Last week, I mentioned that I was purging my home of unnecessary items. AKA junk.

It ended up being a process that lasted pretty much the whole week. Part of that was due to my 3 sweet children. You know, they kinda wanted to eat and play during the great purge. Imagine that?! And my little Miles was extra fussy due to teething. Sad face. He’s mostly back to his happy self now, though, so that’s a blessing for the entire family!

Anyway, I snapped a few pictures with my phone before I started this whole cleaning/organizing project, so I thought it would be fun to show you the before/afters. What do you think? It’s always fun to look at someone else’s mess when you don’t have to get involved in it, right? I always tend to NOT take any before pictures, because I’m so embarrassed at how it looks and I don’t want anyone to ever know I let my house look like that. Whatever. We all have our messes, right? Besides, I have proof that I cleaned it up. So you can’t actually nominate me for any hoarding show. Unless there’s money involved, in which case I may consider messing it up again. #kidding #partially

Here’s the biggest area that got my wheels turning:

And if you take a closer look, you’ll see this

don’t worry, those diapers are clean.

and this:

This is in our family room/laundry room/craft room area. There are a bajillion windows + a fireplace in this room. The windows are rather old {ie. drafty}, so when it’s cold outside, it’s cold in this room. And vice versa. Thankfully, there’s a large glass door that separates this room from the rest of our home, so we usually keep it closed to keep out the drafts.

Anyway, we have jokingly referred to this area as our garage. Because we need some place to keep our bikes, strollers, etc.

However…this brings me to another problem area:

This is a long closet right by our dining room. Long & skinny, it’s the perfect place to stow…well, just about everything as you can see from the dark-ish picture above.

I started wondering if the bikes would fit in that long closet one morning and decided to just find out. Of course, in the process of pulling everything out, I discovered a lot of junk which led to purging which led to organizing…and basically I created my own rendition of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. 

But after a good deal of donations, trash, and sweat, I was able to fit the bikes & trailer in our long closet!

Above the bikes, we have our Christmas tree, camping stuff, and other random accessories such as a cupcake stand, wet/dry vacuum, fall decor, etc.

This leaves me with this view in our family room area:

Much better, right?! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am with this de-junkified space.

I came across that pink/white fabric and 2 pillow inserts while cleaning out my closets and craft area. {if you follow me on instagram, you already got a sneak peek at it!} So I decided to make some pillow covers. Of course, that all sounds like it was just a quick and easy venture. But considering I haven’t used my sewing machine for many months, I had to fight it out with my machine first. But after a bit of oiling and dusting, we called a truce and he decided to cooperate with my lack of sewing skillz. I used the same envelope pillow cover tutorial I used for these pillows.

And if you look closer, you’ll see this:

That is our new tool + paint area. Plus umbrella stroller + wood. I mean, so it wouldn’t be featured in a magazine. But, you know, it looks better than before. 😉

And for now, I’m storing these items behind the couch. Most of it is going on craigslist, so I’m hoping it will be gone in the next week or so.

 Let’s have one last look at that main before and after, shall we?

Yippee! I tell ya, it’s like a breath of fresh air to go out there and not be assaulted with a view of so much stuff.

For now, I’m going to try not to fill up my newfound space with things. Like that Ikea blanket I told you about. Let’s see how long that lasts…