I spent a few hours last weekend rooting through all the stuff in my closet, and feel that I only came a little closer to getting it all clean. The picture below is after I removed one trash bag of junk and one of stuff for Goodwill. It's kinda depressing to see how much farther I need to go!


I'm sure in the long run this cleaning adventure will be for my benefit. I can't remember where I saw this, but I think it was A Gracious Home: that when purging stuff, one should consider every item, even sentimental ones, on whether it would be replaced if it was lost in a fire. Pondering over that remark really makes me reflect on most of the stuff I have in that closet; items I never use and only see every 6 months. I hold on to things because I remember how much money I blew on them when I thought they were important, or I can remember who gave me such and such and I don't want to hurt their feelings by throwing it away even though it's been in the closet for five years.

This weekend I planning on doing some more purging. Hopefully I can dump another trash bag full.

One of the things that doesn't tend to bother me is a little bit of clutter, but now that I'm getting older, the degree of clutter I can tolerate is growing smaller and smaller. I've found that opening my closet door is cause for alarm, and getting ready for work in the morning tends to be a nightmare. Here is my closet in its present state:

All of my sewing supplies, important papers, etc, are buried somewhere in that pile. I have to remove all the stuff on the floor just to get at it. One of my more superficial reasons for cleaning out the closet is so that this bookshelf--

--will be put in the closet. Our overly fat black cat (whom we affectionately call "Tubby" when she's not listening) likes to awaken us with the nails-on-a-chalkboard sound of books ripping, at 5 a.m. no less. I'd like to put the shelf in the closet to keep her away from it, instead of the lovely towel-jacket-pillow draping combination you see here.

I spent an hour and a half cleaning it tonight, with the end result being the removal of one trash bag of junk, and one of stuff for Goodwill. Yet, it still looks the same. I realize that my closet stores other stuff besides my clothes (luggage, sewing supplies, and so on), but I still have a long way to go.

I plan on tackling my overflowing closet over the next few weekends, for various reasons. (I've attempted this before, to no avail.) I'll try to post pictures of its present state tomorrow, since I'm tired and want to go to bed.

I apologize that this post was a bit long in coming. To refresh yourselves on my first article, see Women in the Workforce Pt. 1. My intention with the second post in this series is to discuss my thoughts on home management while also working full time. However, since my schedule is currently in flux, I've been trying to figure out what would be best to write, so I have been slow to get it all down on the computer.

As a working wife, I struggle to find the time to work and keep home. I can't even imagine how the "Superwomen" of our culture pretend to manage this! I know I never could. I would like to discuss more about how I think the Bible addresses the subject of working women in my next post, but for now I'll just mention what my current routine looks like, and how I juggle both responsibilities.

I've been blessed to have a position in which when I come home, I'm home. I don't have to think about the office, what needs to be done, who else I need to call, etc. So when I get home, I just concern myself with my serving my husband and taking care of daily tasks. I wouldn't ever want a job where my main focus isn't my family. Someday Hubby and I plan for me to stay home while we raise children together, so now is valuable time to learn the skills I need once children come along. Even still, I find my time is tight, since most of it is presently consumed at the office. It can be very difficult to find the time to keep house.

I'm sure most every woman could say this, but I find that I just don't have enough hours in the day. I'm committed to the office from 8 to 5 (more if you count preparing to leave in the morning and commuting), so I'm left with only 5 or so hours at the end of the day before I crash at 10:30. Since those hours are precious, I'm trying to get a schedule in line to make the most of the time I have. With my indecisive nature, this schedule is always being tweaked. Many times it is also because I'm tired from a long day at work, but others it simply is because I want to spend time with Hubby. It is more important to me to have a messy house than to neglect the one I love.

Making a schedule and sticking to it as always been somewhat of a challenge for me. As I've mentioned before, I am currently in flux, transitioning from one schedule to another. I usually save one major cleaning activity for the evening, along with cooking, dishes, and laundry. Some nights I relax with Hubby, others he needs to study, so I find other projects such as my sewing when Hubby is busy. I find it too difficult to do all the chores on Saturday, since this tends to be Hubby's free day as well.

