In January I took an entire month off to organize every drawer, cupboard and cabinet in my house. No motivational videos, books or inspirational quotes were used in this process.
If you're familiar with Thug Kitchen on the other hand, it was a huge inspiration mainly in terms of vocabulary although I did sustain myself with their chickpea, broccoli burritos for a full week.
I was ruthless. I was ruthless with everything. This wasn't a tidy up organizational month it was a change your life organizational month.
Table of Contents
Why I Did It
I just had too much stuff for the size of house I live in. Plain and simple. This in turn made my life chaotic.
Getting out things like Easter (bleh) or Halloween (yay) decorations in the basement was such a pain that I just didn't put them out.
My dresser drawers were overflowing (most yes, in the Marie Kondo style) with stuff I didn't use or didn't need. The more stuffed every cupboard, drawer and cabinet got, the less calm I felt.
This didn't happen overnight, and I have tried to tackle it before.
By December, with the upheaval of Christmas, I decided I absolutely couldn't live like this anymore. Even if the house was tidied up and looking great I knew. I KNEW the chaos that lived within.
This post is a first look, overview, of what I did. More specific posts on how I organized each room will be coming up in the future.
What happened on January 1st was the kitchen became a mess. And then the dining room, the living room, the front hall, my bedroom, office and the basement became a mess.
If you ever do anything like this my number #1 tip is this:
Always keep ONE room that's not a disaster so you have a safe space to go with your anxiety.
Karen Bertelsen
Do you want to know how many vases I had?
The Vases
I'd like to address the number of vases. Obviously.
The vases were stored mainly in one cupboard in the dining room but also everywhere else I could find a place for them around the house.
I used every single one of them and often had triples or quadruples so if I gave someone flowers in it, they could just keep the vase. That was my rationale anyway.
I am strictly BYOV now. The space I gained by getting rid of 80% of the vases will make me happier than the extra vases ever did.
WHAT I DID WITH THEM
I let family members pick which ones they wanted, then I gave a vase or two to everyone who came to my door (firewood delivery guy, chimney sweep, door-to-door canvassers, neighbours.)
These are now my vases.
The Drawers
The drawers were fun to do. Every night I removed a drawer from somewhere and brought it into the living room. Then I sat by the fire and watched television while editing.
This particular group of things was from the desk in my bedroom.
- A state of the art Casio pocket computer
- Reading light that weighs apx. 3 lbs.
- Super-secret mini recording device
- Rotted teeth
- An address book
- 3 hole punch reinforcements
- A long distance calling travel card for the well appointed traveller
All the drawers in the house have now been organized with some drawers even being, EMPTY. Completely empty.
Why?
Because I know there will come a time when I need space to put something. I have entire shelves and drawers that are empty for future use.
All the drawers in the house have now been organized with some drawers even being, EMPTY. Completely empty.
Why?
Because I know there will come a time when I need space to put something. I have entire shelves and drawers that are empty for future use.
The Basement
The before.
Except in the basement. Every inch of the basement is being utilized and every shelf being used. There is one sparse cupboard under my work bench just waiting for the arrival of some tool. Maybe a router now that I have room.
I removed 9 bags of garbage and stuff from the basement which is where I store the majority of what I own.
- Home accessories
- Extra plates, cutlery
- Seed starting and gardening supplies
- Maple Syrup making equipment
- Extra dinner chairs
- Workshop/workshop stuff and tools
- Crafting supplies for leatherworking, painting, etc.
- Christmas (there's a shitload), Halloween and all other holiday items
A lot of what I got rid of was genuine garbage, and anything that wasn't will get sold either online or at a garage sale.
I do not need all the chafing dishes, the stupid Instant Pot, or anything else that was in my basement that didn't have to do with stuff I love.
Like seed starting.
Now I go downstairs (I'm just starting seeds now) and as you can imagine, this is a much nicer area to come down to.
My priority for clearing out the basement was this. I wanted a space where nothing was stored on the floor, where I could enjoy the things I love to do like seed starting and building or fixing things in the workshop.
I've definitely stored things on the floor. 😆 I'd love to fix that but for now, I have what I have and it's much better than before.
A few more before and after photos of the basement.
It might look the same to you but it's not. This corner is organized, categorized and edited making it incredibly easy to find what I need.
QUICK TIP
If you're buying storage totes or containers you have to choose between clear (which look more messy because you can see what's inside) or opaque (which look more uniform and neater).
I opted for clear containers because even though it's messier looking, they make grabbing exactly what I need easier.
That's right. This is a real basement makeover. Not a pretend basement makeover. This is attainable and sustainable.
Next January I will tackle a new top for my workbench and painting the wonky cupboards.
Part of doing the basement was organizing the wires that were hanging everywhere down from the rafters.
I've been working on the basement since the middle of January. Last night with a vacuuming of the stairs and a slight rearranging of my seed starting setup, I completed it.
I built these basement shelves with plywood and 2x4s years ago in my first major attempt to improve the functionality of my basement. This time around I changed the shelf heights a bit to make room for a mini upright freezer I bought in November.
Again this is a real life, real person, basement makeover. Things don't look perfect. I do not have matching pink cubbies. But the things down there that I love are now easy to get to.
As I said up top of this post some bazillion words ago, I didn't seek encouragement or motivation from any death cleaning books or Tik Tok videos. I just kept coming back to the reason behind why I was doing this, which was to stop the crying whenever I needed to get something or put something away in any of my rooms.
If keeping it, whatever it was, was likely to cause a meltdown in the future for whatever reason, I happily got rid of it.
Marie Kondo asks, does it spark joy.
