Clearing Out: Success!

If only I'd thought to take "before" pictures. 

The guest room closet once contained:

• Gifts to be given
• Boxes and packaging for gifts and mailings
• Overflow linens
• Costumes
• Letterman jackets
• Games
• Halloween decor
• General junk

It now looks like this:

I'm left with empty hangers, empty plastic shelving, a laundry basket, and 3 stuffed animals.  My ancient and well-loved Cookie Monster and the Bunny my aunt made when I was probably 2 years old will become the baby's.  The stuffed turtle (that you probably can't really see) is still mine.  I use it on car trips behind my back. Weird, I know, but it helps with pain. 

So where did everything go?  This took movement between 4 closets.  Here's the breakdown:

• Steven's and my letter jackets are now in the master closet.  My sister's jackets are at my mom's house.
• The overflow linens from the guest closet are now in space bags in the master closet.  I also moved the sheets for our bed from the linen closet into the master. 
• All Halloween decor, which was in both the guest and linen closets, is now in the master.
• Steven's costumes are now in the closet in the weight room (former Star Wars room).  My costumes (all 2 of them) are in the master, hanging with my dresses.
• The games are now in the linen closet.
• I moved all medications and such from the linen closet to the master.  This helped create room in that closet for the baby's sheets and stuff, and also put meds in a more child-safe area.
• Gifts and packaging are all in the craft room closet.

The craft room closet got a major overhaul and cleaning out during this process.  I didn't realize just how much extra space I had in there! 

I took 5 bags and 1 big box of junk to Christian Community Action.  I'm still collecting more, I'm sure, as I still need to go through the guest room itself.  I'll need to move the cats' beds out of the guest room and into the weight room so they'll get used to sleeping elsewhere.  (That might be hard for Doogie, as he's spent 12 years sleeping in the guest room!) 

There's still a ton to do, but this was the worst of it, I think.  We've already received several gifts for the baby, and I've had no place to put them.  Now I have an empty closet just waiting for his things.  Being able to move stuff in there is a tremendous help when it comes to cleaning up the guest room in order to turn it into a nursery.  Living childless in a house for 12 years makes for some colossal shifting of stuff when Baby comes along! 

I can hardly wait to show my husband how much I've done in his week away.  He comes home from camp tomorrow!