Creative Kimpire: Clearing the Clutter: Bedroom Edition

Last week was a busy, tiresome week for me. I drove to Bridgeport, WV two times last week for meetings for work. A drive that takes an hour and half on a good day, and 37 years if you get behind all the trucks and sit in road work on Rt. 20 🙄. The meetings were held at the Best Western. If you like coffee hot enough to give you a facial from the steam wafting up from the top of your cup and that will burn your taste buds permanently off, and also tastes like it was brewed from ground up tree bark, rather than coffee beans, the Best Western in Bridgeport is the perfect place for you! As an added bonus, the eggs at breakfast have the consistency of sandpaper and are suspiciously dry; I’m assuming from not having been prepared correctly according to the packaging from the processing plant. Yum. I can’t speak to the quality of the rooms or beds but if you’re staying there, eat somewhere else 😉. The beds there can’t be any worse than the one we slept on in San Diego though. We both woke up feeling as though we had slept on a bed of boulders. The pillows were the worst, although, my MyPillow at home isn’t much. People rave about those things, which is why I bought them, but I hate mine! I need to make a disclaimer that I like a firm pillow and get a new one often because pillows wear out quickly or I sleep too much, one or the other. However, Phil could sleep on the same pillow for the rest of his life and has a second pillow that droops when you pick it and he also hates his MyPillow. The inventor of MyPillow personally guarantees MyPillow will be the most comfortable pillow you’ll ever own. Well, sorry Mike, but your credibility is shot. They have a ten year guarantee so I’m going to find out how to get a refund. I’ve heard people say that their MyPillow is so great because it conforms to your head and stays that way. Ok, I agree that it conforms to my head…my whole head circumference after it sank to the bottom, the stuffing inside parting to either side like the story of Noah and the Red Sea. To make it somewhat comfortable I have to beat the crap out of it every single night, trying to make it bridge back together and level out. Anyway, moral of the story, if you want to try MyPillow, make sure you keep track of the start of your ’60 Day Money Back Guarantee’ period.

Okay, rant over! Ha! I don’t even know where that came from. I feel the need to say that the man who was in charge of making our meeting comfortable and serving the food in Bridgeport was wonderful and the quality of the food and coffee does not reflect the quality of service.

ANYWAY…Clearing the Clutter: Bedroom Edition

I have organized and reorganized my closets and truth be told, I’m probably still not done. However, I have a list of items that can be reduced, thrown away (last resort), or donated. Here goes:

**Disclaimer, some of you may keep some of these items in another room. If so, feel free to skip over them until you’re ready to organize that area. My house isn’t super big so we make do with the space that we have**

