More Guest Room Cleaning

Back to the guest bedroom and the bottom part of the china cabinet

Before

After

What was in there ?  Well, the box on the top shelf was filled with miscellaneous sewing stuff.  The material items – table clothes.  I will go through all this and decide what to do with it, and of course, re-organize what I keep.

The box on the bottom – old costume jewelry.  That will be sorted through and put up for sale on ebay/craigslist or in an upcoming garage sale.  What doesn’t sell will be donated. 🙂

Pictures?  Yes, a few pictures – a couple of my nieces when they were really little, and a couple of art pieces that I need to decide if I want to keep (and if so, where to display them).

China Cabinet Drawer

Anyone in need of some cable?

This stuff has been residing in this drawer for at least 15 years (since I moved here).  Time to get rid of it and off to the recycle it goes!  The wine bottle toppers will be placed on ebay, and the rest of the stuff – old, old papers – into the recycle bin they go!

Mmmm, what to do with this empty drawer?

Color coded ribbon storage drawer!  🙂  This ribbon was in a large plastic storage container that is now being used for (wait for it….) – Christmas decoration storage!

Gma’s China Cabinet Shelf II

So, here is what happened with the second shelf in Grandma’s china cabinet –

Before

After

Yes, there is now a THIRD shelf in Grandma’s china cabinet!  It has two shelf inserts, but I only had one in there before – because of that huge box, which is now gone.  🙂  I have yet to decide what will go on the second shelf.

I actually put another item on that bottom shelf

That christmas decoration given to me by my parents on one of their visits to see me was in its original box on the floor in a corner in the guest room.  Looks much better where it is!

On to the Guest Room – Day 64

Time to move on to the guest room – the last room “in the house” for cleansing before moving on to the garage, the back patio, and, of course, the attic.

Today I focused on the top of the china cabinet I have in the guest room.

Before:

After:

Day 8 – Bathing suits and workout clothes

I have three small dresser drawers that are packed tight with bathing suits (well, I do have a pool in the backyard), and workout clothes – running tops, biking shorts, etc.  A lot of this stuff I never wear anymore, not because I don’t swim, bike, workout, etc., but because, well… Once again, I have too much stuff shoved in the drawers and I usually just grab whatever is on top…

So, emptied all the drawers and sorted through all the stuff – getting rid of at least 5 bathing suits, a couple that the elastic has lost all its strech (can you say old??), and a bunch of tank tops used for workouts.

In total, another grocery bag (these things aren’t big and bulky) or so of things to throw out and/or give to goodwill.  🙂

I now have three drawers that are easily opened and closed and easy to find what I have in them.

Slowly and surely, I am feeling the weight of all this cluttered up stuff come off my shoulders.  It feels good to cleanse.

Day 7 – T-shirts

Just how many Notre Dame T-shirts can one own?  Well, at current count I have 50 (some are even “duplicates”!).  Yes, 50… and that isn’t counting the golf shirts that I have from past local ND Club golf outings, or cotton button downs with the ND logo on them (at least 3 of those…).  🙂

The number of non ND t-shirts I have is dwarfed by the ND t-shirts.  I think I have less than 10 of those, and will be getting rid of at least 5 of them.

T-shirts are actually items I am most likely to “repurpose”.  I use them as part of some of my sewing projects.  Last year I made a changing pad out of an old ND t-shirt for a fellow alum who was having a baby.  🙂  I also made a t-shirt quilt (though the shirts for that were not all mine, and mostly donated by another alum) and only used 9 t-shirts.

This thing took FOREVER to make – just getting the layout the way I wanted it was very time consuming.  Not sure I will do this again, but you never know…. I do have a LOT of ND t-shirts!

In all, my pile of t-shirts removed from the dresser and tagged for either “repurposing” or donation is about 15.  It is amazing how much room 15 t-shirts take up!

Days 5 & 6 More Dresser Drawers…

Yesterday I tackled three dresser drawers that contained shorts of various type (running, dress, casual), and some t-shirts.

I bagged up about a dozen shorts for goodwill, along with three or four short summer skirts that I haven’t worn in years.  The t-shirts were refolded and placed in one of the two drawers that I keep all my t-shirts in, with the intention of going through those today… but I ended up finishing a book I had started reading yesterday instead.

I did go through my “sock drawer” today, getting rid of just a few socks, but the drawer is re-arranged, all socks are paired and what I have in there I do use.  I also have a drawer of hosery that really needs to be cleaned out… that will be my goal for tomorrow, along with the t-shirt drawers before I head off to the Notre Dame vs. Alabama game watch for the BCS National Championship.

GO IRISH!  🙂

Day 4 – Master Bedroom Dresser

Today I tackled 6 small dresser drawers in the master bedroom.

Things in these drawers: undies, bras, hosery, hankies (yes, I use cloth hankies…) a couple little clutch purses, a broken bud vase (a past maid broke it and then hid it in the drawer); I knew it was in there – I just have yet to get around to fixing it – and I don’t want to throw it away because it is a vase from my grandmother’s home (read centimental value)…

Unmentionables (that I mentioned above) are sorted, organized and old ones tossed in the trash.

I will be posting the little party clutch purses on ebay. Probably should have posted them out there BEFORE the holidays, oh well, we will see if they sell now.

I didn’t really clear that much out of these drawers (other than the purses and the vase) that was very bulky or created a lot of extra space, but everything is now nicely organized.

Day 3 – Night Stand/Dresser

Do you ever just open a drawer and stick things in it when you are ready to go to sleep?  I have this bad habit – reading a book?  into the nightstand drawer, magazine?  same thing…

Today I am tackling the 4 drawer nightstand in the master bedroom.

Things I found in there – 2, yes 2, “throw away” kodak flash cameras (probably from back in 2003 ish).  One of them had some pictures already taken on it,  what, you ask??  Well, we will soon find out – but as in those days on by – we will have to wait as they will need to be processed the “old fashioned” way…  I did take some pictures of the pups with it – hoping that the film is still good.

As for the second camera – well – it is still in the sealed wrapping!!  So, what to do??  Maybe I will check out Ebay and see if there is a market for it.  🙂  I may just take it on a walk with me and take random pictures to be processed since I have no idea if the film is still any good…. speaking of which, I should probably check for an expiration date on the package, huh.

Other things I found – books, magazines (no surprise there), another old Canon 35MM camera, a nice one that I used to use a LOT. It took pretty darn good pictures too.  Wonder if there is a market on Ebay for that as well…  I found some pictures of an old (ex) boyfriend.  Mailing those off to him… cleansing the house includes cleansing my life and moving beyond the past.