Autumn Cleaning

A couple weeks ago, my hubby, my dad, and I spent an entire Saturday cleaning out our guest bedroom and home office.  I so desperately wish I had taken before pictures, but for whatever unknown reason, I did not.  Prior to the cleaning, the guest bedroom had the furniture, but there were large boxes stacked on the floor filled with things I packed up 2 years ago when we moved it.  The room was very cluttered and unorganized.  The office, now that was a disaster.  You couldn't even open the door without hitting something, and if you did manage to push it open, you couldn't even see the wood floor.  Instead, all you could see was boxes, old rolled up rugs, a raclette, a fondue pot, old shoes, an old fax, and more.  We have had our dogs for over a year, and they had never seen the inside of the office.  Because of the clutter, we just kept the door closed and would say “we’ll get to it eventually.”

Well, “eventually” came.  We started in the office, and it was unbelievably overwhelming.  The best way to tackle this was to start in a corner and gradually move around the room, and that’s what we did.  We created four piles:  keep, giveaway, store and trash.  Several hours later, the ground was nearly 100% visible, and the office closet organized.  We kept all the books in the built-in bookshelf since they belonged to my grandfather and great grandfather.  We then ventured to the guest bedroom where I went through each box and all contents went into one of the four piles.  More than 8 hours later, both rooms were cleaned and organized.  

Our guest bedroom...I still need to organize the bookshelf a little (move the pillows/hats)

Our Home Office...the floor is now visible!!

It was so cathartic and liberating to clean those rooms.  I am always much happier and much more productive when things are tidy.  Plus, it’s easier to find things!  The next big project is redesigning the home office!  I’m working with one of my mom and dad’s friend who is an interior designer, and she and I have some wonderful things planned that will transform the room!  Stay tuned….