Decluttering: I don't know when to stop.

Apparently, I'm nesting. Only 17 weeks to go until this baby arrives, and I am determined to have THE ENTIRE HOUSE reorganized and ready long before my due date. I know I'll be too tired and won't want to do anything but knit little booties and sew little dresses by June. (OH! Did I just give something away?!)

We have a smallish, old-fashioned house that requires creative rearranging to accommodate our growing, ever-changing family. This includes regular, ruthless decluttering. Of which I have done very little in the last year.

The baby goodies are already arriving -- but what will soon be the nursery is currently my craft/curriculum/storage/library. Two bookcases and their books, a desk and all its clutter, my scrapbooking and sewing supplies have to go Somewhere Else.

One of those places is this closet:

Nope, nothing else is going in there until something comes out.

My problem is, I can't just pull a few things out of a closet. Once I decide to start organizing, I have to empty EVERY CLOSET IN THE HOUSE so that the whole place looks like we've been flying over Kansas with Dorothy -- collecting everything but the cow passing by as we go.

First, though, I made lists of everything that would need a home somewhere. (This I started weeks ago.)

I started thinking about what big items needed to go -- the dresser in the bedroom closet that was not working, the rocking chair that was cute but never comfortable for nursing, the boys' desks that I repainted for the school room two years ago and haven't been used since last May. And I decided we should have a yard sale.

On Monday, I started pulling everything out of the closets. And then I realized I was coming down with the flu. By Wednesday, three of us were in bed sick, and my house still looked like this:

Stuff was piled everywhere waiting for the yard sale.

But, no matter, because my main closet had gone from THIS (before):

To THIS (after)!

Top shelf: Blankets, sorted by knits, fleece, and quilts
Second shelf: Seasonal items in tubs: Snow, birthdays, swim, and crafts.
Third and bottom shelves: Games, craft supplies, and homeschool baskets.
Floor: Gift wrapping supplies. And an EMPTY tub!!

And I wasn't quite finished here. I now have storage on the back of the door for the gift wrap, and I was able to move some sewing and scrapbooking tubs out of my office into the bottom of the closet.  I still have more sorting through craft and school supplies to do, too.

And check out my bedroom closet (BEFORE):

And AFTER (so far):

I'm still working on this one, too, but removing the dresser and adding the tubs and shoe cubbies made a HUGE difference! I found shoes under that dresser that had been "missing" for over a year. :/

The tornado spewed the rest of the mess onto the lawn Saturday morning, and after we made an entire $3.75 in six hours of yard selling (plus $75 for the dresser from someone who saw it on Craiglist), we loaded up the rest to take to Goodwill.

Now to finish the boys' closet...

I'm participating in Project: Simplify 2012!