In Order to De-Clutter My Closet.........I'm Going to Need a GPS!!

I have come to the realization that Rick and I have too many clothes. (In reality we have too much of everything, but for now we will start with the clothes.) This conclusion came to me after I had read several magazine articles, whilst standing in line at Kroger, about de-cluttering your closet. I had also been thinking about the countless number of “pins” I have compiled on my Pinterest board, “Organize My Life, Please!” I needed to do something with those “pins”. I needed to do something about our master bedroom walk-in closet. So, I decided right there in the Kroger store, that I was going to get that closet de-cluttered and organized in a "pinteresting" way.

Okay, after standing in the Kroger checkout line for 30 minutes and quickly reading “13 Ways to De-clutter Your Closet “, “How to De-clutter Your Closet in 8 Simple Steps”, and “Minimalism: 3 Ways to De-clutter Your Closet”, I decided I had THE master of all plans. I would combine all of these articles into one big “how-to” plan. I would have 24 ways to de-clutter our closet, and if I divided that by the 3 closets that we use, that would round out to 8 ways per closet. It sounded doable, and I was desperate. I have tried everything to get that closet under control. I separated everything by season; I put good but "not needed now" clothes in tubs; I put my shoes in plastic tubs and took pictures of them and taped the pictures to the ends of the boxes so I know what pair is inside the box (I will admit…. that was cool), but 112 pairs of shoes? Holy Cow! AND they are all mine. Rick has maybe 8 – 10 pair of shoes, and he’s happy with that. How?  Oh dear lord I am the one out of control. I have even tried the trick of turning my clothes hangers backward for 6 months. According to an article I once read, you hang all of your clothes on hangers and hook the hangers backwards on the hanging bar. The clothes on the hangers that are still turned backward after 6 months will be donated to the No-Kill Animal Shelter Thrift Store. The clothes on the hangers that are hooked forwards are the ones that you wear and you get to keep. The only problem with that little trick was …..my OCD wouldn’t let me leave them flipped in different directions! That didn’t even last a NIGHT!!  

So, I kept reading and making lists of what to do. According to ALL of the articles I read, the first step to De-cluttering was to remove EVERYTHING from the closet. So, I thought….”where do I put it when I remove it?” Oh, I know….the living room. We don’t use the living room anyway. I mean, we only use it at Christmas time and that is still 6 months away. Surely I can get this back together in 6 months. Besides, we spend the majority of our evening time in the computer/TV room. So, I started hauling EVERYTHING downstairs from the large walk-in closet in our bedroom. I also removed all of the extra-long, extra-large tubs of clothes from the closet and the tubs of clothes stacked up along one long wall in our bedroom. Did I mention that our master bedroom is 15 feet wide and 25 feet long? Now that’s a LOT of wall! And a LOT of tubs. By the time I dragged the 11^th tub of clothes down the stairs and into the living room, I realized that I had run out of space in the living room. Both of the couches and the 2 Queen Anne chairs were completely covered in clothes from the closet shelves. The tubs were placed and stacked wherever I could put them…. Or as my mama would say, “they were put just willy-nilly in the room”. Not only did I cover the furniture, I covered the coffee table, end tables, sewing machine, antique buffet, and hutch.

Oh Lord, what have I done? I went right back to those articles that I had bookmarked because I MUST have skimmed through the part in them that told me when the closet fairies would come put it all back together. I think I figured out from re-reading the articles, that the real goal in de-cluttering was to make a person sooooo exhausted from moving everything out, that they just give it all away and start over. This was NOT an option for me. Hey, I have decades of clothing in those tubs (hmmm, maybe I should sort according to decade). Well, I know that only I can make this change…. I am strong, I am smart, and I am fully capable of organizing this stupid closet (or so I told myself this mantra over and over trying to get me to believe it).  Did I mention that I am also having foot surgery on Tuesday, June 30^th, so it really is crunch time. I won’t be able to go up and down 11 steps multiple times, and there won't be any hauling of extra-large tubs back up the stairs. I am determined to get it done in the next 2 - 8 days - give or take a few when I am "drugged-up" and not caring about my new Living Room closet - which means Rick Nelson will be hauling stuff back upstairs to the closet - which means I have to do it all over again when I am all well. Oh no, that is just NOT going to happen. This is going to be a one time deal. 

     I’m going in folks….. I have a snack and my cell phone with me (in case I have to GPS my way back out). Wish me luck.

*** By the way, I did NOT move the shoes. They are perfectly happy where they are. ***