Clutter, part one

I began the discarding process, and so far I feel pretty good about it. For starters, touching each piece to determine if the item stays or goes works well for me. I was able to let go of a lot and there were really only a few items that gave me pause*. I took out two bags of trash (e.g., clothes too old and frayed to pass on to another person, clothes with stains that I couldn't see when I viewed them in the closet but became embarrassingly clear in the light of day, old wire hangers, etc.), three bags filled with donations (including quite a few never-been-worn pieces), and one box to send to mom with a couple of jackets for her and a few shirts for my niece. My current thought is that I'll buy another set of drawers to add to our closet system so I can put the remaining pieces (sweatshirts, sweaters, and pants) in drawers, freeing up that space for my crafting supplies (which are stored in half of Hen's closet right now). But even with the stuff on the shelves you can see immediately how much nicer it is than the other side where Darren's shirts, sweaters, and pants are. (He's not interested in discarding so the best I can do there is folding and straightening, which will still be an improvement.)

I freed up shelf space to put away my sleeping bag. (Yay!) My scarves are folded and placed in a box for easy selecting and retrieval. (Yay!) My sock drawer is super organized. (Yay!) And I have extra space where I was able to place a photograph I took of a snail. (Yay! Snail!)

I don't know if I should go through the whole process with my stuff first or go through one category with everyone before moving on. Either way, the next thing after clothing is books. I expect this to be very hard for me. I love books. I love being surrounded by books. I love all of Hen's books, particularly his picture book collection. This'll be an all-day affair. At least any of the books that do end up in the Go pile will help Hen's class next year when the Used Book Sale madness starts.


*My favorite sweater of all time, which I'm getting rid of. My wedding dress, which I kept. And my unmentionables from my pre-Henry days, which I'm also keeping.