COLUMN: The things I found on my closet floor and how I got rid of them.

  • Melissa Herrera (COLUMN)
  • October 1, 2012
  • 414
                        
Column summary: When you start to feel overwhelmed with the "things" in your house, just start purging. You never know what you will find on your closet floor - you just might find yourself! Last week on one of my days off I decided to clean out my bedroom. When I say clean out, I don’t mean just clean – I’m not really a wall washer, if you will? My aim all year has been one of simplification and streamlining, so I put my head down and armor on. The targets of this massive operation were these areas: the closet, what’s hanging in my closet, and the drawers of my dresser. My closet floor holds interesting things. When my hubby built me this closet it was the biggest one I had ever had. Narrow, but deep, he installed wire shelving to hold folded clothes along with hanging ones. Over time, those wire shelves just didn’t do the trick anymore. Ever the crafty one, we took existing pieces like a skinny, tall TV stand, a dresser, and another piece that lent itself to the space. He installed them in the closet, with a bar in-between to hang clothes on. I really had wanted to paint them before installation, but that never happened, so they have stayed as they are. On my side, there is a big space in back where I have old iron hooks to hang coats, etc., and a small set of shelves that hold my inventory of couponed items. There never seems to be enough room in a small house for storage. Blankets, sheets, random rugs and purses pile up back there like a boss – until I decide to clean it which is about once a year. I tackled this space with a deep breath for courage. It’s interesting what you find. It also makes you realize how much trash gets stashed in a small space that’s not being monitored very well. I ended up with two trash bags of junk that got thrown away – plastic bags full of receipts from last Christmas, a bag full of the plastic and cardboard containers from curtains I bought several months ago, yada yada yada. Why was this stuff in my closet? Why did I save a purse that the faux leather was flaking off in chunks? After I could see the floor, and everything was neatly stashed away once again, I took on the task of going through my clothes. That wasn’t so bad, and my simplify gene took over once again as a pile of castoffs grew larger and larger in a trash bag. My sock drawer was an eye-opener as I realized that I didn’t wear any of the socks in this space. What alien socks were these and why did I have them? What kind of monster foot ever thought of buying them? Black socks with flowers on them, white ones with polka dots that had holes in them. Pitch, pitch, pitch. I ended up with about four socks left in the drawer. Any sock that didn’t have a mate was pitched. SIMPLIFY and TRASH IT became my motto. The only problem now is that I need to go sock shopping. Simplifying your life can be as easy as starting with your closet. That same day I went through my make-up drawer which happens to be in the same vanity as my sock drawer. It’s one of those vanities that you sit at with the big round mirror in front of you. I love sitting at this piece and applying make-up. As I pulled out each little container of eye shadow, tube of mascara, or pencil of eyeliner I realized that we keep things as a way of staying comfortable. Did I really need twenty-seven shades of brown eye shadow? Wouldn’t one or two quads of sable brown do the trick? Did I not see that this make-up was old and outdated? I’m not much of a make-up shopper, so maybe twice a year I might by a couple of new things. But more than that, the fact that I DON’T shop much for make-up woke me up. I had too much of it crammed into one little basket – and I didn’t use half of it. We pile things in the corners of our lives to stay comfortable. I might need that someday, I can’t throw it away! We need to banish the sentence from our lives. We become internally lighter, freer, and able to function the more we streamline our lives from stuff. My bedroom purge was successful and I felt great walking in to that room all weekend. Now, if only I can begin a purge of my huge earring pile. This could be a problem considering I still have all my earrings from high school……help.


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