Apartment: Organization and Cleaning up the Clutter

My parents have been married for 37 years so they accumulated a lot of STUFF for those 37 years together plus anything they both brought into their home from their childhood. Now, that is a lot of STUFF. When I first walked into the apartment last month I was shocked – the front room was filled with boxes and STUFF so that there was only a small path to walk through to get into the apartment.  When you first walk up the (what feels like a thousand) stairs, you are greeted by the outdoor swing, treadmill and random items.

When you turn to the left to actually go to the front door, you are greeted with even more boxes and random items lying about. Notice the flooring – we ripped up the old shag carpet in October so Mom has been lying down peel-and-stick linoleum tiles as she can, starting with the far corner to the left. This front room will eventually be storage (in that far corner to the left), will have a mudroom area with hooks for hanging jackets and a place for your shoes as well as a homemade bench (once I get back up there and make it) by the front door, and then the treadmill will be somewhere up there for walking during Michigan’s cold winter. While I was home, I was able to help get rid of things (we took a bunch of items to St. Vincent’s, the transfer station and some was tossed), organize a bit and bring some things into the apartment where they belong. When I left, the front room looked like this:

At least you can walk to the front door now without banging your knee on anything. ;) This room has a far way to go before it is finished. Another room that needed some organization was the laundry room. Mom did a great job with organizing the cleaning supplies but I made a few changes while I was home.

  I corralled similar items in baskets (light bulbs in one, cleaning rags in another, laundry items in a third, etc.), hung a hanging organizer for the broom/mop/etc.  and moved the painting supplies to the entry room storage so that the vacuum cleaner bucket (blue above) could slide back by the wall.  I just need to point out that my Mom had five bottles of glass cleaner – she shouldn’t have to buy glass cleaner for the rest of her life.

   The storage room also needed a little cleaning and organizing. My mom owns a LOT of kitchen items – so many that they don’t all fit in the kitchen so she is using the wall cabinets to hold the less-used items.

I had her get rid of some items she doesn’t need, we moved the shelves out to the front room for storage out there, bought a cat litter box mat so Callie stops tracking litter everywhere and reorganized the shelves that hold her tools.

We still plan on hiding the shelves and litter box to the left but we ran out of time. Here’s a close-up of the linoleum she put down in here – this is also going in the front room.

The last room that I helped organize and clean was the craft room. This room made me catch my breath when I first saw all of the stuff she had in there but I was eager to jump in and organize it.

We spent a few nights in here getting rid of old supplies, hanging up the organizer and its bins, filling said organizer bins, organizing the closet, making labels, organizing the craft papers, organizing the stamps, etc. We still need to find the other curtain panel, hang things on the walls and organize a few more things but I’m happy with our progress. She wanted her desk in the middle of the room so she is underneath that huge light and she can look out the window while working. We also left the child’s desk in here for now at her request but I’d love to see it elsewhere since it is one more surface for her to place things on, which she doesn’t need. ;)

 

  These boxes were filled with things when we started but we emptied around 15 boxes by getting rid of stuff or merging things. I was able to reuse these containers in the laundry room (see above) and the storage room.

We turned the closet into a huge organizational closet filled with labeled boxes and bins. I love the rods for the ribbons, which was Mom’s idea. It worked out great!

 

Now you know how I spent most nights on my vacation. It’s a good thing I like to organize or I would have gone crazy. ;) I still have a ton more pictures to show you of the bedrooms, bathroom, hall and living room. Stay tuned!

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