happiness is in my linen closet

Wowee, look how pretty all my green and blue linens display and coordinate when re-fluffed, re-folded, and meticulously put away. This is one of the many organizing projects I've got planned for the weekend (I started small so I could have a celebratory cocktail before tackling the kitchen cupboards.) On the agenda:
1- Clean out the kitchen cupboards, put down new shelf paper, de-junk.
2- Redo the bookshelf in our office, get rid of some books and magazines.
3- Repaint chairs in kitchen.
4- Tidy up and re-arrange the basement so it's more functional (and nicer looking!).
5- Take all recycling to the bins and donation bags to the thrift store.
6- Do a happy dance.

Lately I've been feeling stifled by STUFF! It's partly political, partly OCD, my aversion to clutter and excess. Even being as methodical as I am about twice-yearly mega-purging and "everything in it's place," I still feel like we've got so much STUFF. In fact, all my organizing solutions probably encourage it because I have a knack for packing it all away Tetris-style, utilizing our square footage pretty cleverly.

My goal for the next few weeks is to tackle one area each night (and a few each day on the weekends) to get rid of things and organize. Here's some inspiration for anyone else wanting to join in on the fun:

1- My new favorite website for inspiration on "getting rid of it" is Unclutterer (they've also got a twice-weekly column on RealSimple.com).
2- Apartment Therapy's book The Eight Step Home Cure is a great (quick) read, and gives you concrete tasks to accomplish in a designated time-frame. Their website has lots of inspirational progress posts.
3- Zen Habit's Guide to Creating a Minimalist Home post.
4- Blueprint's 100 Reasons to Get Rid of It.