Prior to doing my master bedroom closet clean-out, I did a large declutter of the Room of Crap. We got a sitter for the kids so we could move all the baby stuff to the attic. It was a lot of baby stuff. I’m talking boxes and boxes of clothes and large pieces of baby gear. (The pictures from after we moved it all can be found in the previous Room of Crap post.)
Once the big things were out of the room, I could focus on the actual clutter. The two main things I went through in that room were books and papers. Books were taking up a ton of physical space in the room, and papers were in various piles and boxes throughout.
I love to read and the bookshelf was completely crammed with books – so much that some of my favorite books were displayed in my bedroom closet because there wasn’t room for them on a shelf. There were also six boxes stuffed with books, some I hadn’t read in twenty years. Basically, my entire adult life, through many moves, I’ve been hauling around heavy boxes of books I hadn’t read in a really long time.
Historically, books have been hard for me to part with, especially the books I enjoyed reading. Before the advent of the Kindle I worried I’d never be able to find a copy of a certain book again. Even today, when it’s easier than ever to get your hands on a book, even if it’s an older copy, I always think I’ll want to read them again or need to reference them again.
Then I remembered that I have a Kindle, and I live right down the road from the library. If I got the urge to finally read or re-read a book I hadn’t read in years, I could probably borrow or buy it pretty easily. It was time to part with some of my books. They were just taking up too much space.
I took the heavy boxes of books off the shelves one by one and took a good hard look at what was inside. When I looked at a book I asked myself if I really truly wanted to read it again, and if so, when? And could I easily find it at a library or on Kindle if I did?
That series of fifteen books I read back in the late 90’s, haven’t read since, and have been hauling around with me everytime I move? Gone. Book series that disturbed me that I’m sure I won’t read again? (Looking at you, Game of Thrones – I don’t even care about Winds of Winter anymore.) Bye bye. Books I read for college courses that made me feel like a smarty pants for holding onto it? Goodbye. The self-help book that droned on for a thousand pages without actually giving me a single helpful suggestion – but I thought I might one day finish reading it because maybe it would actually help? To the donation box with you!
I filled up two boxes of books to donate.
If I feel the need to read any of them again, I’ll check the library or pony up the money and buy them on Kindle. My house is not a storage facility!
That left me two empty storage boxes. I took books from my bookshelf that I wanted to keep but wasn’t sure when I’d get around to reading again and filled up a box with them. That gave me more room on my bookshelf (although it’s pretty full), and an entire clear shelf. I moved all my Georgette Heyer novels that were in my bedroom closet there.
After finishing with the books, I kept my decluttering high going by tackling some papers. I had a box full of notebooks and notes from college. (Yet another heavy box I had hauled around with me every time I moved.) I don’t think I had cracked open most of those notebooks since I was in school – and I graduated from college back in 2004! Here’s the problem: I heard someone say once that you should hold onto your notes because you paid a lot of money for that education, and your notes are your written record of your education. Here is what I’ve learned: I already attended those classes and imbibed the lessons and knowledge. Holding onto a bunch of notes (of questionable legibility) won’t make it any more worth the money I spent.
I only kept one notebook full of art history notes. The rest of them, including all the random papers that were tucked in them, were recycled.
I also sorted through the other random papers in the room that were in random piles and folders and boxes. Everything that I wanted to keep I stored vertically in a box and put it on the shelf. Now when I need to access any of my papers I can find them easily. (This is hopefully a temporary solution until we can get some sort of filing system.)
Lastly I was finally able to drop off the bag and box that had been sitting in the back of the room to the consignment store. That cleared up a little space.
The room is still a hot mess, however. Even though I have put hours and hours into this space going through things and decluttering, it still looks like a Room of Crap. The problem is it’s still a glorified storage unit. There’s stuff waiting to be listed/sold on Ebay as well as packing materials. There’s crafting materials I have no storage for. There’s tons of homeless clutter. There’s stuff that I think I want to keep, but I’m just not really sure (like musical instruments I used to play but don’t play at the moment).
I’ll be back with a future post to go over how I plan to solve the problem of the Room of Crap.
I want to know: do you have a Room of Crap? Or a closet or a corner? What’s your plan to declutter that space?