The Project: Part One

While we wait for confirmation that Baby Girl is indeed a girl before we set up the nursery, we have been occupying ourselves with another project. That is to clear as much stuff out of our bedroom closets as possible.

You see, storage in Arizona is difficult. Most of us do not have basements or attics. Usually every square foot of your house is actual living space. Many many people cannot park their cars in their garages because that is where all the crap goes. Hubby and I both grew up where there was at least one room in your basement, usually where the furnace lives, that is unfinished and crammed with stored junk. Some people have entire 1000+ sq feet of unfinished storage wonderland! We did in our first house. This can lead to storing junk you either (A) don't really need or (B) forget that you even had. My parents have a serious problem with that. Now that they have moved to Arizona they have a garage full of junk and one of their cars lives outside. They seriously have almost every toy I ever played with as a child. And every dance costume. And every art project. I could go on and on about their junk. But for the record, they are not like those awful hoarders. If you go into their house it is immaculate and there is no junk just lying around. Oh no, their junk is nicely packed away and stored for all eternity. I call them mild hoarders.

But hubby and I have become pros at getting rid of stuff. We have moved so many times and have realized that it is just too much work to lug around stuff we don't need or forget we have (which probably means we don't need it). So imagine my shock when I realized that every bedroom closet in our four bedroom house was full. Yikes! This is a problem. Where will baby's stuff go? So I freaked out, exclaiming, "What is all this junk?! We can't need it all! We have to get rid of this stuff? Woe is me!".

Upon closer inspection, this is what I found. Closet #1 is filled with extra blankets, linens, coats (which we hardly ever use in AZ but need for when we travel home) and board games. None of that is likely to go. Closet #2 is filled with my craft/scrapbooking stuff. Granted, it is not very organized and could be compressed but it was not my prime target as it is all stuff I will keep because I use.

Closet #3, which just happens to be in the nursery, was another story. It was packed top to bottom with unpacked boxes from our move. So we attacked. A few boxes were easy as they were extra kitchen type things that we definitely need but don't use often. Luckily there was room to be had in the kitchen cupboards. A few other boxes contain knick knacks, candle-type decorations, and picture frames that we haven't unpacked for the last few places we've lived. I have gone through some of this but there are many more cuts to be made. I'm not concerned about that. It will be put out somewhere or chucked.

Several of the boxes offered big dilemmas for me. It cut to the very core of my "use it or lose it" attitude and touched the place in my heart from when I was young and held on to everything. Yes, I am talking about CD cases and VHS movies. These may sound like ridiculous items but I have resisted getting rid of them for years. Many of our CDs are stored in those zippered type cases because we would bring them in the car when we road-tripped a lot between IA and MN. Hubby has long since thrown away all of the plastic cases that his CDs originally came in and keeps urging me to do the same. I don't know why I am so resistant. Why do I need mine? I have a ton of CDs but how often do I look at the cases or insert booklets? Heck, how often do I listen to the actual CDs?! We mostly listen to the radio or our iPods. But I reluctantly agreed that the time had come to get rid of them. We compromised by deciding we will buy another large zipper case so I can put all my CDs in and even have room to store the little booklets. The plastic cases will go, thus eliminating 2 boxes! It still hurts though.

The final item is my precious VHS movie collection. Since I have already bored you for a half an hour with tales of my junk, I will leave the telling of the VHS debacle to another day. I bet you just can't wait...