This week I sucked big time. I'm blaming potty training, as it was almost impossible to get anything done when 99% of your brain is focused on if your child is going to pee her pants. Here's what I did manage to get crossed of my list:
-The pantry: I feel like this one was almost cheating because I had about 75% of it done already. I had started organizing it when we moved it, got sidetracked, and never returned. Basically all this involved was pushing myself to finish a project I had already started.
-Junk drawer in kitchen: I cleared out all the junk. Spoiler alert: there was a lot of it.
-Clean oven, stovetop, and microwave: Pretty much self-explanatory. Also, am I the only one that thinks of Sylvia Plath every time I have to clean the oven?
-Half bath: All of Ella's bathroom reading material got put into a basket so I don't have to walk over her gazillion books every time I need to pee.
There you have it. I'm running out of little things on the list, which means at some point soon I will have to force myself to tackle the study and guest room projects. Cue thunder and lightning.
Showing posts with label 40 Day Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 40 Day Challenge. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
40 Day Challenge: Week One Update
Here's how I did during week one:
-The master bathroom: I managed to find two grocery bags full of stuff to throw away. I also consolidated things like the travel toiletries into one little bag so the next time we go on a trip I'm not digging through everything trying to find a 3 oz tube of toothpaste. Then I bought drawer organizers so I can see what beauty products I actually own. I'm a little embarrassed to admit how many multiples of things I have. I'm sure it's due to the fact everything was tossed into drawers/makeup bags and since I had a hard time finding what I wanted, I assumed it was out and bought more. Now not only can I see what I own, but I have room underneath my sink, an almost empty drawer, and more shelf space in the linen closet.
-Ella's closet: I put all the winter clothes/clothes she has outgrown into storage and organized all the clothes that are too big by size/type. The goal of this was two-fold. By putting way things that aren't seasonal, I don't have to sit there and argue with her that she can't wear fleece pants when it's 100 degrees outside. Then by organizing all the new clothes for next fall/winter, I can have a better sense of what she has enough of and what she actually needs. The problem I still face: ignoring the siren call of baby gap.
-Magazines: I went through our gigantic pile of magazines and put all the ones we don't want anymore into recycling. Then all the Brew magazines Jim wants to save went into magazine racks.
-Recycling: This is my most hated chore, which is why it made it onto this list. Our town somehow used to do trash pickup twice a week (we're now down to once a week) but we have to haul our recycling over to the center. I think it's a huge pain and discourages most people from actually recycling, which is a rant of mine for a different time. In any case, Jim loaded it into the car for me and since that meant I couldn't get anything into my trunk, I forced myself to drive over there.
-Back patio: Technically Jim took care of this (hey he got to it before I could!). We had a little family activity of finally finishing planting seeds in their pots, then Jim hosed off the patio and furniture and put the gardening tools/potting soil away.
How I feel after week one: Honestly, for all the work I feel I did I don't feel like I have much to show for it. I'm sure it doesn't help that the only big task I took on was the bathroom. Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel more accomplished at the end of next week.
-The master bathroom: I managed to find two grocery bags full of stuff to throw away. I also consolidated things like the travel toiletries into one little bag so the next time we go on a trip I'm not digging through everything trying to find a 3 oz tube of toothpaste. Then I bought drawer organizers so I can see what beauty products I actually own. I'm a little embarrassed to admit how many multiples of things I have. I'm sure it's due to the fact everything was tossed into drawers/makeup bags and since I had a hard time finding what I wanted, I assumed it was out and bought more. Now not only can I see what I own, but I have room underneath my sink, an almost empty drawer, and more shelf space in the linen closet.
-Ella's closet: I put all the winter clothes/clothes she has outgrown into storage and organized all the clothes that are too big by size/type. The goal of this was two-fold. By putting way things that aren't seasonal, I don't have to sit there and argue with her that she can't wear fleece pants when it's 100 degrees outside. Then by organizing all the new clothes for next fall/winter, I can have a better sense of what she has enough of and what she actually needs. The problem I still face: ignoring the siren call of baby gap.
-Magazines: I went through our gigantic pile of magazines and put all the ones we don't want anymore into recycling. Then all the Brew magazines Jim wants to save went into magazine racks.
