CLEANING UP OUR ACT

The month of June was busy for us. We have been talking about redoing our master closet for years, had talked about redoing it in the winter, when we didn't have anything else to do, but it never happened until last month. The disorganization kept getting worse and worse, there wasn't much we could do until we took everything out and started from scratch. In the back of the closet we had sort of a bookcase structure on which we stacked our shorts, jeans,my capri's, and on the bottom shelf there we stacked collapsible luggage and bags. I am embarrassed to show what the closet looked like before.


We began by John starting to build a dresser unit that was going to replace the bookcase. I removed all the stuff form the closet and he dismantled the existing shelves and brackets. He also removed the hated popcorn ceiling,
and I repainted the entire closet for the first time in 28 years.




This is the new closet, with the dresser unit that goes floor to ceiling.

You can't see it, but on either side of the dresser are adjustable shelves,
sort of cubbies that we can store items too. In addition, you cannot really see it from the before picture, but the lighting in the closet was atrocious. John also installed a new light fixture and we no longer have to take clothes out of the closet to see the colors.







This is John's side And my side.










In reorganizing our closet, we went through and sorted out clothing and shoes we can no longer wear, and had 6 bags for donation to the American Veterans charity.

But we did not stop here. We hired a 6 cubic yard dumpster to take away the old closet pieces, and some old chairs, tree branches from the backyard. We emptied it once, and started on the garage. The garage is John's work shop, we have never parked in it. But over the years, in redoing portions of the house, he has taken the wood, and objects and placed them in the garage, we have at times gotten rid of items, but for the most part
the last few years, he has had about 1/4 of a 2 car garage to work in. Well after the second dumpster load,
and his reorganization of a closet area, and his wood, he now probably has 2/3 of the garage to work in. We are amazed every time we walk out there. So we got rid of 12 cubic yards of "stuff" and feel pretty good about it.