I asked, does it spark snot.
More to come.
I feel your pain. My house is overflowing with hobby tools and supplies, with things to be fixed, and kitchen ware. A few family members downsized or moved and we were given things we “needed” but have nowhere to store. My down season was typically June where normally I declutter, but the last 3 years it was not. Sadly, I didn’t pivot to find a new season to declutter. It’s official, the house has taken over. I’ve been considering moving to at least have a garage, and slightly bigger house, but the thought of more house to clean is awful! I’d rather be doing my past times then clean more. I guess I will try to declutter and tidy up like you did. Thanks for the inspiration!
Well done, you! I relate to your methodology, and the feeling of walking down the stairs, pleased and confident that you find what you need, and enjoy doing so!
Wow. Inspiring! I need to do this as well. Great job!
Excellent work Karen! Well done!!!! Question: We are upgrading our kitchen and I see you have butcher block countertops. I am leaning towards those for mine however, I read you have to reseal them once a month. (!) Do you do that really?
Carla
HI Carla. I don't oil them once a month, but that probably would be best for them. When they look dry I oil them. I have a post on how I take care of my wood countertops. I love them. ~ karen!
Hi Carla!
I also have some wood countertops and we used a product called water lock. It's made them water PROOF. After YEARS of daily wipe downs and abuse, it's still holding up.
You have to use in certain temperatures and good ventilation but for us and our kitchen, it was well with it
Your scary basement is most impressive. I'm almost two years into decluttering my home. It's a process that has stalled a few times. Renovations and illness have me going slower than I would like but I have my kitchen, bathrooms and most of the rec room under control. I am hoping this summer I will be "finished". Hahahahaha! Finished. Hah.
Impressive! I've been tackling two rooms per month and am happy with my slow but steady progress. I have two major weak spots: papers (WHY do I keep so much, why, why, why, she asks her therapist...) and art supplies. My vase collection is currently under control, though you gotta watch those things, they creep back in. One of the principles that helps is let the container (shelf, bin, drawer, what-have-you) be the limit for what you keep. Worked wonders on my herd of coffee mugs ;)
Gurl, same. Not on the same scale, but room by room, drawer by drawer. Plus, I had a SNAP in the middle of it. So much satisfaction and sustained relief.
Yup. Much satisfaction. And the more I do now, the more I want to do because it really is a much easier way to live. Not that I was a hoarder. not even close. Just a gal with more hobbies than house. ~ karen!
Your basement looks so similar to mine in terms of age, layout, general state-of-finishedness, and this is giving me such inspiration for mine someday being a more usable space! We have a huge and non-functional pellet stove down there, and once that bad boy is finally gone, it's workbench and 2x4-shelf-building-time, baby! I just have to build a new set of basement stairs first lol.
I need to build new stairs too! ~ karen
Wonderful! I love that the afters are not looking like you have a whole style team off camera! It is much more encouraging to see it real. You have gotten quite a bit done. As it happens, my main task all yesterday was decluttering (I was hunting for the smoke detector manual, which I know I have somewhere!), and today will be the same. I got quite a bit done, too!
When you're in the right mood, it's amazingly easy to get rid of stuff. I can't tell you how much easier it is to do everything now. karen
Yes. Isn't that interesting? I have noticed that also. I can schedule my clean up sessions and some days it is very successful and things go flying out of the house, and other days, despite effort, it is painfully slow. What is up with that? Do we have some hidden switch in the back of our heads?
You are so funny, I applaud your efforts. I also have too much stuff for my smallish house. Worse, we just got a puppy that is half-newfoundland. Gonna be a monaster! So I have some purging in my future. Do you make Canadian butter?
Hi Millie! What is the other half of your dog? You should be O.K. in your small house, as long as it isn't also part buffalo. (no I don't make Canadian butter, but I do have a lot of antique Canadian butter boxes for hauling around butter should I choose to). ~ karen!
Golden retriever. Vet just met him and said he’s gonna be magnificent. So he’ll be about the size of a buffalo calf!
Gosh, I've been doing the same thing. I don't have a basement or attic but a garage. I decided to clean off my storage shelves also. I am a single mom & I seem to have collected my stuff & my grown kids. I have "mechanic stuff/tools" from my son (lives with me kinda) and my daughter (lives out of state) but needed to leave some stuff "temporarily". I decided to go through all the bins of stuff, move out everything & paint the inside of the garage (leftover from inside painting) & get rid of anything I didn't use. Golf clubs, train sets, toys, extra camping gear, ect. Then I bought a new tool chest & went through all of the tools and garden stuff. Can you believe I had 5 hammers!! I can now get to my garden bench & love to pull my car into the garage when i come home. It must be Spring Cleaning Time for us!
Thanks for all you're blogs, I love them!
Good job Christina! Keep it up. :) ~ karen!
A true LOL moment was the spark comparison - I just love you! When I saw the first photo with all the seed starting equipment I couldn't wait for the after. You certainly didn't disappoint. My seed/stuff is behind my living room drapes which spread farther than they need across the window/wall giving me a hiding space! I start my seeds in front of my window (not hiding and visitors should just ignore) which overlooks the pool/patio and vacant lot filled with trees. I also string banners of art across that space with photos of kids and grands. My favorite place to sit is in a rocker that looks out this window and make me happy and dries up the snot while looking at my laptop and your pictures.
Now you're done it. I'm going to have to go back and read my own post to see what I said about sparks. ~ karen!
Well done and inspirational. I love the dinosaur vase!
Ohhhh me too! I love that vase. I think I had it on my Christmas gift guide one year. ~ karen!