If you were given ten hours right now to do whatever you wanted, what would it be? I am the type of person that does not do well with too much free time. This is probably one of the reasons I am excited to work at the BYU French Camp this month and travel to France for most of July. The Camp starts tomorrow, which means today is my only weekday off in June! Hmmmm....what to do? Watch a Chick Flick with a batch of homemade popcorn? That sounds super nice, actually. (This home theater looks so inviting too. No, it is not my home theater. I just found it on google.) However, today I decided to do something not quite as fun at the moment, but very fulfilling now that it is over! I decided to organize my whole bedroom, closet and bathroom!
As many of you know, I moved home to Lehi from West Jordan this past weekend. I will be staying here for the summer so that I can be closer to BYU while I teach and save on rent for a few months. With the crazyness that comes at the end of the school year, it was a hurried move. I just filled up my car with boxes and bags of who-knows-what and took off. When I got to my Lehi bedroom, it was already full of my collection of stuff from past years. I dumped all my newly-moved stuff on the ground and stared. Ugh! So not fun to sit in a room where you can't even see the carpet! I decided that it was time for a makeover. I actually started this project on Saturday and only finished today. I began by pulling everything out of my closet. Everything. I then dumped all the contents out of all my storage boxes that were stacked there and emptied all my dresser drawers. Holy Moly! My room looked horrible! Where did I get all this stuff?!
I was so surprised at all the things that I had forgotten about: a pink CareBear nightgown from when I was 6 or 7 years old. I think I originally planned on saving it for my daughter. Yeah, it was gray and gross looking. Garbage! I rounded up tons of razors in all sorts of random places, found my pointe shoes from my ballerina days, tons of Tahitian Noni cream from when I worked there that had gone rancid along with two new bottles of Tahitian Noni Juice that expired in 2007! Dang--that stuff is expensive! How wasteful of me! I didn't even share it! Anyway, I filled up three garbage bags and six boxes for D.I. Some things were a little bit hard to get rid of, but I know I will not miss them. For example, I loved wearing my black jumper every week on my mission in Brazil. It was comfortable and practical. It hasn't seen daylight since. Goodbye. The hardest thing for me to downsize is letters. I just love letters and cards from people. I found two boxes filled-to-the-top with love letters from guys that I dated in college as well as letters from old friends who don't even know I exist today. What good are those doing now? I managed to throw away at least half of the letters. The rest, I shoved in a box for another day. I also found floppy disks of all my high school writing projects. I don't know if I could find a computer that those would work in today. I ended up saving them, just in case.
Awe! When the last box and bag was put away, I vacuumed my newly-found carpet and just couldn't stop smiling! Wow! I could just stare at my work for hours now! I can breathe! It wasn't an easy task, but it was so worth it!
My clothes are now all organized according to colors. Beautiful! My necklaces are now all in my jewelry box and all the tarnished and tangled ones are gone forever.
Even my bathroom is all cleared out. Pure sunshine! I guess I could start making my popcorn now and get the Chick Flick ready!
If you were given ten hours right now to do whatever you wanted, what would it be? I am the type of person that does not do well with too much free time. This is probably one of the reasons I am excited to work at the BYU French Camp this month and travel to France for most of July. The Camp starts tomorrow, which means today is my only weekday off in June! Hmmmm....what to do? Watch a Chick Flick with a batch of homemade popcorn? That sounds super nice, actually. (This home theater looks so inviting too. No, it is not my home theater. I just found it on google.) However, today I decided to do something not quite as fun at the moment, but very fulfilling now that it is over! I decided to organize my whole bedroom, closet and bathroom!
As many of you know, I moved home to Lehi from West Jordan this past weekend. I will be staying here for the summer so that I can be closer to BYU while I teach and save on rent for a few months. With the crazyness that comes at the end of the school year, it was a hurried move. I just filled up my car with boxes and bags of who-knows-what and took off. When I got to my Lehi bedroom, it was already full of my collection of stuff from past years. I dumped all my newly-moved stuff on the ground and stared. Ugh! So not fun to sit in a room where you can't even see the carpet! I decided that it was time for a makeover. I actually started this project on Saturday and only finished today. I began by pulling everything out of my closet. Everything. I then dumped all the contents out of all my storage boxes that were stacked there and emptied all my dresser drawers. Holy Moly! My room looked horrible! Where did I get all this stuff?! 
I was so surprised at all the things that I had forgotten about: a pink CareBear nightgown from when I was 6 or 7 years old. I think I originally planned on saving it for my daughter. Yeah, it was gray and gross looking. Garbage! I rounded up tons of razors in all sorts of random places, found my pointe shoes from my ballerina days, tons of Tahitian Noni cream from when I worked there that had gone rancid along with two new bottles of Tahitian Noni Juice that expired in 2007! Dang--that stuff is expensive! How wasteful of me! I didn't even share it! Anyway, I filled up three garbage bags and six boxes for D.I. Some things were a little bit hard to get rid of, but I know I will not miss them. For example, I loved wearing my black jumper every week on my mission in Brazil. It was comfortable and practical. It hasn't seen daylight since. Goodbye. The hardest thing for me to downsize is letters. I just love letters and cards from people. I found two boxes filled-to-the-top with love letters from guys that I dated in college as well as letters from old friends who don't even know I exist today. What good are those doing now? I managed to throw away at least half of the letters. The rest, I shoved in a box for another day. I also found floppy disks of all my high school writing projects. I don't know if I could find a computer that those would work in today. I ended up saving them, just in case.
Awe! When the last box and bag was put away, I vacuumed my newly-found carpet and just couldn't stop smiling! Wow! I could just stare at my work for hours now! I can breathe! It wasn't an easy task, but it was so worth it!
My clothes are now all organized according to colors. Beautiful! My necklaces are now all in my jewelry box and all the tarnished and tangled ones are gone forever.
Even my bathroom is all cleared out. Pure sunshine! I guess I could start making my popcorn now and get the Chick Flick ready!
You are an inspiration! That is amazing! Have a well deserve break watching you chick flick and I suggest spoiling yourself with some extra butter on the popcorn. <=p
ReplyDeleteAwe, thanks, Dustin! I definitely did enjoy watching Just Like Heaven and actually had some chips and salsa. Hope you are enjoying your summer!
DeleteIt all looks so beautiful! Have a wonderful summer! I will see you again in the fall!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cyndi! We will miss you this summer, but look forward to seeing you back in the Fall!
DeleteHow awesome! One thing I've done with things I have trouble getting rid of is taking pictures of them and then just keeping the picture. I keep the memory but not the stuff.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've got a super fun summer planned!
And if you ever wanted to read what's on the floppy disks, you can still buy USB-floppy drives that plug in to a computer.
Oh, that's a great idea, Catherine! I like keeping a picture memory. And thanks for the info on the floppy disks!
DeleteIs it weird that looking at the picture of your totally messy room made me kind of excited? I totally love organizing. I don't know why, but it gets me all stoked. I feel so accomplished. Next time you're tackling a project like this, let me know!
ReplyDeleteI like that you like organizing, Bonnie! I know--me too. It is hard to start, but even today, I just can't help admiring my organizing skills as I walk into my bedroom. It is also fun to rediscover all the stuff you had forgotten about. Can't wait till we plan our get-together in Provo!
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