My studio from another perspective (see post from May 10). It was so hot I couldn't stay long. My goal to declutter there will have to wait till it cools down.

A former boyfriend set up these racks for hanging kitchen pots and storing lids. The pans do get sooty because they're near the window but it's far preferable to storing them in out-of-the-way cupboards – they're easy to reach and I just have to rinse them off in the nearby sink if I haven't used them in a while.

Skip in the LIC Community Garden.

This and the image above is a break from documenting stuff. It was done in the LIC Community Garden.

More live stuff. My Leopard gecko eating meal worms. She's very dainty! I've had her for 18 years.

Animals, in this case reptiles, are harder to draw than things. On top is my iguana and below Woodmere, a wood turtle. I have three other reptiles – two more turtles – an Eastern Box and a Spengler – and a Leopard gecko. I also have a cat, Fast Eddie.

This was a tough one – so much detail! I picked up a parrot perch off the street years ago and hang necklaces and bracelets on the rod and display animals, birds and reptiles of all kinds on the tray below. I draped a towel along the back after the cat swiped objects off it from his perch on the window sill behind.

Here's some serious clutter. This is a corner of my studio – the place that most needs attention. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to it this summer.

Lateral files with storage boxes on top and makeshift pantry shelving for kitchen overflow. Not very decorative and this occupies a corner of my living room!

My bedroom closet crammed with clothes and linens. This is still my winter stuff with a few summer things added because of this crazy hot weather. I'll do my winter/summer clothes exchange if this is it and summer's come in early May!

Bathroom clutter on window sill ledge. Not very exciting coloristically. Oh well.

I have this way of turning areas in my apartment into altars. This is the TV altar! Maybe it's because I was brought up with no religion. Who knows?

Just a taste of floor clutter. It used to be much worse.

I have several places in my bathroom I can store stuff – a shelf, a ledge by the window, along the edge of the bathtub, a hanging caddy for shampoo, etc. and the medicine cabinet. This is really gross, but for a while I had cockroaches coming down from my former upstairs neighbor so I taped along all cracks to prevent them from moving in. It worked!

These stuffed animals come from many periods in my life. The one I have had the longest is Pluto (far left).

These are shoes that haven't made it into the closet.

This collapsible bookshelf sits on top of my bedroom chest of drawers. I once used it for books in a former apartment but now it's a catch all for disparate things – thread, eyeglasses, combs, video cassettes...

This is part of a bookcase in my bedroom. I also keep winter hats, scarves and gloves on it. I like integrating diverse things on shelves. I like the visual interest it creates. I also need to dust the books but that won't happen till I'm done with school...

No decluttering yet. Here are some more images from office and home. The top image is of all sorts of decorative items I keep in an alcove just outside my bedroom door. Below are books I took out to write my thesis and I have to return to the library. The middle pile has a small base but hasn't fallen over yet.

I'm looking from my bedroom to the living room. I like the contrast of the warm tones in the living room and the cool ones in my sunlit bedroom.

Stuff

My first clutter images! More to come...