Well, maybe not serenity. Not me, not yet anyway. And the de-cluttering initiative is still in its infancy. I hadn't realized until I had a little time to assess my environment that clutter had pretty much taken over every room.
One of my first resolutions was to keep a cleaner kitchen and bathrooms. The bathrooms were fairly easy, as they are both small and uncluttered. The kitchen isn't big either, but there are more hiding places for junk and counters serve as collection surfaces for food, dishes, glasses, coupons and other mess. The kitchen still needs work, but so far I've got a clean fridge and food cupboards.
The most recent success was the hall linen closet and the four drawers that I've always used in lieu of a dresser. I attack a new hoarding area every couple of days. I tackled the job a shelf and drawer at a time. The easy decisions, like removing and refolding linens, were made first. The top shelf was only a moderate success, because most of the contents were Bob's, and I could throw out only so much. In the end, I put back his "upstairs" tools and painting drop sheet. I was more aggressive with the bottom drawer that included baby photos and toiletries from the Hotel Mediterraneo in Rome, collected in 1999. I felt a little regretful parting with the azure colored shampoo but happily tossed the rest.
The goal: total declutter (except for basement and attic) by the end of the 2013.
