Declutter Challenge: Closet Clean Up

We've had a hugely successful decluttering week.  This week, I worked in our closet.  I chose to paint it the same color as the bathroom because we had paint left over from that project. 

Here is the before pictures.

They aren't the greatest pictures, but they give you an idea.  When we first moved in, we had Ella's crib in our room, so the only place we had for Andy's armoire was in the closet.  The top of the armoire quickly became a catch-all for clothes and other stuff.  I know, shame on us!

The first step in this project was to move everything out of the closet and get rid of unused items.  Both Andy and I have gained weight since we got married.  There's a part of us that previously had a hard time parting with our old clothes because we always think we'll fit back into that stuff some day.  During our garage clean up, I went through boxes of my smaller clothes and realized that even if I were that size again, it is unlikely that I would wear much of that stuff anymore, so I got rid of most of it.  Yes, I still held on to some "just in case things, but mostly I got rid of my smaller clothes last month, and this week was Andy's turn to do the same.  I am thrilled that he was extremely willing to part with this stuff.  We're both just so over hanging on to stuff.  I have a couple of teenaged nephews, so I bagged up Andy's old clothes and shoes and we will let them see if they want any of the stuff, otherwise it'll find a new home at Goodwill.  We ended up bagging up seven garbage bags full of stuff. I could do a dance - that's how excited I am that we are getting rid of this unused stuff - plus, laundry day is going to be a breeze now that I won't be trying to stuff clothes into overfull dressers/closet!

Here are the pictures of the stuff that we have gotten rid of from our closet (and also a box from our bedroom).

Clothes: 102 items

Shoes: 18 pairs

I actually wrote this post last week and have since donated an additional 10 items of clothing/shoes, which are not pictured.

Total things decluttered this week: 130

Grand Total things decluttered: 777!!!!

Here are the after pictures of our closet.  Again, the contrast of the paint color isn't very great.  I still don't love painting, but I am happy to report that it was not as frustrating as it was in the bathroom.