The Great (Furniture) Purge : Part II

The campaign to reduce our possessions continues. This past week it was old furniture that we said goodbye to. Most of our stuff is second hand to begin with, and once we inherit anything it usually gets used till it's tattered and sagging.

We are also house hunting again. We found a bank that doesn't mind that Eli's been at the ethanol plant only six months. The hope is growing that we'll finally buy a house this year. And that thought is making us take a second look at all the stuff we may have to move. It's not a pleasant prospect. 

I bought a new (solid wood) hutch last year because my old hutch (which was made of particle board) was sagging and peeling. The last time we moved it rained while the hutch was in the back of a truck, which did it no favors. The hutch was originally a display model which was being discontinued, so it came with a few scratches--and a steeply reduced price.  I thought about leaving it in the garage as a planting/potting station, but room didn't allow for such a luxury. It had to go. 

Seeing the hutch out on the curb all by its lonesome had me eyeing our love-seat, a.k.a. "the Frankenstein couch". This treasure was salvaged from the depths of my parents' woods about seven years ago. My brothers knew a guy who was not so faithful to his girlfriend, who came home one night to a full set of furniture that was slashed into ribbons. We already had a full-sized couch, but thought the love-seat would be nice for a little extra seating in the living room. I spent an afternoon scrubbing the microfiber upholstery with Murphy's Oil Soap and stitching up the gashes with upholstery thread. It was moved out to the curb next to the hutch. Eli decided to part with our last old tube TV as well, and the motley crew got a "FREE" sign attached to them. They were all gone by the next morning.

Also on the chopping block was a pile of old dresser drawers (particle board) that were burned, and this deconstructed dresser that I was going to make a bookcase out of. It was advertised as real wood, but when they dropped it off it very obviously was not wood. The old crib is going to be gone as well before we move, but it's missing all of its hardware, so we're not exactly sure what to do with it yet.

We had inherited Little Grandma's table and chairs back when we had an accepted offer on a large house. The plan was to store it in the garage until we moved, and then use it in the school room for boys to do homework on. That never came to pass, and the table became a catch-all in the garage. We decided to sell it to someone who could actually use it. I listed it on a couple of Facebook's For-Sale groups, and it was sold within a couple hours. 

I had two wrought-iron glass-topped end tables from a long long (apartment era) time ago, that I was afraid were going to get destroyed (ahem, boys). They had been tucked away in a corner of our bedroom, unused since they didn't fit beside the bed. I decided to sell them and avoid a possible mess of broken glass. The pair brought in $25.

I have an old door in the garage that I am determined to repurpose into a chalkboard/bookcase unit. To help this happen I decided to sell our current chalkboard/whiteboard easel. We got a lot of good use out of it, but it was growing small for our big boys, and honestly I was sick and tired of buying dry erase markers whenever somebody forgot to put the lids back on. The easel brought in $10. 

All the money made from our old possessions is going into our "new house fund". The thought that it may be used to redo a bathroom, or to buy fresh paint, has taken away a lot of the indecision about whether to keep or purge. And it was really so much easier moving these things 30 feet rather than across the county! The room that these large items occupied is now free, and I feel a lot less stress with more space opening up. The living room itself has been lengthened by four feet!

For the mother post to this series, read "The Great Purge: Part I" here.

The Great Purge: Part I

"Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal." Matthew 6:19

Since last summer I've been determined to get rid of the junk cluttering our home. Or not junk, treasures...depending on who you ask. I used to think that all I needed to do was to find the perfect way to organize everything. If everything had it's own spot, voila! Organization would be achieved. Not so. At some point someone will want to get something out, and it's messy all over again. One too many things out at the same time equals chaos.

I started thinking about the Indians who traveled around with so few belongings, just to be closer to their food source. And the pioneers' sole possessions packed into a wagon for their move west; much of which was abandoned trail-side for various reasons. Simplification must be the answer. Our lives are not made better by an excess of things. I also firmly believe children's imaginations grow by leaps and bounds when not suffocated by things.

I weeded so many things out of the house and garage last year that they grew into Thing Mountain by the back door and inspired the garage sale I had last fall, detailed here. Appalling enough, most of it was just stuff I didn't want to store anymore. What if I actually got rid of stuff I liked but didn't need? Or stuff that was used occasionally but not really necessary? What if I dug deeper...until it hurt?

I got a real wake-up call the first spring we lived in this house. Tree roots grew into our sewer line, causing four inches of sewage to back up into the basement. The basement where 30 years of memories were stored in cardboard boxes. Who knew toilet water could wick up a stack of boxes four high? Everything in the bottom boxes was a complete loss. The less soggy contents of the higher boxes were only saved if they could withstand a rigorous disinfecting.

The offending trees were removed, and garage filled with soggy basement items to be sorted through. You can see a "water" line on the white box in the center of the upper photo.

