The second task of the 52 Weeks of Decluttering challenge is soft toys…but I don’t have any soft toys, unless you count the (less than a handful of) things that put out for Halloween and Christmas. But since they spend 11 months out of the year in storage, I don’t. So I moved on to the third task: decluttering the coffee table. (And I do realize that this is the second task I’m doing in one week…but I’m really bored.)
I said in a previous post that decluttering my coffee table was something I probably wouldn’t have to do because my coffee table is never cluttered. And I ate my words.
Last week, I had to double the medication I’ve been taking for my…whatever the neurologist gave me this medication for (he’s so bad at explaining things). And I’ve been feeling horrible ever since. So things have been slipping…particularly the living room. Particularly after my birthday. Right before Zach and I went to see my parents, I opened the presents he got me and forgot to throw the packaging away when I was finished. Over the course of the week, as I felt worse and the medication allowed me to get less and less sleep, the pile of debris grew. And so, running on a lot of caffeine, decluttering the coffee table became my next task.
I’m sorry to say I forgot to take a before picture (on second thought, I’m not sorry–it was a disaster and you didn’t need to see it, trust me), but here’s an after picture:
My parents gave us this table set after we got married and they bought a new set for their living room.
Also, I didn’t notice all the cords and stuff hanging out of baskets (though that is the basket that holds the controllers for our Wii and PS2, so no surprise) and laying on the floor behind the cat tower until just now. I need to do something about that.
The thing I do have a problem with, though, is the end table getting cluttered.
Having stuff on it on a regular basis makes it easier for the end table to get cluttered, but it looks fine at the moment. In case you’re curious, here’s a run down of what’s sitting there:
The white box is a photo album and has our engagement and wedding pictures in it. The round thing is a box my aunts made for me for my bridal shower. It has my wedding invitation mod podged onto it. I keep some tea lights and other random things in it. The square in the middle is a set of coasters. And then the two candles–one is Maple Pumpkin from Glade and smells like heaven and the other is Autumn Day from Bath and Body Works and is just as amazing, but for different reasons (and is way better than their Autumn scent, but I can’t figure out why…of course they have nothing in it except the candles…isn’t that how it always works with your favorite scents?). I swoon for these candles.
Don’t mind the plank of wood sitting in the recliner. It’s going over my kitchen door…I just haven’t hung it yet.
And the chewed up leaves on my lucky tree…for some reason, Cini loves those leaves. I can’t get him to stop eating. Fortunately, it’s not poisonous. But it’s a resilient plant. He starts sniffing and I can just imagine it thinking, “Come at me, bro.” But then I spray Cini with the water bottle. Or try. All he has to do is hear me pick it up and he runs.
Anyway, enough about the cat.
I should probably explain why my coffee table is never cluttered. Let me show you.
As you know, I work from home. And I do my work here, at the coffee table. I’m a little OCD, so working in a messy environment can’t happen. I’ll get nothing done. I have an office with a desktop, but sometimes I choose to work in the living room. Change of scenery, ya know? I go back and forth a lot. Plus my laptop has a lot of gear that the desktop doesn’t. So I try to keep it as clean as I can. In general, my laptop is the only thing on the coffee table.
So there. My clean coffee table. =D