Organization leads to Donation!

For the past couple months I've been organizing my room and putting stuff away, getting rid of things, and making space for new pieces!  I finally hung some pictures and frames in July and got rid of a wall full of boxes and bags.  There is still a box and 2 bags of stuff but I've down-sized tremendously.  And when my Mom was here in June we went through my closets to get rid of clothes, shoes, accessories that I don't wear anymore, don't fit, or just aren't my style.  All of this brings me to this past weekend!

Six years of Magazines!

I had been calling libraries and homeless shelters all over LA to drop my clothes and the magazines that were filling my closets off for someone who would appreciate and get some use out them.  I guess I didn't expect to find anywhere that would accept magazines most just said to re-cycle them, although the Library in Burbank said they would take them all but that was a drive just to drop off some magazines.  I finally found a Women's Shelter in Santa Monica that would take all my magazines and all I needed to do was drop them off, so that was my first task on Saturday afternoon.  Next was dropping off all of my clothes at a Goodwill which was just a few blocks from the Shelter.  And boy did it feel good to give all my stuff away!  The hardest part was getting all 250 magazines to my car along with 3 garbage bags of clothing items and shoes.  Lucky for me, there was a shopping cart downstairs so I just had to pack it, get it over my door frame and make it to my car in one piece to unload everything.  I think the most exciting part of all of this was that I now have more space in my room because all the magazines were sitting next to my vanity and all my clothes were sitting in the hallway so my room looks so much bigger right now.

Good Deed for the Day!

My biggest problem with organization comes from piling up letters and papers onto my dresser and a cubby in my coffee table in the living room.  I need a junk drawer and I don't have one so I created a junk shoe box.  After going through all my bills, receipts, flyers, papers, audition notices, and scripts, I filed all of them away into my 2 space bins and anything that didn't have a home went into a shoe box under my bed.  Out of sight, out of mind, except, I know exactly where to find what I need, and for the first time in 6 years I can see my entire dresser and all the fun perfumes and scents, along with framed photos and knick knacks...Hooray!  It's amazing how much cleaner my room looks when everything has a place and the disorganization can't be seen!

My next project will be creating some more space in my closet because I still have 20 magazines or so to read and get rid of and sorting through the rest of the boxes and bags along the one wall of my room.  Plus, I have a beautiful framed photo that I just got as a gift that needs to be hung somewhere so I have to make space for that and with all this new space I get to go shopping to fill up my closets again and pick out some new fun shoes and we all know how exciting that is for a gal!  Organizing feels like I'm cleaning up my life as well; it's a refreshing new view and I'm letting go of things that have passed their expiration date which makes me feel like a new woman :)