Hey!!! Thats a brillant plan!!!

Well done!! -- Do A Happy Inspiration Dance!!!!

Dancing ..........

The plan has been implemented!!

Yesterday I took the two desktop computers in the dining room apart (don't ask how long I spent de-tangling cords), and rearranging them so that both will fit on the same 5' table (they were on 2 separate tables--which meant THREE tables were in the dining room!). It still looks crowded, but MUCH better. The old kitchen table went out in the trash--which is where it came from 10+ years ago when I started using it as a potting table. After that I dumped the small, short chest of drawers that our oldest had been using as a bedside table, and replaced it with a small, but taller chest of drawers that I had used as a baby, and so had the boys. It needs to be refinished, but at least for now it's no longer just being stored in the basement (AND that crummy chest is out on the curb--he pretty much destroyed it).

Only one flaw in the day yesterday when I asked DH if he remembered we had an indoor electric grill. We used it once or twice, 10+ years ago (before George Foreman). He said he remembered we had one but didn't know where it was. I told him it's been in the coat closet 10 years (AT LEAST) and asked him if I could get rid of it.... he said no! I was sorry I asked--but I thought it was a perfect practice item for him to recognize the "Less is More" concept. Oops.

No school for the kids for MLK day today, but I have to work.

Julie- isn't it funny how even though something hasn't been used - or missed - in 10 years, a person still thinks he has to keep it? Hey, you tried! I agree...you probably shouldn't have asked, just tossed.

You've made good progress with your dining room! I joked with DH today that we just need one desk that wraps around our living room so we can have all of our computers in one spot...scanners and printers, too!

Sheryl

About that grill...shouldn't that have been a PERFECT practice item for him to toss? LOL Since it's not in the way and you can't even see it with the closet door open, I'll give it a month. If he hasn't used it by then, I will insist that it go. If he DOES use it, I will point out that the food is flavorless and the unit is hard to clean (which is why we quit using it before).

Some days I agree that the wrap around desk is a brilliant idea--but taking one extra table out of the dining room sure decreased the amount of non-computer junk that fits on the computer desk!

I have some dominoes here that I didn't even know about!

I emptied 1 out of 3 drawers in a bureau (that I love and want to keep) in the dining room a few weeks ago that had tablecloths/placemats, etc. that I don't really use. But when I emptied the drawer, I didn't have anything to put in it, so it stayed empty, and I was wondering if I should have kept that stuff since I didn't have anything to take its place.

Yesterday I was looking around the mudroom (next to the dining room), wanting to get rid of an ugly old set of shelves/drawers- a unit that I bought as a temporary fix at a garage sale and has now been in the house for at least 5 years. I have wanted to get rid of it for a while as it mostly becomes a dumping ground as you come in the house. So the maps & sunglasses from the top drawer went into the emptied out drawer in the dining room. All I had to do was find room for the plants and cookbooks on the shelves. As I have a very small kitchen, this was what was keeping me from moving this whole unit in the first place. I looked in the office (next to the kitchen) and saw a pile of papers on a shelf in there that has been sitting there for a couple years - things I have already dealt with but didn't want to get rid of the papers at the time. Now it had become one of those invisible piles that I didn't even see, even though it took up half a shelf. I went to Pier One to buy some corner shelving units to put the plants on in the dining room (an unused corner, forgotten behind the table). While I was downtown, I remembered an old corner shleving unit in the garage of one of the apartments we rent downtown that someone had left behind when they moved out. It was perfect.

Now, the papers are gone, the cookbooks are on the shelf, the plants are on the stand in the dining room and the shelving unit is gone, and so is all the dust and (some of) DD's clutter dumped on the shelves in the mudroom. And I've used one of the stored, forgotten pirces of leftover furniture that was saved for just this type of situation. I guess the dominoes worked in reverse this time - I didn't realize that I needed to do things until the first domino fell! Now I feel like I have to do something with that space, but I am going to wait awhile to see what ends up there - why do I feel the need to fill it up???!

Another day of Happy Organizing News!!!!

Brillant ideas -- and truly wonderful work -- and clearing!!!!!

Everybody Do the Happy Dance !!!!!!!!

Dancing ...... Dancing...... Dancing........

RJVT,

GOOD JOB!

Enjoy your new empty space while it lasts!!!

I was wondering if I should have kept that stuff since I didn't have anything to take its place.

An argument for why you should NOT keep stuff just because "it doesn't take up much space."

maybe it doesn't, but you'll never know what could use that space BETTER, until that space is available.

Hooray for falling dominoes all OVER the place!

"It doesn't take up much space" is a disagreement I keep having with my husband (who isn't catching on to the "Less is More" idea).

I want to see LOTS of empty spaces!!!

The big empty wall still looks really weird in the mudroom! But yesterday I finally put a collection of my grandmother's umbrella handles in a shadow box I bought for the project last month. I really didn't feel motivated to finish this project before because I didn't really know where I would put it. I figured the bedroom. But now it will fit in well in the empty space, and what works better in a mudroom than umbrellas?

I've really been motivated lately to clear some stuff out. Maybe it's the weather and reading all of these posts! But it's good because in June we are selling one of our rental houses, the one with the garage. So I know I will need some more storage space for that (when I got the shelves out of there the other day, it really hit me that I have to go through all of that-yikes!). Might as well start now.