Day 21 - 30-Day Declutter Challenge . . .

The decluttering suggestions for today are:

• Clean out pantry
• Basement or Attic:  Use storage totes and re-organize as you go through and declutter. 

I don't have a pantry, and I already cleaned out all the food cupboards.  So, this morning I headed down to the basement.  I mostly worked on one wall of shelves and there were definitely things that I could get rid of.  

This is how it ended up.  I was able to rearrange a few things and there are likely more things that I think can go.  Probably the biggest chore was vacuuming the entire basement.  

I mean, it's a basement.  A full basement.  And it's not finished.  That means you have lots of spiders, etc., which means a host of dead bug bodies around the edges of the walls.  Ugh.  It was a job - I used my mom's old Electrolux that I'm sure she got for a wedding present in 1953.  It still works.  Really well. It's been "the basement vacuum" for many, many years and it got a good workout today.   So did I.  I was a sweaty mess by the time I was finished.

This is the other side of the basement - it's pretty much just Christmas stuff, most of which is upstairs at the moment.  This is the after shot - the only difference was the floor is cleaner in this one so I figured you didn't need/want to see the same photo twice :-D  Well, I did clean off the top of that door chest (which is the hardware cupboard), but you can't see that anyway. 

 And this is the L section - this is the before shot, but again, the only difference was the floor got vacuumed.  There's the old Electrolux in the foreground  :-D 

When all was said and done, I came upstairs.  Below is the living room.  I think I can get everything into my SUV for a trip to the Second Chance Shop tomorrow.  Cross your fingers.
 

Here it is from another angle. Those two boxes of electronics and the bag of phones down in front went today to ATEN, so they are gone.

Tomorrow was the day I was going to take all those coats to the Chicago Bears Coat Drive.  

"Was" being the operative word.  When I went to look up what time the truck was going to be at my local Jewel, I discovered that the coat drive had been cancelled due to COVID.  They are taking donations at one location, but it's a couple of hours away from me and yesterday was the last day for this year.  So, I'm either going to drop the coats off at the local Salvation Army store, or I'm going to donate them to the Second Chance Shop.  Now that I'm done, I need to actually be done and this stuff needs to get out of here.  I have a message in to the minister of my church in case they are collecting coats.  If they are and I hear back from him before tomorrow, I'll drop them off there.  

So - there are a few days left on the calendar with things I can probably still accomplish, but for all intents and purposes, I have completed my 30-day decluttering challenge  :-) 

This is my friend, Ted Yoder.  It's one of my favorites from his Christmas CD.