A bit wide-eyed, Etienne asked if it was time for the cedar closet. What could be so terrible? Were monsters lurking inside it, poised to attack? Would we have to tame the closet? Maybe so.
What was in it? There were a few bags of clothes given to daughter Margaux, which she quickly said could be donated. There also were hanging women’s clothes, ski boots, rolls of holiday wrapping paper, framed art pieces, a rolled carpet remnant. It was a varied assortment of stuff that the family had successfully avoided, since the closet had become unpleasant to see. We would use my professional organizer’s method of working our way around it, top-to-bottom.
Maybe I said that de-cluttering and organizing the closet would be a bit like the old phrase about making sausage or legislation. The process might look ugly, but the end result would be worth the effort. We began by pulling out everything from the closet floor, which made walking around the small upstairs hallway both challenging and amusing.
We found a shelf, similar in shape and size to two others, put it up and to good use, displaying a fun Advent calendar and a “trunk” (really a box), in which the Harry Potter books had been sent to Margaux. (Brilliant packaging!)
Son (and brother) Jack magically appeared to help haul stuff downstairs. Etienne and I discussed the framed art pieces. To the basement? It can be damp at times, so we opted instead to keep them in the closet and neatly stacked them. We more tightly rolled the carpet remnant and set it on the floor.
When we were done, there actually was visible floor space! And, while there hadn’t been any real monsters to defeat, we had cleared some clutter and changed chaos to calm. Another success with Etienne!
About De-clutter Me!
De-clutter Me! offers non-judgmental, competitively-priced and confidential assistance to help clear clutter in your home and/or business. We’ve been changing chaos to calm since 2013.