Cleaning

I've really been in a "Spring Cleaning" mode in the last couple of days! I cleaned up what felt like a mountain of toys in the basement over two days (with helpers)and then today, I stacked and sorted a bunch of boxes in the basement to make things easier to get to as well as around. I'd really let it go to the point that we had to climb around stuff to get to other stuff. I also took most of the junk out of our hall closet and reorganized it. It's been a while, there, too!

There is still a long way to go before the whole house is orderly, but I feel accomplished after so many months of disorder creeping in!

It Really Helps to Unpack When You Move

We have started to miss some things that we had before we moved. I guess the whole "move when you're 7 months pregnant" thing made it hard. I organized things, but then I stopped when I just wanted to clear the floor. I ended up with several boxes that just got mixed in with other random things. So, this morning I went looking for the hair drier (I rarely blow dry my hair, so it wasn't missed until now.) and some Christmas decorations. I found those and some other decorations. (I should have missed them by now, but I still haven't gotten around to decorating this house--we've been here for five months!) I also found some books and memorabilia that I had forgotten about. I'm now going to start reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to the kids. I'm excited! It's been many years since I've gotten those out!

So, I feel good about the progress in the basement. Right now, it looks worse than before I started, but there is a lot more order than before. At least I know where things are and they are together. I just need to do a lot of sorting and purging to have it to the point I want it. I'm tired of it for today, so it will be there waiting for me tomorrow!

Organized Move?

We are planning to put our home up for sale in April. We want to move after school is out. We are in a college town and fairly close to campus, so if we don't sell our townhouse in the spring or summer, it will be another year, so we really need to sell, soon.

So, I want to do this well. I have been in a great organizational/purging mood so this is a great time for me to work on organizing my house with moving in mind. Since I am pregnant, now is probably the best time to work on it. I have energy and time, now. Who knows what is coming??

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the subject:

--Anything I can do now, I don't have to do when I am huge. Or have thrown in a box randomly because I couldn't get to it.

--I want to get several large, plastic tote boxes and get myself organized. I figure if I do it for now, we can just move it like it is in the box and already be organized when we get there.

--I want to start collecting boxes now, since they are really hard to come by in May. (College town, graduation and moving!)

--I also want to start purging lots of our stuff. We are still recovering from pack-ratitis, so we have a lot of junk to go through. The less useless stuff I have to move and then deal with, the better.

--We need the house to look nice for buyers, so I'll be doing three-in-one by general organization, getting ready to sell and getting ready to move!

Do any of you have anything you've done (or wished you had) when you were getting ready to move? I can take all the organizational advice you've got!

Organized Kids' Room

I did a lot yesterday! (Which probably accounts for my headache!)

I cleaned and organized the kids' room. I should have taken pictures, but I had started before I thought of it and I just wanted to get it done.

I sorted, organized and threw away a lot of toys! I threw out a garbage bag full of broken and junkie toys! It felt so good! My kids have carpet again! It is so nice.

Now I just need a shelf or other system to keep it all organized!

(I am also getting better at keeping the dishes and laundry done and put away! I decided to always have an empty clean laundry basket at the end of the day. Even if I leave laundry in the dryer for the next day, it seems that the real problem is that I let unfolded laundry touch the basket. It forms some kind of bond and gets stuck there for weeks. If I don't let that happen, I don't have a problem.)

My New Favorite Bag

I am obsessed with bags and purses! Just ask Aaron. Any time we are anywhere, I am looking for bags. I love purses big and small. I am always on the lookout for a new one. My mood determines whether I want to carry everything or nothing.

My newest find is this lady bug bag. I has a pocket for my "purse stuff" and one for "diaper stuff" as well as lots of room for crochet or books or whatever I might need on any trip. I change out what is on the inside of the bag for the occasion! I just love it!

One of the best things about this particular bag is it only cost me $5!!! It is really sturdy and I just love it!

Did I mention that I just love it??

My Trial

I have become addicted to using my Palm Pilot to organize my life. It is really easy and I love it. I keep my ideas, things I need to do, calendar, crochet patterns I have created, gift lists.....It goes on and on. Pretty much my whole organized life is there.

Normally, that works out just fine. Then there are the times it locks up. Usually I can just reset it and I don't lose anything, it just takes a few minutes. It's kind of like when the computer locks up and you have to restart it. No big deal.

THEN, there was last night! I was sitting in a meeting where I need to be able to make notes and keep track of how many people came. It just went white! I couldn't get anything to work. I reset it several times and I could get everything else to work, but not my "Memos". If I clicked on Memos, it would go white again and not let me get into anything else. Then I had to restart it again! Memos are where I keep most things.

