Clean Sweep v. Cops

If you don't already know it, I'm a clutterholic.

Even before we got stuff for Christmas, we had agreed to spend one day of our vacation tackling the nightmare of clutter that was our storage "room". This area is through a pair of short doors and basically mirrors the size of our office (3rd bedroom -- about 80 square feet) but is only 4-feet high. And it was FULL.

I watch shows like Neat and Clean Sweep and think "Yeah, that's what we need, a whole TEAM to come in, haul everything out, reduce, reorganize and return it." When I voiced this thought to hubby, he said, "No. Really it would turn into Cops. They'd try to take away your Hannah-Barbera lamp and you would pick up something heavy and start swinging."

So anyway. We started on the Room yesterday. After dinner, we took a short break and went out to Zellers for $80 worth of Rubbermaid® storage containers and some very funky modular plastic pegboard tool organizers. We also bought some white tree lights which hubby cleverly stapled to the ceiling around each side of the Room and attached to an extension cord with an on/off switch by the door. By midnight, we had to give up and shove what was left back inside. This afternoon we went back at it. I managed to organize the tools, and we collected all our reno junk into one big tub. Hubby made a little dolly that would fit two bins and allow us to easily gain access to the boxes around the perimeter.

There are still a few odd things to deal with. I hate the dregs... it's where I lose my steam. Do I merge or toss? Some of this crap has been following me for years. In at least part of my brain I can accept that I will never actually find a use for that odd 15-amp fuse or those teeny tiny brass hinges. Unfortunately, the rest of my brain thinks I will. Sigh. This is what happens when both parents pass along the packrat gene.

Dregs aside, we have removed out three huge boxes plus three smaller boxes of charitable donations; several bags of garbage (including packing foam leftover from our eBay days); one odd-shaped shelf; a bunch of odd-sized empty boxes; several bagsfull of paper and/or documents to shred; and there are two boxes of baby toys to distribute to one new mother and one mother-to-be among my friends. Phew! I am totally counting these toward my Purging Goal.