Day 13 of Organization Challenge

Yea. I know we're missing a few days. 

I got a little behind when we went to Chicago. Day 11 was your freezer and Day 12 was your spices. I still have to work on the freezer, but my spices were done with the pantry challenge. 

Today's challenge was your medicine cabinet. Ours actually wasn't too bad. I went through it a couple of weeks ago and threw out everything that was expired. So this morning I just had to wipe it out and organize everything by likeness.

Before:

After:

We also have a basket on our sink with all of our everyday items: combs, contacts, make up, deodorant, etc. I just separated it by side: his and hers. I honestly doubt it'll stay this neat.

Before:

After:

And I went ahead and organized the two drawers in there (and threw a LOT away).

Before:

After:

Look, Frank! Two of my jars came in handy!

I'm all out of empty bins and baskets and I think I will pick some up to containerize a little. Everything looks just a little more organized when it's containerized, doesn't it?

Happy Organizing!

there. i organized something.

I was feeling lazy for not having any challenges today. So what did I do? I took 2 mins to screw a coat hook into the wall and called it a day.

I bought this oil rubbed bronze hook at Target for $3.49 to hang my purse and work bag on, by the door. 

A home for everything, that's the goal right? 

Well now they won't be found hanging on my dining room chairs anymore. Nope, cause they found a home. :)

Oh yea, and don't forget to love a nurse :)

Day 9: The Toys

When I woke up this morning and found that today's challenge was to organize the toys, I was so thankful that little man doesn't have too many toys. I think it's ridiculous how many toys some kids have. 

Now I know we have YEARS to accumulate more. But, right now he's a little over 5 months old and would be perfectly content chewing on Sophie all day long, and indeed he does spend the greater part of his day doing just that.

See?

 Best $17 I ever spent!

So thankfully, we already have everything neatly contained in a basket by the couch as we spend most of our time playing on the couch or on the floor in the living room. He does have some bigger toys that don't fit in the basket, but there really is no way to organize those.

Here's our basket-o-toys:

And our books:

I picked up that little book holder a few years ago at a yard sale for a buck or two. It has come in such handy! Little man loves to read and with this little holder all we have to do is reach over and pick one (or three) out instead of going to his room to pick one up off his bookcase. And I think it's super cute too!

So today was kind of like a free day for me. Yay! 

I still have laundry and cleaning to do though. Boo.

Happy Tuesday!

Day 8: Coat Closet

As I mentioned earlier, today is Day 8 of the organization challenge: organize your coat closet.

Our coat closet actually holds very few coats now that we have a coat rack by the door. Instead, it was filled with a whole lotta stuff that we needed but that desperately needed to be organized; as well as a lot of stuff we pitched or added to the Goodwill box.

Luckily, Frank so kindly pitched in so it took a lot less time than I thought it would.

So without further ado....

BEFORE:

And....

AFTER:

 Finally a spot for little mans tub!

 Reusable shopping bags. laundry stuff, and plastic bags for garbage, lunches, etc.

 Our recyclables. I have them in sturdy reusable shopping bags so they are easy to carry out to the recycling bin. One for paper, one for commingled.

 When you live in an apartment, you have a tiny grill and it lives in your closet :)

Odds n ends in one bin, craft supplies { <3 }in the other.

I'm so happy to have this closet neat and functional. Yep, this organization thing is good stuff :)

Day 7: The Pantry

Today is Day 7 of the Organization Challenge: The Pantry. It just so happens that I already organized my pantry (and remembered to take pics) in a wave of ambition. YAY!

I'm so happy it was something I already had done and had a post put together because I'm off to work soon for 12 hours. Boo. I got off late last night and have to work 16 hours on Sunday. I'm going to be so happy to see Monday this week.

Anyways onto business.

Before:

 What a mess! A lot things went into a donation box to take to the food pantry.

 And just for fun I did another drawer that was begging for some organizing.

After:

 Much better, eh? I organized each side and shelf by 1. Drinks 2. Soups 3. Breakfast stuff 4. Misc. 5. Pasta 6. Snacks. I did this last week and I'm happy to report it still looks like this :)

 I also organized this cabinet but forgot to take a before pic before I got bitten by the organization bug. The top shelf has canned fruits and veggies and tuna. The second shelf has spices. And the bottom shelf has all of little man's things: bottles, bowls, formula, cereal, etc.

And the drawer. All of this stuff was in a cabinet above the kitchen sink where I couldn't really see what I had (which is probably why I have 3 boxes of aluminum foil huh?). Most of what was in this drawer was tossed or found a new home.

So there you have it, my organized "pantry". It's so much easier to find things and make a grocery list when you can see what you have!

