You Down With O-R-G? Yeah You Know Me.
Yes, that’s a Naughty By Nature reference. But why O-R-G? That’s $herdog’s abbreviation for organizing. I’ve gotta be honest. Our house hasn’t been this trashed/chaotic/messy since we moved in 16 months ago. Seriously, I’m not talking about a little dist around the baseboards or some streaks on the windows, I’m talking about serious stuff like not being able to locate anything in our completely ridiculous sink drawer:
So although we have two entire sections of our Projects page dedicated to cleaning and organizing posts of yore, there hasn’t been much of that going on lately. At all. It all started to fall apart back in Jan/Feb during three weeks of book shoots in our house (with a crew of people, and a ton of moving/painting/general insanity) that left our house looking like this…
Why would other things like our sink drawer go downhill too? The only way I can explain it is that it’s a slippery slope. When you’re juggling secret book projects, regular blog projects/posts, and baby care while a bunch of folks are in your house shooting over 150 different book photos that you’re DIYing and styling yourself, you just don’t have a minute to breathe during the day. And once the baby goes to sleep and the crew leaves, you think you’ll tackle stuff at night, but since they’re all coming back in the morning (and you have 20 more projects to finish, style, and walls to paint before they arrive in the am) it feels like you’re working two shifts and you don’t even remember what day it is let alone where the deodorant should go.
And between writing posts, doing projects, raising a toddler, and birthing this book baby of ours (we’re still proofing 200 page stacks of layouts, completing the resources section, and finalizing the cover) it feels like we’ll never have time to put our house back together. Unless we officially declare whipping our insanely unorganized casa back into shape as Project Numero Uno in a week-long bootcamp of sorts. So we’re doing it!!! Hang on to your hats. It’s gonna get messy. And then hopefully clean (with a giant yard sale pile at the end of the rainbow). And we’d love for you guys to hop on the spring cleaning train with us! Speaking of which, we got a head-start this weekend (forgive us) since we needed a Monday post to kick things off. First, I decided to make the cabinets under our dining room built-ins say my name. That’s right, I literally whispered “Say my name” to my cabinets. Winner.
Then I took everything out. Well, I took about three things out and was already over it, so I padded over to the computer and put on some tunes (Nicki Minaj then Eminem then a little vintage Britney). And I did some mild to moderate head bopping (but zero freestyle rapping) as I removed every last book, magazine, and other random object that found its way in there (many books and mags are stored in there since the built-ins aren’t deep enough for them).
I made piles. Piles of each magazine (Domino, Cottage Living, House Beautiful, Blueprint, and BHG & other Meredith mags like DIY). I also tried to stack my books by subject (pregnancy/health/green, chick lit, decor/design, and teen fiction like Hunger Games & Twilight – haha). I’ll say it again. Winner.
Oh and see those white things on the bottom of the pic above? They’re actually old shelves from the built-ins that we removed since it was way too crowded up there (more on that here), so we shoved them into the cabinet in case we changed our mind and wanted to crowd the cabinets with too many shelves again (why????). It was a bad call. Over a year later they’ve just collected dust and wasted space, so off to John’s scrap wood pile in the basement they went.
Then I wiped down the shelves (they were grosser than I’d like to admit) with good ol’ white vinegar. It cleans things and kills odors at the same time (they sort of smelled like an old storage room). Wiping the entire cabinet only took about half of Hit Me Baby One More Time. So worth it.
Then I slowly put things back in, grouping stuff that made the most sense, and stacking them in a way that I thought would be easiest to maintain while allowing me to store everything and see almost all of it. Instead of standing everything up (knowing I’d pull something out and everything would topple) I made small stacks of things that I can see beyond and can easily remove each stack to reach something in the back row.
Ahhh, order. How I love thee. Let me count the ways Domino magazines.
Of course about 10% of the books and mags that came out ended up in a yard sale pile I’ve started in the guest room closet. It’s nice to admit that I’m not going to read something again and give someone else a chance.
