I have a shelf for my baking ingredients, and a long time ago, I put everything in mason jars and labeled them. The shelf was very full but very organized (or so I believed.)
I was waiting for dinner to cook and decided to empty the baking area and wipe down the shelf. Surprise! A third of the items on the shelf I didn’t know were there, and many of them were too old to use.
As I’ve mentioned, I have a large container of old-fashioned oats in the pantry. I was not happy to find a large mason jar filled with quick oats on my baking shelf. I also found raisins in a jar, which I didn’t know I had because I had a bag of raisins in the pantry that I was using up.
Once I got the shelf cleaned and put usable baking ingredients back, it was no longer overflowing. In fact, it’s only about half full, and I can now see everything from front to back.
When you are cleaning, decluttering, or organizing, don’t assume you know what is in a box, behind a door, or on a shelf. Like, me you might find unwanted surprises and perhaps more stuff that can go away.