Happy Organizing and Happy Saturday. Think of me as I'm slaving away at work today ;)

Day 6: Organize Your Dresser

Today is day 6 of the organization challenge at a bowl full of lemons. 

I actually completed the challenge, took pics, and posted in a timely manner! Yay me! :)

So first things first. I know the dresser is hideous. I plan to replace this old (80's?) dresser as soon as possible with something newer and more current.

The before picture is a mess. The top of the dresser is a collect-all and the cabinet part wasn't really being utilized much.

Before:

This pic wouldn't rotate?

And After:

 This one wouldn't rotate either. Boo.

I cleaned the top off first. 

The red damask box is actually a gift box covered in wrapping paper. It now houses some of our keepsakes that we just couldn't part with (old name tags, pins, etc).

The canvas is the one I ordered from canvaspeople and posted about yesterday. 

The hurricane glass candle holders were made using dollar store supplies (post coming on that one soon).

Inside the cabinet are two plastic bins from the dollar area at Target ($2.50 each). One is now holding my socks, while the other holds my unmentionables :) 

On the second shelf the little blue organizer (also $2.50 at Target) holds nail polish, jewelry, sunglasses, etc. 

The little ceramic lemon dish next to it is holding a few earrings ($1 at a thrift store). 

Lastly I went through the two drawers. Stacked everything in piles by likeness and even added a stack to my Goodwill box. 

Ta-da! All done. I'm pretty impressed with the results. That 80's dresser is looking a lot more current now. :)

Happy Organizing!

Day 2...on Day 4

Well I we finally finished Day 2's organization challenge...on Day 4. 

Full disclosure: Little man and I may or may not have spent a good portion of it hanging out on the couch while Frank put the new desk together :)

Anyways, we were waiting for our new desk to arrive before we tackled that mess in the corner of our living room. 

And boy was it a mess. It took Frank nearly all afternoon to assemble the new desk, unplug all the computer cords and parts, get rid of the old desk, and then replug in all the cords and parts of the computer on top of the new desk. 

And the dusting. Yuck. You wouldn't believe the dust bunnies! 

Fun fact - Dust in your house is mostly made up of dry skin. Ewww. Apparently we need to do some more moisturizing over at our casa. And dusting. Yes, that would probably be good too :)

Oh and another side note: I really wish he would upgrade (downgrade?) to a laptop like moi.  All those cords are driving me carazay! So please ignore them in the after pictures. We will have to wrangle those guys another day. 

So here is the before pic: 

And the after:

That mouse pad has got to go. I'm thinking something with a big fat picture of little man's mug would be fabulous!

 I picked up that turquoise canning jar at Goodwill today for just this purpose. I'm in LOVE with these jars lately.

My pictures really don't do the desk justice. I WILL have a nice, new camera one of these days.

Day 2

I'm bad. 

Today is only Day 2 of the Organization Challenge at a bowl full of lemons and I'm already skipping a day. (We rested on Sunday, ya know like God did :)

Why, you ask?

Well partly because my butt was parked on the couch all day with little man on my lap napping the day away (let's hope this means good things for tonight's sleep). 

And secondly because this bad boy is on the way (today's challenge was to organize your desk top):

{Image from staples.com}

Yep, we're getting a pretty new espresso desk. They were all out of it in store so we had to order it online. My 5 year old patience can hardly wait. Expected arrival is Wednesday. 

Yippee!

So I shall do 2 organization challenges on Wednesday to atone for my sins ;)

Oh, and while shopping at Staples we scored a new desk chair for $8, marked down from $79! 

Now it's no super plush, comfy chair, but it's stylish and for $8 will certainly get the job done.

Day 1 of Organization Challenge

HAPPY 2011! 

Today is Day #1 of the Getting Organized Challenge over at a bowl full of lemons. 

Today's task was to clean out your junk drawer. And oh man, do I have a junk drawer. You can see how messy and jam packed it was in this before picture: 

Scary huh? 

Well it was mostly filled with papers that needed to be tossed or filed, and about 5 old cellphones?

After emptying out the drawer and sorting through the mess it now looks like this:

I didn't have any drawer organizers or containers small enough to fit in the drawer to sort things out, so most of it is just sitting in the drawer. Although I did use a box one of our cell phones came in to sort some small things out. 

And here is the beginnings of my donation box to be taken to Goodwill. I'm hoping it's full by the end of this challenge.

Interested in joining in on the challenge? It seriously only took me about 10 minutes to clean out and organize this drawer and you saw the sad looking before picture. You can do it too! 

Head on over to a bowl full of lemons to see what it's all about!

Happy Organizing!

xoxo,

Ash