The Friday Declutter! :)

I'm BACK! lol Back to my decluttering! Today's challenge was to declutter our wallets. Mine wasn't actually too bad this time. I had some receipts that needed to be thrown and some expired cards. Done and cleaned and organized! If you want to see how others have done with their wallet declutter, click HERE.

Actually a productive day, today. My first day UNemployed. Yes, I joined the 9.2 % and growing Washingtonians that have been laid off. Economy. I got 2 kitchen counters reorganized, potato salad made, dinner in the crockpot, a stack of clothes that needed attention taken care of, lists made with my game plan! Getting back on track! Feels good!

Friday Declutter and TAG! :)

Marcia (The Organised Queen) has tagged me for decluttering this week. I must tag 3 people and help start the movement again (and believe me I need a little push right now! lol). Marcia asks

So tell me, which is the area in your house that gets cluttered the quickest.

Oh my! Mine is the table next to where I relax in the living room! There is really no excuse for it but it is where I congregate my reading, my crocheting, my tea, my... well, you get the idea! My battery is dead at the moment... I will get a new battery tomorrow and post a picture of it.

Now I tag:

Amanda - Momto2busyboys
Patricia - Crafty This and That
Amber - Redmommycrafts

For more decluttering journeys click here.

Declutter Challenge - October 25, 2008

I took on a huge project - decluttering and organizing my craft room. I came away with 2 large trash bags a couple of boxes and some other miscellaneous stuff in a pile for garbage clutter! You can see a picture of the garbage here! The rest of the "clutter" was taking up precious room on shelves and counters and floors! I boxed up 12 priority boxes and gave it away to friends that love to craft! I gave a large amount of scrapbooking goodies to my daughter in law and I have some goodies for my daughter. Fabric was carefully refolded and put away in containers for storage. Projects were containerized so that directions and materials would not get separated and could be picked up and worked on without major loss! It is a major monkey off my back to have this room decluttered and organized! YAHOO!

I am still working on my decluttering of my preconceived ideas of the Proverbs 31 woman and will probably share more of that next week.

This decluttering challenge has been a huge accomplishment in my life. I hope and believe that I am developing some lifetime habits here to simplify my life! Many others have joined in this challenge over the past few months. Check out The Organising Queen for ideas from others and for Marcia's ideas and encouragement!

I DID IT!!!!!!

I took on a large procrastination challenge this month. I really needed to get my craft room in order to begin my Christmas sewing projects. It was totally out of control as you can see from the bottom collaged picture. Piles EVERY where! The top collage is the completed room. The third picture is the stuff that I threw away. I gave away at least as much or more! It took me a little longer than I planned to finish this project. I have "something something" (I don't know the long word) vertigo. I found that being in this small room and moving my head up and down from the high up shelves and down that it made me very dizzy and headachy! lol.. so, I wasn't able to spend a long a period of times as I wanted. The room is organized although I don't think it is going to stay in this order. As I get out there more and use it and use up my supplies, I am sure that I will do more rearranging. I got rid of a lot of magazines and condensed the containers that I was keeping them in. The colorful containers were pretty but they took up more space than ordinary magazine holders. I have not labeled everything yet. I am waiting (no, not procrastinating!) for my granddaughter as she really likes to use the labeler so I will let her "help" me with that.

I am so happy to have this done and I am so ready to start in on the dolls!!!! HURRAH!!!!

Is there a project, large or small that you are procrastinating doing? Join in the challenge at Virtually Organized and/or just come on over and see what others are doing!!

My Craft Room is DONE!!!

OH MY WORD!!! What a project! But it is FINISHED! It isn't perfect yet, but it is decluttered, organized and ready for me to get busy with Christmas sewing and projects! I will probably have to address this in a couple of posts as #1 I don't know how to compress the pictures to get more in here and #2 this is my procrastination project too!! I struggled with this room for a lot of reasons. I have WAY tooooooo much stuff. I still do. But now it is easier to see what I have and keep after it so that it doesn't grow and take over the room! There are a couple of things that I will change in time. One is the huge plastic organizer/drawer thing that I got from QVC... I don't think I really like it but I will give it a chance for awhile. I am ready to start sewing and working on crafts in my clean and organized room!!!!!!