Oh and you might be wondering where all my hard cover decorating books are (other than stacked in plain sight on the console, on the built-in shelves, and on the top of our office file cabinet). Well, the two ottomans in the hallway under the console (you know, that sits in our hallway o’ frames) are filled with them. But they don’t runneth over so I don’t think I have a decorating book problem. Yet.
At this point my brain hurt from thinking too hard about what to group with what, what to put in the yard sale pile, etc. But I still had a bunch of random decor related items sitting around looking for a home (remember in the before pic there were faux gourds, vases, and candlesticks shoved in there too?). So it was time to deal with the cabinet under the built-ins on the other side, which is where I keep all of my candlesticks, vases, and various decor-related-items. That side had gone to h-e-double-hockey-sticks too.
It was so bad that I started stashing overflow items in the book/magazine cabinet on the other side. Not good. Time to pare things down, group them so they make sense again, add stuff to the yard sale pile, and generally get my stuff together under there. But wait, there’s more…
Yup, I also overflowed stuff into the new corner cabinet in our kitchen. But about half of the things in there actually belonged there since they were kitchen/food/serving related (like a cake stand or a salad bowl). So I decided to turn the corner cabinet in the kitchen into only serving/food related storage and pare down my decor stuff so it would hopefully all fit in the single cabinet under the built-ins in the dining room.
Once again, the first step was taking everything out. This time I listened to various Glee versions of songs, more Nicki Minaj, and old school Snoop & Dre. Picture me singing “Ain’t nothing but a clean thing bay-bay. I got so many candles it’s cray-zay.”
I also emptied the corner cabinet in the kitchen. For reference that peninsula counter is five feet long by three feet wide. Blort.
Then I pulled out every last item I didn’t use/need/want for my growing yard sale pile and grouped everything else by item (ex: all vases in one spot, all candlesticks in one spot). Then back in it went after a quick vinegar wipe-down.
It juuuuuuust fit. A loose description of what’s going on in here now is that the top right quadrant has candle holding devices, the bottom right quadrant has vases and planters, the bottom left quadrant has various vase filler and a few other random decorative items, and the top left quadrant has all of my tabletop decor that gets rotated in and out pretty much all the time.
But where did all those crazy candles go? Well, many of them used to live in our first house’s living room fireplace (on a big silver platter) but since we now have a toddler who gets into everything, I just saved a few of the better looking ones and put them in a candle drawer of their own. How novel! This small cabinet in the dining room was empty (it’s actually a night table, but we thought it worked nicely in here), so I commandeered one drawer for candle storage. And the rest of my too-large candle collection went into the yard sale pile. Update: I’ve added two plastic place mats to the bottom of the drawer to protect it from any potential waxiness.
Huzzah! Now the corner cabinet in the kitchen only has kitchen-related items, like serving dishes, bowls, plates, trays, a cake stand, etc.
And there’s room to spare in there. Lookout John. Momma feels a shopping spree coming on. Just kidding, I’m way too tired. But I better buck up, because there’s still lots to do this week. And we’d love for you guys to join our bootcamp and clean/organize/pare down along with us! Here’s our schedule:
- Monday: Since we shared how we organized a few cabinets, feel free to tackle one or two of your own (you could also just dive into books and decorative accessories, wherever you keep them)
- Tuesday: Taming kid clutter is on our agenda (if you don’t have kiddos, any clutter-wrangling works)
- Wednesday: We’ll cover how we pare down our grooming & cleaning products (feel free to tackle yours and share your tips too)
- Thursday: Let’s get on some paper/tech org (we’re aiming for some blog streamlining, but you can take on anything from digital photos or cleaning up your desktop to filing paperwork or receipts)
- Friday: Ahhh, we miiiight let you see our basement. Gotta work up the courage. So maybe plan a little basement or garage cleanup on your end?
- Bonus: We also hope to tackle clothes (make sense of our dresser and maybe do some slight closet shifting) and our clutter-fied night tables at some point – here’s hoping!
Of course that’s tentative since we’re blogging in real time, but we can’t wait to report back and hear how you guys are doing. Have you already been doing some spring cleaning/organizing or any general house streamlining? Are you down to do it with us? What music keeps you from going out of your mind while cleaning and organizing? Or do you favor an audio book/TV/NPR? That sounds like a good time too.
