Bedroom Blitz - Part 4

Well, it's now the final week of February and I was just over half way to completing the bedroom blitz that I promised myself I'd do in our bedroom this month.  This week's task was to tackle OH's side of the bedroom, which is looking horribly dusty and unkempt.  Here's a before picture of this side of the room.

I started with the bookshelves in the alcove.  Out came the stepladders again and the bowl of soapy water.  To his credit, OH's side of the room has a lot less stuff to clear and re-organise than my side, which did make the job a little easier.

Once the shelves were cleaned, the items on them put back, relocated to the donation pile/elsewhere or otherwise disposed of (I'm very careful about NOT disposing of OH's things these days, as he has never forgiven me for throwing out an old biscuit tin of his many years ago!), I then progressed to the chest of drawers below, which houses our t-shirts, sweaters, and sports gear.

I pulled the whole chest  of drawers out and cleaned behind it before going through it drawer by drawer. I don't think I've done this in quite a few years judging by the dirt there on the skirting boards.  I have, however, sorted through the drawers in recent months, so there wasn't too much that needed removing, but I did find a few bits that I had decided to let go of for one reason or another.

Having read on many blogs in recent weeks about Marie Kondo and her book, I decided take a peak at some of her videos on YouTube at the weekend and tried out some of her folding and organising methods whilst re-organising these drawers. Here's the finished results, which I have to admit is quite an improvement, in that I can see exactly what is there.

You could say that I've been well and truly Kondoed (excuse the pun!!).  I don't know how we all managed before she came along, banishing our bulging drawers. Although I am late to the party, I am nevertheless glad I came. Apart from being unable to fold one particularly thick jumper in the correct fashion, the rest was quite straightforward.

I would say that the only problem I find with this method, is that it actually creates space in your drawers, which in turn makes you want to go out and buy more things to fill it. (Only joking!)  I've yet to apply this method to OH's and Little Bird's drawers, but it is in the pipeline.

I have to admit that I do like Marie Kondo's idea of thanking the things you intend to donate or dispose of, for their contribution to your life. I often feel like that about things when I let them go. Pleased and grateful to have owned them for however long I've had them and for the service or value for money they've provided. This is probably why I have found it hard to let go of some things in the past. The time comes, however, when some things do need to be moved on and hopefully many of them can help to raise money for charity and serve a useful purpose for someone else who actually has a need of them.

Following on from the chest of drawers, the next job was to sort out the book case on this side of the room. I've had this solid pine book case for 25 years or so and it has spent time in several rooms in our house at one point or another, but seems to have settled here for the moment. It is almost becoming surplus to requirements these days, or it will be when I've read the stash of books on it, but until I completely no longer need it, I am keeping it and making use of it wherever I can.  I guess I do have a bit of a sentimental attachment to it and in any case it is a very solid piece of furniture, built to last. All it really needed was a good dust and polish, as I had reconfigured the shelves here when I cleaned my side of the bedroom in order. This whole side of  the bedroom didn't take long, but looked a lot better for it, although not much different if I'm honest.  I do just need to paint the edge of the middle shelf.   This shelf didn't fit too well, so I turned it around exposing the unpainted edge to get a better fit.

After hoovering and mopping the floor, the task was complete and now there is just the matter of the underneath of the bed to clean and re-organise.  (There's quite a bit stored under there).  If I can do this task this week I will, and therefore complete the whole blitz this month.  Alternatively, this job may have to carry over into March.