Some notes about my craft room: This is a room off the workshop in our garage. It was used as an office by the people from whom we purchased our home. It has a concrete floor that is partially painted. I would like to paint the floor again and I would like to paint the walls a nice soft color but that will come in time. The shelves are nice to have but they are not adjustable. Someday I would like these replaced with inexpensive adjustable shelves. This would really make for great organizing! The "table" is built in. It does not go all the way up to the wall in some areas leaving a gapping hole as large as 6"! lol I don't know what was their thinking on that one. Eventually it would be nice to redo this area also. But it does make a great scrapbooking area. I am thinking that I would like to rearrange some of it so that I could use it for a fabric cutting area also. The wall that is blank above some of my storage containers will have a bulletin board.

View my collage of before pics here!

If you would like to see what others are doing in their craft rooms. Checkout the Organized Junkie!

Friday Declutter

I have been working HARD this week. Every evening after dinner I have spent at LEAST one hour out working on the craft room. :) I have one huge trash bag of garbage (clutter) that is going out, out, OUT! The second picture is just SOME of the goodies from my craft room that I am giving away! I went through all of my magazines and got rid of MANY of them. I decided that I really want my Annies Attic magazines. The rest I only kept a copy or tore out a page if there was something that I REALLY felt I would make. Still a lot of work to do but there is definite progress! I want to get sewing soon!!!

I am also working on decluttering something else in my life. Expectations of myself. While encouraging a friend this week, I realized that many times we and other "well meaning" acquaintances and friends, put expectations on ourselves that are not realistic. Perhaps it is the verses in Proverbs 31 that describe a Godly woman. I fall so short of those verses, and yet, I wonder if I am really reading them. Really reading them as God, Himself, intended them to be HEARD and understood by me. So I am going to read a little slower. Take one verse at a time and ask God how to apply that verse in my life. What action or change needs to take place for me to be the woman of God He wants me to be. And I am going to try very hard to listen and adjust. I am going to "declutter" all the learned behaviors that I have regarding these verses. I am going to declutter my shortcomings from the past and forgive myself as God has forgiven and I am going to start with a clean slate.






Come on and join us in one or both of these challenges! Christmas is approaching and having decluttered home will relieve much of the stress of the holidays! Click on the icons above to follow along!

Ok... one more horrible peek into the craft room

Ok.... see! Now we are getting into the REAL look of my craft room.... I am making dinner and then heading out there to make a little more of a dent tonight. :) Someday I will be able to post after pictures.

The craft room transformation begins

This is a before picture BUT believe me when I tell you that this is the ONLY section of my craft room that looks this good! I am not kidding you. My granddaughter and I went thru my crochet magazines and books and organized them this summer. So it does get worse and I will post after pics... I may even get brave and post some more before. We will see. So, here is what I did today. I started carting things out and separating them out. I took some fabric that was still in the JoAnns bags, refolded them and put them in storage containers. They are on my dining room table where they will probably stay until I get the room in order. I packaged up 4 RAKS of crafting goodies that I am sending to 4 of my craft board friends. I will have more because I am going to be ruthless in this. I have set my priorities and my expectations so the journey to an organized craft room has begun. I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked because I am not feeling too good today but I can see some progress!

A Small Glimpse into my Craft Room

This is the door leading into my craft room. The room this leads out of is my husbands VERY organized workshop! This poor room has gone from disorganized to almost organized to disorganized to almost and back again! Right now it looks like a bomb went off inside. I am bound and determined to declutter and organize and keep this room in order. I LOVE to craft.... but I hate going out to sew or craft in disorder. It bugs me. It isn't fun!!! Unfortunately I have company coming over tonight so don't have a lot of time to work on this today but hopefully tomorrow is another day! This is not a one day project, BELIEVE ME!!!!!!!

