De-cluttering the Clutter

When Josh and I moved into our apartment in August, there was some organization mixed with a little bit of chaos. While we tried our best to keep things clean and organized throughout our move and the set up in the new place, it didn’t always work. For starters, I own a lot of things. (Josh calls this hoarding – I call it being a girl who has moved cross country (twice) and amassed quite a few things along the way.) So, after spending almost two months in this apartment, I decided it was time to de-clutter the initially cluttered spaces, mainly, under the sink and in our linen/storage/all-purpose closet.

First, we started with the linen closet. Here’s what it looked like before:

 And here’s what it looks like now:

Some of my main objectives in organizing were to move my home “office” (ie. my printer and some general office supplies) and finding a better way to organize my craft supplies and towels. I combined the towels onto one shelf and took over the 2^nd shelf from the top for the office things. I don’t use the printer often and we don’t have office space in this apartment, so keeping it out of the way was the best solution for storage.

I organized the third shelf and placed a container there for various craft things (buttons, paint, mod podge, etc.) and leftover DIY supplies. Keeping these things in a container instead of laying out on the shelf not only helps me to find them faster, but keeps the entire area much cleaner as well. The containers at the bottom hold some general hardware supplies (paint, cordless drill, miscellaneous tools, etc.) and some old souvenirs that are going to be brought to my mother’s house when we go home to celebrate Christmas with her. And finally, Josh and I keep our remaining products (tissues, light bulbs, sponges and paper towels) on the bottom shelf. It’s close to our kitchen and provides an easy refill place for things around our apartment.

After I took care of straightening up the closet, I got to work on the truly chaotic area underneath the kitchen sink. Here’s what that looked like before:

 And, fortunately, here’s what it looks like now:

Here's the secret to de-cluttering: Give everything its own place and keep it there. Keeping extra bags stored underneath the sink was silly when we have a huge, and mostly empty closet, next to our kitchen. Does it seem like we have a lot of storage of space? Because we do. Lots and lots of it. I also moved the sponges to the linen closet and picked up a couple of cheap containers at Home Goods to keep some dish washing supplies in. I folded our most used re-usable bags (which we clearly don't always use since we have amassed so many plastic bags) and stored them under the sink, while I moved the least used ones into their new home in our 2nd bedroom's closet, along with the giant Tupperware storage containers that we keep in there. (Like I said, lots of storage space.) This new system allows me to quickly and easily grab cleaning supplies as I need them and gives me access to the dish washing detergent without having to search through an entire cabinet. And really, just looking at the de-cluttered area makes my heart a little happier. 

Am I the only one who gets incredibly happy looking at clean spaces? Have any of you felt the desire to clean out your cluttered spaces lately? I'd love to hear from you if you have! Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and that your week is a wonderful one!