I threw away a lot of memories that month, filling two standard-sized dumpsters with stuff, most of which had been precious enough for me to haul from house to house in over seven different moves. Treasures that included a diploma and my ballerina music/jewelry box that I adored as a little girl; a little pink bassinet flower arrangement from the day I was born, and my first-ever Doc Martens that cost me over half a paycheck back then. I cried, I hurt for far too long over those things. I snapped a few photos to remember things by before tossing them in the dumpster.

And then it hit me. None of those items were worth much, but the memories were priceless. I didn't need to keep the item to retain the memories, and the memories are what I was most afraid of losing. After that point, anything I felt a twinge of hesitation to pitch I simply snapped a photo of: memory secured, item gone. (I'm truly working on my photo hoarding issues, as well...baby steps! Ironically, given my family's genetic history, I'll probably leave this world in the fog of Alzheimer's disease, finally stripped of my memories.)

The whole process was liberating, and I finally felt free from the weight of all that stuff we would never have to shuffle to another house again. Letting go felt so good.

It's scary how quickly I got to the point of things accumulating ridiculous piles again. At the point of stuffocation. Genes may play a role in all this...I'm sure there have been a few hoarders in my family tree. Coming from an era of "waste not, want not", everything could be repurposed. And oh how I love to fix things. However, it's so bad my husband has banned me from buying any more storage totes, guys. If I want to store any little thing more I need to empty out a tote I already have. The horror.

Being so prone to falling down the rabbit hole of nostalgia, I'm really not sure how I'm going to tackle the whole desk drawer, file cabinet file, and two large cardboard boxes labeled "Memories" and "Scrapbook". Any previous attempts to weed things from these areas has resulted in many lost hours of memory-induced stupors. Reducing the amount of clothing we have is also a problem area for me. Possibly, just possibly, this pair of something-or-other might fit the last boy, though it never fit any of the others.... Pure silliness. I'm also paralyzed by gifts that were given to us, even if years ago. It's hard to let go of the guilt; I don't want to seem ungrateful of others' generosity. Someone is going to have to come over and dump toilet water on it all, I fear.

There are so many ways to organize and declutter, especially now when it has become such a "fad" pursuit. Probably most popular is the KonMari Method developed by Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo (keep it only if it sparks joy, though I hesitate to implement much from her method because of it's strong Shinto overtones, most notably that things have sacred power), not to mention hundreds of blog posts citing tips, tricks, and secrets to simplify and organize. I love this list of 116 things to throw away... things you wouldn't think are problematic but can really add to your home's clutter.

If I kept everything that "sparked joy" I would not get far. The number of things that I find beautiful, or imagine will be useful someday, is frankly ridiculous. And so I need some other rule to guide me in my pursuit of lessification. After all, attachment to stuff is nothing but materialism. I'm reminded of a grammar lesson from my elementary years: "It is improper to use the word love in reference to a thing. It is only lawful to use when speaking of a person." Oh how many times I've misused love.

"For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart, also." Matthew 6:21

My new checklist for purging things other than clothes; any point that gets a "no" to both questions is gone:

• Is it currently being used? If not, will it for sure be used in the next six months?
• Is it integral to the beautification of our home? Will it be used in the next six months?
• If we have multiples or many similar items, are they all being used? Are these multiple items helping to relieve chaos or clutter?
• If it's broke, can it be easily fixed? Is it too expensive to replace?
• Are you fine with tripping over this item every day?

In the spirit of not overwhelming you with too wordy a post, I'll update with purge-posts as they happen. If they happen! 

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Boys Room Makeover

It's no secret that we're crammed into this little house like sardines. Doing the best with what we have has become a motto around here. While I'm a proponent of room sharing and the lessons it teaches, this many boys in that small of a space is tricky business. We're working with two bedrooms here, leaving one shoebox-sized room for all four boys. Despite having barely enough room for the boys' beds, we've also squeezed two dressers, a nightstand, and a toy box into their room. It was beginning to feel just a bit claustrophobic and wildly hard to organize. It was time for a change.

This was the boys room last summer. With school over, I found extra time to organize and clear out broken and unused toys. It was manageable but still packed full.

And then birthdays, Christmas, and seasonal wardrobe changes wreaked havoc upon the tenuous order that once was. We ran out of hangers for all the clothes that should be hung up. (Or is it hanged?) Both dressers accumulated piles of "good" clothes on top, piles of games that needed new spots on shelves, piles of overflowing toys, piles of blankets that toppled every time beds needed making because we don't have a linen closet. One Little Boy scribbled on a wall with a pencil and another wallpapered his corner of the room with his own artwork + miles of Scotch tape. Yet another was trying out for gymnastics and ripped a shelf off the wall, nails and all. The last son decided his side of the bed by the window was his own special cubby hole. That one needs to be watched for hoarding issues later in life, because the space was wedged full of treasures.

I transferred the piles of shirts and sweaters from dresser tops into the closet for the photo....

