One thing I love about our house is the shelves Steve built into our laundry room shortly after we moved in.
But the only problem with extra shelves and extra space? They tend to get a little overstuffed, a little overwhelmed, a LOT disorganized.
I try to keep most things in my life fairly well ordered, but over the past few weeks we’ve had some extra social events at our home and I’ve done a lot of haphazard hurrying and scurrying around to find paper products, decorations, and miscellaneous hostessing items for said events.
As much as it pains me to reveal such a dismayingly disorganized part of my life to you, here is what our laundry room looked like last week.
Scary, isn’t it?
Every time I walked into the room to do laundry, I’d squinch up my eyes so that I wouldn’t see the mess. After after a while, however, the squinching wasn’t working for me and I figured the time had come to stop unsquinching and start organizing.
And so I did.
The first revelation I had when I launched into said project was that it really wasn’t necessary to keep over a dozen empty yogurt containers in my laundry room. I was saving them because they make good soup containers when I cook for church/community families needing a meal but I hadn’t realized how many I’d acquired.
I retrieved four from this stack and merrily sent the remainder to recycling.
I then made a trail of junk . . .
. . . across the entry way.
and spent some further time paring down, weeding out, restacking and refolding.
And when I was done? I had this view as my reward.
A couple before and after shots . . .
You know what really amazed me about the job? I kept putting it off and putting it off because I thought it would take up a whole morning or a whole afternoon. But I ended up getting the whole thing done in about half an hour. That’s it. Thirty little ol’ measly minutes!
And now every time I do a load of laundry, my eyes remain unsquinched and my organizing heart is extra happy.
A great pay off–unsquinching and happiness.
What about you? Do you have a job you’ve been putting off and dreading? You might be amazed at how much you can accomplish on it in thirty minutes.
Plus? You’ll get to unsquinch!
Over the past couple days, $125 has come in for Julia which is absolutely amazing! Other readers will be sending gift cards, care packages, books, toys, etc.
I am still amazed that you all would pour out such generosity on a complete stranger. Thank you for making a difference!
My daughter and I have an area where our knitting stuff goes. It had been a disaster for a while. The other evening, we decided to clean it out, and straighten things up. I thought it would take forever but like your laundry area, it didn’t. So glad I did it!
Nicole,
And isn’t it the BEST feeling to get a job like that done? Every time you walk into the room, you feel happy! 🙂
made me laugh seeing your mess, knowing how you always seem to be organizing all your spaces. i won’t admit to any messes in my house in case the crew from Hoarders show up.
Mrs. Pam,
I think we’ve ALL got a space (or two) in our homes that Hoarders would love to take a look at!
Its amazing what organizing a room can do. I’m always pleasantly surprised by how much better I feel after tackling an organizing project. We moved 6 months ago and there are still areas I need to get to.
Jenna,
You’re absolutely right–tackling huge projects is great therapy and a great mood booster. Nothing quite like that feeling of accomplishment!
My mother always told me to spend 15 minutes a week on organizing closets. It really works!!!! My closets, shelves, etc are always organized….even when all my 5 kids were living at home.
Anonymous,
That is great advice and it’s even greater that you TOOK that advice and incorporated it into your regular schedule. My hat is off to you having 5 kids and keeping closets and shelves organized!
Your laundry room looks great. My bedroom looks like your room did before you organized it. We moved beds around and other stuff around and everything extra got tossed in my bedroom…Yikes! I MUST get to it this long weekend we get off, yay, for holidays 🙂
Wendy,
Just think how lovely it will be to go back to work on Tuesday with your bedroom whipped back into shape! Enjoy your holiday and get some rest in to go along with the organizing!
After 30 years of marriage, and in the same house, I have so much stuff. It’s hard for us to throw things away, which makes it worse. Your laundry room looks great. I think I’m inspired to start with a small room and then work my way around the house. That way I can have little bits of success as I go.
Kim,
You have hit upon one of the great secrets of organizing–start with a small area and go from there. It really is true that getting just one area straight inspires you to keep going. Enjoy your success along the way!
I’m bracing myself for the upcoming three-day weekend, wherein I hope to accomplish a lot of decluttering and reorganizing and cleaning and throwing away. We FINALLY have decent weather up here (seriously. it snowed last Saturday, and the official breakup of the Tanana River was the latest in the historical record), with temps in the 60s. Things have been piling up all winter, and I am all kinds of ready to open up the windows for some fresh air, break out the Clorox wipes, and restructure my life!
Kristina,
Ahhh. The thought of crisp Alaskan air mingled with the fresh scent of Clorox? That smell is going to make you all kinds of happy. 🙂 Enjoy!
Your laundry room looks wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Being a garage sale, thrift store and auction junkie, clutter-itis just seems to grow naturally around here. To help keep it under control, the rule is for everything that comes into the house an equal amount must be donated to the church thrift store. Easier said than done for I must admit that I struggle with my favorite— cookbooks— as they each have a story to tell.
Have a great day!!
Judy,
I hear you on the cookbook challenge. I LOVE cookbooks and, as you said, some of them are old friends with many tales to tell. I try not to buy any new ones (well, actually, any thrift store ones) but they are always a temptation.
As always, another wonderful blog and photos from Becky! 🙂
When I undertook that job a few years ago with my “junk” (tools, batteries, etc), I got some plastic trays like the blue one on your shelf… which creates kind of a “drawer” on your shelf – which slides out like a drawer. Since my downfall is “putting things back where they belong” – I labeled the “drawers” – “electric drill”, “small tools”, “electrical parts”, etc. – so, IN THEORY, the items go back “where they belong.”
Note: If you should discuss this with Miss Lucy, she will probably want to clarify just WHO IT IS that puts the items back where they belong! 😉 ~ Fred
Fred,
I really love those drawers as opposed to just storage boxes because they are so much easier to access, especially when other things are stored on top of them.
And labeling those drawers makes them all the better–sounds like you’ve got your organization down to a science. (And we just won’t talk about who puts the stuff away!) 🙂
WOW! You should start an unsquinching and organizing business! =)
And I actually tackled my unsquinching and organizing room, yes ROOM, about 3 weeks ago. You see, when I moved to ND from ID 3 years ago, I left a lot of my things in storage there. Well, I was finally able to get them to ND, but I knew most of those things would need to go in my spare bedroom…but it was a mess! So…after putting it off for awhile…OK, a year (!) I finally got it de-cluttered and was able to put the bed, dresser and other boxes in that room. Unfortunately, it is not that way right now. I have boxes of garage sale items all around in there. So, as soon as the garage sale happens, it will be unsquinched and organized once and for all!!
Kristina,
Garage sales are wonderful assets in the quest for unsquinching and organizing. Glad to hear you have one in your future! After that is over and the excess stuff is gone, organizing what remains should be a breeze. I know you’ll be happy to get finally settled in and put everything where it belongs.