The Box

Once upon a time…in my house, lived a box. And this is the story of this box. And how I kicked it out. ;)

I’ve told you before how I deal with some of the clutter in our home here. Some of it just…sits. Some of it goes into bags and piles and…just sits. ;) The bag is my favorite method of avoidance, the pile is a close second.

But this, this is a new one for me.

The Box.

Our friend The Box started out as just an fun surprise from the UPS man weeks ago. Then, one day, someone put STUFF in it. And it grew. And grew. And sat on the island for, um…weeks?:

It did.

And then, one day people were coming over and like any good, respectable woman, I grabbed Box and threw him in the closet:

For weeks. :)

I think he wept. He was so lonely, with just the toy vacuum and random jackets on the floor to keep him company. Whatever dude.

Finally today, I brought him out into the light again to deal with him once and for all. About a month into seeing he and his crap every time I opened the door, I had finally had it.

I told myself I was dealing with everything then and there, right away. No stuff going into new piles. NO new bags (or boxes) – everything needed to be put away.

So I took five minutes and sorted it:

Yes, Nya has figured out how to get on the island. We’re working on that -- I’ve forgotten how hard it is to train a cat (compared to a dog!).

Anyway, I figured out the easiest, quickest categories I could – Bub stuff, paper, stuff to the car, things I knew exactly where to put away and the I-have-no-clue-what-to-do-with-you pile.

And can I say that after one month of not knowing what was in that box or needing any of it, I was SO tempted just to throw it all in the Goodwill pile or the trash bin? I mean, one month and I didn’t think about any of this stuff one time. Did I NEED it? No. But I sorted instead of tossing.

Then I set the timer and gave myself ten minutes to get it all put away:

Sorry it’s blurry, I was in a hurry. ;)

I put (most) everything away, and let me tell you, I was sweating. Ten minutes was cutting it close people. I came down the stairs from my last trip to five seconds left on the clock.

I did have one small pile left – the annoying I have no place for you stuff:

I took five more minutes to sort all of it and guess what?? I actually DID find a place for this stuff! Who would’ve thunk it?

While I was in the process I cleaned up some more of the little piles that had accumulated in the kitchen as well, and when I was done everything was clutter free again:

And by “everything” I mean the island and that section of the counter. You can’t see the one to the right of the photo. ;)

But it’s a start right?? Mr. Box is now just a regular old box sitting in the recycle pile in the garage. Yessssss. 

And now that I’m done with the box, I can move on to The Bags:

Yes, I still have a problem. These have been full since June. :)

This weekend there will be a LOT of decrapifying around here – I want to start out the school year lighter and with less stuff around. Cleaning out car is also on my list. (Send help if you don’t hear from me by Monday.)

I KNOW a bunch of you are baggers and pilers, but how about boxers? (Huh?) I gotta tell you I’m not usually one who throws stuff in the closet, but it was kind of freeing. It may start a trend. ;)