Organizing – Near to my Heart

I’m an organizing nerd. There is nothing I like better than to sort and purge and then put back together so that it is all pretty. I once went and bought 20-30 spice bottles and then made labels so that my spice cupboard would look pretty and could be easily alphabetized (and yes, we have at least that many spices because my husband is always finding a recipe he has to try that includes a spice we have never before used and probably never will use again!)

So, this weekend, while said husband was out of town, I tackled our closet. I actually left his stuff alone, apart from putting all his clothing on the same colored hangers. I’ve actually been putting everyone’s clothing on their own color hangers – I don’t know why … this is the organizing nerd part of me. We have tons of those colored plastic hangers in multiple colors (because walmart changes the colors they carry every so often). Anyway, I pulled my clothes out, tried on anything I hadn’t worn recently, was ruthless about stuff I wasn’t crazy about, tried some clothes on that I haven’t been able to wear for awhile and discovered that my recent efforts to drop some weight are paying off – Score! Added a few items back into the mix. Lined the keepers up by color and season (long sleeve vs. short sleeve) and filled a giant black trash bag with another load of clothes to go to Goodwill. I’ve filled quite a few of these this fall as I have moved my kids bedrooms and pulled out their winter clothing and purged too small stuff from their drawers and closets. It always makes me feel good to pile those bags in the back of the car and know that is more stuff that isn’t cluttering up my house anymore. YAY!

My closet isn’t super pretty – it’s a tiny walk-in (maybe a step in – there’s room for one person to stand in the middle if they aren’t actually doing anything except getting clothes). We built a shoe shelf a few years back that made the closet a lot more user friendly – it goes from the floor to the ceiling and is just the width of a pair of shoes and gets them all off the floor. There’s no place for cute baskets or a cozy bench or even space for a picture to hang. So I’m not taking pictures. But I feel good every time I go in and see that row of organized clothes that are now hanging neatly instead of being all crowded and are on matching hangers and arranged by color. Nerdy, I know. I made Tom come and see when he got home! 🙂

Some people meditate to get that peaceful feeling – I put everything in it’s place and then look around and take a nice deep breath!

3 thoughts on “Organizing – Near to my Heart

    • Author gravatar

      I’m not as OCD as you are, but, I do some of that every January. It does feel really virtuous.

    • Author gravatar

      I totally, completely, without a doubt empathize with these feelings! Great job. Didn’t know you we’re a fellow neat freak!

    • Author gravatar

      Denita – I love to have things in their place (except for the kitchen – I just can’t keep it neat so I’ve given up!) because I really do feel better. My room is always picked up and neat so I have a refuge even if I don’t get to the rest of the house. I try not to let it carry me away!

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