A Handful of Pills Can Get a Little Out of Hand

Part of the reason I checked myself into a psychiatric hospital back in August was that my meds were no longer doing their job. I was suicidal on a daily basis and paralyzed by anxiety, and I knew it. I felt it was important that I be somewhere where I would be safe from myself, and somewhere my medications could be adjusted safely. This is because medications are unpredictable. One major change in meds could take me from suicidal to happy, or happy to suicidal. Or anything in between.

Luckily we mostly figured out my meds in the hospital. I've had a few tweaks lately and it's made taking my medication more confusing, and I've been missing doses. That's not helping me manage anything. Here's my new system for organizing my meds. 

Before: my bathroom sink loaded with meds 'n stuff

 

 An old train case became the perfect place for all of my meds and viatmins. 

I've labeled the tops of the Rx bottles so I know what they are without having to remove the bottles.

All nice and organized!

 

Hopefully it will make it a little easier to take this lovely little pile of pills each day. Yuck. 

'Tisn't the season for giving

My dad can't turn down anything free, whether he needs it or not. Apparently, neither can I.

The apartment building that the Chief Engineer and I used to live in had a "free" space in the basement where people could leave things they didn't want, and other people could pick up things they did want. One day, I found this huge bag of empty gift bags. I hate wrapping things. I will never have a room in my home solely for wrapping gifts. Thus, I love gift bags and I was on cloud nine when I found them. I then added in leftover wrapping paper and some store bags of my own.

But whoever left them must've spent a fortune on them! Some bags were duplicates and they're all in pristine condition, which is how I know they were purchased and not simply reused. I've probably used about six of the bags since I got them two years ago. But of the ones that are left, the price markings on them range from $2.49 and $5.49. Let's average that out and say $4 a piece. That's $72 for 18 bags. Suddenly wrapping presents in newspaper like my sister-in-law does sounds like a brilliant idea.

Anyways, this gigantic bag of bags was my decluttering task for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I wanted to use the big bag itself for a craft project and I wanted to store everything in a smaller space.

But alas, I had an emotionally hard time getting rid of some things.

OMG, gift bag from my honeymoon in Williamsburg! Gift bag from a world-famous hotel and cake bakery that friends brought us from Austria! (we ate the cake). I can't get rid of it, it's nostalgic! It might be useful one day! Argh, back in the bag they go.

In the game of hoarding, Joanna: 0, Evil Disordered Hoarding Alter Ego: 1

Okay, crumpled up paper that would look shameful if I wrapped something with it. Out it goes.

In the game of hoarding, Joanna: 1: Evil Disordered Hoarding Alter Ego: 1

I got rid of some old tissue paper too, pulled out a couple bags to use for the craft project, and then stuffed pretty much everything right back in the bags. Albeit a little more neatly than before. And I can't get rid of the box, it's a souvenir from my Hawaii trip! Argh. This is ridiculous. A box from Hawaii and a bag from Brooks Brothers. My dad supported the four of us on $50,000 a year growing up. How did I get to be such a snob? No wonder my monthly expenditures are ridiculous. More to the point, what do I do about it?

In the game of hoarding, Joanna: 1: Evil Disordered Hoarding Alter Ego: 2

So I didn't come out evenly matched against my evil disordered hoarding habits today, but I made a little progress. The bags are more organized before and everything takes up a little less space. Now I just have to convince myself to use more of the bags. At least I'm not being attacked by gift bags every time I open the closet now.

There's just one little problem remaining: In the process of trying to become a relative minimalist I've stopped giving others physical gifts. I've done this partially in hope that they'll get the hint that I don't want physical gifts myself, and partially because I'd rather be eco-friendly and give meaningful experiences. Now there's much less to wrap at the holidays, and yet I have all of these gift bags! I hope to try to come up with other uses for them.

You be the professional organizer: our front hallway

Those of us who seem to enjoy decluttering also seem to like to help others. So I figure it might be fun to give y'all a look inside our condo and tell me what you think we could do to get ourselves better organized.

(And by 'fun' I mean "a great way for me to have to do no work and everyone else to come up with brilliant ideas for me.") Just kidding. I've read a lot of great comments to my posts and I'm really curious what you all might think we could do to get and stay better organized. 

This is our entryway. 

The main features are

The hall closet: There's a hall closet a bit to the left, which you can't see. That's where our coats are supposed to go, though they don't always end up there. 

The little bookcase: We have the small bookcase for shoes, handbags, and general junk. Mostly the shoes and bags end up piled on the floor next to the bookcase. The bags don't seem to get emptied until the next day, if at all.

The wall hooks: for coats and/or handbags. Sometimes for a lot of handbags. 

The charging station: for cell phones, sunglasses, wallet. Sometimes these things actually end up here. 

The mail rack on the wall: Home for his mail, her mail, and mail to go out. They never seem to get empty!  Also there's room for keys. Mine make it up there about half the time. 

We have places for stuff, we just don't seem good at using them. What are your thoughts on how we could improve?