Hoarding pile discovered, as well as a large water stain. I enlisted my muscle to help take the bed apart.

This photo shows the nasty water stains (at the right) that keep seeping through the wall. And why do people paint over electrical outlets? Let it be, man. Let it be.

The boys need a room that works just as well for a 9 year old as it does for a 2 year old. Their old bunk bed was a twin loft over a double, and slept three boys comfortably--not four.

Using Christmas money from the last couple years, we invested in this double-over-double bunk bed with a pull-out twin trundle bed. It'll sleep five comfortably. Top and bottom bunks separate, so when boys move out two of them get full-sized mission-style beds. If they last that long. Ordered through Amazon and delivered by FedEx, I'm not sure how the driver muscled all four massive boxes out of her truck and through our back door. She was smaller than I am.

I decided while we were moving everything out this was the perfect opportunity to patch nail holes and repaint. It's something I'd have to do anyway before we move. Besides touch-ups, the room hasn't been painted in about five years, when our landlord spray painted the whole room in flat white during its remodel. (Previously it was electric blue.) Every scuff or fingerprint wiped off also removed paint from the wall.

I spackled no less than 30 nail holes in the plaster and sheetrock walls, which will save me a lot of time when we do move. No more nails are going into these walls! Our landlord came to look at the water-stained wall (the stain wrapped even around the adjoining wall) and insisted it was an old stain, even though you can feel moisture on the wall and baseboard. So I sprayed it with Kilz and if it comes back he can deal with it then. I used ColorPlace (Wal-Mart brand) satin interior paint in Dakota Ranchwood for the walls, and semi-gloss white for the baseboards.

Painting in old houses is like looking through scraps of previous inhabitants' decor styles. This old girl has seen a rainbow of colors, and the boys room was no exception. This corner reveals some electric blue and sage green. It also shows what rough shape the paint job was in.

After:

Room-redo day one the boys were so excited to help, carrying things out of the room, throwing stuff away, and grabbing things for me. Gavin helped erase pencil from the wall while Ian made jungle gyms of everything. The rest of the house took a hit as it absorbed the displaced stuff from the boys' room.

I thought the room would look bigger when everything was cleared out, but no. It looked smaller than ever. It left me wondering how on earth we had everything stuffed into it that we did.

The first night the boys were so excited to "camp out" on the floor. The next three nights: "Aw, we have to sleep on that creepy mattress on the floor again?"

The second, third and fourth days: "Is our bed ready yet?" These were my main painting days, in between laundry, school, and cooking.

I use a twin bedsheet purchased at a thrift store as a drop cloth.

This poor old dresser needs some TLC. It was once Eli's sister's, then his, then ours as newlyweds, and then passed on to our boys. I'm trying to decide if it should be sanded and painted blue to match their other dresser or restained the same dark wood color.

A nail left behind by previous inhabitants served as a handy paint-can-holder. There were about ten other nails and a 2" pin stuck in trim and walls that had been painted over. Keeping paint off trim also wasn't a priority for previous painters.

My view for the week.

Wrapping a paintbrush in a baggie and sealing with a rubberband is a trick learned by many many painting sessions, as washing out brushes seems to both waste paint and is also not my favorite chore. Taping trim as well is an art I've never mastered; paint always bleeds under the tape. I ran out of tape halfway through, but it didn't make much difference. I used that smaller blue brush to edge the whole room, and saved time that way.

The closet doors (Hey look! They shut!) get so much use that I decided to paint them the same color as the walls to help hide scuffs and prints. After snapping this photo I think the top cabinet doors need to be painted as well. Inside of the closet: still being organized.

Day 5, painted and dry! Bed assembly time! Eli did the majority of the building,  which was a tough lesson for me in stepping down and not commandeering the whole process. The bossy-oldest-child-syndrome in me still needs to be tamed on occasion (ok ok, most the time). My tongue was sore at the end of the day from me biting it.

Ian had fun playing with the dowels...and of course, one was misplaced. Never fear, necessity is the mother of invention. We cut an inch long piece off the handle of a wooden spoon, and with a little sanding it substituted beautifully.

Hey, thanks for the playset, guys! My new bed? Nah, I'll just sleep with you guys for the next five years. Ha.

Once the main part of the bed was put together I was able to start organizing the rest of the room, including scouring the closet for garage sale items and toys to pack away in a tote to be stored in the basement. This is a work-in-progress, and I think always will be as long as we're in this house. I've already moved the dressers around, trying to find the right layout. The trundle bed still hasn't been assembled, but it's there when we need it. I now have plans to make quilts for each bunk eventually.

The boys are loving the new bed. Their room has become a new favorite hangout spot, the bed transformed by their imaginations. It's currently a pirate ship, the bottom bunk being "below deck" where they keep prisoners. It's still such a novelty that they've wanted to go to bed since it was assembled. As long as none of them get sea sick, I'm ok with that.