Is your home overweight?

  My significant other and I are preparing to put our condo back on the market in hopes of being able to purchase a bigger house and get our daughter out of the closet!

  So I decided to have a plan of action to ensure that this time around we are successful in selling.
I began to prepare a list of To Do's, including the ever popular decluttering tactic.  Instead of diving right in (which is something I normally do)  I searched online for some really great and unique decluttering steps, and storage solutions for small spaces.......  I'm not sure that these people who write the articles quite get the concept of "small spaces" since when showing photos of storage solutions for "small spaces" they show sprawling bathrooms with beautiful cabinets and dressers that will allow you to "house all your pretty toiletries",  and grand living rooms with built in bookcases for all your "extra knick knacks"!  Or how about those ginormous walk in closets equipped with a lovely window suggesting that you add an over the door shoe caddy to house all your shoes........ Ummmm ookkaaaaayyy!

   So in the real world how many of us need tips for REAL small spaces? Let me be the first to raise my hand.  Our 1 main bathroom doesnt even have enough space for you to change your mind let alone to add a "beautiful built in storage bench".  So  After some disappointing  and unhelpful suggestions I decided to do what I do best.......  Dive in head first.



before

    I tried to think of our condo as overweight (which is how one editor from style at home put it), and I was going to be the personal trainor who would guide and push it to shed those last 15 pounds.  I was going to be ruthless.


after

    Where do I start?  Why the kitchen of course.  Our pantry had become a space where I was even afraid to open the door in fear that an avalanche of cereal boxes and brooms and mops would suffocate me. I cleared everything out.  EVERYTHING.  Until it was bare.  I threw away 5 big plastic bags that were just stuffed up on the top shelf.  I threw away empty boxes of pasta.  I transferred big bulky boxes of crackers and cookies into more compact jars that could stack nicely on top of one another.  I banished anything that hadnt been used in the last 3 months to the trash can.  I consolidated the three large cooler bags that were just taking up space all together one inside the other. Then I set about organizing the shelves into their designated zones,  Box shelf, can shelf, jar shelf.  I left the very top shelf for cleaning things like paper towel and sponges and dish cloths, and the very bottom space for tools and the mop bucket.  I know it doesnt sound like much but it actually took me a whole hour to clean up a space the size of a walnut.  But the result was...... like a breath of fresh air and was the encouragment I needed to keep going.  5 pounds lost!  Next on the list, the closet!!  Yikes......