Closet #1 - Decluttering/Organizing

I've decided it's time to declutter and organize my closets. There are only five closets in the house, so I'm thinking I can finish them all in the next few weeks while I'm having this spring cleaning bug. I started this past weekend on the closet in the peach room which serves as an exercise/TV/extra guest room. I had moved some things out of it last year and put more stuff in it. Most everything was pretty well labeled, but I knew it was time to go through all those carefully labeled boxes and see what needed to stay, what needed to go, what needed to be used, and what needed to be moved to a better location in the house.

I ended up with quite a bit of paperwork that needed to be thrown out: old financial stuff that we no longer needed (mostly because I kept more than I really needed to the first few years we were married since I wasn't sure what all to keep!) and lots of student grade sheets and reports from my five years of teaching. I have spent a considerable amount of time shredding all this paperwork - 12 bags so far and counting (when my little home use shredder gets too hot, it decides to take a rest as it is doing now).

Here's a picture of me sorting through my box of bulletin board materials. I haven't touched any of this stuff since I packed it up 4 years ago! Some of this went in the trash, mostly materials that I had laminated for specific bulletin board theme projects or samples of students' work that I had kept to use as examples. The reusable stuff plus a box of bulletin board borders is in the car ready to deliver to a friend who is currently teaching second grade. And a few posters - my very favorites - plus a sunflower painting that a student made for me are waiting to be displayed in my office/craft room.


Here's a list of a few of the items that needed to be used or moved to different areas of the house:
*framed water painting that Robbie's dad did when he was a kid - hung this in the guest room in place of a bought wall hanging
*empty/new photos albums - moved these to the closet in my office craft room beside the other extra photos albums and scrapbooks
*puzzles - I'm planning to open up a shelf for these either near the toy room or in the peach room
*my favorite posters & sunflower painting - ready to be hung in my office/craft room

Using the four Rs - Recycle, Reduce, Repurpose and Reuse, I'd say I did a pretty good job.
Recycle - at least 12 large trash bags of shredded paper, a huge amount of recycled papers, magazines, and catalogs, three cardboard boxes plus two cardboard presentation boards.
Donate - six books ready to donate to the library, two boxes of bulletin board materials ready to deliver
Reuse- I saved all the paperclips, binder clips, rubber bands, folders, and dividers as I cleared my paperwork. All these items are now assimilated in with my other office supplies to be reused.
Repurpose - I added quite a few items to my craft/scrapbooking supplies - old CDs & DVDs, felt from puzzle mat, old dictionary that is falling apart

Check out these before & after photos.

Time to get back to my shredding so I can get that all done before I start on closet #2!