What's in your closet?

I have been bitten by the fall cleaning bug. I know its not fall but I want to get a jump start. Remember how I claim to be neurotic and neat?  I lied and my closets will tell you otherwise. I think I am like most people and let things go in the summer. Things just tend to accumulate and I tell myself "That will be a great winter project". Who wants to sit in the house on an 80 degree day cleaning? Not me.
My problem is, once I start something, I go all out. Now I want to just rip the house apart.

I filled up a huge trash barrel and a big trash bag with things I only use occasionally. I really hate clutter. I really should have had a yard sale but I am too lazy. Most of the things I threw out were used maybe once or twice. Most of the things were gifts from my brother for Christmas over the years. He usually hands me my Christmas gift and says, "Put this in the Mark closet (his name) because you probably wont use it". He is usually right.

This was last years gift it came with a card with scratch tickets. I won $40.00 on the scratch tickets. That was the better gift because a) I don't like pancakes and b) I don't like pancakes


My mother is also guilty of this. She claims there is nothing to buy me (I beg to differ). She bought me this sewing machine. Seriously, does she know me? Martha Stewart I am not. I did try and use it once. It ended badly. I ended up ripping the fabric I was working on out of the machine, rolling it up in a ball and throwing it against the wall. Anybody want a sewing machine? I am serious.
Did I really need a professional grade jewelry steam cleaner? It is too much of a hassle. Steam cleaner meet your new home, the trash barrel. Sorry mom.
Pasta maker? You aren't worth the trouble. I can buy fresh pasta. I really didn't notice to much of a taste difference between the pasta I made and the kind I can just buy. We all know how I love my trips to the grocery store anyway.

I used to clean the closets and leave all of the "use once a year" items in there. Yesterday was a new day. Time to get rid of it all. I will be waiting for the TV repair man today so I will be cleaning like a fiend. When fall comes, I will be out shopping to fill my closets back up, not doing housework.
It is a rainy day so I am going to work myself silly seeing that I cant go out and walk. This post would not be complete without showing my accomplishments so here you go.

Sorry honey if you see a veteran wearing those ugly leather 80's coats. It was time for them to go. No you are not going to wear them someday, at least not with me.

Much better don't you think? I washed all of the closet floors and cleaned the baseboards while I was at it.

Up top, I like to store all of my gift bags and regular bags, it took me 17 years to organize them each into bags to have them stop falling through the wire racks. Why didn't I ever figure this out before? Every time I opened the closet, bags would fall and I would shove them back up there.

I organized my gift bags according to the holiday. I will not have to run out to the store anymore because I cant find a gift bag in the old jumbled mess.

On the floor there is a very useful gift from my mom, my food saver.

It feels much better being organized.

I would love to work on this today but my husband told me not to bother. We are going to be putting in new shelves. This is my pantry. Notice how the top left half and the bottom is mostly alcohol? I will make no apologies for that.
I wont wait to long to start to organize this, I know how he likes to drag out a project. I am more of the get her done type. I told him I want it to look like a closet company did it with bins and all. We will see if he comes through for me.

His last project, we will call it the grill project, resulted in this box being on top of my credenza for oh about 6 weeks. I asked him if he was done with it yesterday. He said "Yes, I guess I could put the box in the basement". The box is still there, I just put it in the basement. Your welcome.

Don't get me wrong, he is very neat. He just has more of a life than I do. The President is a very busy man.

Enjoy your day! I am thinking a nice nap is in order later.