Even though I haven’t posted about the urge to purge my belongings since this past spring, it is still very much present.  Since my last update in which I finished up my home office purge, I’ve gone on to clean out the two remaining rooms on the second floor of our home in Illinois, one of which is going to be the nursery.  My purging bug even followed me out to the family home in Utah where we generally spend the month of August.  I have just completed sweeping through our room here and thought I would share my process and results with you.

I wanted to start with my wardrobe, since I figured I would be able to make the biggest dent in my closet and dresser drawers.  I left the organization of these spaces intact, since both are still functioning well.  In fact, I didn’t change the organization of any parts of the room.  I simply cleared out what I no longer needed or wanted in these spaces for a fresh start.

I don’t usually pack clothes to bring out when I come to Utah, since I am fortunate to be able to keep a full wardrobe on hand at the house here, but I had to bring my entire lot of summer maternity clothes with me since I knew my regular fare would not fit at this time.  This necessitated making room in the closet and dresser for these items which have temporarily displaced some of the things I keep here year round.  In doing so, it was easy to see there was much I could purge, since a lot of what I have on hand in Utah is from my twenties.

My style and preferences have changed quite a bit now that I’m in my thirties and I discovered just how easy it is to discriminate between what stays and what should go when I did my big wardrobe purge at home earlier this year.  It didn’t take long for me to go through every bin, drawer, and closet rod in our Utah room and pull out about half of my clothing to donate.  I’ve gotten very quick at this process and haven’t experienced any pangs of regret.  If I like it, it stays; if I don’t, it goes.  If I’m not sure, I’m giving it until our next trip out to decide.  Easy peasy!

I was also able to purge quite a few expired and dried up products from our en suite bathroom.  I’ve learned in recent years that it’s best for me to bring out my current skincare products with me every time I come to visit since a) they tend to spoil quickly when stored in the super dry climate and b) I change up my products frequently anyway.  I felt no reservations in tossing what was no longer good and am confident that I won’t waste products in the future if I just pack the more sensitive ones to bring with me and store what is sustainable like soap and body lotions at this house.

I applied the same theory to the vanity in my loftice.  If you’re unfamiliar, the “loftice” is a loft located in our Utah bedroom right over the bathroom, which is accessible by a built-in ladder.  I have a small corner desk set up there which functions as both a vanity and a work space.

I realized there would be some makeup items I could toss that had dried up or long since expired.  Just like with my skincare, I now pack my cream and liquid cosmetics with me whenever we travel to Utah.  What I keep on hand now are solely items I am not worried about leaving for long stretches of time.  I tidied up the drawer in my vanity and cleared a lot out of the three-drawer plastic unit I keep right next to it.  What you can see in the top drawer (top right of the collage above) is mostly products I packed with me and will bring home at the end of the month.  This system is much less wasteful and more practical, especially since I tend to switch up my cream and liquid makeup products more often than powder ones.

There wasn’t a lot to clean out of the work space side of the loftice, as there’s not much space to store things in the first place.  I was able to pull out some odds and ends to donate and put together an entire bin’s worth of brand new coloring and painting supplies to keep in the Utah nursery closet for when our baby is old enough to play with them.

The entire room purge process took less than a day to complete.  I filled up three garbage bags of clothes and five shopping bags worth of accessories and odds and ends to donate to a local charity.  While the room doesn’t look much different from an outside perspective since I had all of these things tucked away and organized pre-purge, it feels lighter to me.  There’s more space and less unnecessary clutter.  It’s a breath of fresh air!

I talk more extensively about my purge process in this video:

I hope you enjoyed this look at my Utah room purge.  I plan on continuing my home purge series later this fall as I undertake the first and basement levels of our home in Illinois.  I’d love to hear if you’ve got the purge bug lately and what you’ve been working on if you care to share!
Happy Cleaning 🙂

* This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are genuinely my own. *