I Can See the Floor Now!

{week two of Simple Mom's Project Simplify series is emptying a pesky closet}

The closet in our entryway is not frequently used--maybe that's my excuse for jamming everything under the sun in there for the past few months.

The demise of this closet all started with that air purifier--which needs a new filter. It sat behind the sofa for a bit. Then one day I decided to "clean up" and put it in the closet. Fast forward nine months and here we are (and yes, that is a filter on top of it, I don't know why we haven't installed it).

 

As you can also see there are a few lunchboxes, a bag of paper shopping bags, a floral pillow, a bag of books that I was actually looking for, carpet cleaning solution, Bela's too-small rollerskates, and a bag of random cords.

I pulled everything out of the closet and onto the floor of our main living area. Then I started sorting. The bag of books will go to the local bookstore to be sold. The lunchboxes and backpack will be given away. I took the carpet cleaning solution out of the gigantic box. The pillow has been covered with a solid slipcover. The cords still have to be sorted. The paper shopping bags will either be used to carry things out of this house or trashed. 

... And that was just the floor of this closet. The shelf was another story. Loads of purses and cloth bags were constantly dropping on my head. But, the picnic basket was empty. Ergo, a solution! I put all of the small bags and purses inside the basket. Much tidier now!

Floor!!!!

Like any project, this one had its challenges. Mostly because the closet was filled with things that I wasn't ready to part with. Like Bela's preschool roller skates & lunchboxes, or the backpack Griffin used in kindergarten. There were also a few things that could be used someday if only. For example, if only we'd take the books to the bookseller, we could make some extra money. Or, if only we bought a new filter, we could breathe purified air. 

Next up: Piles.