I told Aaron when I got home and he spent quite a while online trying to fix it. He finally discovered that I had had too many categories! The Palm just couldn't deal with that! It gave up and wouldn't deal with it anymore. Aaron was able to get it to work just fine.

Now, I just have to make sure that I don't get too organized. I like everything in it's own little space. I can find things easier that way. So, I spent some time this morning reorganizing a little and making it so that I could find things and still not freak my Palm out!!

So, all is well. My Palm and I like each other again! I just have to keep it happy and it won't lose my life!

Are you a digital packrat?

Just when I thought I was beginning to recover from pack rat syndrome, I found this article highlighted on Dumb Little Man.

I have always been a pack rat and now, I think I am doing a little better. I kept everything that I "might" need someday, somehow and everything with any random sentimental value! It was nuts.

I am doing a lot better and our real house has become a lot less cluttered! But, I have way too much digital clutter! I do pretty well with my email because I tend to delete an email once I have replied to it. I save tons of things to my favorites because I want to read or blog about them later. I want to start simplifying that! There is no reason to keep all of those file to clutter up my brain. (Except that I might need them someday!)

Change

Life is all about change. I try to improve and change my self, my habits, my thoughts, my health. I change my clothes (once in a while ;) ) But, the change I am referring to, today is a job and city change. We are waiting to see what happens with Aaron's job. Then we are going to decide what to do from there. He needs some change, maybe more school. I want to prepare and plan. I am a list maker, see the sidebar? (I keep wanting to scale down the lists over there, but I just can't let them go.) The problem is that I don't know how to plan. I want to start packing just in case we move in the next month or two, but we may stay where we are for a year or more. So, anyway, I think I am going to start by sorting and purging some of the junk that has accumulated over the last few years. When we moved from WA a few years ago, we purged so much that we have felt like we didn't have anything to toss for a while. Well, now we have added to the stash and we need to purge again. I think we have changed from pack-rats to "normal" people--we just have to recover from our former pack-ratedness (how do you like that word??). So, anyway, I hate the feeling of not knowing what to do. My first goal, when it stops SNOWING (sheesh, it's April!!) is to go through our storage outside and make a lot of choices there. One great idea that Aaron had was to put all the stuff that isn't a necessity into storage regardless of where/when we move. Then we can unpack the stuff we need and a little at a time, we can get the stuff we want. That way, we can unpack and put things in good places rather than just away somewhere random just because the box is there in the way.
Anyway, this is a random post and I hope you could follow my rambling train of thought. It was good for me to think it out. If you have any suggestions, PLEASE let me know!! What have you done when you wanted to be organized, but needed it to be in a versatile way??

Messes, Messes Everywhere...

I hate all the cleaning that I have to do on Mondays. I tend to be lazy on the weekends. I want to have fun with my family. I also like to try to keep Sundays more holy and so I try not to do cleaning that isn't absolutely necessary. That makes Monday a HUGE cleaning day. As I look around, I see more shoes, clothes, dishes, toys and many other things all over the place. I hate the mess!! I'll spend the next few hours making it sane, again. I should probably come up with a better system, eh? My peaceful weekends are worth the mess on Monday, but I still hate it when I wake up to the disaster zone!!! (Sorry...I am NOT taking pictures of this...I'll just let you think that I am over-exaggerating the chaos that is my Monday)

SMART Habit Saturday

I've lost track of the old weeks, and I didn't do all that well on them anyway, so here is my update for last week. Last week, my goal was to write in my journal everyday. I did it!! I am so proud of myself. I want to keep that going, so I am going to keep that up this week, to make it a habit. I have really enjoyed it. It gives me a place to put the things that I wouldn't dare write on my blog. It also gives me an outlet that will be preserved in my hand writing. I found this site on Millie's blog, though and I am thinking about trying it out sometime. You can create a book out of just about anything, including your blog. I also want to try a book of my family pictures.

I also want to add a new goal for the week. I want to make a point to organize something everyday. It doesn't need to be huge, just a drawer or shelf is enough. Some days I'll get a whole room. (I hope!!) I just want to start making in a habit to get and keep organized!!

Don't forget to go check out The Lazy Organizer and find out all about SMART habits! It is a great way to make new habits and get a lot of things done!!

Organizing!!!!

Okay, so I have gotten (or had maybe, we'll see what happens today) an organizing bug. I went through the downstairs closet. This is what it looked like before I got to it: And:
You can even see the horrible 70's carpet in there. If you are missing the 70's, you can come smell them in my closet. It is really weird.

After:
Then, I got to the junk drawer. It was so full that you could hardly see or find anything!!
Now, it is nice and most things are easy to see and grab...now if we can just keep it this way!!

Okay, so they don't quite look like that already, I added a few things after I took the pictures, but they are WAY better now!