The Queen of (de)Clutter

Right now I am the Queen of Clutter, and I have had enough! I'm taking a brave new stand and putting my foot down - I can't take it anymore!!! So I've decided to take it room by room, even if I do half a room a day, it's got to count as progress :) Today started with a general tidy up and a vacuum of the whole house. My house hasn't been vacuumed since I left for Grahamstown over a week ago, and with all the dust and two dogs shedding hair it was getting pretty scary. The first room to be de-cluttered was the kitchen. This was the messiest corner of all. Books and magazines piling up, photo frames, vases and random objects forming a magnetic field of dust attraction.

Before

After

Aaaahh.....lovely. Simple and uncluttered, easy to wipe and dust. Now, I've started on my study/studio which I share with my husband who is a bit of a neat freak and this room is driving him to dispair. It's so bad, that at first I just sat down, absolutely paralysed and couldn't decide where to begin. There is so much stuff in this room, mainly art and craft supplies and books, and not enough space. Eventually I took a big breath to calm my shattered nerves, and decided that the only way to proceed would be to tackle each messy section of the room as an independent mini-tidy-up. I started with the small bookshelf. Amazingly, I found that as I tidied, dusted, wiped and threw out with a mercenary attitude, I actually made a shit load of new space. OK! Now to tackle another corner - wish me luck :)