Ever since we moved in and I quickly emptied a box under the bathroom sink, it has looked something like this:
It’s absolutely silly to have an area like this because you can’t find anything and really have no idea what’s down there. It may make sense to get boxes unpacked, but the next step after moving needs to be organizing. I’m completely annoyed with myself that this area has been neglected for so long, especially because it took less than 10 minutes to turn that disaster into this:
And it only cost me $3 for the three dollar store stacking bins. What’s even better is that this took so little time and energy that I also cleaned out the 3 messy drawers at the same time and some items from the drawers are now under the sink. It’s cleaner and more organized even though it has things from other drawers in it.
I’m in the process now of getting rid of excess stuff. I realized recently how we have so much that we don’t need, no loner use, and no longer want. We just haven’t gone through the simple effort of putting it in a box and taking it to Goodwill where it can become someone else’s treasure.
Here’s how simple it was… I just put things into categories:
- Keep & organize
- Throw away
- Put away elsewhere
- Donate
I always dread cleaning out the bathroom cabinets because I feel like I’m throwing away a ton. I was surprised and proud to find that my donate pile was much larger that my trash pile. A few things had migrated from other areas of the house and just needed to be put away.
After also checking my husband’s side, I found that we owned 3 hair dryers and 2 sets of hot rollers. And I really only use hot rollers for photo shoots which rarely happens these days. That’s an entire bathroom cleared out and a box for goodwill in a short period of time that has made our bathroom (and heads) less cluttered. Feels great, like weight off out shoulders – even though it was just weight off of our house.
It’s totally worth it to take a few minutes to de-clutter a space. Working one space at a time, it doesn’t feel like such a massive undertaking worth putting off. And when you get one space happy & organized, it inspires you do keep going and gives you the energy to tackle the next space. PLUS, when your drawers, cabinets, and closets are organized, it actually saves you time and energy since you don’t have to mess around looking for things.
Hope this is some inspiration for some early spring cleaning.