The Organizing Journey Day 19

Day 19 – Sorting the Sorting Table

So today I’m actually cleaning/organizing.  And what do you know… I feel GUILTY for not working in the studio!  Oh my gosh, I’m a lost cause!

I got up at 5am and did my two hours of orchard work, then I did some dishes and vegged for a bit (yes, I need to work on that). 

Sometimes cleaning is so tangential it almost feels like I’m spinning my wheels.  My self-appointed task today was to clean off the love-seat in my bedroom.  I basically use it as a storage point for clean laundry.  Yes, putting clothes away is an issue for me.  I don’t like hiding them away and I don’t like having to pull them out of hiding when I need them.  But the system is being tweaked so there isn’t so much “hiding away” anymore.  You’ll see.

In the meantime, here’s the love-seat.

Wow, there’s actually a lot of potential for positive change here.  Aside from cleaning off the love-seat, I need a more appropriate bed cover.  I love this blanket because it’s lightweight and SUPER soft.  But ick… I do not like the looks of it.  I need to fix the thing on the wall with pockets (for bookmarks, flashlight, glasses, etc).  I dunno… maybe I should get rid of it entirely.  I’m not into the wall color, but I hate painting, so the jury is out on that at the moment.  I do, however, have a ton of artwork that needs to be hung up and I see prime real estate there. 

Oh, so back to the tangential thing.  Once I got all the clean clothes off the love-seat (including winter sweaters!!!  It’s 107 degrees outside right now… why are my winter sweaters still out and about?!).  Anyway, once they were gone I saw how dusty the exposed parts of the couch covering were so I popped that into the wash.  Then I pulled the nightstand out and ew… dust bunnies!  So vacuumed and mopped.  But see, these little things add up.  Cleaning clothes off a couch isn’t just cleaning clothes off a couch.  There are other things that it leads to. 

Okay, so now I’m tackling the large table that’s been using up about 80% of my bedroom.  Ha!  It started out as a sorting place and ended up being a catch all.  I must eliminate all the catch-alls in the future.  I shared this image with you a couple weeks ago.  Since then there isn’t a single square inch of free table surface.

Yes, I feel guilty about not being in the studio today but I feel really good about getting some cleaning/organizing done.

At the end of the day, all the clothes were put away and I’d actually tackled everything that was on and under the big “sorting” table in the bedroom.  Here’s a shot of one closet wall.  It’s not totally aesthetically pleasing (yet) but it’s a great start as far as clean and organized goes.  The most important thing is that I can FIND what I need without rummaging through boxes, bags, piles, etc.

And now I have to spend a day in the studio, so I won’t get back to organizing until Friday.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.