Mama Gigi says
Perfect timing!
We just signed up for our first home exchange so I’m trying to get all the embarrassing closets in our house organized and put together (that have been thrown together since we moved in a year ago) before strangers arrive.
We spent the weekend organizing and are almost done with the first round!
candace says
Sherry, I love this post & series! I’m always inspired by organization & de-crapifying. This came at the perfect time for me because I was feeling *exactly* like you and orchestrated my own (super mini) boot camp of spring cleaning. & have taken pictures but need to write the blog post. Although, admittedly, mine started small (and it’s slow going) but I’ve tackled my purse (a minor achievement, but progress nonetheless!) and my double pantry! On to do a lot of the same ones you mentioned…I don’t think I can get mine done in a week though! Keep up the great work & good luck!
Alexis says
Nice ORG-ing! I always dream of being a professional ORG-er, so I love reading stuff like this! Now, I’ve got a corner kitchen cabinet with one of those two level lazy susan thingies. I want to get rid of the lazy susan thingy and instead just have shelves in there. Any advice? I have no idea how to go about putting shelves in there.
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I think you can somehow remove the lazy susan using the hardware (maybe the bar in the middle can be removed and the shelves come out)? Then you just have to build or buy shelves to add (they should look like a square with the corner cut out). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Senora H-B says
Thank you for showing us that y’all have clutter zones too. It’s so nice to know that I’m not the only one with cabinets of doom. I just did a major reorganization in almost all of the closets and cabinets in our apartment (my parents are coming for my PhD graduation (!!!!!!)). It was…scary. The amount of dust that I uncovered was alarming, to say the least.
I’m inspired to finish up the organization in our master bedroom. Thanks $herdog!
AngelaKr says
Love the organizing posts but love your white bowl with black leaves on it in your orner cabinet even more! Any chance to find out who its made by to do ome online searching?
YoungHouseLove says
I found that at TJ Maxx a while back, but the bottom only says “made in India” – so sorry! Maybe try places like HomeGoods/TJ Maxx/Marshall’s?
xo,
s
Kim says
Love organizing, it feels so great. Since our neighborhood doesn’t have a pool, for us OPP means “Other People’s Pool’s” ha ha!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s so funny.
xo,
s
Laura Jinkins says
Two things:
First of all – the deodorant goes under your arms. (Gah, I crack me up.)
Secondly, I’m doing something similar, but on a much smaller scale. We are friends with a young man (20 years old) who is in need of a liver transplant (he has autoimmune cirrhosis of the liver) – Thursday and Friday we are having a HUGE yard sale to raise funds for his medical expenses. So my daughter and I are scouring the closets, cabinets, and cubbies in our home for things we can donate to the yard sale. It’s doubly satisfying in that we get rid of some clutter and we help out someone we care about very much. A win-win! We’d appreciate prayers and good thoughts for our friend. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, high five for a deodorant joke. And you’re so sweet to host a huge yard sale to raise money for those medical expenses for your neighbor! Feel free to post about it on our Facebook page to spread the word to anyone in your area! Lots of good wishes headed his way!
xo,
s
Jessica says
We moved 2 weeks ago… You can imagine our mess!! The old place was 850 sq ft, the new place is 1650 sq ft with an all open floor plan. (In other words, no built ins, no closets, but windows everywhere!)
I have boxes of stuff sitting in corners of the room because we had minimal open storage and a ton of closets that we made use of in the old place. (We had tons of shelving and such inside closets to help keep the rooms feeling less cluttered.) I have never lived in a place this big nor with such an open plan, so we’re (ok, *I am*) freaking out… It’s such a mess!!!
I’m trying to tell myself, do it slowly, make sure you’re happy with what you’re planning, but with a 3 year old and a 5 year old, it makes me want to pull my hair out! HA! I want storage/organization yesterday! I’ll surely be following along, plotting things for the day that I have enough saved to do the storage/organizing thing.. Like building bookshelves.. And a media center. And toy/book storage..
Jeannette says
I totally clean to Britney Spears. If Britney is on the stereo, watch out! The cleaning tornado is in town!
