Thinning the Herd

In the past when I've gotten rid of things, for the most part, it was because we had to. There were several years when we had the obligatory garage sale, but other than that, whenever we moved we've dejunked. We downsized when we moved the the house before last because there was no real storage. The amount of stuff we found in the basement as we were moving was shocking. I swore never again. But nearly 12 years in this house, we've got it packed to the rafters. Or at least it feels that way.

Since I'm not in a panic of needing to have it gone by the time the moving truck arrives, I'm giving the process some thought, and I'm employing a couple strategies. The first is to attack an area and just dig in. I did that last week for the sewing cabinet and knitting supplies. The second is just to make a small change and watch it spread. When I decided to take a break from using the dishwasher, when I realized I was hoarding dishes, utensils, storage containers so I could fill a dishwasher and still have tools to use, I discovered just how full my cupboards were. It became easier to thin the herd when I had it all in one place.

One day I took about 15 minutes to go through my storage containers. I kept only the name brand ones that I prefer, and the disposable ones I used to take to work hit the recycling or the box for the cottage. I made sure I only kept the containers with matching lids. The rest are gone, and the cupboard I used to dread is now under control.

If you could thin the herd somewhere, which herd would it be? Can you focus on one small section, a cupboard, a drawer, a stack of paper for 15 minutes and see where it leads? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Finishing up and making room

Last year I swapped my craft room with my office. The former had been one of the boy's bedrooms, well actually each had been in that room at some point. It was bigger, yellow (I like yellow), and cooler in the summer. When I made the switch, I used our youngest son's bedroom as a staging area, and thus it remained until last weekend. We're getting a visit from him next month, so his room moved to the top of the to-do list.

What made working on his room a challenge was mostly what remained was drabble--flotsam and jetsam that really had no home until I created it or donated it.

• a plastic box of knitting needles and crochet hooks
• a plastic box of wood roving
• several photo albums
• a dismantled computer (pilfered for its hard drive)
• 2 monitors
• a computer keyboard with the letters worn off
• 2 stacks of books

The books are destined for the library book sale. I have another box that I'm going to fill with books that I have read and I've no intention of reading again. The electronics are headed for the local electronics recycler. That's already half the list. The photo albums are part of this winter's massive photo project (more on that later). The rest of the craft supplies are another matter.

Cleaned out and organized knitting supplies.

I have a wonderful antique sewing cabinet that my hubby bought me many moons ago. It's been in my craft room for the last several months. I think it took the trip upstairs over the holidays to make room for the tree, but since I hadn't been making good use of it, I didn't even miss it. This past weekend I cleaned the sewing stuff out and replaced it with the pile of knitting stuff that I had lying on the floor next to the recliner. I also sorted through the plastic bin and only kept the tools I would actually use. Turns out I'm pretty picky about my knitting needles. At this point, my sewing cabinet is now my knitting cabinet, and the only things in it are things I actually use.

Sterilizer cabinet houses thread.

The thread that I had in the top drawer of the cabinet has a new home in this antique sterilizer cabinet. I'd rather not think about how anything in this cabinet with its cardboard backing and wood sides could ever be considered sterilized. But I have organized my threads by color family and I can easily see what is there. Unlike the drawer in my sewing cabinet, everything fits.

The other sewing stuff that was in the cabinet found new homes as well. The actual sewing stuff for the most part went into my toolbox that I used to use for costuming shows. Most of my sewing tools were there anyway. This just put it all in one place. Other things, such as uncompleted cross stitch projects, hit the trash. I'm not likely to ever take up cross stitch again, and if I do, I won't want to finish those.

I'll need to spend another hour or so in my son's room corralling the dust bunnies and such, but the dejunking of my stuff in there is complete. Now if I can get him to dejunk his stuff when he's here.