Success for decluttering

I won't say I'm obsessed (OK -- just a little bit), but I think I may have found a solution to help me stick to decluttering. 

Now that the space in Studio U is wide open - loads of flat surfaces, a cheery color in the room, and plenty of light from that huge window, I feel this is the ideal spot for the decluttering process to continue. Slow and steady will win this race, but the space is inviting to work in. 

So I did a "bad" thing. I made 6 trips upstairs with some of the junk that was on the table in the office. I laid out the boxes on the window seat and on the counter. 

Let the sorting begin!

My cutting table is totally clear and at an excellent height to sort. 

It was a busy day yesterday, so I didn't have as much time as I would like, but I managed to get one box filled for the donation center, and the garbage can is full. 

One box for donation

This is what it looks like right now. A bit hard to tell, but the window seat is only half full, and the used space on the counter is less. 

Progress is made in decluttering

I hope to get back at it this afternoon. Some of the boxes on the counter are already half filled with stuff to be donated, so there isn't too much left to sort through. 

YES  --- this is going to work, and I WILL get the office cleaned up. I don't care if I have to huff all the crap upstairs to sort through it. The working conditions are favorable, and I seem to need that. If I take a box or two of paper at a time, there is plenty of room to sort, and if that room becomes the decluttering room for the next month, I'm OK with that. One must be flexible to get things done. 

I am giving serious thought to repainting the office. While the color is lovely - a deep orange, it's dark here and not exciting as a place to work. Plus, there are ZERO flat surfaces at the moment. 

As a result of removing boxes from the table, I added more boxes. My goal is to get rid of all the boxes on the floor. So the table is still crammed with stuff. 

More stuff to sort

And guess what? There is actually more floor space visible behind the table. 

More visible floor space

There are now only four boxes on the floor. Well, that's not technically correct - make that seven, but still, seven is way better than it used to be. My immediate goal is to remove all the stuff in front of the double doors. There are TWO doors into the room, which is a bit of a waste of space. 

I was so excited about moving stuff yesterday that I wanted to move more, but I stopped. Don't get overconfident (my past problem); nothing gets done if it's too overwhelming. 

I have a 6-drawer plastic shelf with a broken leg, and I want to get rid of that. As I was perusing the space yesterday, I thought I could purchase another little rolly cart to replace it. Then I thought -- seriously? You want to get rid of everything in the shelf unit, so you don't need another piece of furniture. Thankfully common sense prevailed, and I'll wait to sort through those drawers to see if there is anything worth keeping. 

I don't have a handy picture of the "before" in this room, but I must try and dig one out. Leaps and bounds have been made here, and there's still a long way to go, but I'm happy with the progress. 

As I mentioned, the day before, I had gone through all the bathroom stuff, and it was shocking to discover that I had SEVERAL bags of toiletries ready to go for traveling. I guess I would have one prepared for travel, but I couldn't find it when I needed it, so I started another. It was a crazy scene, to be sure. And how many tubes of AfterBike does one person need? 

Bags of toiletries

And don't ask me why I have so many hairbands for the gym. I must not have been able to find them and bought more. This seems to be the biggest issue with anything -- if your items don't have a home, then you can't find what you want, so you buy more. And for the most part, things do last for a long time if you take care of them, so I now have a lifetime supply of certain items. 

This is the mess I have to contend with in Studio B. It's all there for a reason and was collected over the last couple of weeks. Some things need binding before they can be put away, the tuffet kit needs to be packed in the big box and mailed, and a bunch of other small jobs. I hope to tackle that this coming week. 

Clean up in Studio B

It just seems that there is so much to do and so little time. Now, how the heck does that happen? It's not like I'm just lazing around eating bonbons all day, but time flies when you're having fun. 

Lots of other exciting stuff has been happening here, but I have an in-person presentation this morning, so I've been madly packing. It's one thing to run around the house and take pictures for a Zoom presentation, quite another to take real stuff. Let's just say it's good that I'm driving there as I have a LOT of things to pack. 

OK -- my stupid girls are frantically trying to catch the rabbit under the gazebo. The poor rabbit -- I don't know why it insists on living under there, but they are on the hunt, and I'm afraid one of them will get stuck under there, which would NOT be a good thing this morning. 

On that note, I'm off to grab a shower and make myself presentable! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!