My great fall clean up

Well, Stink Eye Sister went and messed up all my grand plans. I was all set to hire her as my assistant, and she went and got another “real” job.

WHAT-ev.

Seriously, would you rather be at my beck and call, helping my clean my house, work on house projects and running my errands, or would you rather have a cushy, well-paying desk job??

WHAT-ev. I KNOW. I would totally pick the cushy job too. But I am SO much more fun!!

Grumble.

;)

Anyhoo – she starts her new job soon, so I have taken her prisoner offered her money if she would spend her last days of freedom helping me get our house in order…for once and all.

Like everyone, when January comes around every year, I’m on a mission to to declutter and clean our whole house. I started off with a bang – earlier this year, I took three (SUV!) car loads to a local shelter.

I’ve kept going here and there throughout the year decluttering, but then something happened that quite literally changed my life.

We lost my father-in-law a couple of months ago, and the process of going through his home completely changed me. We were so overwhelmed in our mourning, but at the same time, we have had to address a house full of memories, a lifetime of things. For the past few weeks, I’ve focused on decluttering with a new outlook.

All I’ve been able to think of while in the process is how I don’t want my stepdaughter and our son to have to do go through all of the STUFF in our house when we’re gone one day. I picture them in our home, and I think about their grief, and I know the very last thing they’ll want to be burdened with is our STUFF.

Like I said, it’s changed my life. I haven’t shopped at a Goodwill for more than two months. I shop completely differently now. And it has been so much easier to let go of the things we don’t need.

You all know how much I love STUFF. I just don’t want the stuff we don’t need, use or treasure to weigh down our lives.

(And yes, God willing, it will be a LONG time before our children would have to go through our home, but that thought is still stuck in my head and it’s never leaving.)

So…with an extra set of hands for two weeks, I came up with a plan. I wanted to tackle the problem areas of our home that are kind of bigger than life – and use the help while I had it.

First up was our pit of despair ummmm…garage.

I showed you how it looked last year after I decluttered:

Pretty darn good huh?

Uhhhhh. Let’s just say it was back to this:

OK, not quite that bad, but pretty bad. Like, four carloads to Goodwill and three large garbage bins FULL -- bad.

UNREAL.

HOW in the WORLD do we accumulate so much CRAP??? It is blowing my mind.

We’re thisclose to being done with this project, and I can’t wait to show you. It will never cease to amaze me how a decluttered space seems to make our whole life go smoother. I love it.

My plan for next week is to address our deck. It was so smokin’ hot this summer, it was insane. We spent so little time out there, which really bummed me out because we so enjoyed it so last summer when we made it into this beautiful space:

Gorgeous, eh?

Well, now it looks like this:

Wha wa wa wa…wha wa wa wa wa wa waaaa…

Sing it with me!

HA! Lemme just tell you -- our neighbors LOVE US.

And oh yes, I will show you the before pictures. I’m not suffering through this alone. :)

And finally…if there’s time…I will submit my sister to the messiest space of all -- our master closet.

It’s so bad I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture to show you.

THAT BAD.

It’s so bad that when I searched “messy closets” online, I couldn’t even find a picture of a closet that was messy enough to even compare it to.

Ohhh…you think I’m kidding. Bless your hearts.

You will see. After I’m done of course. :)

So that’s my plan for the Great Fall Clean Up at the TDC house.

I only have one more week of my sis’s help. I’m under the gun. But I am determined to get our WHOLE house under control before the holidays hit. And this time, they will stay that way – I have absolutely no doubt in my mind.

And just so you don’t think I’ve completely lost my organizing mojo, our linen closets still look like this:

And the space under my bathroom sink still looks like this:

So BOO to the YAH. I still go it. :)

Is there a space that is putting you over the edge? Have you been avoiding it all year? Can you walk into your closet to get dressed every morning without risking your life?

 

**Putting Sister to Work Disclaimer**

At no time has Stink Eye been subjected to poor work conditions or held against her will. She has been fed well with McDonald’s fries and other drive through goodness. She is also being paid handsomely for her time by TDC and Mr. TDC.

No sister’s have been harmed in the decrapifying of my house.

 

Thank you to this week’s sponsor!: