Beneath the Surface Bathroom Decluttering

January 21, 2017 by Florence 12 Comments

Beneath the surface bathroom decluttering is a needed project in the Urge to Purge series. Joining with “No Place Like Home Bloggers,” we are all decluttering and organizing for the month of January. As this week’s challenge is bathroom decluttering, I jumped in because my bathroom hasn’t been really decluttered in 20 years. I didn’t realize I had so much excess because it’s all beneath the surface.

Here is a view of the bathroom…pre-purge and it doesn’t look too bad, but just stay with me.

Bathroom Decluttering

Four grocery bags of old makeup, dried up lotions, nail polishes I haven’t worn in umpteen years, contact lens paraphernalia, (I haven’t worn contacts in 4 years) half-empty bottles…you know what I mean!

My 40-year collection of soap scraps has finally bitten the dust (I made soap bars out of the scraps 35 years ago. Ask me if I’ve done it since), and my pink hair brush I’ve had since Junior High, missing most of the bristles is also gone. Can you tell it’s hard for me to throw stuff away yet??? Yes, I had to get firm.

And just the other day I was thinking I need to buy some red lipstick. After the purge, I found 4 tubes.

I’ve finally broken myself of the habit of cleaning out old lipsticks with a brush to get to the very end. Did you know there’s a lot of lipstick left after a tube is “empty”? My mother, who grew up during the Depression, taught me this years ago. In fact, if you want to read more about those down home lessons, click to read Depression Thinking.

We have no medicine cabinet, unfortunately, so everything has to go in a drawer. I’ve found it very helpful to label the tops of bottles so I can tell at a glance what something is.

See all those headbands? I haven’t had long hair in years! Gone

I used to pull cotton out of medicine bottles to save it, another down home lesson….no more.

2 Undersink Cabinets below:

Top: 3 bags of old makeup. I’ve needed for years to purge this!

Now it’s all in a basket…easy to find and pick up.

I went through 9 drawers and 2 cabinets. Hubby just did these three, but he got in the spirit and did a good job. No before photos.

Thanks for sticking with me in my bathroom decluttering project!

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How I Organize My Ebay Etsy Home Office

January 15, 2017 by Florence 33 Comments

I guarantee you that having a well-organized home office is part of being a good seller! When you sell an item, you want to be able to find it! In my Etsy shop, for example, I have over 200 items listed and more than that in my inventory, and it’s ~~sometimes~~ always challenging to find a place to store all that. Especially if you live in a home, rather than a warehouse! Today I’m showing how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office in the Urge to Purge series. Mine is located upstairs in a small loft where I keep desktop, printer, office supplies, and Etsy shop inventory. We are blessed to have a large bedroom, bath, loft, and several unfinished attic rooms upstairs, and it’s all devoted to my business.

The goal is/was to keep ALL my inventory up here, and not have it strewn all over the house. I strive for that, BUT! You have only to refer to Vintage Picker Off Limits Home Tour to see reality.

At one time in the distant past, our loft was a cute and cozy room, decorated with a vintage 1930’s radio, floral sofa and rug, vintage quilt displayed on the banister, and a couple of club chairs. Now it’s almost a room again!

Loft from the Great Room….I love that the old quilt covers up most of the ~~mess~~ valued inventory upstairs!

How I Organize My Ebay Etsy Home Office

Storing Inventory

This corner of the loft is in front of the antique radio…

As part of my inventory, I keep a large box of vintage buttons, old sewing patterns, and a stack of Bibles. A Baby First Step doll not in great shape cosmetically. No longer walks. Not very rare either.

My Etsy shop, vintagesouthernpicks.etsy.com, is a vintage one (what else?), so my inventory is highly varied. I carry crochet, yarn, and sewing supplies, paper ephemera, books, and knick-knacks….just a bit of everything. Since it’s all different sizes, open shelving was the answer, but it instantly looks very cluttered.

Center of Loft room before……Really hate the clutter of open shelves!

Now most of that is stored right here in an old chest of drawers.

My dad fixed this up for me years ago when I was moving into my first apartment, so it’s pretty old and very basic. I would love to paint it white and distress it…a job for another day.

Now I have a shipping center! I was using the sofa before, which was too low making it backbreaking bending over to pack stuff.

And the other side of the room….Left side of banister railing…..

These banister shelves are in an L-shape, so at least they look uniform, even if still cluttered.

Right side of banister railing…..

Over here I have smalls like dolls, toys, games, vintage cigarette lighters, vintage padlocks, glassware, and crochet supplies. I know where everything is (I think!)

My computer desk and printer. For 3 years I’ve been running across the room for access to the printer, so I’m glad to have it close.

