My challenge this week was to not only throughly clean the hallway, the living room and dining room but also to make some sense of the contents of the living room cupboards, all nine of them. This is how I came to be on my hands and knees all week and also emptied out numerous buckets of dirty water. It will never cease to amaze me how dirt can find its way into closed cupboards. Okie dokie. Should we have a look-see into the cupboards and see the work that has been done?

My backstory. We moved from a house with zero storage to this house with so much storage it was inconceivable to me that I would ever fill it up. Yet for some reason I thought that I had to fill them up, and so I did. For me, the eighties and nineties were all about accumulating. I never said no to my mother, aunt or grandmother when they downsized. I took everything they offered whether I liked it or needed it. They were delighted and so was I. More stuff! I also bought and spent and bought and spent some more. To sweeten the pot, for ten years I worked at a high end home store in town and got a deep discount. I really took advantage of that and think my entire paycheck went into accumulating beautiful things that I've since sold on eBay. So no surprise that after twenty years my cupboards were bulging. At some point the amount of stuff took its toll. I never knew where anything was and my attempts at organization were frustrating. I hated opening a cupboard. Was it five years ago that I heard about decluttering? I can't remember exactly but as you readers know, I embraced it. It's been a years long challenge and now I feel that what remains in my home can be managed and I am content. This still doesn't stop me from evaluating and donating items on a regular basis. Just today when I was taking the pictures I sent a vase to the donation box.