I woke up feeling a bit better today so I spent some time in the spare room this afternoon trying to see if I could shift some more stuff. I had put everything into categories a week ago making it easier to tackle it all; however, it had all got a bit mixed up due to the room being in use for working and watching TV. Other unwanted items had also need added to the room.

Firstly, I focused on the two open charity bags, adding a few items that were lying around and then tied them both up in a double knot. Done! They can now go into the garage so that I’m not tempted to look in them again.

I then spotted a broken cardboard box holding the girls’ old school books. I’d put them all in one place last week after going through bags and boxes from their rooms. I can see why they don’t want them taking up space in their rooms but if we are going to keep them, then they need a better place than a cardboard box in the spare room.

I have a wooden ottoman full of gift bags etc. in this room that I thought might be a better place for the school books. That got me focused on the other category that I could start working on today which was ‘gift wrapping’. I collected everything in one place a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t accessible enough and was getting messy again. I also found another box of gift bags and wrapping paper in the garage last week, most of which I want to keep. So, this all needed a better and more organised place too.

One of my dedicated readers suggested a flat box for gift wrapping (thank you livingeveryday2017) so I looked online for something appropriate and placed an order. I’ll come back and blog about that another day when it’s all organised.

At this very moment the gift bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper etc. are all in sub categories all over the middle of the spare room. I had to do that in order to see what I had so that I know how much storage I need. I’m not sure if I’m keeping it all yet, but the plan is to contain the stuff, stick to that amount of space, and then avoid buying extra if it won’t fit in the space we have.

After emptying the wooden ottoman of gift bags, I placed in the school books as this doesn’t need to be as accessible as the gift wrapping. The books all fitted nicely in there…

… and there’s room for more as the years go on. I did discuss with the girls how long we should keep their books and we decided that we would revisit what we’ve stored once they’ve left school. I’m happy to keep them in the garage after that if they still want them. They can join my boxes of school books that I brought home from my mum and dad’s house last weekend. Then one day in the future, I can drop my girls’ books off at their houses 😊.

More decluttering and organising tomorrow.

Until then…

Sandra