The Crap-tacular Project, Part 2: A New (Re-)Purpose and See, this is what I'm talking about

The craptacular project of ridding our home of 2,015 items this year continues full-force. I’m not sure that getting rid of stuff has helped overall cleanliness thus far, but it has made me hopeful that we will one day achieve that, whereas before I simply looked at all the clutter and basically gave up on ever having anything that was consistently pleasantly organized. By the end of March, we were a couple of hundred items over/above the number we needed to achieve in order to complete the whole thing by year’s end. But I’m guessing the first 1,500 - 1,800 will be relatively easy and the last couple hundred will be nearly impossible. 

One thing I’ve started giving myself credit for is not only recycling, but repurposing/up-cycling some stuff that’s been hanging around doing nothing. This also helps with the mental clutter aspect I mentioned in my last post - I have a number of projects that have beens sitting around half-finished for YEARS, and I’ve either picked them up again or have concrete plans to do so. There are a couple of dresses that combine the repurposing and the baggage-ridding: (1) my bridesmaid’s dress from my sister’s first wedding, and (2) a really nice, once-favorite dress from college.

(not a great photo; I couldn't get the light right)

(1) Bridesmaid: simply a full-ish simple ball gown skirt of this lovely scarlet-red satiny stuff and an off-the-shoulder black velvet top. This is not a bad memory - we have consistently liked the guy and thought well of him, and both parties are now re-married to others and by all accounts are quite happy. If it were a bad marriage, I would’ve tossed it a long time ago. This photo is not that great; I couldn’t get it looking that great no matter what light, and this was the best I could do. I wish now I’d just cut off the waist and left it as a large circle of fabric, because I’ve decided to make a hooded cape/cloak, in the spirit of this one featured on Urban Threads (an awesome site, BTW) but I’m hoping to get it even 50% this cool. The plan is for a black velvet outside (I have the above-mentioned black velvet top and a couple of others over the years; if needed I might pick up something at a thrift store) and the red fabric will be the lining and maybe the trim? Who knows? I have a number of other things to do before I get serious about this one.

(2) Little black dress: not that kind of little black dress, it was a sort-of hippie mid-calf affair with this lovely little floral pattern. It is well-made and fairly expensive, considering I bought it in college. It has the potential to be completely shapeless (like many hippie-chic dresses) but there were little ties in the back that gave it some curves. Why slice it up, then? The ties have fallen off; I was going to sew them back on but then I lost them. That likely could be worked around, but … every time I wear the dress, or even see the dress, it reminds me of the guy I was dating at the time I bought it. This was a very short-term … ? relationship ? … with a guy who went to a little private college somewhat near mine. I remember when I bought the dress, I was excited for him to see me wearing it, thinking he would really like how it looked. And maybe he did, I don’t remember. Our time together was disastrous and thankfully brief. In the spirit of, “that was a long time ago,” we connected for awhile on social media and that ended similarly un-well. So I don’t really want to wear the dress anymore. Why not just pass it along to someone else? Because it’s my dress, dammit. He is not going to make me get rid of this beautiful dress I bought with my own money, a long time ago. That is horribly contradictory, I know. But the idea is, make something lovely out of a life experience that was ugly, which is something I encourage my clients to do all the time. 

On the more straightforward de-cluttering front, here’s a recent project. I realize that the kitchen table is cluttered for a lot of people/families, but I am repeatedly shocked (well, maybe I used to be, now it’s more of a “dull dissatisfaction”) by the absolutely random, un-food/eating-related items that end up here and stay here, for no good reason. I give you Exhibits A-C:

This is all the stuff I cleaned off our kitchen table one day.
You will note nail clippers, paint, jewelry, glue stick and
Post-It pads ... nothing to do with preparing or
eating food. Nothing. 

Contents of the red box (in the foreground of the above photo). Goodness. 

And of the tray in the background. The pencils
and eraser are legit because this is where Simon does
his homework, but that's all. 

And the final product (isn't it lovely?):