If this house is missing one thing, it’s closet space. Three small bedroom closets, one linen closet in the stairwell, and an odd space built into the wall behind the fireplace does not sufficient storage space make. I’m constantly walking the tightrope that is buying more stuff and discarding/donating items just to keep myself from tipping too far into a black hole of useless stuff, but lately I’m feeling like I did during the years that I lived in small apartments: I can’t buy another thing.
The odd small cabinet that I keep my decor crammed into might be pushing me over the edge. That, combined with a chest cold and case of spring fever, meant something had to break. (Side note to Northeastern dwellers: if all goes as planned, yellow crocuses are due to pop in 47 days).
The cabinet, which has two doors, looks like this and vomits on me every time I open it.
This weekend was a big void of Disney on Ice and quinoa chili, but I did get a hankerin’ on Saturday to work on correcting this sloppy decor situation while I had a little spare time to kill. Girl can’t sit still and enjoy last week’s DVR’ed episodes of Live with Kelly, after all.
It was clearly time for some home decor to find another place. New rule: if I haven’t used it in the last year, it gets tossed, given away, or put into a basement-allocated storage bin. And based on the look of things, a lot was due to go.
For real. I had 12 sq. ft. of home decor jammed into that cabinet.
What’s there?
- Lots of glass jars (left behind from Mom’s homemade jelly and sauces, vintage bottles salvaged over the years, even newer glass containers left over from when we polished off a container of olives, pimentos, or hot sauce). I’m rolling my eyes.
- 18 candles and a bottomless bucket of tealights (I collect candles when I find them for pennies at garage sales. At the moment I pushed this post live, I was burning 9 of them simultaneously on the table and I don’t think I’ll need to turn up the thermostat today.)
- 2 roosters (original lamps that I acquired a decade ago, disassembled and painted 3 years ago, and eventually will be inspired to reassemble)
- 4 owls (paired up on two vintage brass bookends)
- Fancy vases
- Not-fancy vases
- Things that I think are vases but never use as vases
- Things that aren’t vases but I use as vases
- Rocks, like, big rocks (Why?)
- Decor plates that I use only when I remember I have them.
- A glass house.
- Picture frames.
- Shells, sea glass, sands from vacations that were meaningful at the time, now not.
- Dried crap (Why did I think I’d ever display dried grains and berries again sometime in the future? Gross, trash.)
With quick decision-making prowess and an empty box, 1/3 of it went straight to storage in the basement, and the other 2/3 received a pretty re-org in the same cabinet, on the same shelves. No sense reinventing the shelf quite yet, I need to learn to hoard less.
Tall bottles at the top. Medium containers in the middle (the rocks and such, which will likely find a home back at the beach in the spring). And extra jars and bud vases tucked at the bottom. So neat and tidy. And I can actually see everything I care about. The wooden table centerpiece that’s resting along the right fits better when not cluttered by paperwork and scrap pieces of plexiglass (who knows). Sure, wedged vertically isn’t ideal when it’s not in use, but balanced as it is now, it’s not fighting for air or struggling to stay upright.
Still, the rule applied and if we don’t use this stuff within the year, more will be going to storage. I better grow a lot of flowers this summer.
From the other entry point, I stacked the candles neatly to avoid having to dig for them in the future. Color array, on display, hip-hip-hurray.
Side note: That big chunker at the top shelf is part of a branch from my parents house. The had a rope on the branch when I was little, and over the years, the tree grew around it. When the branch came down, my Dad saved me the part with the rope embedded and I’ve had it for 10 years waiting for the perfect project. Anything in mind (besides drilling holes into it and using it to hold pencils) let me know.
What junk have you cleaned out, spring-feverites?
12 Comments
What about using your branch as a door stopper or paper weight? Then it will catch guests eye and they will ask about it and you get to share the special memory.
Good ideas – I’m not sure it’s heavy enough to hold any door, but maybe would serve as a good bookend.
Ahh yes – the decor stash. I just tackled the sorting out of my own pile of decor clutter! It’s just the right time of year for getting rid of stuff. Btw, your baseboard project really inspired me to 1) consider learning how to use a router (!?) and 2) start redoing the baseboards on our main level. I’m still pondering, but you definitely provided some inspiration that it’s not that difficult after all :)
Katie
Hey Katie! Total spring fever over here. The baseboard was a great wintertime project since I had room to route and cut in the basement. It’s 100% possible, start in a closet or something to get a feel for it. Glad to have put the inspiration in your head!
It must have been that kind of day yesterday! I did the same thing – sadly, just with my refrigerator. Now it’s making me itch to do everything else though…
I noticed you write about your escapades – four containers of applesauce? That is the kind of thing I always find hidden on the back shelf, usually half-empty and covered in mold. (We just finished a 2-week-no-grocery-shopping adventure ourselves, although it wasn’t intentional, we just got busy; all that resulted is me being tired of mac and cheese and cous cous.)
Awesome! Motivating post!
Why not use the wood as a base for a hurricane lamp? You could rout (sp?) out space for candle and chimeny – you can buy the glass hurricane chimneys cheap in a number of places and voila!
Great idea, Colleen!
So, I first of all have to say I am super jealous that you’re already getting ‘spring fever’ and getting ready for flowers. At home in Edmonton Canada we are in the middle of an alarmingly mild winter, but it is definitely still winter (I know it’s still winter because my dogs’ water bowl is frozen every morning).
Back to the point of your story – organizing/ re-organizing… I was inspired and managed to assemble my new spice rack (an Ikea one) for our newly renovated kitchen. I also mounted the rail from which it now hangs, too. Baby steps, right?!
Doneen
The crocuses in Edmonton couldn’t be too far behind! Spice rack org is definitely a rewarding step; I need to tackle that myself someday. Our spices are dumped in a basket in our cabinet right now… not especially efficient.
Do the rope holes go all the way through? If so you could string rope through there again and hang in from the ceiling for a hanging shelf, though I’m not sure how much it would hold.
I’m not sure how much it would hold either. It’s only about the size of my calf around, and solid wood (the rope is just embedded in the outer few rings of wood. Good idea though, thanks Sarah!