Does anyone else out there ever feel like they are drowning in STUFF??
Since I've started my third trimester, I'm starting to feel that "nesting" itch. The nursery is still under construction (it's getting there!) so I can't nest in there just yet, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I had to scratch that itch in another room in our house.
I've never showed the attic on here before (other than pictures of before we moved in) and for good reason. It has been a dumping ground. The place we throw everything to get it out of sight. There was no method to the madness, you could barely walk in there, there were bags, bins and boxes strewn all over the floor. We had no idea half of the stuff that was even up there anymore because we only go up there to dump stuff.
Gross.
But thanks to that itch, I was determined to go through every nook and cranny and not just organize the mess, but to DE-CLUTTER!!! I've realized that the overwhelming sense of drowning in the clutter in our own home is not (only) because we are poor organizers, but rather, because we just have too.much.stuff!
Here's a little "before" to give you an idea of how my room in the attic was looking...
How did I accumulate so much stuff? And how did I let it get to this state? I guess it's true what they say, out of sight (this is the 3rd floor in our home), out of mind.
There are two rooms up in the attic, the front one is "mine" and the back one is "Darryl's". My room very quickly got taken over by all of my work supplies and materials as well as my arts and crafts stuff.
It took me two days to go through every bin, bag and box and throw out stuff that was damaged or not useable anymore, recycle old, unused papers and donate things I no longer need or use. Then a really thorough dusting and vaccuming happened and it felt fantastic.
Here are a few before and after shots. This is what you saw/see upon entering the room...
Yes, that is literally a huge slab of the plaster ceiling that fell off the house in the next set of pictures. That was in large part why the room and everything in it was so covered in dust (and probably the fact that it hadn't been vacuumed since we moved in nearly 5 years ago. Shame.)
What was supposed to be my painting station, but has never been used because I could barely get to it - and because the room is either stifling or an ice-box throughout the year...
Oddly enough, the closet actually looks neater in the "before" shot here. But that was because it was serving no purpose to us and not being used. In our house, the only closets are the one in this room which is a half-height closet and our bedroom which has two single sized closets. And that is it. In the whole 5 bedroom house. No linen closets, no front entrance closets. And it drives me batty. So I found it funny that when I constantly complain about our house having no closets or storage space that it took me almost 5 years to actually make use of one of them!
So now all of my work resources and supplies are put into bins and tucked away into this closet. Ahhhhh, relief.
I wish I had taken a picture of all of the STUFF we dropped off to value village. There were about 8 boxes and garbage bags full of stuff.
And just because I can't stop enjoying the clear room (it really does feel like it helps to clear your mind as well when you have clear space to live in), here are a few full sized pictures.
The ceiling will have to be addressed... one of these days.
What was once the most dreaded place in the house for me to go to, is now currently my favourite because it is the least cluttered so I find myself going up there just to admire it haha.
Anyone else nesting, or de-cluttering? I have a heck of a lot more to go through in other rooms in our house and I'm looking forward to the wonderful feeling I got from just getting rid of STUFF!
