52 Weeks of Organizing - Week 4

Wow. I am SO embarrassed. I have no idea why I'm even posting these before pictures. I suppose it's so I can keep it real with you all. The only reasonable excuse I have for why I allowed my closet to look like this is that during renovations we had to empty a bookshelf and all its contents got dumped on my closet floor. Uhh...yeah...that accounts for maybe 1/10th of the problem. As you can imagine, this week's organizing project was not a super fast process. Here's how it went down.

Prepare yourself....




Before: (it's okay if you gasped...or screamed...I know it's shocking and scary. Believe me, every time I ventured to retrieve something from out of there (you can imagine what a task that was) I was shocked and scared.)





In the process....after everything was taken off of the closet floor (I hadn't even touched the shelves or hangers at this point)



Tackling the floor took me a couple hours the first day.

Then, tackling the rest of the closet took me a couple hours the next day. After going through my clothes, I had one bag to giveaway.



After! (I can breathe again!)

Close up of after








I kind of got stuck in a rut when I tried tackling the shelves and hangers. I knew it was time to say goodbye to some of my clothes again, but for some reason I always have such a hard time letting go. I was definitely not accomplishing much for awhile, and I had to step back from the situation, evaluate what I was trying to accomplish (a clutter-free closet containing things I use/wear), and then be ruthless. If it looked terrible on me or I hadn't worn in in a year, it was time to say goodbye. It helped to think that I was blessed to have an abundance to pass onto someone in need. It certainly wasn't helping me or anyone else to have a cluttered closet full of clothes I didn't wear or like.

I am seriously loving this 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge. Linking up to this week's challenge here.