Clean-Along Its time for a major cleanup and redo- Post Your Own Pics

[beccabadger]

how do you deal with tons of scrapbooking paper, various suplies and luggage? Books what do you do when you have too many favorite books and no more bookcases?

Maybe consider thinking of books in a different way?  If you're hanging on to books that you probably won't read ever again, then it could be argued that you're depriving somebody else of the chance of reading them (by buying them secondhand from your local charity shop, or from your library (if they're new enough and unspoilt enough to donate)).

I had to clear out a couple of hundred books earlier this year (finally ran out of shelf/pile space) and ended up asking a couple of questions of each book in my collection:

1.  Will I ever have the time/desire to read this book again?

No?  Then get rid of the book.
Yes?  See next question:

2.  Does my local library stock this book?  (Or, if you move house a lot, is this the kind of book that any library would probably stock?)

No?  Keep the book.
Yes?  Then get rid of the book.

But if you have a good sentimental reason for keeping the book (eg. gift from someone you love, much-loved story from childhood, etc) then you should hang on to it.  I fail at being ruthless.

I'm afraid that the majority of my books are ones I'd read again (and have done!) apart from a select few that I will be donating. My local library isn't all that local either. I have to go into town, and that is just too far away when I want to read a book spontaneously, or at 1am when I'm staring at my shelves trying to decide what is a nice easy read when I can't sleep. It all sounds great in theory though 

[flying_babyb]

I too have the same issue. Im proud to say im down to two bookcases (of books I read and re read)
So can anyone help me figure out what I can do with this room? Its a dinning room and livign room. thing is together they make one LONG room. I dont really have a whole lot of use for a dinning room since its just me. On the few ocations that I do have people over I have the room to pull the table out. I would like these to function as one big space since my living room is so small. I just for the life of me cant figure out where to put everything. The red is my heaters, the blue is the patio door (its winter here). Any advice?

[flying_babyb]

oh man,  looking through this makes me want to clean up my room and craft space even more.  and get people over here to abuse my craft stash.  i have alot of paper and paper and paper and fabric and paper.  did i mention paper?  boxes of it and other crafty tid-bits i picked up over the years.  i need to get them gone gone gone.

Best way to get rid of craft stuff is offer to do a personal trade. I did this to get rid of a ton of fabric!

[neeliarose]

Ugh. I didn't even realize how bad my room was until I looked at these pictures! It's my bedroom, but it also doubles as an office and will now also have to be a craft room. I share it with my boyfriend and we currently live with my parents. The poor guy gets 2 drawers, a night stand and about 1/3 of my closet space. I don't know how he puts up with me! My room is tiny (thank you new construction housing for making my parents closet about the size of my entire bedroom) and I need to get it organized. I have virtually no budget at this time, so it may take a while to get everything the way I want it. In general, I just have too much stuff. And this is after getting rid of probably 30% of my stuff over the past 2 years.

Right now my "craft room" is my parents formal dining room. I'm sure they love me using their dining table, which is worth more than my car, as a craft table. They've actually been pretty tolerant considering it looks like a tornado blew through there most of the time, but it's time for me to stop taking advantage of that and give them their clean house back. So... my room will now be a bedroom/office/craft room.

I'll get picture of my current craft room mess tomorrow when it's daylight.

[SiakelA]

I seriously don't feel the need for before shots. I don't like showing off my mess.

I live in a small apartment, the upstairs one of my husband's grandma's duplex. So I can't really do things like paint the walls (unfortunatly). But I'm determined to make the best of it. We're planning on living there for only another year or two, but if I make it better now, it will feel more like a home and less temporary. I think that's worth the effort.

We recently got rid of the dishwasher (it didn't work well and was small, so handwashing is preferable) and switched the way the fridge opened so that we could put it against the wall.

We bought a counter extention to fill the new gap, and the trash is being moved under the sink. This layout is much more open than before, which is exciting for me!

Hubby took the door off the pantry, which I guess will inspire me to keep it more clean.

My next plans include destashing some yarn, books, and electronics. I also want to repaint my coffee table and dvd shelf to match the rest of the living room furniture. After that some curtains to spruce everything up. If I can save up some extra cash a new couch is definitely in order too, but that might be getting ahead of myself.

Wish me luck!