Here is a brief rundown of my old schedule:
Monday: Cleaning the bathroom
Tuesday: Decluttering and organizing
Wednesday: Vacuuming and dusting
Thursday: Cleaning the kitchen
Friday: Making the bed and meal planning
Saturday: Groceries

The problem I have with this schedule is that if I don't get something done that day, it probably won't get done until the next week. I also don't have a place for "fun" tasks, such as reading, sewing, or cross-stitching. I also am trying to transition to grocery shopping on Tuesday evenings after work, since the local farmer's market operates that day, and I would love to shop then rather than twice a week.

As I'm transitioning, I hope to put more emphasis on improving my skills as a housewife (I have no idea how to fold fitted sheets!), and I hope to create a home from the apartment we live in. If I can create a schedule that allows me to grow as a homemaker, spend time with Hubby, and be as good of a steward of my time as possible, I'll be happy.

I would really love the kitchen to be a deep red/burgandy, with accents of green, gold, and blue. However, because we live in an apartment, it's not practical for me to paint, so I've had to find other creative ways to liven up the place. As you can see above, there is storage space above the cabinets, which will be great to display treasured knick knacks!


Here are pictures with a much better view of the clutter.


These pictures show my kitchen before I reorganized. This is actually what I considered "clean." As you can see, the clutter is taking over! My plan was to get rid of unnecessary items, reorganize the stuff, and try to find a more efficient system in the kitchen for doing daily tasks. More importantly, my goal was to make the room a joy to be in. I planned on spending less then $10 on organizational items such as plate stands. Everything else I use I planned to make myself.


Next time I'll post the after pictures and what I did to get the new look. Stay tuned!

I'm quite good at procrastinating. I find it very easy to get distracted when I have so many things going on. It's not that I'm lazy and sitting around doing nothing, it's that I find it more interesting to be reading or knitting than cleaning or organizing, so the "fun" tasks tend to be done before the more urgent ones.

As a result, my main "projects" this week have been put on the back burner. My goal was to clean and thoroughly reorganize my kitchen, but many distractions have eaten away at my time. The refrigerator has been cleaned out, but the cabinets are still in disarray and the counters are cluttered. I hope to get to them soon, but I'm sure my time will vanish more quickly than I'd like!

While only completing this one extra task has been discouraging, I noticed something about my refrigerator. A lot has gone to waste. I threw out half a pound of asparagus that I bought last week. I tossed an almost unused bag of mozzarella cheese that had turned blue. I cleaned out a storage container with leftovers that had spoiled. I think back to my grandmother's generation, where every last scrap of food is used up. And here I am, throwing out a relatively large portion of what I buy!

When it comes to food, I've got to be more purposeful with my abundance. Hubby and I can afford to eat fresh produce and meat, but I sometimes let it spoil because I forget about it, push that certain food aside to make something else, or just decide to eat out instead. I need to be more purposeful about the way I use up food. Instead of throwing out the old bananas, make bread. Instead of buying lunch, use up leftovers. Once I do that, I hope to see how much more richly God has blessed us in this area of life.

Setbacks . . .


For more info on "The Great Closet Clean-up, see Part 1 and Part 2.

I thought I'd update everyone on my progress. I've gotten the floor clean, but I still have a long way to go! I eventually pulled one trash bag's worth of garbage from the floor. Unfortunately, I got lazy, and many of the things on the floor were just put onto the shelves in the closet, rather than where they should go. I'll have to work on that. :-)


Now that I've got the floor clean, and I can actually walk into my closet, I'm onto my next project: Shoes!

In light of Ashley's latest post, I thought I'd get inspired and tackle the decluttering of my closet. I was planning on getting to this soon anyway ;-).


Hmmm. This might take some work. I'll have to break it down, section by section. And I'm going to have to throw away a lot of junk! I'll try to keep you posted on my progress. Pray for me!