Cleaning and more organizing: The focus? Records

You know when you live in a society with people who hoard a lot of stuff when there are stores dedicated to storage and organization.  Some examples are Ikea and The Container Store.  Thus, today, I decided to visit the Container Store near my place and I was in love.  We will be returning to this place in the future for toy storage and craft storage.  I am still getting rid of things, like tables, chairs and love seats, but there are a few things I refuse to part with.  Like the music collection.

There is storage for everything imaginable.  The Mister and I have been talking about getting proper storage and/or shelving for our vinyl record collection.  The Container Store had just what we were looking for, crates large enough to hold vinyl records.  Also, these crates can be stacked and they come in black.  Before I made the trip, I went online to make sure they had at least four in stock, because I figured four would be a good number to start with.  In addition, I took measurements and found that we had a perfect spot in the living room to place the collection.

Up till today, albums have been kept on the floor under a coffee table and in cardboard boxes. One of my goals for the new year is to actually listen to our vinyl collection more often.  When something is out of sight, it is out of mind and I know our collection doesn't deserve to be collecting dust.  All of our CDs have proper media shelving and are easily accessed.   Now the records are too!

 

Spring Cleaning Part III

As this month begins and the clutter is driving me crazy, I have decided that more needs to go.  This is tough, because I live with a collector that doesn't like to throw things away.   I feel weighted down, so I'm doing the best I can to get rid of the things that I am allowed to.  Starting with clothes that are too small or too big.  Time to go.  Even if it's a cute  concert or pop culture tee.  If it will never fit right again, I am not going to hold onto it.   Below is what I first see when I open my closet door and this doesn't even show the shoe rack that holds 60 pairs of shoes that is on the other side of the door.  Look, I'm already practically embarrassing myself, because it's a mess and I need to do some serious reorganizing.  This will take some time.

But before I tackle my closet, I am working on my linen/tolietries closet, which is full of hair products that I've inherited from my mother.  My mom is a hair product junkie and since we have both gone natural, every month she is trying something new, then passing it on to me if she doesn't like it.  I do appreciate the products, but it has gotten overwhelming.  The good news is, is that I don't need to go shampoo shopping for about a year or two.

Here is the before:

I know, crap is all over the place.  

The Progress:

Getting all the shampoo and conditioner separated from everything else.  Getting all of the leave-in conditioners and gels set apart as well.  

I have nail polish, cotton pads, soap and shampoo hidden in the basket as well. 

Basket two?  Same thing, but this includes brushes, castor oil, Argan oil and maybe coconut oil???

And After:  I can find stuff again and it's a little better, but I still need to work my way through all of this stuff!

Closet full of Clothes! Time to weed and organize.

I always routinely weed out my closet.  I mean almost monthly.  I tend to bore easily with my wardrobe, thus I hit the stores with my mom, who knows what looks better on me than I do and I always leave her house with a new item of clothing.  It can be a sweater, skirt, shirt or a pair of jeans.  I am not complaining, I love clothes!  I mean LOVE clothes! I do not care about labels, I just like cute clothes than appeal to me!  I will shop for clothes anywhere.    My mom loves online shopping and knows where to find quality clothes for a fraction of the price.  She will buy something, wear it once, then give it to me and she also finds stuff I can wear to work.   This is nice because I do not enjoy shopping for business casual or professional attire. This is something I have allowed my mother to do for me.  Keep in mind, this woman dresses in T-shirts and jeans 90% of the time, but she loves shopping for clothes and shoes.   I love concert shirts, jeans, sneakers and Doc Martins.  When it's hot, I am in flip flops and sandals.  If I could get away with wearing clothes like this everyday to work I would.  Sometimes, I'll wear a cotton dress or something black.  Yes, black.  You can never go wrong with black clothes.  I never go out in public in sweats and workout clothes to run errands or go shopping.  That is my limit.  If you are actually working out, that's one thing, but if you are walking around in Yoga pants trying to be cute, that's another thing. Too many ladies do this and it makes you look dirty.   Plus, it's a pet peeve of the Mr. to see women in sweats out in public.  He does have a point,  it is tacky and who wants to see that all the time?  It's almost a fashion statement in LA.  So you work out, there is not need to show that off, because it's a good idea to do that anyway for health reasons.

Once upon a time when I worked in a dungeon in Long Beach and did accounting, I wore jeans and t-shirts daily and hardly spent money on clothes.  When I did, it was for the goth club or something really inappropriate for the office like a corset or fishnets.    Whenever I buy something trendy, I tend to get rid of it in less than a year or the item of clothing wears out and it gets tossed.  Again, I don't weed my closet seasonally, I do this all the time.   I find myself frustrated at piles of clothes, so I'll start a Goodwill bag or a best friend pile (stuff I'll send to Meg in Boston.  She tends to make my clothes look cooler on her than on me) and they do look great on her.  We are still lucky we wear the same size after nearly 20 years and have similar tastes. ( We used to be attracted to the same type of men, but thank goodness that changed.)  I'll also send items to Christi, but this is usually accessory related.  Costume jewelry (she loves jewelry) and handbags.  I practically kill handbags, so this is something that I shop for often as well.

This seldom happens, but if something can be used for a costume or cosplay, I put it aside.  This is usually in the shoe department. (My shoe obsession is unhealthy.  I have over 70 pair. This deserves another blog post.)  My mom and I share a shoe problem.  It's such a problem until I buy the Mr. pairs of shoes. It must be a black thang, but you have to have matching sneakers to go with different colored jerseys and shirts, right? He went from 3 pairs to 8 pairs and now he's annoyed! hahaha!

Overall, it's that time again.  Pantyhose, costumes, T-shirts, faded jeans, beat up shoes, dated trendy dresses, anything polyester, worn out cotton shirts and anything that doesn't fit needs to go.  There are a few precious items that I refuse to part with, but the older I'm getting, they are getting few and far between.  My closets can only hold so much and there are so many things that I can wear.  Why hoard?