I have a lot of pictures to post of what happened to the little room off the bedroom, but first just a word about storage containers.
If I've learned one thing in the last month and a half...has it really been that long...it's that storage containers do have their place but we can't let them become a crutch.
It's way too easy to toss all the stuff we don't want to deal with in there, seal it and put it in a closet or on a shelf and think we've simplified. Heck, things look neater, they look simpler. The problem is that all the mess, the clutter, the junk, is still all there, it's just masked with a nice neat clean storage container. Worse yet, a storage unit.
Since Sept 2, I've lost count of how many storage boxes of all different sizes I've gone through. They were full of books (donated for the most part), papers (shredded and a minimum filed), CDs (donated for the most part...some still need to be downloaded) and just plain stuff that for the most part I've donated or simply thrown away.
All I have left are: 4 large plastic storage containers that hold 4 specific groups of things. They are neatly stacked in what was my completely empty closet (except for clothes and since I've never cared much for clothes there wasn't much in there). They hold 1) Office Supplies 2) Yarn and Knitting Needles 3) Journals, Scrapbooks and Personal Correspondence I've decided to keep like handmade cards 4) Bible covers (I've elected to keep only one Bible...I donated 10 document boxes of them to Feed The Children) So now I have one Bible and 4 Bible covers, and about 10 prayer and other religious books. All other books, religious and secular, will now be on my Kindle.
I also have a two drawer filing cabinet for papers and bills I need to keep, and a plastic file box with hanging folders that hold my knitting patterns. I'm still mulling over donating that to a local church that has a knitting group. Almost any pattern I'll ever need is online.
I have a document box of very neatly organized pictures. There are a bunch of shutterbugs in my family, and I'm fairly certain that my children and grandchildren are the most photographed humans on the face of the planet. There are hundreds and hundreds of pictures in that box. When I started going through the four storage boxes I had of them I was planning on sorting, scanning them into my computer and keeping one (or on the outside two) albums of real pictures. I spent many days just going through and sorting them down to a box of big and small pictures and slides. I've had to settle for waiting for a later date to take them out and really give them the attention they require. I expect it to take a month or two. So for now my one box...waiting patiently on the shelf in my closet...will have to wait.
Lastly I have two plastic shoe boxes with office supplies and things I need right at hand next to my desk.
These shelves are a far cry from the way they used to look loaded down with books, papers, office supplies and everything else you could imagine.
So in closing ~ storage containers do have their place. I can use them, but I have to be careful how and when I do.
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