One Spot Down, millions to go?

This morning I cleared my first clutter spot! (Imagine me doing a little happy-Rachel-dance at my computer.) The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, right? For now, I will just be showing pics of the individual spots. Sorry that I can't show you a wide angle, but like I said, my house needs a lot of improvement in the area of tidying up. Hopefully, as I make progress I can show some more wide angles shots. :)

I started with this little spot by the couch. It has been cluttered since last Christmas. I hid all of my Christmas stuff there so I didn't have to go back and forth from the guest bedroom to retrieve everything for wrapping/Christmas cards, etc. Then I never cleaned up...

But I did today! Here it is before.




On top of everything was this bag of bags. I received so many gift bags from when Melody was born they wouldn't fit into the drawer I usually keep extra gift bags in. I thought I might use them, so I saved. them. all.



So step #1. Separated bags into piles. Ones I like (to keep). Ones I don't (to give away). Ones not fit to be re-used (throw away). Is this sounding like a mini-episode of Clean Sweep yet?



Underneath all the bags in the big bag were other miscellaneous items. Namely craft supplies and Christmas supplies. Step 2. I made two piles and kept like items together.




Then I returned to my corner. Underneath the big bag o' bags, it still looked like this.


Interlude: Melody found the box of crayons in my crate of stuff-to-do-with-kiddos-I-babysit. Luckily, she didn't try to eat them or color anything. (I haven't actually exposed her to crayons officially yet.)




Back to clutter clearing. Step 3. I put all the Christmas items in an extra gift bag . This is the the pile of gift bags I am keeping. They definitely fit into my drawer of gift bags and tissue paper now. I put the bag o' Christmas items in the guest room closet where the rest of the Christmas paper lives.


Step # 4- Put things away. After throwing many items away (including all the colored Dora pictures from months ago that you can see behind the couch), here is the finished corner next to the couch.


One last before and after:



So there it is folks. One clutter spot down, who knows how many there are left to go? That little crate could probably be cleaned out, but I consider that it's own clutter spot. See you next week for another one!

The little one is needing my attention now, so Happy Tuesday!

Love, Rachel