Closet Day 1….and so it starts!

I ordered a tall 4 shelf/wicker cubby the day I moved in (March 3rd), I just put it together tonite (May 1).  I am the queen of procrastinating when I want to, as I have been banging around that huge box in my living room for nearly 2 months.  And just in case that isn’t conclusive enough, I got home at 4:30 and waited till after 8pm to put it together….lol.

Today, I also came to the conclusion over a FB conversation that the only room in my new/old little house that I absolutely hate is my bed/bath/closet combo.  My Mom pointed out to me that in my last house my Master En Suite was my sanctuary, and huge, ridiculously so honestly.  And that’s why this area bothered me so much.  She’s probably right, she usually is…lol.

So in building my little shelf cubbies thing, I also started the re-organizing of the closet.  Sorry I didn’t take a before pic (at it’s worst) but I did get a better layout to work.  I am not sure I could have gotten one pic of the closet with me in it, it is that small.  So this is the view when you walk in from the bathroom, and to the left is a small short metal shelf that sits under a window out to my screened in porch.

Originally I had the metal shelving rack opposite the hanging rack.  I ditched my laundry baskets which didn’t fit at all and I tripped over them daily (grrr) for a car organizer that is now repurposed..lol.

I have added the cubbies / shelving (below far right side) that I built in a 12″x12″ bump out that was totally useless and so far I still have to contend with the dang file cabinet but over time I might be able to get that less and move to a smaller unit.  But those cubbies are invaluable already.   The cubbies are for socks, underwear, bras and sports bras so that I can actually start getting put together or at least grab and go – lol!  Did I mention that the ceiling is 7′ on one side and 6′-4″ on the other.  I have never been able to reach a ceiling before at my 5′-4″stature!

So you can clearly see we have some work to do here and that’s not even showing the rest of my room, but today was a good start!  I can walk again into my closet… but I made a pile elsewhere, temporarily.  Over this week I will try to get something done each day or so as my schedule permits but the important part is to start with something easy.  Get some momentum going and feel progress being made.  It makes it a lot easier to tackle the next step, whatever you deem it to be if you are positive to start!

I knew undergarments were going to be the easiest to do for me (you know which bra is stretched out, you know what styles of underwear you need (to work with the clothing you know you will keep) so in order for me to start there, I had to build the cubby thing.  In less than 2 hours I sorted 4 items, built furniture and re-arranged the world’s smallest closet and took out a bag of garbage and the recycling stuff from the box that the cubbies came in.  Not a bad start!

This idea holds true for whatever project you are tackling.  If it’s a desk you can’t do anything till you file to get the extraneous stuff out of the way, if it’s a game room, you know which games your family plays and which they don’t, if it’s personal stuff like photo’s you have plenty of options, from having a scrapbooking party to hiring a smart teenager or virtual assistant to scan them onto a thumb drive, or giving them to the family member who’s they are in the first place.  There are always choices.

Just FYI, I am holding on to the 5 laundry baskets for a few future exercises in sorting but I  promise when the last trip to a donation store is made, they will go too! Honestly I can trip over air so why give me something to aim for!