Sheets, pillow cases, comforters, or any other bed clothes. We don’t have a linen closet so I we don’t have room to keep tons of these items around. All you really need is 2 (maybe 3 if you have a bedwetter sleeping with you) sets of bedclothes. You can change them and wash the dirty set. Does anyone still use a flat sheet? It’s been my experience that they just get kicked to the bottom of the bed and tangled up and it’s just another item to wrangle with when you’re making the bed (you do make your bed, right?!); not necessary in my book!
Purses. Ok ladies, I used to be the queen of purses. Ask Phil, every couple of a weeks I bought a new one. Back before bills and adulthood, mostly, but I had TONS. Lori will tell you, too, because she liked borrowing them 😆. Now I keep a few that are pretty neutral and will go with most my clothes..minus my fruity Dooney & Bourke but that one is just pretty and fun so it stays 😜. Random wallets goes in this category as well.
Underwear. Seriously, how many pairs do you need? And guys, if they have holes in them, it’s time to throw them out. You know who you are.
Socks. Same deal. Holes, stains (if you care), any that you don’t wear regularly…get rid of them.
Clothes you don’t like how they fit, that you never wear, clothes for special occasions that never happen. Clothes that used to fit 15 pounds ago and you’re keeping them until you lose it. It will be much more fun to buy new clothes when you lose that weight (why not try yoga?! 😉). I use a hanger system that you may have seen before. I turn all my hangers around backwards at the start of the season, Spring and Fall, and as I wear items, I put them back in the closet the right way after washing. At the end of the season, if the hangers are still backwards, I know I didn’t wear it and it’s time to get rid of it…or put it in a box somewhere else because you think “what if I need it?” and leave it there for the next few summers until you finally cave and donate it. Whatever works for you 🤷🏻‍♀️.
Camis/Under shirts. I have about 10 white tanks that are stretched out and gross and I always look for the two newest ones when I need one. Why do I have the other ones? Really, can anyone tell me, because I certainly don’t know.
Shoes! Omg…don’t even get me started on these. I have (had) around 1,960 pairs of flip flops. Many of them were the one dollar pairs from Old Navy that I bought years ago and I had every color, because why not? The thing is, they’re not very comfortable so I almost always grab one of my three go-to’s and the others lived in a box under the bed. Now, I’m not bashing ON $1 flip flops. That’s a heck of a deal if you like them. However, trust me when I say you don’t need one in every color if you’re over 25. Black, brown, and navy will do, I promise.
Bathing suits. Ugh. So many bathing suits. How many do I like? Like 3 1/2. Buh-bye!
PJ’s. This is where shirts I can’t stand to part with go to die: in my pajama drawer. I have some shirts that were my mom’s that I sleep in and a few others but most just sit in there. If they aren’t big and comfy, I’m not gonna wear em. Even if they say “Fight Club” on them and I think they’re super cool cuz I love that movie. *sigh*
Jewelry. I not gonna beat a dead horse with that one because you guys have seen my jewelry organization numerous times. If you don’t wear it and it’s not sentimental, donate or sell it. Thrift stores love jewelry. I’ve been told that’s one of the first things to go.
Blankets. This is different from bed clothes. We have sooo many throw blankets it’s not funny. The ones we use live in the living room, on the couch and chair and a big basket on the floor. The ones we don’t live in the top of the spare bedroom closet. I have some that I can’t part with that belonged to loved ones but the others are just collecting dust. Having a sleep over with my nieces and nephews showed me that I have no excuse to keep them. I always kept thinking, “what if someone stays the night, what will they use?” We were fine with the sheet that fits the air mat and the couch blankets. Not to mention, that happens once every 6 years so we’ll manage without the extras. Ask around if you decide to purge; my neighbor uses old blankets for her dog beds. The animal shelter may also be able to put them to use.
Belts. How many do you actually wear vs. how many do you have? I hate when clothes come with belts. I don’t want it, I will most likely forget that I have it when I wear the garment anyway. Keep one in each color.
Hats. See above, except only keep ones that you ACTUALLY wear. I have a big floppy hat that I take on vacation with me and that’s the only time I wear it. I’m keeping it, I don’t care what anyone says 😜.
Athletic apparel that you don’t wear and will never wear. New Year’s is coming but you don’t need special clothes to start your New Year’s resolution to start working out. Keep one pair of comfy pants though and check out a Balanced Life Yoga class 😃😃😃. Man, all the plugs today! I’m on fire! 😂😂😂

I took my closet doors off a few years ago and put up curtains. Actually, that’s a twin sheet that I cut in half.

I used a tension rod and binder rings to hold these up. You could also use shower rings.

Make sure to utilize all the space you can by hanging things on the wall

Bags I use often when I need to take my yoga clothes with me. Hung on a Command hook

These are hung on the inside of the front of my closet with Command hooks. *Pro tip: don’t stand on a folding chair to do this. It will likely result in a huge bruise and a cut on your leg 🙄.

An organizer for hangers. Every time we take a shirt down, the hanger goes on here and then this goes downstairs when we do laundry so shirts can go straight from the dryer onto a hanger.

I couldn’t resist including one pic of a jewelry organizing solution. I was using this for necklaces but decided to paint it and make it a bracelet holder. It’s much prettier now than it was before 😃

No post is complete without pics of my girls. Sophie has been testing the limits of my patience with her puppihood and my desire to live with her. She’s reached her max allowance lately and may soon need to find a place to stay until she’s two and calms down. Okay, I’m probably kidding. Unless one of you is offering. It’s only 14 more months 🤷🏻‍♀️. The above pic collection starts out looking sweet but I witnessed it going down and it wasn’t as it appears. Sansa was laying comfortably and Soph came and scooted her little ass so close to her that Sansa had no choice but to put her legs around her, just to be comfortable. The second pic I titled: Annoyance: As Depicted By Dog. The third is typical Soph, having no regard for anyone else’s personal space, so long as she’s comfy, and the fourth is the final straw: Soph put her face on Sansa’s and Sansa got up and moved to the chair. 🙄 That dog. She’s lucky we love her.