I pride myself on not being much of a packrat. Yes, I do admit to owning a hope chest, full of high school and college momentos. Yes, I do admit to owning three plastic bins, filled with Alexander's clothing. Yes, I do admit to owning five bins filled with Christmas decorations.
But there are times when enough is enough!
Lately, the disaster known as Alexander's closet has been bugging me. It all started when I came across this lovely item in a catalog.
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| http://www.currentcatalog.com/ |
I decided right then and there, I had to have it. I knew it would be perfect for organizing my mess!
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| THE MESS |
This is one of THREE boxes that had gotten out of control. A few weeks ago, Eric moved Alexander's clothing to a lower rack so Alexander can pick out his own shirts. We love the independence this gives our little man. However, it also meant that I could now see more and more of the crap items.
So, this morning I went to task. I pulled the boxes out and started sorting the items into piles. I knew most of the stuff was old cards and Holiday pictures. I had just never taken the time to sort it all out.
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| Time to sort! |
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| The recycling pile kept growing by the minute! |
Turns out I'm a holiday card junkie. I just love them. And it seems I have kept everyone of them, along with baby announcements, since 2005. Once I had all of those sorted out, I put them into piles.
With each pile, I added our Christmas card from the year, too. Apparently, there is a small part of me that thinks I'll actually scrapbook again. I sure hope that small part of me figures out when I'm going to find the time!
Finally, after I had looked through every card, sorted way too many piles, and put together my cute little organizer box, I had a final product!
The bag is filled with cards from my baby showers and cards sent after Alexander was born. For some reason, I can't part with these cards so I'm going to buy another organizational box for THAT crap stuff and put them in my hope chest...if I can make room for it.
Finally, the closet was put back together. It looks just a little bit better if you ask me!
In case you are wondering, the Pull Ups box is filled with gift bags. Unless someone has a better suggestion, I think I'm going to buy a skinny plastic bin (the kind you use for wrapping paper) and put them in there, along with the rolls of wrapping paper that are behind it. I had a skinny bin for that crap stuff but that is being filled with Alexander's projects from school.
No, I don't keep every project.
Just my favorites.
For the hope chest.
I have a skinny bin for wrapping paper, but I actually store my gift bags in a really cool special gift bag hanger. Yeah, it sounds like a gimmick that gets you to buy something you don't really need...but it really is amazing. It hangs over the back of a door somewhere and has little pockets of different sizes. I can fit bags, tissue, ribbons, etc. in there and they're all in one place when I need to wrap. Plus, I can see them better so I know what I have. Before, I had them in a tall skinny bin but could never seem to find what I was looking for (even though I now know they were there) so I ended up buying another bag that I didn't need. If the idea makes sense hopefully it helps. If you want to see a pic let me know. :) Hugs!
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