pictureless desk

I didn't take any pictures but I took twenty minutes just and cleared a STACK of crap off my desk. I have organized things that need to be filed (I'll do that tonight) and have a decent size trash pile. I feel really good about this monday morning so far!


Where is everyone??? Come back! Post to us! Let's motivate each other. Remember it doesn't have to be huge massive projects. Just ten things. Walk around with a laundry basket and pick up ten things that need to GO or just sit in a "trouble spot" with a trash can at your feet!

Cheers!

The Island... aka "the catch all"

We bought this island so that we'd have more counter room in our kitchen... HA. It's NEVER used for extra counter space in the way I see an island being used... for cooking, food handling, grocery setting down.. nope. It's used for mail dumping, paper dumping, coloring dumping, random things we don't know where to put them... NO MORE!



I took everything off the top and put it on the table to sort it out. I did the same with the cabinet. I am keeping the art supplies in the cabinet for now mostly be/c there isn't another place for them currently. But I'm considering getting some kind of shelving for art/puzzles/games since we seem to be breeding those things.

Here are two things that really don't belong in here but haven't had another "home" until TODAY. One is a BAG full of different icings and sprinkles and birthday candles. The second is a safety kit.

Here is a stack of just papers needing to find the trash can.

Here is a stack of junk needing to find the trash can...
play-do scissors (we don't even have any play-do!)

And TA DA! The after:

Bathrooms

I'm not all together sure how this happened, but I ended up in both bathrooms tonight giving them a big purge! I forgot the before pictures be/c I wasn't really planning on doing so much. I had toothpaste to put under the sink and it was TRASHED so I sat down and got busy. Here's the after, left side and right side.

nAnd here's the crap that leaves my house... the box has nothing but trash in it. wrappers and empty boxes of old junk. Expired meds, SUPER OLD (like from high school) perfume that smells gross now, cough drops from who knows when be/c I don't remember ever buying that kind...

the funniest thing to me though was the lipsticks.
WHY do I still have them, when they look like this?

OLD MEDS

I don't remember ever seeing this basket under the sink either. I wish I would have had it OUT and used cutely over the holidays. I'll be relocating it now. Thank you so much.

And then something weird happened. I moved from the master bath to the hall bath... and started over. Again no before pic be/c I wasn't planning on pulling it all out, but here's the after.

Here's the crap that is expired and hitting the trash can.
(NO Clue how old that bleach is,.... ew)

And then somehow, I scooted over and opened the linen closet and went "ACK!" so here's the before pic since I was with camera in hand:

And the after!

So there you have it... my bathrooms. Whew!

the boys' closet

Again I forgot to take before pics, but here is my after...

The top shelf was a JOKE. Things were just thrown up there with no rhyme or reason. Piles of underwear too small, baby toys, blankets, art work, ugh, it was just a mess. The clothes hanging were of multiple sizes and always a pain to go through and find a nice shirt for Sundays. Then on the lower shelf, there were again piles of clothes that needed to be put away either too small now or too big or hang ups that weren't hung, ect. Under those piles were a heaping mound of shoes again-- zero organization. The floor kind of rinse and repeat for the shelf. Clothes with tags, clothes in bags, clothes too small, the next size waiting for Matthew needing to go in the dresser... ugh. It was awful.

NOW It is nice a neat!
-The top shelf is very friendly with their baby books/memory boxes then comes baby toys, and a wipes container with pacifiers in it. The brown sack has two different size opened partially used packs of diapers. Next to the brown sack, you can't see is a small tub labeled of two different sizes of too small underwear for Matthew that I didn't want to put up in the attic not knowing when Mark was going to begin potty training.
-Then the hanging stuff on the far left is special jackets/outfits, then extra hangers, the middle is Matthew's and the right is Mark's.
-The lower shelf while in the picture doesn't look very organized, I'm actually most pleased about! ALLLL the shoes are now labeled and bagged and will be very easy to find as they grow size to size. Here's a closer look at the shoes:
-Then the floor... that is a little dark in the picture but the far left is the next size for Matthew (things that have been handed down from cousins), next to that is a bag for my BFF, then the box you can actually see is Mark's current size but summer clothes and next to that last box is the comforter/bumper for the crib.

It looks so nice in there! I keep opening the doors to see it all straightened up! It took two hours last night and about two plus hours this morning to go through all the clothes and all. I got Matthew's dresser emptied of all small clothes and filled with the now size. ( I forget what a huge chore size changing is for them). I boxed three boxes of Matthew's smaller size (goodness, slacker!) and one box from even the size before that (super slacker). Jamie took them up to the attic. I also ended up with a PILE of trash: random papers from the hospital from Mark (eeee!), art work, tags, wrappers... Also I made a give pile (for a friend who's recently had a boy) of some really cute things but my boys just haven't worn. And lastly, I made a small pile of goodwill stuff. LOVE IT!

bedroom closet floor

My chore today was to tackle my bedroom floor... I forgot to take a before picture, but trust me, it was bad. I found our swimming clothes tub with lid under a pile of clean clothes. I had been looking for that tub. Sad huh? So, I moved EVERYTHING to my bed. I hung up what was clean. Made a pile for what was too large to be bagged for goodwill. Made another pile of what is too small for now and put them on a shelf neatly for later. Organized two dresser drawers in the process of finding tank tops and tee-shirts in the closet floor. ... All in all, an hour well spent. Here's my now CLEAN floor and I can shut the doors! Couldn't do that earlier today. That's how much was pouring out of there.



