Dust and Clutter....

I had mentioned, nearly a month ago, that Babygirl and I were going to attempt to de-clutter the attic.  What with one thing and another, we finally started work on it yesterday.  To understand the general complexity of the process, an overview of the layout may be in order.

Our third floor is finished, mostly.  There are nearly 300 square feet of space tucked under the roof with four foot knee walls.  There are two good-sized walk in closets leading to attic accesses behind the knee walls, one on each side of the house.  These spaces are as long as the house and go around the corners, front and back.  They are truly accessible only to someone who is not afraid of dirt, and who is able to kneel and crawl.  Generally speaking, one side is for me, the kids, and holiday stuff.  The other, Hubby. 

Since Curlygirl, Squeaker and SqueakersDaddy moved out nearly two years ago, the third floor has become the attic again.  Anything not needed much or often has landed up there. There are boxes of things that I packed up off the shelves in what is now Mom's living room that I haven't put out on our 'new' side of the house, largely because china doodads and toddler grandchildren do not mix well. Some boxes haven't been unpacked since we moved here twelve years ago.  There are things belonging to Citygirl, Curlygirl, JuJuBee and my nephew.  Our camping gear, suitcases and ski equipment are strewn around everywhere.  The Christmas stuff never went back behind the knee wall - it's still parked in the room.

Babygirl wants to move up there.  Who wouldn't - the space is fantastic.  There are two large dormers with beautiful windows.  It could use some paint, and some flooring, but it's truly a great teen space. 

Yesterday we put in three hours of heavy labor. I went into 'my' behind-the-knee wall space and cleared out a bunch of useless junk, organizing leftover stuff into general areas so each persons' collection of crap is generally all in one area.  Babygirl gathered up holiday stuff and shoved it in so I could put that all away.  We put all the suitcases in one spot, out of the way, for placement in a closet, as space becomes available.  We sorted boxes, organizing six for donation to the church rummage sale, with two bags of clothing for donation and two bags of trash. 

Lent has been in progress for 22 days (Sundays don't count - did you know that?).  If we are aiming for Forty Bags in Forty Days we are about twelve bags behind.  We are going to need hubby to kick this up a notch since there is a LOT of his stuff up there.  The next biggest contributor to the 'stuff' collection is Citygirl, and she's not here to defend her territory, so I'm going gently there and working on storage rather than removal.  My nephew is still in school, so I think I am stuck with the chain mail, greaves, and telescope for a time.

Does organizing someone else's stuff and putting it where you can't see it count as removing it?  If so, we are a LOT less behind in the project!  Maybe we'll manage a couple of hours there tonight.

DeeDee