Brynn says
I know have “Aint nothing but a clean thing baby” in my head. Thanks :o)
Brynn says
now* (brain fart!)
GreenInOC says
This weekend I cleaned all of the cabinet doors, drawers and outward facing wood in my kitchen. I cannot tell you how much I HATE doing this!! I don’t have cabinet pulls on any of the cabinets or drawers so they can get dirty.
I used BioKleen (love that stuff) to clean and then followed with a microfiber towel which was an amazing trick! They look so great I keep going into the kitchen to ooh and ahh!!
I started off by listening to NPR but then switched to listening to The Closer on TV.
Speaking of NPR, yesterday I heard Barry Sonnenfeld on Wait, Wait… while I was driving. My face was soaking wet from laughing so hard!
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/28/151576835/director-barry-sonnenfeld-plays-not-my-job
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, the call your mother story is hilarious!
xo,
s
Emily says
I read the title as Orgy. I like the post, but the title surprised me a bit!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, definitely didn’t mean to be racy! ORG just sounded like ORB to me. Haha. And OPP of course!
xo,
s
Abby says
This is the perfect way to start the week. I have many of these same things on my to-do list, but it is more like, I’ll finish it in a year, rather than a week…Can’t wait to get inspired!
Morgan says
Suggestion for Thursday: will you guys share how you store your blog photos?? You guys must have a gazillion and I’m currently going through massive hard drive space use with our family photos – thought you guys might have some tips! Do you use external hard drives? Cloud service? CDs? Do you back up like crazy? (hahaha, too many song references for that one… But I’m totally serious) or are you just really great about purging the ol hard drive of unused photos on a constant basis?
YoungHouseLove says
We actually use Amazon cloud for blog pics! It’s expensive, but it keeps them all safe and allows them to load fast for our readers, so it’s a worthy business expense! As for personal pics, we upload them to a site like Flickr to keep them safe offsite and also have an external hard drive and a safe with a CD of them on it that we update every few months. IPhoto is also great for organizing stuff. We just have a folder that says Family 2012 and drop stuff in there which stays chronological order and at the end of the year we make a family yearbook with MyPublisher. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jessica says
oh my goodness this is perfection! I just moved into a new townhouse and literally dumped all of my belongings into boxes last minute, and now I don’t know where anything is! I not only have way too many things, but I need to figure out some functional organization! Can’t wait to follow along, a trip to the container store might be needed before I start!
xx
S @ keepitneat says
Oh yeah, I am ALWAYS down with O-R-G! Hence Keep It Neat. This weekend I actually started to flip my closet from winter to spring/summer. Small 150+ year old row home = closets for munchkins, or people with one set of britches. So winter stuff went in attic, summer/spring is en route to closet and dresser. It’s currently sitting in piles waiting to learn its fate: closet, goodwill pile, or attic for another year while I think on it. To be continued.
Unfortunately no music this time, this was a stealth mission while our daughter napped in the room just below attic steps.
Loving the group organizing idea (BTW there were a lot of risque plays on words I was just dying to insert there, but I refrained…). I’ll try to keep up w/ you this week best I can!
Heather says
We’re on board!
We started this weekend too, and it’s ridiculous. We have a four bedroom house for two people, and we have a dedicated “junk room”, an office (which is a slightly more organized junk room), and a guest room, which is carryover for our closet and currently looks like ain Air Force uniform shop exploded in it.
Amy says
I’m curious to know why you don’t display your decorating books/magazines? They’re such a party of your life, surely you’d want to have them out. And do you have any tips on the best way to display books? My house has a ton of them – we’re avid readers – but regardless of how neatly they’re displayed, the books do end up looking kind of cluttered. Tips?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, check out the post! I have decorating books out on display on the console table in the living room, the file cabinet in the office, and on the built-ins. I also have a stack of them out in the guest room! The stuff that’s down in the cabinet or in boxes is usually too big to put on the built-ins (they don’t have enough depth for many of our books and mags, so into the cabinet they go). Of course a deeper bookcase like an Expedit can work (we might get one of those for the sunroom down the line). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Kristin M says
Love this post! And, it made me realize that everyone has a junk cabinet or drawer. I have one cabinet in my kitchen that I stick all of my knick knacks (vases, platters, etc.) and I keep looking at it thinking it needs to be organized again. But, sometimes, I think there isn’t the perfect way to organize these things.
