organized for about 2 weeks and I have to say that it's user-friendly and labelling things has really helped. I've cleaned and purged before--check out when I organized my pantry and when the kids and I cleaned the playroom.  But this round of organizing and purging feels a little different, mostly because I have a purpose to get rid of stuff. 

I get rid of stuff to make room for people. 

Update for 2012--Follow along with me & work towards a Minimalist Lifestyle!!