Declutter Challenge Post #2

Here's how I decided to map out Carla's February Challenge.

Week One: Personal Space Challenge ~ Hallway Closet (it's huge) Hubby did this one.

Week Two: Family Space Challenge ~ The Kitchen

Week Three: Productivity Challenge ~ All the crafty stuff: Yarns, Plastic Canvas, Candles

Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge ~ Master Bedroom Closet

Seeing as my darling Hubby took care of the Week One challenge, I thought I would get a jump on next week's challenge. Except I forgot which one it was, and dove head first into The 'Dreaded' Challenge this morning.

Before pics (please be nice):

First half of the bedroom closet. Notice the boxes and clothing piled in front.

The other side. Lots of space to hang clothes....

My little helper.

So I got down to business. I picked up all the laundry that was just laying on the floor (I spared you all a picture of this). I pulled stuff out bit by bit, and started sorting, purging and generally being disgusted with myself for letting it get this bad.

The Results:

•  3 and a half garbage bags of clothing to be donated
• 5 grocery sized bags of garbage tossed out
• 2 dressers cleaned out
• 1 box of summer clothing set aside for me & hubby
• half a small box of items to be donated or given away
• yarn and plastic canvas stash gone through and sorted
• 8 loads of laundry to be done this week

After pictures:

I can see the floor of the closet! Yay!!

Utilising the space as was intended.

Donations, donations. :)

Boxes; 1 full of junk, 2 empty that were just taking up space, now gone.

As an added bonus, I got the top of hubby's dresser cleaned off. My yarn and plastic canvas stash is to the left of this dresser, now in a much neater state. I will be able to find stuff when I want to, cuz now I know where it all is. :)

The top of my dresser cleared of the stuff it had accumulated.

The inside of my dresser is cleaned out as well, so I will have somewhere to put all my clothes once I am done the impending laundry marathon.

Once I got the closet done, I was feeling so good about this accomplishment, that the entire bedroom got the same treatment. I purged, dusted, sorted, tossed garbage, vaccuumed, cleaned the mirror and even pulled out junk from under the bed. Part way through, hubby came in the bedroom and cleaned out his dresser as well. I now believe in miracles!

In summary, it is now the 6th of February, and I already have completed 3 out of the 4 weekly challenges. This makes me so very happy.

I think I'll wait until the laundry is caught up before I start in on the kitchen.











SNCC, February 5, 2012

My parents on their wedding day. This is the only picture I have of my paternal grandfather (far right). My brothers and sisters looked so cute in their finery!

What are you:

Reading? ~ The Extensions by Myrna Dey

Watching?

We watched 'Rudy' on television this afternoon. I cry every time I see this movie. If you have never seen it, I would definately reccommend it.

Listening to?

The Superbowl is on the t.v., but I of course, have my back to it as I'm working on the computer. :)

Cooking/Baking?

Today...absolutely nothing. Earlier this week, I made cupcakes with DD2 and then attempted to make buns. What an utter fail! They didn't rise properly (pretty sure that's my fault) and I apparently didn't bake them long enough. They were still doughy inside. I tossed the entire batch. sigh

Happy you accomplished this week?

Seeing as my wonderful Hubby took care of the Hallway closet project, I tackled my 'dreaded' project today. An entire post on this with pictures later this week!

Looking forward to next week?

Cub will be going back to daycare full time next week. Mommy will be able to get things done without her little helper.

Cub with two of his friends from playgroup. He's the cutie on the right. *love*

Thankful for today?

Cub's gramma calling to ask if she could take him for a couple of hours so Hubby & I could have a peaceful dinnertime together. I love that woman!

So how goes your Sunday?

Declutter Challenge - Week One

The first weeks challenge is “Personal Space” says Carla. I opted to do the Hallway closet in our apartment. This closet has three doors, and runs almost the entire length of the hallway from family room to bathroom. There is a rod which runs the length of it, even though there is a wall inside that separates it by half. There is a shelf on both sides of this 'wall', and we have put as much storage stuff in there as possible.

I had to work today, so I thought this evening I would take pictures of it, and then get started.

I was thinking a lot today about Carla's Weekly Bonus Challenge. This weeks challenge is to donate at least one item of food to the food bank. While I was going through a year's worth of paperwork today, I was on autopilot and gave this some thought. I was thinking about how much I could afford to buy to donate, and what would be the most coveted item for the food bank. I went to the London and Area Food Bank website , and found this list of item that are needed.

Here’s a list of items that we currently need:

• canned fish, meat, stew
• peanut butter, jam
• canned vegetables
• rice, pasta (uncooked)
• canned soup, canned fruit
• macaroni & cheese dinner
• canned juice, or individual boxes
• baby food (large or small jars, cereals, cookies)
• baby formula
• powdered or canned milk
• oatmeal, large packages or individual servings
• individually packaged healthy snack foods
• cake mixes, baking goods

You can drop these off at the collection bin of a London food store, or you can deliver them directly to the food bank.

In the spirit of this challenge, instead of donating to the food bank, I bought a few bags of groceries which included fresh fruit, vegetables, and milk and gave them directly to a family in need. I did this after work. Then I headed home.

When I walked in, much to my surprise, Hubby showed me what he did to occupy himself all afternoon. He had cleaned out, decluttered and reorganised the hallway closet! (Do I get points for this Carla, even if I didn't do it myself?) He'd thrown out several bags of garbage, and taken several items to the donation bin located in our laundry area in the basement. My declutter project is done and I finished my Bonus mini-challenge.

What am I going to do the rest of the week? I think I'll knit. :)

Checking In

I just wanted to let you all know I haven't been trapped in a landslide from the hallway closet or anything like that (yet). It's just been a busy time for me. I'm also keeping my fingers busy knitting. I have one dry cloth done for a sweeper stick and I'm about 1/3 of the way through a single red sock. I'm aiming to do some slippers in the very near future as well.

I've decided not to post month end numbers or reports for the first 6 months of the year. We are not making the type of progress that I would like and we are again implementing changes to way the way we deal with our finances.

We are looking at taking on more debt this year by way of a vehicle loan. My work van will need replacing sooner rather than later. If this was the vehicle we just drove around in for pleasure, I would drive it until the wheels fell off. However, it is a work vehicle, and it must be in near perfect working condition as well as looking like I just drove it off the car lot. This is probably a few months away still, and I'm ok with having that kind of debt again. With the knowledge that I have now, we will be able to handle the payments and we will work away at paying it off early.

The housing situation stress is now over. I'm happy to report that we will not be moving for some time in the foreseeable future. Our property management company was seeking an eviction based on the grounds that we have been late with paying our rent several times in the past year. We managed last month to pay what would be the equivalent of two months worth of rent, so that we would be ahead of the game. Which is why our finances needed to be so tight in January. But it's ok now. Moving on.

Hubby is on board with me for the decluttering projects this month, so I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished. There are lots of things to get rid of by way of donation, sale or just throwing it out. I'd like to get a jump start on my first declutter area today, if time allows.

I'm off to grab another cup of coffee, and get the kids out the door for school and daycare. have a great day everyone!

P.S. Judy, if you're reading this, I miss you and your blog. I hope you get everything back up and running soon!