Yours looks great!!! Thank you for this post.
xoxo
Kristin
theocdlifestyle.blogspot.com
Trish says
So funny, I’m on the same spring cleaning binge. We rent, and thought we might buy our own house this year, so I was really half-bleeping it the last six months or so. But now we’ve decided to stay another year, and I’ve had it! Just because it’s a rental doesn’t mean we can’t make the best of it for now. Last week I went kitchen/laundry room/guest bath/master bed and bath crazy, and this week the upstairs office/guest room stuff is on the list. I’m even doing some painting. Why not?! I also did some damage at the Container Store. That place is addictive, right ladies? I’ve been indulging in some major Pinterest ORG porn too. Let’s hope I get it all done before I burn out. Thanks for the continuing motivation. Happy cleaning!
Annalisa says
Never got to comment at the time but on an unrelated note (or related maybe with an OPP reference?!) that your Eminem experience made my day and I’m super jealous. In fact, it inspired me load the CDs collecting dust on to my ipod and have been subjecting my 11 month old to it in the car. So…..thanks! I needed some Dr. Dre in my Baby Einstein life.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, rock on Annalisa!
xo,
s
amybeth says
Ummm how did you know? My hubby cooked for the first time in a while yesterday, and I was embarrassed when both a cabinet and the freezer avalanched all over him. Not that he cares but it just made me realize how good I’ve gotten at holding in the mess while I grab something. lol
Off to the kitchen!
heather says
Since this is all about clutter, I thought I would post this. It’s pretty crazy and eye opening.
http://www.storyofstuff.org/
heather says
edit link – this is the actual movie.
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I love that video!
xo,
s
Dawn says
Last week I went through 10 years of quilting magazines, tore out the pictures/instructions of the quilts I think I may actually make, and recycled the rest of the magazines. I tried to give them to my kid’s high school, but no one wanted them. Oh well. I then stuffed two patterns into a document protector (photo showing on each side) and put the pages into a binder. Whew! That freed up a lot of space for more fabric!
YoungHouseLove says
Love that! See those three binders on the bottom left of the book cabinet? Those are filled with tear sheets from mags I didn’t keep! Haha. I have a problem!
xo,
s
E.Lefebvre says
I’m kind of a compulsive organizer… but I’m married to a pile-er, so parts of our house are super neat and parts of it… well, I try not to look. That’s my solution. We jokingly call my husband’s cabinet the “pit of despair.” Anyway… when the feeling strikes me, or I stumble across a mess, I usually turn to “This American Life,” and/or “RadioLab”. Happy cleaning!
Valerie says
The organizing bug must be in the air.. I was cleaning my bathroom yesterday and finally broke down and tackled the dreaded piles o stuff under the sink and in the medicine cabinet. One giant trash bag later, I felt so much better! It’s funny how you don’t realize how much something like an unorganized cabinet is weighing on you until you’ve dealt with it.
Sunny says
Disco is my all time favorite cleaning music. I was born in ’80 but I think I should have been boogieing in the ’70’s instead!!
Becky @ Paint SCENTsations says
Those magazines can sure add up quick. It’s amazing how things just start overflowing from their “home” to an unintended area. Thanks for inspiring us to get organized!
Gaidig says
I think I’ll join you, though I’m already concentrating on getting a little yard work done every day and studying for an upcoming exam. I can squeeze in enough time to organiza a cabinet, for goodness sake.
The state of our house has been really stressing me out since a lot of our stuff that was in the basement is scattered around the rest of the house while we complete renovations/repairs post-flooding. Just last weekend I finally realized that it would stress me out less it were boxed up instead of spread out over every surface. So I took the few cardboard boxes we already had on hand and wrapped up and packed all of the glassware that was spread all over the table in the sunroom. One other thing we have done recently is that my man bought a binder for most of his DVDs and went through the box of DVDs from the basement and the DVD cabinet in the living room and paired them down and got rid of the boxes for many of them and put them in the binder. That’s another huge pile reduced. (I own maybe 10-15 DVDs and he probably owns over 200.)