So here is my start to the Round up! Oh, and by the way! Laura has been sent before pics of the room! I also teased, Marcia, with a couple!

Declutter Challenge!

This week has been all about purging! First we got the new refrigerator. That definitely had "clutter!", but I do have to tell you that since the decluttering challenge started in August, it wasn't that bad! Right now, though it is organized and that is a good feeling. Secondly, I purged paper this week. Shredded tons of paper and threw out paper from files and storage that was not needed. I am sorry that I don't have a picture of it, but it filled one of those LARGE black trash bags! I did go to take a picture of that last night (as it is going to recycle today) along with pics of my craft room but my batteries are dead!

Want to join in the challenge or see what others have been decluttering this week? Check over at The Organised Queen! Marcia always has great ideas about organization and decluttering!

Friday Declutter Challenge - Sept 26

Oh boy! What fun this week! I decluttered 3 different email accounts! My personal gmail account was the first one to tackle. Wow... over 1700 emails! Most of my craft and recipe ideas get emailed and saved in here to the folders. Took me a LONG time but I got it done! While doing that my spam went from 303 to over 400! Spam I usually delete upon going into the email. Next over to my email that we use for our Secret Sister "Swap" on TOH. It wasn't as bad but had over 300 emails. I archived and labeled what needed to be kept and it is now down to 50 emails! :) Then to our personal email with our provider. This is used mainly for family and friends. It had 12 pages of emails and mostly jokes! GGGRRRR .... so delete delete delete ...Pictures saved, and down to 1 page and going to KEEP it that way!!!! Just like household clutter, this email clutter can burden you and weigh you down! I am glad it is gone!!! Gone!!! GONE!!!!!!

Marcia is talking about decluttering electronically one The Organising Queen! Jump on over and read what wonderful ideas she has and also see what others are decluttering this week!

Procrastination with a CAPITAL P!

I guess that I am the QUEEN of procrastination! Marcia, from Organising Queen talked about decluttering our emails this week. I decided that I had better finally get that done. I had OVER 1700 emails! It is now down to under 30 but believe me it took time! Guess what now goes on a weekly to do list so that it never gets this bad again? Now I have 2 more emails to clean out. Our family one and my secret sister account! GOOD GRIEF!!

Want to see what all the procastination is about? Click HERE to see!

Time for this week's decluttering challenge!

I didn't declutter quite as much this week as in the past weeks. But this is a box of books that I decluttered from my bookshelf and sent to a blogger/crafting/recipe friend! :) I also "decluttered" my rose bush! I know it isn't the right time of year to trim it but it had to be! It has gone WILD this summer and took over the window and was branching out dangerously into the yard and against the house... so it is also a procrastination project because I have been putting it off since at least July! I can now see out my office window and Doug can mow the lawn without being attacked by thorns! lol Also have the usual paper clutter that builds and gets thrown. Although I still have more major clutter to conquer, I am very happy and comfortable with my decluttered areas! :) Makes life easier!

Want to join in this challenge and/or see what others are doing? Please visit the Organising Queen to see!

Procrastination Project #4 - The radio/cd/tape player!

Underneath the table you will notice that the "black" glob is gone. That black glob was a radio/cd/tape player. Many moons ago, my husband switched this player out for one that someone had given us. I really didn't like the other one as well. This one has lurked under the table bugging me and bugging me. It was out of sight in a way but it didn't belong there. It nagged at me. Finally I got him to take the other one out to his garage for him to groove to out there and we put this one back up in the family room so that I can finally play music again!! Such a simple little project! YAHOO! Another procrastination project attacked and completed!

Edited to add this comment because it is SO true!:

Debbie (Virtually Organized) said...

Whether it's something HUGE, or just a small, annoying task you've been putting off, isn't it a great feeling to cross things off your "To Do" list!

Do you have a project that you have been procrastinating about? Want to see what others are doing? Click HERE and maybe you will join in!!!

Decluttering Challenge Week 2 of September!

