The Decrapification of 2012

OK, first of all, let me hear it for all the door ninjas out there! Double thump to the chest! (If you’re confused, go here.) I loved your responses to my last post! And thanks for all your ideas and links! :)

It’s about this time every year that I get the BUG. I usually purge throughout the year but it’s the spring that I feel the need to GET RID OF EVERYTHING.

And this year, I think the guys at Goodwill think I actually have. ;) When I drive up they’re all, “What up Sarah?!” Cause I’ve been there so much lately.

It started earlier this year when we decided to start finishing the basement. It was then that I realized we had a ridiculous amount of stuff down there. I mean really. Reedonkulous.

So back in February I started…little bits at a time. I feel like it’s all I’ve done for months –- I’ve definitely had a one track mine lately. I told myself no new projects till I was DONE. Done ridding our home of all the EXTRA. You know, decrapifying. :)

A couple of months ago we had nine plastic shelving units in our basement – ranging from four to five shelves each. Most of them were in my craft area:

And a few more were in the Bub’s toy area:

Well. With every white plastic shelf I was able to get rid of, my desire to purge got stronger – I was on. a. roll! The contents of one shelving unit went into the DIY craft table:

I still have plenty of spaces left for bins if I need them – I even ended up sorting all of the seasonal crafty stuff into bins as well. LOVE it!

A bunch more of the stuff on the shelves went into my new storage room:

And now that the bases for the dining room built ins are installed (Dad and I installed them last weekend), I filled up those babies!:

Now the nine shelves are down to…drum roll please…TWO! I broke them down into three smaller ones so the Bub can reach all of his toys:

THAT’S IT!! Even the boy joined in and purged a bunch of his stuff. (There’s still one more bin of big toys that don’t fit on the shelves.)

The basement looks almost completely finished in that pic, doesn’t it? Priming makes a big difference! I can’t get over how different this side of the room looks from just a few months ago:

  

Yeah, I know real walls (and ceilings) help a bit. :)

My goal overall was to have every bit of my stuff – tools (went up the garage awhile back), decor stuff and craft supplies to be completely out of sight. I wanted to be able to close doors and have them put away.

If I’ve said it 20 times I’ve said it…20 times. ;) Getting rid of stuff is one of the BEST feelings – and it’s FREE baby! I do think hard on each item when deciding whether to keep it or not – and even with all we’ve gotten rid of, there’s still plenty left. ;) I rarely regret giving up stuff -- I can count on one had the number of times I’ve wanted/needed something later.

SO worth it.

I made a pledge last year that I wouldn’t buy another storage bin and I haven’t. (Even for Christmas stuff, and that’s hard for me!) If I bring things in, I try to move things out. Try is the key word.

There are two awesomesauce parts of this year’s purge – first that our house is lighter. The second is that it’s OVER and I have all kinds of DIY projects I cannot WAIT to get started on!! Stay tuned.

Does spring do the same to you? Does your house lose weight every March and April? Don’t you wish losing five pounds was as easy as dropping it off to Goodwill? :)