Before and After - china cabinet

Finally, my first before and after shots :D It wasn't the area of the front room I intended to clean, but it's still the front room.

Here is the china cabinet before

Ugh. That's not a china cabinet, that's a cluttered mess of junk! You can't even see the nice stuff I have in there! So, with dh's help, we took everything out and put it on the table. Then I put back only what I wanted in the cabinet and found homes for everything else. Well, almost everything else. Some of them found homes in the "get rid of this" pile :D They aren't gone yet, but will be this week. There were some things that I wanted to keep (like tablecloths and fancy serving dishes) that I only use a few times a year. Part of the mess tonight was that I realized that those items should really be in the kitchen freestanding cabinet (I'm blanking on what it's actually called). That cabinet was full of toys and games which really don't belong in the kitchen. So, I cleared it out, pulled out the stuff from the china cabinet and the drawers and put them in the kitchen cabinet, and then put the toys and games in the china cabinet drawers. It makes much more sense that way.

My teapot collection (on top - oops! I forgot to get it in the before pic!) got washed and a few were culled so it doesn't look quite as cluttered now. Two are going out to freecycle tomorrow for someone to use for a craft project (they're broken). For the cameras, I kept every one of them but only have about half on display. The rest are in a bin that's going in the attic tomorrow. I like them and they make me smile but there isn't enough room in the china cabinet for them.

There was also a lot of sentimental stuff that I want to keep, but don't need around me on a daily basis. Like my mom's diary from when I was a baby or my late Grandpa's cologne. Stuff like that I packed up in a "memory" box. We'll fill it up a bit more and eventually it'll go in the attic.

Everything else in the cabinet got a nice washing and was put back shiny and pretty. Ok, so here it is, my china cabinet - after!



I'm going to make a seperate post for all the stuff that went OTD today. Yes, it was a productive day :)