Freedom from Junk 2016 Day 5

We find ourselves at the end of the first week of our February clean-out all our junk challenge, and it has been very successful!  Kyle and I worked together to clean out the first two trouble areas in our house that are always cluttered and junked out, because we are both guilty of junking those places out!  We had fun discussing which pile certain things belonged in, whether it be trash or a treasure... and it is amazing how different perspectives can be on that sort of thing!  So really it was a relationship-building exercise, because we learned some more about each other's preferences and ideas about what is junk and what is precious.

The third area was really all my responsibility, because my clothes are a major clutter issue in our bedroom and closet... but mostly the bedroom.  See, those stereotypes about how messy men are and how tidy women are... I don't find we are consistent with those ideas.  Kyle is usually more tidy than I am, and in the area of our clothes, he wins every time!  Now, the funny thing is, I actually put his clothes away for him sometimes and I usually am always the one who folds them for him.  He wants things folded or rolled a particular way, and while I think it is silly, I happily oblige him.  I mean, how mean would it be if he likes his boxers rolled for me just to throw them into the drawer the way I do my undergarments?!  I couldn't care less, but I know he really does care - A LOT!

These are obviously Kyle's clothes, and this is usually how his closet and drawers look.

One of our major problems is that we are both perfectionists; if you know a perfectionist, then you are probably confused by how imperfect many things are in his or her life.  The reason for this is probably that if a perfectionist knows they don't have time or energy to do something perfectly, then they won't even begin.  This becomes problematic in our home since we are both this way.  For example, yesterday I put a pile of Kyle's clean laundry on the bed near Kyle's dresser, when he saw it last night we were tired and ready to go to sleep... so he just picked up the pile and dropped it in the floor in front of his dresser.  While I was a little annoyed, I also understand.  This is also the reason I usually have a pile of hang-up clothes on top of my hope chest.  Another problem in our home, specific to putting our laundry away, is that I usually fold laundry during the kids' nap time... I also babysit a little girl a few hours each afternoon, and she sleeps in my bedroom.  I have tried to sneak in there before to put things away, and she has woken each time.  So usually it just ends up being a pile on top of the dresser or the bed.

Now, I know these are excuses, not even really good ones.  But in the midst of day-in and day-out living, these small excuses become real reasons that some things just don't get put away.  And then they pile up, and pile up... until I rifle through it to wear it.

Kyle and I are both "OCD" (not like the real diagnosed kind though), but about different things.  I need colors to match, pictures to hang straight on the wall, and decor to be appropriate to the season we are in.  Kyle cares more about things that are in storage, usually.  He will go to put something up in the garage and be gone for an hour, because he needs everything to have a correct storage container, and it all has to be packed into the container to maximize the space.  To me, if it doesn't show, then shoving is an acceptable method... I KNOW this drives him crazy.  Just like it drives me crazy that he disappears anytime he goes to put one thing away.

Isn't marriage hilarious?!  I mean, really.  The fact that we still think the other is awesome and attractive after all the little things that bug us, is really a miracle!

So I knew I needed to go through my clothes sometime this week.  Once we de-cluttered the first two problem areas, we realized that getting rid of 500 things was going to be WAY too easy.  So a friend commented on Facebook that I should just make the areas the weekly goal.  So, 12 areas in 4 weeks = 3 areas per week, right?  Yay, I can do simple division!

So we had already cleaned off our kitchen counter and our entryway closet.  To read that post, go to http://livingonvicariousgrace.blogspot.com/2016/02/freedom-from-junk-2016-day-1.html

Tuesday night we wanted to take the day off since we had done so well on Monday.  Then Wednesday is already crazy, because I work in the morning, spend all afternoon baking, and then we go to church.  Then Thursday was Bible study night, and Kyle had a meeting that evening out of town anyway.  Then I was up sick all night Thursday night, so I spent all morning on Friday sleeping.

So Friday afternoon, after the little girl I babysit went home, I knew I had to get started on cleaning out my clothes.  I had clothes on my dresser, on my hope chest, every dresser drawer was full, and there were a lot of empty hangers on my side of the closet!  Ugh...

This was BEFORE I had put away the huge pile on top of the hope chest or the smaller pile on top of the dresser... and I have more clothes in the laundry downstairs... so it is good I got rid of some of this to make room for what I actually wear!  I also don't fold things in my dresser.  Shoving is my method!

It didn't take as long as I thought it would, and by dinner time I had finished throwing out things with holes or snags, put the give away/sell items in that box, and hung or put into the appropriate drawer for all other items I was keeping!

I'd like to say it will stay this way... but I just know myself.  I hate hanging clothes up, and I hate folding things.  Maybe it is from working retail at American Eagle all those years in college?  I don't know.  I do know that it was annoying that we closed at 9, but were often still there at 11pm, folding clothes in certain mandated ways that made the clothes "look alive".  I'm not even joking... we had to fold pants in a way that made them look like they were climbing or hiking... sheesh.  But the idea of being able to find certain clothing items in a short amount of time because it would be in its place, instead of looking through 3 piles, does sound convenient and calming!  Sometimes it just stinks that my mom doesn't live here... because I know she'd yell at me to put it all away!  Why doesn't my husband ever yell at me?!  What a considerate jerk, hahaha!

I also bought a scarf organizer!  I kind of love scarves, and I didn't realize how many I had collected!  I think I should probably buy a second organizer, because this one seems a little crowded!

Yeah, the shape of the scarf-organizer is a flower... but I have so many hanging on it, you can't even tell!  You can only see a little of the pink flower frame in the upper left "corner" of the organizer... definitely more functional than shoving them in a drawer or just piling them on top of my dresser, but it isn't as pretty as I had hoped!

So one week and 3 cluttered areas down, 3 weeks and 9 areas to go!