New Year, New Home Challenge #2

[AmyBoz]

Now it’s time to deal with our nightstands and all horizontal surfaces in your bedroom. I am not at home right now, but I am visualizing the top of the nightstands that are on either side of my bed, the top of my dresser, and my husband’s armoire. The visual I am getting is making me shudder.

Without looking, I know for a fact that I have, on top of my nightstand, a box of tissues, three magazines, 2 pens, 4 barrettes, 2 ponytail holders, 1 lamp, 3 used tissues, a glass half-full of water, the base for the cordless phones, an alarm clock, and a lamp. On my husbands nightstand there is an old paycheck stub, a pencil, a magazine, 2 paperback books (unread, that have been there since December 25th), and a lamp. On my dresser, there is a pile of dirty clothes, a pile of clean clothes, 5 DVD’s, an empty decorative tin, a basket for hair accessories, the actual cordless phone, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can’t think of right now. Are you getting the picture? My husbands armoire has as much stuff as my dresser does, along with a layer of dust. Does this conjure up images of rest and relaxation? It certainly doesn’t to me!

You’ll notice I didn’t even talk about what is INSIDE of the nightstands. I don’t even want to go there right now. However, I’m ready to deal with it. In my house, the nightstands, dresser, and armoire have become dumping grounds for things that have been brought into the bedroom, but never brought back to where they go. I often take out Julia’s hair while she’s sitting on my bed at night. Plop…her hair accessories go on my nightstand. Rob had his paycheck in his pocket, and took it out to give to me to deposit the next day. I ripped off the check, handed him back the stub, and he put it on his nightstand and that’s where it’s been ever since. You know how it goes…I’m sure it happens for you, too.

So, what are we going to do? Well, we are first going to get a garbage bag and a box or basket of sorts. I want you to empty every single thing from the inside of nightstand/end table drawers. The drawers should be completely empty when you are done. Anything that is trash, throw it directly in the garbage bag. Anything that is possibly trash? Toss it in the garbage bag. If there’s a question about whether or not it’s garbage, it is. That’s my rule of thumb, and I haven’t ever thrown anything away that anyone has missed or needed later. Anything that needs to be re-homed to its correct location in the house should immediately be put in the box or basket you have with you. We will deal with this box/basket later.

Then, I want you to do the same thing with the tops of all of the horizontal surfaces. Anything that is possibly trash needs to be tossed. Anything that belongs elsewhere should go into the basket. Be tough with yourself as you make decisions about what stays and goes. Do you have some partially full bottles of perfume that you really don’t wear? Toss them. I don’t care how much they cost. If they aren’t being used, they are still costing you in terms of clutter cost. They get dusty, knocked over, and are generally in the way. Get rid of them.

Once you have made the decisions about what stays, goes, and gets re-homed, I want you to clean out the drawers with a cleaner and dust off the surfaces. Then you may start to put things back. As you do, think about what you want to see when you are laying in bed. Think, also, about how much time you want to spend cleaning your room each week. The more clutter you have, the more work you have to do to move things around in order to dust, etc.

In my nightstand, I already know that I am going to put my tissues and a jar of Vaseline in the top drawer. I frequently get stuffy noses and need those tissues. However, if I do a good enough job of clearing out the clutter inside the drawer, I can put the tissues in there. I also use Vaseline on my lips at night so that they don’t chap while I sleep. That will also go in the top drawer of my nightstand. I will also be keeping a pen in my top drawer, along with a notepad. I frequently have thoughts and ideas that I need to write down immediately before I forget. This happens a lot when I’m in bed. So, these items are necessary for me to have on hand, but in the drawer, they are out of sight.

On top of my nightstand, the phone base, the alarm clock, and the lamp must stay. As far as I’m concerned, everything else goes. There’s no purpose for anything else to be sitting up there, collecting dust, or in danger of being knocked off by my flailing arms. Julia’s hair accessories will be re-homed to her hair accessory basket in her room, and mine will be re-homed to my own hair accessory basket.

My dresser will be cleared off completely with the exception of some candles (we frequently lose power), and my hair accessory basket. Everything else will be re-homed or tossed.

As always, you have 2 weeks to complete this part of the challenge. I want this stuff CLEAN!

[shortcake]

I'm all in! What's our deadline on this part? I just want to make sure I allow enough time my dressers and night stand are a major dumping ground. I don't even know what's on them

[faw42077]

I'm in!! I so need to clean out my bedroom esp. my computer table.

Good luck everyone

[AmyBoz]

You've got 2 weeks, shortcake.

[MirandaK]

I like this challenge!

[Mom23boys]

This is another good challenge. I will wait until the weekend to start on mine. You must have come to visit me while I was away because I my dressers are covered with items that don't belong there.

I need this challenge!!

[shortcake]

Well I am happy to say I started today. I took everything, all the stuff on the dressers, all the piles on the floor, and put it in bags and boxes and dumped it all in the dinning room. Now my bedroom looks like a bedroom! My dinning room looks like CRAP but that's what I want it to look like. No matter where I am in the house I can see the mess in the dinning room so I have no choice but to buckle down and get it done this week! I think looking at it all the time will make me do it faster. I stuck to my new routine today and did even extra. I am tired but proud of what I accomplished. Tommorow I have less on my plate so I plan on going through a lot of the crap I pulled out of the room. Has anyone else started? It feels so nice to walk into a room that I can see the floor and all the surfaces. I actually smile when I walk in, that's something I haven't done in a long time.

[Momto2Boyz]

THis is definately one I need to complete! Our dressers are the big areas for catching junk! Our nightstands are actually relatively clean, becuase we use them regularly enough...and all thej unk goes on our dressers!

I am going to tackle this one today... Ready junk....here I come, just as soon as I get my garbage bag and some courage!

[AmyMCGS]

I must have read your mind-- cleaning off my dresser, nightstand, and the entertainment center in our bedroom was my project over the weekend. I filled about half a garbage bag. I also cleaned out and organized my top dresser drawer (the "junk drawer") and my nightstand drawer and shelf.

[esme]

i can't wait to do this. i have so much stuff to clean up on my dresser and bookshelf. i will start on it tomorrow night.

[AmyBoz]

Whoo-hoo! I'm so glad to hear everyone is so pumped about this!

[imforpeace]

OK, done! I now have an alarm clock, a book and hand cream. {no drawers} My dresser is in the closet and only has a jewelry box on it. No other horizontal surfaces.

[IntlMom]

I was going to be doing this tommorrow, anyway, so consider me in.........I'm doing junk drawers in the kitchen, the buffet......you name it!

So I'm in!!

[AmyBoz]

Great job, I'mforpeace! Anyone else making any progress? Tomorrow is my day for this project.

[shortcake]

Originally Posted by AmyBoz

Great job, I'mforpeace! Anyone else making any progress? Tomorrow is my day for this project.

Well my bedroom looks great but my dining room is still full of stuff! I thought I would be done by now. I am hoping to finish sorting all the junk today, wish me luck.