Decluttering misc. "stuff" - part 1

Today I decided to tackle misc. "stuff."  Not easy, but surprisingly less emotional than paper for me.  My goal was to work on this section of our cabinet and to finish at least the middle shelf.

I took everything out, put in on the desk, cleaned the shelf, and then started sorting.  I threw away a lot of random things that I don't know what they are or we have no use for at all.  For example, we have some old lightbulbs that don't fit any of our current light fixtures, etc.  I even found a huge set of keys!

I'm pretty sure this set of keys has been with our stuff since we moved into our old apartment over three years ago.  I didn't know what any of the keys went to then, and I still have no idea!  Keys really aren't much good when you don't know what they go to, and since that apartment is now sold to someone else, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever find out what they go to.  I asked my supervisor just to make sure, and he said, "Junk them!"  It's nice to get rid of something that has absolutely no use to me at all.

Here is the before and after picture side by side:

Now the shelf truly serves its purpose of holding tools/tape/things like that.  Everything is accessible, with the most used items in the front (duct tape, batteries, tape measure) and tallest items in the back (silicon, foam, WD40).  A lot of the disorganization was from the fact that a lot of things that belong in the toolbox were in the pink tray (hammers, screwdrivers, etc.), and they all fit inside the toolbox without any trouble.

I did cheat just a little, with the large green bag, because it just has a bunch of candy that we bought for a children's program and didn't use it all.  I'm just keeping it for now, hoping that we will be able to use it this spring.  I set the bag on the floor, outside of the cabinet, for now.

Since that shelf went pretty well, I decided to tackle the top shelf next, because I knew there were some large items that would go pretty quickly.

Before and after:

That basket holds two smaller baskets, and I have never used any of them.  The lamp and the fan are both broken.  I double-checked, and yup, still broken, so I put them by the door to take out with the trash.  I keep the flashlight and candles in case the electricity ever goes out, and yes, Mom, I do iron occasionally.  :)  Since there was so much room up there, and the extra bedding section is pretty full, I put some pillows in the back that for some reason have been just sitting on the couch.  We normally keep the pillows up really high, but it's a pain to get the out and put them back, so they have just been sitting on the couch.  This is a nice compromise to have them put away and be easier to get to when we need them.

Since that shelf also went quickly, I decided to do the bottom shelf, too. The second and fourth shelf don't need any work, because the second shelf has my sewing stuff (that's the sewing machine in the blue bag) and the fourth shelf just holds my facepaint and some extra bags for traveling.  But that bottom shelf needs work.

I took everything out and put it on the desk, just like before, and I got rid of a few things (for some reason I kept the packaging from all of my jewelry?), but I found myself asking my husband's opinion more and struggling to make decisions.  When I opened the "old electronics" box, I got overwhelmed with all the misc. cords and I couldn't bring myself to just trash them all, so I decided to quit for the day.  Decision fatigue won out for the day.  But overall I'm really pleased with what I got accomplished!  I left the contents of the bottom shelf on the desk in the hopes of tackling them tomorrow.

Cabinet before and after picture (with the bottom shelf contents still on the desk):

Not bad for a day's work!  :)