Disorganized Re-Organization

I always think I don’t have the energy for a complete spring cleaning, so I do it piece meal, a bit at a time. I got into more than I bargained for today and now I’m sitting here laughing at myself and my crazy way of doing things. My day of organizing went like this.

I bought 100 pods of coffee for my coffee maker and the box has been sitting on top of my fridge. When I made coffee this morning I filled the glass canister sitting on the counter and noticed that the box was nearly empty. I found space for the extras in the cupboard...so now I have an empty box.

The pantry I bought last year for more storage has two shelves, top and bottom, with cupboard doors and one drawer in the middle. I emptied the top shelf which already contained a box that once held coffee pods. Now it was full of hats and mitts, crocheted from my yarn stash.

As I had my first cup of coffee I put each set into a plastic bag with a note as to size and found I had both boxes filled, and both nicely fit on the top shelf. The overflow went to the table, except for other crocheted items.

The second shelf was supposed to be my office space. There was a file holder, pads of paper, notebooks, and a mug of pens and pencils. What there was, was a mess of jammed in items I had shoved in to hide or store. I pulled it all out, went through the file I hadn’t looked at in almost three years and now have a blue recycle bag half full of paper.

I’m a pen and pencil hoarder, and had enough to fill a pretty old stationary box, but at least they are all in one place. When I did the scrapbooking for the grand kids I cleaned out a lot of my paper (also a hoarding issue for me) and added what I found in the pantry to what was organized in the closet.

Is it still organizing if all you do is move something from one space to another? I’d say yes if it reduces things at the same time and is really more organized.

A couple of years ago I decorated a wooden box for my brother’s birthday. I had a grand plan, at some point, to make one for each of the grandkids, to store their small valuables or keepsakes in. I got two completed, but wasn’t happy with either, so they got shoved in the pantry. Maybe they’d look better stained, as it made such a nice finish to the one I made before. So, here I am with the boxes on the kitchen counter, stained, using the last of a bottle of sealer that I then tossed in the garbage. I still don’t like the boxes so will scrap them, and maybe try again some other time.

I had a small empty bin from the closet cleaning and pulled it out and set it on the floor. This became my donation bin and I tossed in things that were useful, but no longer wanted. With the desk shelf organized I next tackled the drawer. I found an empty card box and filled it with the birthday cards I had bought for the kids. I added all the pens I found to the office box.

I sorted through the sales receipts, some going back to 2013, only kept the ones for major purchases. I found a box of jewellery making items and added pieces as I discovered them. Another one of those hobbies I want to try and keep buying supplies for.

I can actually see the floor, and have only partially loaded the table, so good on me. I found the old margarine container with the drawer pulls I bought 2 years ago when I moved in. The new ones are brushed pewter looking, more like me than white ones with a gold edge. The kids were changing these for me but we ran out of small washers, so the container got put...you guessed it...in the pantry. If Walmart sold small washers this job would have been done, but I have to go to Home Depot and so it’s a case of out of sight, out of mind. I’ll get to that little task this week.

I’m feeling pretty good by this time and ate some lunch standing at the sink, looking at my day’s work, and I mean day, as it was after 2 P.M.

The empty space on the top of the fridge caught my eye and I reached for all the restaurant coupons and menus sitting there, all outdated. But there was also a carousel spice rack sitting there. It holds sixteen bottles of spice, mostly spices I use for baking, and a series of spice blends I made up for cooking. I don’t do much of either any more so...clean up in the spice aisle.

All the bottles were emptied in the garbage and set to soak in a sink of hot soapy water, and now sit air drying on the counter. The rack will be offered to the kids, for spices or in my son’s case for small screws or whatever on his work bench, and if there are no takers...into the donation bin it goes.

I’m sitting here with a cold drink, feeling pretty smug, maybe I’ll do the bottom cupboard tomorrow, I seem to be on a roll.