If you think you have the most cluttered house on the planet, be prepared to feel a whole lot better about yourself. Or, if your house is already spotless and organized, pat yourself on the back. I’m hoping to join you by May 2014.

My Dressing Table

I have a dressing table in my bedroom that, like a lot of other surfaces in my house, has become a dumping ground. Well, more like a landfill. Or, if you prefer, the Mount Everest of Crap. *hangs head*

The Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Before

To get this party started, I took everything off the table and put it on my bed to sort. Two baskets of stuff were really meant to be in my office, so off they went. That left a stack of textbooks (I use them in my work for an educational publisher), which were put in a box to ship back.

Unbelievable

Another box was filled with a few items that can either be returned (I accidentally bought a Blue Ray DVD – I don’t have Blue Ray) or sold.

Add in a half bag of trash and a box of items to donate to the charity coming to my house for pick-up and that’s everything.

To demonstrate how overdue this adventure otherwise known as The Simple Year 2 is, I present you with a list of the oldest and most random items I found just in this pile:

• A thank you note from 2009.
• A knitting needle. Which is really quite interesting since no one in this family knits.
• Perfume. From college. I graduated in 1994.
• A necklace I wore when I was 12. Whaaaat???

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus

After an exhaustive decluttering whereby I broke a sweat (does this count as exercise?), I present you with the glorious after:

This Feels Amazeballs

When The Girl came home from school, she walked by the dressing table toward the bathroom at which point she stopped dead in her tracks and backed up. “Whoa!”

I hope to get that reaction. A lot.