For the first time in years, I’ve been able to get to this bookcase, which needs purging. If there’s one thing hard for me to get rid of…it’s books!

In the whole purge, I eliminated 3 black shelving units…

And gained 2 full boxes of smalls for the HUGE GARAGE SALE OF 2017!

Garage salers, eat your heart out! It’s gonna be good!

Storage for the Etsy Home Office

Part of the issue of a home office is where to put all the stuff already listed and waiting to sell. Sellers do this different ways…

*Box is weighed, then flattened again, item goes back into inventory until it sells. Advantage is saving room on box storage.

*Box is weighed, then find a place to store it until it sells. This is my method.

For either method, ample storage is a must, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each one.

After much frustration and wasted time, I learned I had to take the time to label the outside of boxes. I was spending way too much time opening boxes looking for stuff.

In fact, I still spend a lot of time looking for things even though the boxes are labeled. I’ve never had to tell a customer I can’t find their package, but almost!

Since I don’t live in a warehouse, I have to find places to store, but at least it’s all upstairs.

My Storage Places…

Large Shelving Unit in hall holds mailers filled with smaller items…..

Alcove off the upstairs bath holds my scale, shelves with small boxes, and mailers that hold books…..

Closet off the bath is my kitchen room, holding all kitchen-related items.

One wall of the bedroom holds large mailers…

And against another wall are boxes holding items that can’t stand attic heat…..

When we have overnight guests, they naturally agree to sleep among all the mailers!

3 Years ago, hubby built these wonderful attic shelves which I love….

Storing Packing Supplies

Running an Ebay/Etsy office also involves storing packing supplies…boxes, tape, bubble wrap, peanuts, air pillows, mailers. I also use foam rubber occasionally and styrofoam, all of which are bulky items requiring ample storage. Luckily, I have a large attic room off the loft where I store all that stuff.

This is just half the room….

I use peanuts ALL the time….

Foam rubber and styrofoam occasionally…..

Bubble wrap ALL the time….

Air pillows in an old laundry hamper & window seat….

Thank goodness for a friend running a Christmas shop, who saves me all her air pillows and peanuts.

My system isn’t pretty, but it’s serviceable for my needs. My advice is to use what you have on hand. I love the feminine, color-coordinated craft rooms I see in blog-land. In a perfect world, mine will look like that!

Thanks for sticking with me on how I organize my Ebay Etsy home office! Any sellers out there reading this….what is YOUR method? I’d love to hear new suggestions!

Don’t forget to pin!

Thanks!!

Urge to Purge 1

January 5, 2017 by Florence 16 Comments

Christmas is over. January is usually a home improvement project so I think “urge to purge 1” qualifies, don’t you? I’m joining blogging friend Brenda Kula-Pruitt from CozyLittleHouse and we’re all purging our excess stuff together. Mine will result in a gigantic yard sale later in the year.

First job to tackle is the Master closet, but I’m not going to show you that till next week. This week is the Linen closet. I was so anxious to start I forgot the before pix. It didn’t look bad, but it was driving me crazy anyway.

How only 2 people can accumulate so many towels is beyond me. A lot of the sheet sets had to go too because once we got a mattress with deep corners, the shallow pocket sheets had to go.

I debated saving the sheets for sewing projects, but the object here is to get RID of…not keep more stuff. Besides, I haven’t sat down at that sewing machine for at least 2 years.

urge to purge 1 — linen closet top shelf straightened & purged

You see, we live in an open floor plan house, which is great in some ways because it’s trendy, and it makes small rooms look bigger. But the downside is, there’s not many walls or closets. So your wall and closet space is at a premium.

Therefore, we needed our heads examined, when we trained our Alvie to go to bed at night in the linen closet.

The only time of day he gets a cat treat, he looks forward to going beddy-bye. He is one hairy cat that sheds like crazy, and he has not only totally ruined one blanket, but made the largest section of the precious closet totally unusable. But he is so darn cute & we love him to death so I guess anything for Alvie. Might as well make it official. I had a brainstorm to put the bed in just in case he might like it better.

And I want you to know I made a special trip to Wal-Mart (hate going to Wal-Mart) to get the little bed for the dog, but now it’s Alvie’s. What can I say…we’re nuts over the cat.

We found Alvie in Tennessee when we visited the Alvin C. York historic site and cemetery. A screeching little kitten running up to anybody and everybody. We promptly adopted the starving little thing and named him for Alvin C. York…Alvie for short. We name all our animals for where we get them.

The sum total of the purge: 3 queen sheet sets, 1 plastic tablecloth, 2 single sheets and pillowcase, 3 bath towels, 8 hand towels, 13 wash cloths to Goodwill.

Do you have the urge to purge in the new year?

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