And here are my ten things. The black thing on the left... I don't even know what it is or what it goes to. The black shoes are too small now and going to goodwill. The leopard slippers are gross and you can't really see in the picture but the toes of the tennis shoes both have duct tape on them. Yah those two hit the trash. The orange bag smelled so it's being thrown out. The walmart sack is the contents of a purse long ago dumped out. I went through and saved two pens and a buck, the rest is being pitched as I obviously don't need it. And the bag is my "too big" pile that is going to goodwill and not staying in my house. So... lots more than ten and so glad it's done.

Next goal.... KEEP IT UP.

bye bye cars

In sticking with your playroom theme Jackie, I went through and grabbed a box of cars from ours. They never play wtih the cars anymore. Matchbox ones sure, but the bigger "vrooming" ones, nope. So no picture, but I have a box of about 12 cars to give away.

YAY!

There is talk on the E board of this getting going again. While I have no pics to show for it... I cleaned out some things from the playroom to "make room" for Christmas. Currently, they are being saved to cycle back through when the baby comes, but that is at least something. I'd still like to go through the playroom and clean it out, there is way too much in there.

I thought I'd maybe write some goals on here to help me get motivated again--- and anyone else can post their own goals too!

1. Take at least one more walk through the playroom and GET RID of anything the boys don't LOVE and play with often.
2. Recently, I totally cleaned out one hallway closet... one more to go. do it.
3. Baby's closet. Not even an option here. Must be done.
4. My closet (again).
5. kitchen cabinets. One at a time, clean them out/up.

That's a good place to start huh? Sort of big projects, but I don't have to tackle them all in one day.

Question

To those of us who have been purging and cleaning spaces and organizing... are the places you've cleaned, still clean? I have to say sadly, no. My closet is slowly crawling back to a disaster and my desk is over flowing and one cabinet is yet again a wreck. Why can't I keep things neat? I want them neat. I'm pleased when they are tidy...

any thoughts?

garage sale 1 (pictureless)

Well folks, the date is set. Next Friday the 23rd I'm having a garage sale. Last night I pulled three boxes/bags down from the attic. Two just full of stuffed animals and one full of... yarn. Seriously. Just yarn. Stuffed full of yarn. I'm like wow. That's doing me soooo much good up there. So, off it goes. Since I haven't needed any since we moved in here nearly three years ago, it's gone. My storage room off the kitchen is barely able to contain any more. You can't walk through there be/c I keep throwing bags of "sale" items that way.

I also organized/purged Matthew's books and am selling a decent stack of them. There are some that are just too baby-ish and some that he just doesn't ever read, so they are going. I love books, he's got a great collection going, but no sense in holding some he doesn't want or we don't need.

Top o Dresser

So this is the top of the chest of drawers/hutch in our room. It's most commonly reffered to as the "jewelry station." Even though there is a jewelry box right there, most things don't make it IN the box after wearing. It's also the "I want to save that little scrap of something but I don't know where to store it station." Anyone else have one of those? Yah... that yellow towel on the top was my great grandpa's. It's been up there for the past 3 years be/c I wasn't sure if I wanted to use it or just save it. I had a come to Jesus talk about that towel though. I decided everything on this shelf either needed to be relocated for USE or PITCHED! And I was pleased to fill a whole shopping bag nearly full of just the trash! My jewelry box is now accessible! I even found buried was my piano music box, I had forgotten I had.

Before:

After:

PS: Where is everyone?

my own kitchen cabinets

After posting the massive cleaning I did in my mom's kitchen, here are pictures I took of my own pantry cabinets ( I don't have a real pantry ). This started be/c I needed the blue food coloring and it wasn't in the box with the green red and yellow... so, while looking for it, I ended up emptying out my cabinets on the counter and pitching a LOT of old crap. Easter candy, Halloween candy, several open boxes/bags of crumbs, trash, empty boxes or wrappers (how does that happen!?), old this and thats. It's not that drastic maybe, but I am pleased with the makeover!

the reason for the hunt: the found blue food coloring.

the before:

the after. not too bad, huh? I purged a LOT from that bottom shelf of candy!

second cabinet before-- this is a tricky shelf, as you can see from the straws, the rest of the shel is behind the wall and I can't reach or see what's back there. So it was time to pull it ALL out and take inventory. I trashed a ton of yuck.

after--I did not know I had so many drink mix-in boxes stuffed into the corner.

A battery powered blender, with small screwdriver inside and two batteries, never been opened. Since we also have the magic bullet, I'm thinking this will be added to the yard sale pile.

potholders drawer

My grams had given me new potholders that she made me and I couldn't jam them into the potholders drawer. So I took that as a sign to clean it out. I was pretty amazed with the amount of TRASH in this drawer. WHY was I holding on to trash in there?! Ugh.

I'm glad Bridget nudged us on the board today. Maybe we'll get back at it. I know I need to. It's been a long time and I am desperate to have a yard sale. So I as I purge the house for the sale, I'll be thinking about my ten things again now!

before, had to shove the drawer in.

the amount that came out of the drawer
(two of the power cords are for items we don't have anymore)

after!

Mom's Kitchen

When I was visiting my folks, I cleaned out my mom's fridge and pantry. Here's the before and after pics.

before left side of pantry
before right side

what was emptied from the right side

what was emptied from the left side

the crazy amount of crap that was expired

after right side

after left side (still a little crazy at the bottom,
but it's stuff I just didn't know what to do with so it stayed)

before

after (see the door mostly)

the stuff that was expired.

Hello June!

I'm still on vacation and am itching to get back home to work on my 10 things projects. I just wanted to encourage the other posters! Everyone take time today and grab just ten things, even if it's just ten pieces of trash off the counter or something! It doesn't have to be a giant project, just pick up something. Okay, that's all.

pictureless pantry

OMG. My mom said I could tackle a few projects for her... and I say that loosely, be/c actually it's like this: Mom, I'm cleaning out the pantry, kay? Mom there's no room in the fridge for the milk, I'm cleaning out the fridge later, kay? LOL But Anyhow, my almost brother-in-law and I cleaned out the pantry today. Oy. I can't upload the pictures just yet but I have before and afters. We had TWO big black garbage bags full of EXPIRED items. EW. A whole counter top of expired items. It was awful. It looks so much better now, it's insane the difference! I will post pictures when I can.

Desk take 3

I spent about a half hour at the desk last night dealing with this stack on the top shelf. It was not something I'd planned to do yesterday but my husband needed to hook up our new-to-us (used) printer! So I needed to clear everything off for him to get to the old one and set up the new one. This one has a SCANNER feature, oh baby! I spent a lot of time going through the papers, deciding what was worth keeping or trashing. I ended up with a decent size trash pile. Among it all, I found missing CDs. Nice to know they aren't lost for ever. I added them to my binder promptly instead of setting them somewhere else to be forgotten. Overall, still a slight stack of things that just don't have a home elsewhere, but I'm really pleased with the results! Lots gone and what's there is stacked in categories instead of just being a heaping pile!

Before:

And after!

goals updated

Just wanted to see where I am on my goals:

This is what I posted Monday:

This week:
-Today will be nothing unless I tackle my purses. Which actually may take several days. I have dumped two of them into a bigger bag. That bag is sitting staring at me, waiting for me to go through it but I don't have the desire yet.
-Tomorrow will be a pass as well. MUST do laundry.
-Wed will be just walk around and grab ten things.
-Thursday- more desk. It's getting there, but still not complete.
-Friday- something in the kitchen.

And here's what really happened:
Monday-- purses, coats, book stack
Tuesday--freezer
Wed-- nothing
Thursday--nothing
Friday-- three kitchen problem spots!

Not too bad, huh?!
Yesterday was just a bad bad day, I would have liked to have been in my house more, but it didn't happen, we were out a lot. So next week the desk will go back on the agenda!

Because I'm leaving town next week my posts will become sporadic, unless I start cleaning out my parents' house...

3 kitchen spots

I did nothing yesterday, but this in total took less than twenty minutes this morning.

The first was a cabinet, I was trying to fit "one more thing" into.
I decided mid way to stop, take a picture and purge, instead of stuff.
Before:
After:

The second was a drawer that was bugging me for a while.
It's the "I don't know what to do with that, so throw it in there" drawer.
Before:

Here's what I threw out: a list of doctors from the ins company, 6 old manuals, a box of last year's tithe envelopes (We're so bad, we never use the envelopes),
Here's the after drawer:

The third was a cabinet, same story as the first one.
I was trying to put something away, but I'd have to just toss it in and hope the door shut,
so I sat down and emptied the whole thing out. Ew. Ew. Ew.Mark was helping...

I threw out two old nasty gross falling apart shelf protector stuff. Again I say, nasty! Also trashed: a metal bread pan that I hate and have three other bread pans, so why hang on to it? Also a rusted cheese grater that we don't ever use. Also a glass cutting board that makes me nervous. And two hospital water mugs we never use.

And the after: TA DA!


So, way more than ten things today, but really it barely took me 15-20 minutes I'd guess between all three. And now I have three new happy places in the kitchen instead of stuff stuffed everywhere. Yippie!