The weekend rolls to an end...

Two days now.

Yesterday it was clothes.  I emptied my MALM drawers and my wardrobe (a stand-alone piece of IKEA furniture in the bedroom), and took all the clothes from the closet in the hall - which is fairly large, but the coats and jackets have to share space with the vacuum, the toilet paper supply, and various other storage items.  That closet is a problem area I'll have to revisit; but for yesterday, it was just a matter of clothes.

I sorted the clothes into two piles: 'keep' and 'don't keep'.  The 'don't keep' clothes went into green trash bags and will go to a charity as soon as I can find transportation.  The  'keep' clothes were sorted for function and replaced on hangers or in drawers.

Top left drawer: socks.  Top left: sleepwear.  Next drawer down: T-shirts for the gym (most of which are purple and have "Curves" written across them); black T-shirts for work; bras, knickers, and wfite gym socks.

Next drawer: T-shirts.  The one after that is all neatly sorted shoes in IKEA dividers.

Sweaters and woollens go into a nice wicker hamper someone left in the basement of the apartment building.  That left the wardrobe for indoor jackets, work trousers, jeans, skirts, dresses, and whatever.

Sounds as if I have a lot of clothes, doesn't it?  I never thought so, but even with four garbage bags of giveaways to show for my pains, I have more than I thought I did.  Which is good.  In a way.  It does make me feel like a failed minimalist.  Perhaps in future there will be another pruning.

Today, still happy about yesterday's triumph, I faced an area that terrified me: my desk.  I treated myself to a marathon viewing of The Good Wife while doing it, and was mightily entertained. I offered my spare computer, monitor and printer to some friends - having discovered that I absolutely don't need a spare of either. They were taking up a lot of space on the desktop.

So I spent the day going through papers, trashing everything I don't need - and what a pile of useless printing there was. Leftover material from work, catalogues, old correspondence, half-used notebooks - okay, I confess, I'm enough of a pack-rat to keep the half-used notebooks.

Four carton-loads of paper went to the trash.  Assorted items will go to the charity shop.  I cleared off the shelves above the desk, and the top shelf is not displaying my teapot collection.  I had ten teapots; I threw out the cracked one, and gave away the one I least liked.  The newest doesn't fit on this shelf. so I'm still looking for a good place for it.  That will come.  Early days still.

What impressed me most is how much work this all is, and how slowly it goes. It's a little intimidating.  Even working fairly efficiently, quickly, and steadily, it took me two days to accomplish what feels like tiny steps.

But it's a good start.

I'm hoping to do small increments of decluttering through the week, maybe ten or fifteen minutes of it per day, and then attack the big projects next week - the rest of the hall closet, perhaps, or one of the bookshelves.
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