August Organization Project: Office Closet

I don't have any pictures of this one because I really wasn't prepared to tackle it. My thought process was basically, "Hm. I should work on National Boards planning. Don't wanna. Let's look in the office closet and see what I can throw out."

I did end up getting rid of one box. But not one box of stuff. I consolidated. Now there are fewer boxes and just a tiny bit less stuff.

I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the things in that closet for the most part. Shortly before I got married and moved into my husband's house, my parents moved out of their house (the one where I spent all of high school and stored all my pre-college life stuff). Consequently, I spent one weekend before their move packing up my room at my parents' house and stowing the boxes in Tyler's office closet. Most of what I could chuck, I chucked in Durham rather than hauling it into my new life with me.

So, while I didn't get rid of much yesterday, I did rediscover some treasures, such as...

• a "tooth pillow" in which to store lost teeth for the tooth fairy, made by Grandma Likness
• a doily and some figurines that I actually took out of the boxes and put around the house
• an album full of pictures and memorabilia of our childhood dog, including the song we wrote about her (really, we did)
• all my stuff from my study abroad semester in Finland
• a news clipping of my brother driving his race car at the Orange County Speedway
• scrapbooks from before the days of acid-free paper and die-cut shapes
• the best stories I wrote in elementary and middle school, all typed on the Apple IIGS and printed with the trusty dot matrix printer
• journals and other incriminating evidence of awkward adolescence that should probably be incinerated at first opportunity
• all the tumble-polished rock jewelry from Great Grandpa Boehm
• a gift from the museum guft shop from my best friend in first grade

And soooo much more. So, I pretty much labeled everything "for posterity," organized it by form and function, and put it all back in the closet. I know that professional organizers will tell you not to store a whole closet full of your misspent youth, but most professional organizers probably store their misspent youths at their parents' houses like normal people. So I'm keeping it. At least for now.