Thanks to Pinterest I am really inspired to Get Organized.

We (my husband and I ) are entering into a new stage of life as empty nesters and slowly going through 17 years of accumulated “stuff”. 17 years is how long we have been in our house here.  We have waited to repaint, redecorate, redo, re-anything so that we wouldn’t stress over something getting marked, ruined, dinged, etc by having a houseful of kids. We always wanted to be welcoming and lived in. We also were like many of you – both working full time, heavily involved in all kids activities and the house itself was not a priority.

And to top it all off  I really didn’t know what “my style” was so I was hesitant to do major things to the house because I knew in a few days, weeks I would want to redo it.

BUT.. now I  have an idea of my style, we have one through college debt free, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, we have more time now than before, we are ready…ok I am ready and hubby is being patient and accommodating.

BUT..before I can start with anything “new” I felt it necessary to clean out closets, drawers, cupboards. To give away, donate, repurpose things I already had. I needed to evaluate what goodies I already possessed but had tucked away. I needed room to bring new goodies into the house. And I just need to get organized and have that distraction out of my way so that I could focus my attention on what I really want to accomplish and that’s a redecorated house , yard, porch and craft room.

Does any of this sound familiar? Then join me on a journey to clean up & clean out so that I can repurpose, redo, redecorate and reclaim my home. I figured that by sharing my journey it would keep me on track and it’s always fun to find others like yourself.

I believe in baby steps so this weekend I started by making a list of closets I knew I could tackle this month and then I wrote them on my calendar. I started with our hall closet because it’s always a jumble of shoes, coats for all seasons and “stuff”.

Treasures I found – Look at these cassettes – yes cassettes! This was my “Christmas” music collection I used to put in the car during the holidays. Which is why it was kept on the top shelf of the hall closet.  And the real treasure is this cool tool I found to convert my old cassettes to mp3 so that I can listen to them on my computer/ipod etc! Can’t wait for it to arrive…

Had to do an MDS Scrapbook page giving credit to PINTEREST for my organization inspiration. (Come follow me and pin good ideas along with me – www.pinterest.com – need an invite just let me know!)

Hall Closet BEFORE & AFTER

Next up the Linen Closet and a cool trick I learned!

Crafting Organized Joy!
Janet