Brenda says
My first thought when I saw the title was “You down with G-O-D? Yeah you know me!” From Sister Act. I didn’t even know it was based on a different song.
I despise organizing most of the time. Sometimes I get the bug, but it’s usually at 1 in the morning. In college it was usually when I had a paper due. My apartment is in desperate need of organizing, because I definitely have too much stuff for my small studio space. I haven’t done a big purge…ever? Not since I moved all my college stuff straight to my apartment without organizing it. And I know I have way expired food in the back of my kitchen cupboard. I’ve also had a horrendous mouse problem, so every time I move things I have another mouse mess to clean up. I figure it would be easier to keep clean if I didn’t have piles of stuff everywhere.
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahahahahahaha, that’s hilarious about the sister act thing! It’s one of John’s favorite movies to sing/quote (so random!) so we’re cracking up!
xo,
s
Elizabeth@ wake&gather says
Just in time! Can’t wait to tackle some organization!
Courtney says
What about ORB? Yeah, you know me…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I’m down with ORB too.
You know me.
xo,
s
Heidi P. says
Wow. Haha. Good luck! I’ve been working on my counters so much lately that everthing else has gone to the crapper. My floors haven’t even been swept in… not gonna say how long. So I should probably join you in cleaning/organizing when the island counter is done. Thanks for the challenge!
Emily E says
I need this post so much it makes me want to cry. We moved into our house 5 months ago, and we have one room that is just a bunch of stuff. I can’t even walk in there. On Saturday I sat down to start to sift through it and got so overwhelmed. But, I think with your inspiration I can get to it and have my own fab yardsale!
Leyna says
Hahahaa. “I got so many candles it’s cray-zay”. Guaranteed I’ll have your version of Snoop stuck in my head all day. Love it. And I love knowing that somewhere out there (see, now I’m hearing Feivel), another 30-year-old mom keeps cleaning & organizing “fun” the same way I do.
I hope you realize how glorious your commitment to green cleaning products is. It means YOUR KID CAN HELP YOU CLEAN. Brilliant! Milk it for alllll it’s worth. Mind you, I don’t set my 3 year old loose with a spray bottle full of vinegar because I know my couch would wind up smelling like salad dressing (although my 5 year old is a pro window cleaner), but he’s perfectly happy with a spray bottle of water and a few drops of bergamot or lemon oil for wiping up his kiddy table and floor after meals. It’s a habit now and I love it! Now if I could just teach him to clean toilets. Little boys are pretty gross.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love the idea of setting Clara loose with a bottle of vinegar- until I get a couch that smells like salad dressing. Haha.
xo,
s
Sarah says
You guys are going to have a bitchin yard sale…f’reals. I’d love to be an unsuspecting shopper stumbling upon that gem. As for my house…between two grandparents moving into homes and wedding gifts, I could seriously purge my clutter. No lie, I have 4 coffee makers in my basement. I did do my clothes though, I set a date back in March called “good will day” and I cleaned out my closets and dressers (yes I have multiple closets and dressers). Now if only I could whip the hubby into cleaning out his many closets…..we’re sick I tell ya.
Teresa @ wherelovemeetslife says
Ugh, just reading that list makes my head hurt. lol. But – the idea of having a Saturday at the house to myself to “spring clean” while blairing my fave music is definitely appealing!
Amy says
Good timing! Last night I did phase two of my clothes closet. Phase one was last fall, I packed all my summer clothes (dresses, shorts, etc.) into a big plastic bin and put it out of sight. Phase two, last night, was unpacking the summer stuff, and re-packing the bin with winter stuff (heavy sweaters, woolly socks, etc.)
BONUS: That’s the best time to tackle the ‘donate’ project. It is much easier to go through just your winter stuff as you pack the bin and realize what hasn’t been worn for years. I can’t handle doing it for my whole closet in one day.
Wendy says
We’re moving in a few months across country, so our home is currently a state of perpetual piles: keep/pack, donate, and recycle.
