Wanna See My Dirty Little Secret?

I felt inspired my My Ice Cream Diary's up-close and very personal posts about dejunking a while back. It made me feel better to know that I am not alone. No offense though Liz, but your junk trauma was no match for mine! So, I thought I should let you in on my dirty little secret.

Wanna see it? I warn you it is not for the faint of heart. Before I show you though, let me give a few reasons (excuses) as to the reason things got so bad.

First, we remodeled the basement in our house, and by remodeled, I mean we ripped everything out to the studs. Our basement up until that time had been the dumping grounds for all things. Baby clothes, memorabilia, camping gear, tools, food, you name it - it was there. Enter the brilliant idea of using the computer room on our main floor as storage during the remodel. In my mind I can still hear myself saying "It will only be temporary, it will only be temporary." That was 3 1/2 years ago. The basement has been finished for almost 2 years, but for one reason or another, never quite got around to taking everything back downstairs. Then it became even more of a breeding ground for disaster.

For starters we had all the furniture that was normally in that room as the food to feed the growth. Then we added all the junk that was downstairs. Then more stuff started getting added to the pile. Tools, broken computers, more kid clothes, junk and a chainsaw. Yes. I have had a chainsaw in my computer room for longer than I would like to admit. And yes, we have a garage. Sigh. I finally had it about a month ago and said "Enough"! Chainsaw went to the garage. Junk to the garbage can. Stuff made it back downstairs where it belongs. I made 3 trips to the thrift store and boy did that feel good. Now I have a place for everything and everything in it's place (mostly).

I was to the point where I could hardly pull my chair out to sit down at the desk. These picture don't even do the room justice because I took these after I had tidied up the room. Generally, the rug was always covered with junk. And yes, the mess goes all the way back. So behold my monstrosity.

And after.

P couldn't even remember using our computer room for anything other than storage. The girls love it because they have another place to play. I love it because I have been able to undo the rest of the damage done to the rest of the house by having this room crammed full of crap. Seriously.