Make Space for Organizing and Printing Photos

Her closet used to be this expansive space I couldn’t imagine for the life of me filling with her things. And then one, just like that, there was no more room four years later. Surprisingly, when I cleared the clutter in her closet it allowed me to make space for organizing and printing photos too.

You could mark the passage of time with the floor to ceiling boxes of barely worn clothing that took up much of the space. These were the items that proved our little girl was no longer baby or toddler. Also thrown into the mix the baby items that help us cling to memories of her smallness: the tub, the noise machine, Halloween costumes, crib bedding, burp cloths, and extra diapers.

The closet was just a cross section of what was happening around our whole house. Stuff accumulating with little room to contain it all. The toys, art supplies, games, puzzles, dishes all overflowing from every nook and cranny of our house.

Every time I’d look at our mess of a house I’d go on what I like to call a ‘binge cleaning session’ where purging and sorting simply equated to hiding things in new drawers or spaces with no rhyme or reason. But, then a few short days later the house would return to it’s usually state of: toys strew about, mail piled on the kitchen table, and dishes filling the sink.

A few years ago, I created a course all getting the photos off the computer and into physical prints. But, every time I’d set to work at my computer planning, writing, organizing, printing, and conquering the course material I couldn’t focus.

Instead I’d start thinking about or looking at that closet filled to the brim with too many clothes, the dirty laundry piles that needed to be washed 3 days ago, and the mess of toys cluttering the floor of our family room with no basket to call home.

The more I tried to ’embrace the mess because they’re only little once’ like so many of my friends and parenting sites encouraged, the more frustrated and panicky I’d become.

I realized that clearing the clutter would also allow me to make space for organizing and printing photos.

This mama doesn’t operate well with mess and if you’re a mama like me you may have found this to be true as well. Surprisingly the mess was keeping me from concentrating on anything else or putting my true desires higher up on my priority list.

Don’t let your external clutter feed the internal clutter keeping you from your desires.

If you’ve ever put off getting your house clean or decluttered by sucking yourself into the vortex of email, Facebook, Pinterest, or Buzzfeed than you might know what I’m talking about

Those times where we play mental games of procrastination because the project we really need to accomplish gets too overwhelming. So, we busy ourselves with something mindless that feels more fun but really we’re just pushing aside the opportunity to clear space for our real desires.

The mess in our house felt so huge that I blocked out everything else that held priority on my to do list instead of simply clearing something.

Instead of spending my evenings chipping away at the mess in small chunks, I’d procrastinate by chatting with friends online, playing another round of Candy Crush, or binge watching Parenthood.

This is the perfect time for a fresh start on what you want to accomplish whether that be purging the clutter in your house, starting that art project you’ve been saying you want to do for months, or printing that photo book that’s been on the bottom of your to-do list for waaaaay to long.

I’ll tell you once I finally cleared space Brielle’s closet, all of a sudden the path to my true desire of organizing and printing my photos became a whole lot clearer too.

Make space for organizing and printing your photos

Today I’m encouraging you to start small and clear some of the external clutter that’s holding you back. Go sort, plan, organize, learn, delete, arrange, or clean:

• The pile of mail on your desk
• The disorganized playroom toys
• The dirty dishes in the sink
• The huge load of laundry you’ve been putting off
• That overflowing closet full of clothes
• The refrigerator or pantry full of expired food
• The junk drawer
• Your nightstand
• The playroom
• The mess of files taking up space on your computer desktop
• Your meal plan for the week

What external clutter do you need to get rid of to clear your internal clutter? How can you make space for organizing and printing your photos? Tell me about it in the comments. I promise once you do it’s going to make space for all those other awesome projects you want to get accomplished this year.

The 100 Steps Project Kit will help you get the most out of your camera! It will help you feel more creative, connected and calm without taking tons of time out of your already crazy schedule.