My bedroom declutter: Part 02 – out with the wardrobe! by Andréia

I never thought I would change my bedroom as I did this year. It was a challenge I set to myself. In part one I told you all about my struggles to get rid of clothes and one piece of furniture in my bedroom. Now I am telling how I managed to get rid of a wardrobe.

Late last year I was talking to Colleen by e-mail and I was anxious about the state of my bedroom. It was a mess. I occasionally watch some Peter Walsh show and my bedroom was as far from a “haven” as you can put it. It stressed me out. Always. There was always stuff strewn across the “floordrobe” (I would like to thank Cindy for this very appropriate name…). I had a place to put my shoes, but if I did put them away I could not find them when I needed to go out, because they were under the bed, and I could not find clothes, laundry day was “Oh God how am I going to deal with this!” day and so on. I was desperate for a change. I came to a new milestone in my decluttering. I wanted space. Space can either be bought, by acquiring a bigger house (so out of the question because I would not acquire a bigger place to clean) or clearing space in your existing home. As I have been seriously decluttering for, at least, 5 years, I knew I could have more space by decluttering a lot more easily and with no expense than buying a bigger house or remodelling the one I live in.

Finally I came to a stage in my decluttering when I decided that I needed to have less storage space in my bedroom and less stuff in my room and more space. That means I had to declutter a very big wardrobe (the actual piece of furniture) and empty almost completely another one.  I had to declutter a very massive excess of stuff that was CRAMMED inside those wardrobes. I have read time and time again in this blog how Colleen decluttered this or that piece of furniture. And it always made me wonder: “What if she needs that furniture in the future? She will never get that kind of furniture ever again; they don’t make them as good as that anymore;” And the final thought would be: “She should have kept it, she had space for it and she might need it someday…”. And there you have my thought for that moment. 

After a while (being so overwhelmed by stuff inside my own bedroom) I thought: Why keep a big piece of furniture that you may never need again? I used to love, big, massive furniture. I have monstrous wardrobes and I use every door in both of them. I used to suffer (yes, that is the right word – suffer), whenever I thought I would move to a smaller house and had to get rid of some piece of big furniture that I had. It never occurred to me to down size on the furniture front, I just thought I could never let that furniture go, because I would never have something as good/sturdy/big/well done (you pick) as that again. 

The obvious decluttering had been done. Still there was a lot of things inside the wardrobes. I, sometimes, was guilty of decluttering a few pieces and what I was unsure about I just stuffed or crammed (look, there is that ‘nice’ word again…) somewhere. My somewhere was, mostly, my wardrobes and my bedroom. I liked those wardrobes. I had a hand in their design. They were done to me personally, not bought in stores. Everything from bed linen to covers, from clothes to belts, shoes and purses, books, caps and some things I don’t know, were stored in those two wardrobes.

As I started to clear out the wardrobe in my bedroom, I was so amazed at the amount of UNUSED stuff that I thought this overhaul was long overdue. There was loads of stuff I donated as I told in the first post and a lot I had (finally) to deal with. I started questioning my attachment to pieces of wood and screws, which are, basically what makes a wardrobe. As I was evaluating my bedroom and everything in it, I concluded that I had wardrobes much too big and a lot of the stuff in them was excessive.

One of the best thing I did was downsizing the amount of clothes we had (me and my husband). My style changed and I kept clothes I did not like just because they fit me. I found bad buys, shoes, knick knacks, books you name it, I had in there. So I decided to make a smaller built in closet, a little bigger than my former wardrobe and divide it in two, for my husband’s and my use. As I was doing the project, the architect that designed said: “There is no way all that is in those wardrobes is going to fit in the space you want.” I said “yes, it will.” “How?” Decluttering the excess.

I sold my wardobe, because “I might need it some day” is no reason to keep a 1,80 meter by 2,30 meter wardrobe. I know I have the space to have kept it. To my old self having the space would mean I could fill it up nicely. To my new self, space can be an asset all in itself, even more if it is empty. And I also bought a trunk bed, as seen in the picture, to store big covers so they are not in “the way”. When winter comes we take the covers out and use them as bed spreads (takes a little more time to make the beds each morning, but we can’t have it all…)

As I declutterd something else became obvious: how much easier it was to clean the bedroom. Get up, make the bed, the shoes are always in place (as I designed an easier system to store them I never leave them scattered around anymore), no more clothes to pick up, because they have a place to be stored. I am still amazed I can clean my bedroom in under a half hour. It used to take me several hours and the result was a lot of stuff “crammed” somewhere.

After the wardrobe left and I had dealt with the excesses I put my chest in the wardrobe’s place. I holds all the linen and towels of my house. It is not crammed and it looks quite nice on that spot. That chest belonged to my great-grandmother and it was passed along to my grandmother (in whose house I lived until I married) and I got when she passed for my then, future children (as she would have liked). And as it was restored to be used by my children and it is a very useful piece of furniture, it is also a warm reminder of my grandmother. I feel great when I look at it. I feel great walking into my “new” bedroom.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter an item of clothing that you promise yourself is going to fit you again some day.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown