The Great Office Clean Out of 2010

Last year when I set out clean up my craft room/office, I thought I did a great job.  After all, I started with this:

Please excuse the small pictures and the mess! I had so much stuff I didn’t know where to start.

I had obviously let things spiral out of control.  It was time to get in gear and clean it up, and so I did.

And I ended up with a room that looked like this:

Although the bookshelf didn’t get finished, the floor was at least cleaned up and I could actually walk through it without killing myself.  Bonus.

I was so happy, and all kinds of proud of myself.  Given that I did this while in the midst of a severe depression, it was truly an accomplishment.

Well, when my sister moved to Tennessee recently, she gave me a bunch of Rubbermaid bins and storage boxes…and they needed homes…and what started out as a small dusting and reorganizing project turned into a two day deep-clean-and-purge-fest.

I decided I was going to get real and get the stuff I was never going to touch out of here.  I have to confess, I was feeling like a craft hoarder, and I didn’t like that feeling.

The upshot is I donated 2.5 shelves worth of books to the Cheboygan Public Library; a very large lot of cross stitch patterns, aida cloth, knitting supplies and a queen size quilt project to the Sand Road Senior Citizen’s Center;

I gave a healthy bunch of fabric to my mother and my cousin;

ribbon to friends, and software to various and sundry friends via Facebook.

Everyone seemed happy to receive all these items that I once thought I had to have, but will never use.

It took me 14 hours over two days, but in the end I am satisfied.

I didn’t get rid of everything, obviously.  Paper crafting is a passion for me, whether it’s using my Silhouette, or designing something fun in Photoshop, digi scrapping or stamping.  So all of those supplies stayed put.  I have room to work on my drafting table now.  Huzzah!, as we’d say at Camp Greilick.  Little Man is still saying “huzzah” and it’s catching.

I won’t be replacing any of the things I got rid of.

I like this feeling of freedom.  I like the echo that this room has, now that there’s not so much stuff in it.

I’m going to work on the projects I have on hand and finish them first before I move on.

At least in theory. (giggle)

S.