Check out the original post Quickie Post: Storage woes… on Bewildered Bug
In my last post, I told you about my laundry woes, but I may have ended a bit early because after laundry is washed and dried and folded…you have to put it away! As I have told you before, we are living in a British student flat – don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty impressive for what it is – when I was a student I never lived in anything NEAR this schnazzy! The biggest problem with this flat is that there is almost no storage (as I wrote about in my post here)!!!!
I always read about the culture of excess that exists in the world, especially in North America, but it never really hit me as much as when I was packing to move. I had SO MUCH STUFF. If it weren’t for my good friend, Lucy, who is a master organizer and Jane of all trades, I don’t think I’ would have gotten so much stuff sorted and given away. She even encouraged me to sell clothes for cash, but I was so fed up of cleaning and organizing that I just gave it all to charity. They could probably use it more than I need the cash anyway.
I started cleaning up about a year before we actually moved – and I thought I was on top of it! That is until I got into it. We had so much junk! I found items that I had brought to Canada with me from Trinidad in 1997 when I first moved. I found things from our wedding 5 years ago that we really did not need to hang onto. I had all types of leftover papers and projects and file folders left over from the 8 years of schooling I had done in Interior Design and Architecture. I had THREE (count them, three) drafting tables I had not used in over five years….I had review items sitting in a big box that I was never going to use. That was why I called Lucy, because if it weren’t for her, I’d still be sitting among all the junk crying.
So anyway, we got rid of so much before the Luv Luv returned to Toronto in July last year, and then Luv Luv and I threw out even more, but we still ended up with 17 boxes of stuff to ship. Now that those boxes have reached, I’m unpacking and using all my effort to figure out how we could store things. Our suitcases are stacked next to the garment rail that has become our hall closet. I’ve bought two ottomans (ottomen?) to store handbags, quilts, blankets, sheets and towels….A second garment rack holds our more formal clothing and clothing we won’t use immediately and also holds extra boxes. We bought two tall shelves for my baking stuff, pots, cookbooks and random household items that we deemed necessary….that maybe are not so necessary. I still need more and am running out of space really fast. I need a good place to keep my baking tools – cause the shelf is full. I have space for a short shelf next to my desk, but I was thinking that would be for blogging stuff – not really stuff like gumpaste moulds, sugarcrafting tools etc…and the saddest thing is I have one more suitcase of clothing (and apparently my nailpolish grrr…) left in Toronto to bring across….where am I going to put those things?!?!
Oh, and then I have to figure out where to put my Casio keyboard…which is quite large. Maybe I’ll just sell that one? Problem is that it has a North American plug so I guess we’ll have to sell it at a lower price? Why did I really bring it in the first place?
It’s emotional, getting rid of so much stuff…I guess that was one of my attempts to just hold onto something familiar….
Oh and all our paintings are still in their wooden crates because we aren’t putting them up in this apartment….so a nice little corner in my living room has become “painting storage area”. I may have to move my mirror so we could actually use it! I’m at a loss, I really am….I do not think I can get rid of anything else – I feel like we’re at bare bones already – we aren’t really, it just feels that way because we got rid of so much. It is amazing how much junk we had.
What do you think? Have you realized how much unnecessary stuff you have in your home? Do you think you can clear it out without it getting emotional? Do you have any storage ideas for me?
Bewildered Bug - ...just trying to navigate through this obstacle course called life...
