The BIG Clean Out:

And how I can make yours easier - 

keep reading until the end!

I've known for a while that I needed to do a big clean out in my apartment.  There are empty boxes and pieces of furniture that need to go to the recycle or a new home leering at me from my den.  There are random items on my kitchen counter that need a home in the already full cupboard (I have a small kitchen).  There are so many large piles of laundry taunting me from my bedroom and my daughter’s.  Porches to be swept, carpet stains that need to be removed, blinds to be dusted… And since I’ve had 13 weeks off of work, you’d think I would have gotten to all this plus more, but I haven’t.  Let me tell you – the rest is irreplaceable. 

But that all had to come to an end recently.  I did a major overhaul on my huge IKEA 25 cube shelf.  Everything in a container and only the things I wanted to keep remain.  While my little one was at camp I cleaned her room top to bottom and did all her taunting piles of laundry. I made a pile of the clothes she’d outgrown and that she no longer wore to give away.  Her room looked so fantastic I decided mine needed the same treatment.

Now…my room was like a complete disaster area.  It has been since I was a kid.  For some reason it is the one part of my place that is always “under construction,” or at least that’s the justification I use for keeping it so messy.  ;)  I decided I needed to make a BIG change in the way I keep my room.  Because when it’s tidy, I LOVE IT!  Several weeks ago I bought a beautiful bedding set and fluffy mattress topper.  A few months before that I inherited a beautiful armoire with a great HDTV inside and purchased a ROKU to go along with it (I’d never had a TV in my room before; I had previously been against it when I was married, but hey, I’m single!)  These were all encouragement to clean it up so I could enjoy spending time in it!

Somewhere on Facebook I’d read an article about Project 33.  Long story short it helps you build a minimalistic “capsule wardrobe” with about 33 pieces.  It is an intimidating goal, but one of the statements on the website said perhaps if you can’t get down to 33, you can consider getting rid of 33 items.  And thus, my inspiration!

Yesterday I ran wildly through my room, picking pieces of clothing that no longer fit (too big and too small), were out of style, hadn’t been worn since I can remember, items purchased on clearance just because it was a good deal but have never been worn and I made a pile!  My pile turned into two, they got larger, kept expanding. I included all the baseball caps I don’t wear, handbags I’ve hung onto for too long, bedding I’d retired that would likely never be used again, extra old pillows that had accumulated, shoes that were lingering unnecessarily – and it was SO exciting thinking of how much simpler my life would be without all this extra, unnecessary stuff!  I stopped counting after 33 and what I ended up with was 11 large garbage bags and a 20 gallon bin full of stuff ready to go!  I have just a couple of loads of laundry to do now and I am LOVING IT!  I’m excited to expand my big, minimizing clean out to the rest of my apartment!  I can’t BELIEVE I had that much stuff to get rid of!

Do you know what the worst part about cleaning out is?  Toting everything in bags and boxes from my place, to my car to the donation center.  I don’t know why, I just can’t stand it.  It feels like I’ve done all this work just to do MORE work.  Ugh!  But here I am to save your day!  If you are in my local area (Tacoma, Auburn, Federal Way, Kent-ish) I have an amazing opportunity for you.  It will help you clean out and it will help the community.  All the items will either go to thrift stores that are low on donations or will go to developing nations/third world countries.  And when you give this way, it will help fundraise for one of the best kids I’ve ever met.  Her name is Emery, she’s 15 and she’s on a college exposure competitive softball team – and she’s GOOD!  Her goal is to achieve a scholarship to play softball in college.  She’s in advanced classes, she’s an excellent student with a high homework load who still maintains her high GPA and competes as a competitive softball player.  Playing on a competitive team gets very expensive and as the child in a single parent household those expenses add up quickly.  Emery is paid by the pound for your donations and this supplements tournaments and other expenses.  If you’re local, she is able to pick up your donation – cutting out my least favorite part of transporting all those heavy bags to the store on my own.  See!  WIN – WIN!  Contact jenemy2@gmail.com for the information you need to arrange a pick up and get to cleaning out!! Also, see below for a list of accepted items.

Accepted items:

Clothing, shoes, handbags, wallets, bedding, pillows, backpacks, soft sided luggage, towels, hats, scarves, gloves, linens, accessories, anything you can wear on your person.