-Recycling: This is my most hated chore, which is why it made it onto this list. Our town somehow used to do trash pickup twice a week (we're now down to once a week) but we have to haul our recycling over to the center. I think it's a huge pain and discourages most people from actually recycling, which is a rant of mine for a different time. In any case, Jim loaded it into the car for me and since that meant I couldn't get anything into my trunk, I forced myself to drive over there.
-Back patio: Technically Jim took care of this (hey he got to it before I could!). We had a little family activity of finally finishing planting seeds in their pots, then Jim hosed off the patio and furniture and put the gardening tools/potting soil away.
How I feel after week one: Honestly, for all the work I feel I did I don't feel like I have much to show for it. I'm sure it doesn't help that the only big task I took on was the bathroom. Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel more accomplished at the end of next week.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The 40 Day Challenge
Every so often my house starts to drive me completely insane. I become this crazy person obsessed with cleaning and organizing. Usually, though, I burn myself out halfway through one little project or become bogged down with searching for ways to better organize things or products that will help keep everything in order.
A couple of weeks ago, I got the organizing bug again. Bad. While browsing Pinterest for nifty ways to make my life better (because that clearly was a more productive use of my time than, ya know, actually cleaning), I came across a pin entitled "40 Bags in 40 Days." Basically, the idea is to pick out 40 areas in your house to clean, spend one day cleaning/organizing/purging stuff from each, and at the end you will have a cleaner house and less crap to boot. A lot of people do it over Lent but as I don't want to wait until next spring to do this, I'm starting now.
There are two reasons I'm a little obsessed with organization and purging unnecessary stuff from our lives. The first is I simply don't like having a lot of "stuff." We still have our fair amount of crap and stuff tends to start accumulating quickly so I figure the more I can get out of my house, the better I can deal with everything that comes into it.
The second reason is I have a hard time keeping myself organized. I can't blame it (entirely) on having a toddler, but she does exacerbate the problem. Most days I feel completely scatterbrained and I know it will get worse with two kids. I am trying to motivate myself now, before Schrodinger is born, to have a good system in place so things will be slightly less chaotic and I might have a fighting chance at salvaging some sanity.
Here, in no particular order, is my list of the 40 things I want to clean/organize in the next 40 days:
A couple of weeks ago, I got the organizing bug again. Bad. While browsing Pinterest for nifty ways to make my life better (because that clearly was a more productive use of my time than, ya know, actually cleaning), I came across a pin entitled "40 Bags in 40 Days." Basically, the idea is to pick out 40 areas in your house to clean, spend one day cleaning/organizing/purging stuff from each, and at the end you will have a cleaner house and less crap to boot. A lot of people do it over Lent but as I don't want to wait until next spring to do this, I'm starting now.
There are two reasons I'm a little obsessed with organization and purging unnecessary stuff from our lives. The first is I simply don't like having a lot of "stuff." We still have our fair amount of crap and stuff tends to start accumulating quickly so I figure the more I can get out of my house, the better I can deal with everything that comes into it.
The second reason is I have a hard time keeping myself organized. I can't blame it (entirely) on having a toddler, but she does exacerbate the problem. Most days I feel completely scatterbrained and I know it will get worse with two kids. I am trying to motivate myself now, before Schrodinger is born, to have a good system in place so things will be slightly less chaotic and I might have a fighting chance at salvaging some sanity.
Here, in no particular order, is my list of the 40 things I want to clean/organize in the next 40 days:
- Master bathroom (linen closet)
- Master bathroom (under my sink/drawers)
- Pantry
- Fridge/freezer
- Guest room closet (part 1)
- Guest room closet (part 2- yes it's bad enough I need two days)
- Laundry room
- Car
- Playroom
- Living room bookshelves
- My desk
- Study closet
- Ella’s bathroom
- Crawlspace
- Magazines
- Cookbook cabinet
- Bins in study
- My closet
- Recycling
- Spice cabinet
- Entryway closet
- Ella’s closet
- Dresser drawers
- Bonus room
- Junk drawer in kitchen
- Mudroom
- Garage (workbench)
- Garage (miscellaneous)
- Jim’s clothes
- China cabinets
- Kitchen utensils
- Baking cabinet
- Miscellaneous cabinet in kitchen (this is where we put stuff we don't know where it should go)
- Back patio
- Ella’s art supplies
- Clean exterior of kitchen cabinets
- Clean oven, stovetop, and microwave
- Butcher block (where we tend to dump everything)
- Filing cabinet
- Half bath
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