More Organizing & Junk Removal

Mrs took an extra long weekend the second to last week of March to visit her Mom in Florida.  I took a few half nights off from work and then two full nights off as well, giving myself a four day weekend to be with the dogs and get a few little things done around the house.

Continuing on with the organizing thing, I cleaned out 'my closet' in the mudroom, which usually ends up being a catch-all for shoes, dog stuff and whatever else might need to be stuck out of sight.  After emptying and vacuuming it, I stole my shoe rack from the bedroom closet and organized the shoes and boots I use on a regular basis.  I also organized shelves in this closet and the bigger one adjacent to it, packing away extra dog coats in a plastic tote in the basement, and moving extra dog leashes and harnesses to the small hallway at the base of the stairs.  This freed up a lot of space and left us with two empty shelves in the main closet and one empty shelf in mine.  Amazingly enough, I have been able to keep it neat and organized.  We also keep a book shelf at the end of the mudroom (just to the right of the closet door in the image) which I also organized.   We keep our barn boots on the bottom shelf and towels for dirty dog feet (they get wiped every time they come in) or rain-soaked dogs.

In the space left in my bedroom closet after removing and re-purposing the shoe rack, I was able to add an additional half of a wire shelf to keep my shoes on, and create floor space for storage.  Our small carry-on size travel suitcase and a small plastic tote with extra winter scarves and hats fit nicely under it.

This past Monday, Mrs and I continued our purge of junk, this time in the 'tool room' of the basement.  We have a typical Cape Cod basement.  Damp, unfinished and full of junk.  We're getting there.  I need to organize my tools and we have a few large items that need to go as well.  There is a washer and dryer down there that will probably work just fine if someone is handy and has the time and desire to put into it.  I am tempted to put them out by the road with a 'FREE' sign on them with the thought that someone will take them.  There are plenty of junk guys around who take metal away for scrap.

The basement will never be a pleasant place to be, but at least we can try to make it more functional and free ourselves of stuff that we don't need or want.