If You Don't Use It....Lose It!

Do you find yourself putting off filing that stack of school papers, bills and more?  Do you completely avoid trips down to your basement?  Is your guest room really a storage room?  Do you still have storage bins of clothes waiting for you to "fit" into them again?  Are you overwhelmed?  I could go on and on about how much stuff gets accumulated over years and years of saying, "but I might need that one day."  NO MORE!  This year Stacey and I started out with complete home "detox's".  Our new motto is "if you don't use it--lose it!"

One of our detox projects included getting rid of our storage unit (and the rent) and storing it in Stacey's basement.  Of course, we decided to do all of this two days before the end of the month to avoid having to renew our lease.  What were we thinking.....  Let the adventure begin!  In order for our plan to succeed, there were several things that needed to happen.  Stacey had boxes and bags full of donation items that needed to get from her basement to a local thrift shop.  I also took advantage of the donation run and put all my boxes and bags in the mix as well. 

Day 1 (of 2) found us loading stuff into our vehicles (minivan and jeep).  They were packed so tight that I'm not sure how we fit ourselves and the kids inside.  As we started to unload our goods, one of the ladies at the thrift shop made the comment that they were going to need a bigger store.  Hmmmm.....

Day 2 (of 2) we rented a U-Haul (totally worth the $36.00 we paid for the day) and the two of us spent an entire day moving what seemed like endless pieces of furniture from our storage unit to Stacey's now cleaned out basement.  Here's a picture of the last few pieces getting unloaded from the truck.  Originally, we planned to use my minivan to accomplish this task (we'd probably still be unloading to this day).  All in all it only took us two trips with the U-Haul to get the storage unit cleaned out and we were even able to use the truck to donate a few pieces to our local Salvation Army (trust us, there was just no hope for some of them).  Moving furniture is not for the faint of heart!  We had quite a few not so graceful moments (most of them mine) and a lot of "are we insane?" moments.  Fortunately there was also a lot of laughter and fun as well.

As many of you have previously read, we have been looking for the perfect workspace to accomplish our furniture re-do's (and sometimes re-don'ts).  What we didn't realize was the perfect little space right under our noses.  With a lot of elbow grease and a lot of de-cluttering, donating and determination (on Stacey's part since it is her basement), we have honed out a sweet little workshop for all the wonderful things to come, as well as our new storage space.  We even installed hooks in the ceiling for all of the chairs that we keep stockpiling.  We now lovingly refer to it as the "Chair Closet". 

You'll have to forgive the picture quality.  It's a bit dark 'cause we're still working on lighting solutions.  After all, organization awesomeness doesn't just happen overnight.

There is still a lot to be done, but we've gotten a great start so far and had a few adventures along the way.  Working together certainly made all the difference (that and several pots of coffee!).  I think Mary Poppins said it best--"Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down...".

And the moral of today's story...  Don't let clutter rule your roost! 

Wishing you a blessed day! 
Megan