In Which Before becomes After before becoming Before...

The book Catherine recommended seems to have lit a fire under me. Knowing my "theme" for the upcoming chapter of my life, and thinking about what will propel that theme forward, and what is treasure and what isn't at this stage of my life, has been empowering.


And I have the pictures to prove it.


I have been allowing myself to be defeated by the task of sorting through the papers that overwhelmed the storage room. I started working on them after reading the chapters in Clear Your Stuff, Change Your Life about theme, treasures and trash, and the momentum built until I was in that wonderful zone where one can't seem to stop working.


Here is a before picture of the storage room, north end. It was somewhat better than this by the time I tackled it, but I didn't take a before picture before this most recent attempt at clearing.

Not the most inspiring sight to encounter every time I went into the room. As I say, some progress had been made. It wasn't this bad when I started working on it after my April 28 blogpost. The picture below is what it looks like now. What you can't see is that the drawers in both the dresser and the little chest of drawers (as well as the other little chest of drawers not pictured) are all EMPTY. They have been emptied in preparation for Phase Two of this project, a furniture shift that turns these pictures from being After pics to Before the furniture shift pics. Are you sitting down? Good. 

I hear audible gasps. That is music to my ears. The dresser will be going into my bedroom. The little chest will be going into the entryway to act as a landing strip/launch pad. If the dresser is going into the bedroom, then space must be cleared to make that a possibility. Therefore, the chair and bookcase in the bedroom have been cleared off, so that they can move into the living room. Thus, this After picture is also a Before picture.

In order for the chair and bookcase to be in a spot that makes me happy in the living room, other things must be moved. The dining table is on its way across the room to the window. For a long time I've wanted a dining table with an outdoor view. First the living room had to be tidied, so that the next step can take place (note that there is not much furniture in this room. The dining chairs became unsafe to use, so I'm currently using uncomfortable folding chairs, but my budget is being allocated in other places than furnishings, so I'll live with that.) So, yet more After pictures that are also Befores.

Stay tuned to see how the Great Furniture Shift goes. (I wonder how many Great Furniture Shifts I have had in the course of my many goes at trying to put a long line of apartments to rights?)