Organizing Chaos

I've been trying to get my house ready (i.e., CLEANED UP) for the housesitters. Knowing someone else will be living in my home for two months, I want it to make a good impression, as well as be comfortable and clean. My house is usually fairly clean except when you start looking in cupboards and cabinets. At that point it's pretty clear that my usual method of cleaning up to have guests is to just shove everything into cupboards and drawers. That's usually fine as the casual dinner guest has no need to open them. The housesitters, however, will be living here full-time and needing access to everything. Yikes! Above is a photo of just one of my cupboards; it's a good example of what most of them look like!

Just coincidentally I came across a great website called The Eco-Organizer. This company will come into your home and organize your living spaces! How cool is that? And they are environmentally-friendly, too, always a plus. Well, I live in northern california and they operate in the Los Angeles area so I can't use their services. dang it. But the website shows lots of before and after pics, and gives tips on getting organized which gave me the motivation I needed to get busy myself.

Below is a photo of the same cupboard after I took everything out of it. My cats, Jack (bottom shelf) and Scout (top shelf) thought I had done it just for their entertainment and immediately took possession of the newly cleared space.

Once I got them out of there I swept it out with a broom, threw away a lot of the stuff (phone books from 2004, good grief!) and then neatly packed everything back in that was staying. Wow! I can go buy more stuff now!

This was highly encouraging, and I've gone on to clean out more cupboards, including the linen closet (always a disaster) and my walk-in closet, which requires a stepladder because the shelves go all the way to the ceiling. I've made a lot of progress in the last couple of days and feel great; I actually feel LIGHTER, as though I've shed some weight. And I didn't even have to diet.