Yesterday on IG stories I shared our linen closet. The before was soooo embarrassing. I cringed to even share it. You can still probably see it on my IG stories! I covered my eyes every time I shoved my clean towels or sheets in there. But hey that’s life. That’s my life, anyway. I do know people who would NEVER let closets get to that dire state. Unfortunately that’s not me. 
A couple of months ago a person who is extremely tidy and someone I admire was trying to help me find matches. I was so annoyed with myself when we were rummaging through drawers to find something so simple. Something that should be RIGHT THERE. She suggested I just clean out one drawer a day, or one drawer/closet a week if the daily freaked me out. She was gentle with me, as honestly this kind of thing is a major source of shame for me, and said “but I know, you have other priorities right now — spending time with your boys”. But then I started to think about all the times I’m just looking for something simple, and how really I’m wasting that time I could be using doing something that matters and/or building memories. So I finally started cleaning out. For the last couple of weeks I haven’t done it every day, but I’ve cleaned out at least a couple a week. One bag for Salvation Army, one bag for trash, and then if I came across anything that someone I know needed and I didn’t any longer – then I’d text them to see if they wanted it. It has been nice to know where things are, and get the junk out. The sippy cup area was INSANE. so many sippies, so many lost lids or broken. 
Yesterday was the linen closet day. Which I had been dreading. I had bought a couple of inexpensive baskets at Target, some labels that were actually place cards in the dollar spot, and started paring down. It took an hour, and when I dropped those bags off at the church yesterday I felt so much better. It’s crazy when I think of how many things went unused in there. Someone else needs to be buying groceries, or diapers, instead of sheets and towels. I had an aha moment when I was putting two heating pads in their own little basket… Why do I need two heating pads? When do we ever need two? How many things like this do we have in our house that can go to people who actually need them.
While I know it doesn’t look like much, it’s so nice for everything to have a place. Instead of just being shoved in there. It’s a work in progress (and so am I!) but I’m happy I’m starting somewhere. Will I ever be super organized? Will I ever be able to properly fold a fitted sheet? Probably not. But this is a start (:
