Still on Monday's quick-cleaning high, yesterday I decided to tackle my dresser. Once again, 20 minutes was all it took to get rid of all of the old clothes and to refold everything. I tossed just as much as I kept. It is amazing how I like to hold on to old things just because I might want to wear it again. After looking at the toss pile, I realized most of the items hadn't been worn in 2 or 3 years, much less the recommended toss-after-1 year-if-you-don't-wear-it limit.
Pleased with how quickly I got through my dresser, I decided there was no stopping me! I headed into the master bathroom. I tossed lots of items from under the sink and then straightened the rest. My husband has worn his hair very, very short for the last two year so why do we still have that half-empty bottle of hair gel? And that bottle of Excedrin. It expired 5 years ago. 5 YEARS AGO! Yikes!
After that, I headed into the kids bathroom and purged most of the things under their sinks. Nothing major but just a bunch of bath toys that I hadn't previously wanted to throw away because they reminded me of my sweet little babies. But all those rubber duckies were taking up too much space. Bedsides, I have videos I can watch when I want to see my little ones when they were actually little.
So with less than 40 minutes of "work", I had cleaned out and straightened 3 different spaces. They still aren't perfect - I don't have lots of pretty little, matching, color-coordinated baskets under my cabinets or precisely folded clothes in my dresser, but there is much less stuff and things do look much better.
And also, one of the major projects I have been putting off is finishing since last year is my 2011 picture book. I am only half way through the year and really hate hate hate hate hate working on it. But I forced myself to work on it for only 20 minutes and I got through a good portion of July.
I'm pretty excited with this new 20 minute mindset. I figure I can work on anything for 20 minutes. If I get done, great. If not, at least I will have made a little progress.
And there are no pictures to go along with this post because really, if you've seen one pile of neatly folded underwear, you've seen them all!
4 comments:
Keep going!! I am finding my results to be just like yours -- right down to the six boxes of Omnicef antibiotic I found under our sink that expired in 2006. The doctor had given us a whole bunche of the office sample boxes when Francie had pneumonia and I just kept it. Never mind the fact that she was in 1st grade when she had pneumonia (and now she's in 7th!) or that if I gave the Omnicef to anyone now I'd probably kill them!
And my friend (a professional organizer) sets her timer for 15 minutes at a pop. Whatever she can get done in 15 minutes is more than what she would have done otherwise! I love it.
it is amazing what 20 minutes can do. :) I so need to purge. I did it in the bathroom about 3 years ago. It is time again.
You go girl!! This is an excellent plan....one with which I hope to start soon!!
I love the feeling I get after purging a darwer, closet, cabinet, room, etc! It's exhilarating!
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