This past weekend we were out on a trail run when I asked my hub if he wanted to run or hike, as I had some moving ideas. He wanted to listen. I shared with him a few suggestions on the storage room.
As soon as we got home, he started working on it. My pregger brain had forgotten about it. Within a few moments the place looked a ton better, and we had quite a few items for the dumpster which others claimed. :-) (Good stuff we could have sold, but… there’s something about just passing along, too.)
YoungHouseLove says
Love that!
xo,
s
Mary-Beth says
I love that this week is devoted to organizing! I get so happy when things are straightened up and in their place. I wish I could take the week off of work and follow your schedule and organize the whole house. Lame? Nooooo.
Cory says
I decided to do a purge this weekend and wouldn’t stop until I had at least 50 items to donate to Goodwill. I met my goal dropped off an old tv and 3 big bags of stuff yesterday, and it felt so good! It was also a great chance to re-organize a few closets.
Ty Lee says
I’ve been slowly organizing everything as I’m packing for my new house!
Is it sad that the first thing I’m going to when I move in is have a garage sale? (Sadly, I can’t do that BEFORE I move, because I’m currently in an apartment).
I have an empty bookcase I’m filling with all my garage sale items. The bookcase itself is also being sold. Two birds and all that! :P
Beth says
Thank you for the spring cleaning inspiration! I began cleaning out my closet yesterday, hoping to keep the pace and tackle more this week. We have a small house and are seriously due for a yard sale as well.
Robin says
Eerily timely…Hmmm… I just cleaned out my boys’ closet yesterday. I had my 3rd boy nearly a year ago and had to rotate all their too small clothes out and the next size up in. Just gotta find the rest of the 12mo clothes… Nicely done! I wanna come to your garage sale!! Those blue and green cross hatched vases from the corner console = luuuuuuurrrrrrvvvveeee!
Kristin says
PUH-LEEZ tell me that your local readership will be informed of the date/time of said yard sale. Or at least of where you will advertise it so we can be on the lookout. :)
YoungHouseLove says
It’s a fine balance between safety/privacy and broadcasting our address to the internet at large, so we’d love to find a third party place like an event/church/group sale that we can bring everything over and participate in! It just comes down to being able to truck everything over!
xo,
s
Lindsay L. says
Ok now that you’ve challenged us, I will finally organize our house this week! It is BAD. And a Clara question – did you put child safety locks on your cabinets to keep her out of them? Or did you just teach her to leave them alone and she was an angel child and obeyed? Our baby Gemma is one and she is into all the cabinets. Maybe I should just break down and buy some safety locks??
YoungHouseLove says
I would definitely buy locks if she’s into them! We waited for that to happen and she never got into it (don’t worry, she gets into the dog food and other terrible things, so we just have to patrol them instead, haha).
xo,
s
A says
I was just thinking last week about how our space desperately needs some clutter cleanup. We live in a very open loft (approx 1100 sq ft) so our laundry room has become a very scary storage space. And we really haven’t used anything in there; we just keep adding to the pile of stuff. There is no other place to hide or store stuff. I think we really just need to go through everything and toss/donate. We don’t have a yard so a sale is unfortunately out of the question.
We were working on our garden this weekend (we have a raised bed at our friend’s house) and their neighbor was playing that song! I was cracking up because I hadn’t heard it in forever. This is a bit Twilight Zone for me…YHL on my same wavelength?!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love it!
xo,
s
Mellissa says
We just moved and instead of hurrying to unpack everything I took a week and did little by little and got rid of so much stuff. We donated at least three carloads worth of stuff! I figured if I moved it at least times and had not worn, used, looked at, or had out as a decoration it was time to go. This helped me get make the choice between save or donate.
Chels says
So, toddler + glass stuff in low cabinets = I crapped my pants. Those things would be so broken in my house :(
YoungHouseLove says
I know it’s crazy, but Clara isn’t into cabinets and drawers. But she goes wild with other things that drive us nuts (like putting pieces of Burger’s food into his water bowl and trying on all my watches, bracelets, necklaces- haha).
xo,
s