Cathartic

It had been a weird hard week.  For a bunch of different reasons.  So I took Friday off and cleaned out my junk room.  It. Was. Fantastic.  I've taken after pictures to share with you but can't believe I didn't take before pictures.  Imagine a room which we keep trying to make an extra guest room but it also holds my office, everything that we store for the kids (toys, clothes for the next season, etc.), it serves as our gift closet/wrapping supply room, and it holds extra things from around the house that have been put away "temporarily" while kids are in super destruct mode.  So let me paint a picture for you before sharing this pretty astonishing "after" photos. 

A 12X12 beige room that used to serve as our second guest room, the masculine one (hence the deer heads).  A queen sized mattress on a double bed frame in the center of the room.  Stuff piled so high on the bed that you couldn't see the bedding.  You could walk about one foot in before walking into "stuff" we were storing without adequate storage bins.  A closet overflowing with clothes in the closet, on the floor in boxes of the closet, and things helter-skelter on the shelves, from wedding photos to gift candles (you know the shelves, the extras you keep for when you inevitably forget someone's special day).  I started pulling everything out at 7:30 am when our nanny arrived.  I took a break at 10 to grab coffee and storage containers at Target and came right back to it.  While the kids napped at noon, our nanny helped me tear down the bed move it to the garage.  Then I began to assemble all the new storage containers I had acquired and filled trash bags of things in our hall for Goodwill.  There were a few new things I piled up to sell to my Mothers' Clubs.  I played with the kids for several hours when Maria left at 4:30 until they went to bed at 7:45 and then went right back to it.  By the time Bray arrived home at 10:30, the room was spotless (technically I have half a box still to go through but it's not cluttering the space).  I did everything from heavy lifting and furniture assembly to radical organization.  It was so CATHARTIC.  I didn't think.  I didn't work.  I didn't worry.  I just cleaned and organized.  I feel like a new person.  I'm taking off Tuesday to work on two more rooms - I may not be featured on Hoarders after all. 

Here's a few photos to motivate you to fall organizing this weekend - if I can do it with two year old triplets, anyone can:

Looking In From the Hall

The Closet

One of the New Storage Units