Purging a Closet

Getting control of storage spaces has been ax semi-annual project addressed with mixed diligence.  I started with my half of my bedroom walk-in.  Shelves cleared.  Clothing that has no prospect of wearing again removed.  One Lawn and Leaf bag worth donated to Goodwill, probably another Kitchen Bag still to go.  Shoes not really sorted but at least placed in a box and a bag.  There is a shoe rack, leaning and not yet repaired.  I really only wear three pairs of shoes on a mostly rotating basis, with two pairs of dress shoes for Shabbos.   The bathroom closet adjacent to the bedroom had been sorted a few years earlier.  Not perfect, but maintained well enough to find things.

The two closets with sliding doors in My Space have been emptied.  All clothing donated.  Things I want to keep have returned to shelves.  Luggage that I use occupies its floor space, along with my wife's preserved wedding dress.  The clothing rails have remained empty.  Paper has gone to a mixture of recycling and shredding depending on content.  A small amount has been refiled downstairs.  Finalizing My Space in all its aspects remains a semi-annual project that always makes progress without ever really nearing completion.

We have a main bathroom with three closets, a full one next to the bathtub and two smaller ones under our paired sinks.  The one to the right, initially intended to hold shoeshine stuff, sorted by black, brown, tan, and cordovan, had expanded far beyond that.  I simply took everything out, sorting what I could claim as mine.  Coins, grooming products.  Then some sorting by item's purpose:  soap, things for hair, things for shaving, first aid.  All were placed on the floor for my wife to address.  Eventually completed.  Then the left closet.  We needed some plumbing repair, so the plumber emptied it.  Really not much stuff.  One box filled mostly with unwearable clothing designated as rags.  We've neither used the rags nor added to the box for about 25 years.  I extracted each piece of cloth, and found a few things not cloth.  Virtually nothing worthy of retention.  I found a kitchen bag, filled it with cloth, then all non-cloth just went into the bathroom's waste can. Even the box could not be recycled.

So now I have a virtually empty under-sink closet.  Lots of possibilities.  None better right now than leaving it vacant.

Purging a Closet

This is the six month project that is both difficult and will happen.  I will create a personal retreat from my dysfunctional study by Memorial Day.  I started last year, never worked in a sustained way, bundling it with other upstairs declutter.  It didn't happen.  Much more limited focus this time.  I am arranging for a space planner but first there needs to be space.  What better space than closets, two of them, ample in size, with legitimate storage functions.  But first they need to be emptied.  There is a hanging bar with my haven't fit in decades suits and pants, all in good condition.  Off to clothing donation.  Ditto for my daughter's Brownie uniforms.  The shelves have games and puzzles.  Out they go, charity if usable, landfill if not.  But my demise has been paper.  And I was ruthless.  I do not have any birthday cards from my grade school years and neither should my son.  Big recycling box of school papers, financial proxy notices, requests for donations that were never opened.  Lots of banking and financial statements from the 1990's.  Those go in a separate box for state sponsored shredding the first Wednesday of every month.  Another box with my wife's papers that are not so easily discarded.  Separate box for those for now, then tackle a file drawer, rid it of not needed, and designated a file draw with my wife's papers to remain in indefinite oblivion but not visible when the file drawer is closed.  Did one closet floor.  Finish removing the stuff from the room today.  On to the next closet tomorrow.