I am still decluttering! It is amazing how stuff just collects over time if you don't stay on it! The cookbooks.... yes, another bunch of them; given away. A wastebasket full of paper work and such from the office. Then I cleaned off my Dresser in the bedroom and got rid of and took care of the stuff on it. I cleaned the corner next to my hutch. These boxes had been there WAY too long. And do you see the radio/cd/tape player under the table in this pic. It was decluttered. DH had put this here several months ago and put a different system where this had been. I put this one back and he took the other one out to his rockin' garage!

Simplify 101 has an excellent article on decluttering, organizing and storage today! Check it out!

All of these projects feel so good!!! What have you decluttered this week? Want to see what others are decluttering, visit the Organising Queen and see!

Procrastination Project #3 - My dresser top

This is my dresser. Yeah! MINE! Got rid of the socks and storage containers to their home, threw away some of the stack of papers and book, decluttered the dust!! Done and now my bedroom feels that much more comfortable!

The jewelry box is not quite my style but it was my mother's and it is lovely. The framed object in the middle is also a music box, plays our favotite: "Unchained Melody."

Have something you have been procrastinating doing? Join us! Click here to join and to see what others have been doing!

September Procrastination Project #2!

This is what you saw when you walked in my front door. Yeah! Really! The bottom box is family pictures - it has sat around since we moved in here, waiting for me to update and find where I wanted to put them. (We moved in here in December 2004!! Granted we don't use the front room much, we sit in the living room more when company comes over, but if they use the front door, this is what they see! How disgusting! The big green storage box is a bunch of antique pics that I need to store and/or find a home for! The top black bag is my fall autumn arrangement. It is the first floral arrangement that I have ever made (back in 95) and I am so very proud of it and love it. I put it there after the end of the LAST autumn, because I really needed to redo it... between my special angel, grand children and the DOG, it has been messed up a bit! And yes, it STILL needs to be renewed! There was also my album of Webkinz cards that I have collected that the kids like to go thru. Ok... Now it is all cleaned out of this corner and my guests are greeted by a more pleasant sight. The box of antique pics is out in our storage area (and a note in my organizer to sort). The box of pics has been picked thru and a couple of pics have been tagged for my wall (a future procrastination project) and a couple frames taken out for updating pics for the family wall. The autumn arrangement? It is proudly being displayed on my table in front of our window. I will show you it in another post. The floor has been vacuumed and I am a happy decluttering fool! :)

To see what others have been doing in the challenge, check out Virtually Organized! And feel free to join us in the challenge! It doesn't have to be a huge project. This project took me about 40 minutes! :)

FINISHED! :)

Here is the finished product! Click HERE to see what it USED to look like! I cleared off my pigs from the top of the desk and put them on my shelf in the 1/2 bath with the rest of my collection. I added a basket in the middle for mail to be put in and sorted once or twice a week. The baskets on the far end are one for me and one for DH to keep things and be sorted as desired (BEFORE piling high!) I moved my paperclips to the drawer after I took the picture. They don't need to be on the desktop. I decluttered a lot of stuff off the desk top. Pictures and recipes were put into two seperate bins to sort and take put away. I decluttered the dust! I have paper to make notes on to the left of my computer. On my right I have a coil file holder for receipts, coupons to be used and in the back I have a couple of checks to deposit. :) My notebooks contain my TOH birthdays that I post every morning and my CURRENT Secret Sister information! I think it will work. But if it doesn't I am prepared to make the changes as needed. I now feel comfortable sitting here and making out my menu and grocery list and I feel more comfortable visiting with YOU! What do you think?

What project have you been putting off? Tell us about it! And go over to Virtually Organized and join in this Procrastination Challenge! It doesn't have to be a big project and you never know! You might win the prize! Of course I think I am going to win it but who knows! LOL

The Friday Declutter Challenge - Sept 5, 2008

Well, as I posted yesterday, my desk is my challenge for this month! And I have started decluttering it. Here are 2 pictures of the piles I have decluttered this week. Magazines in a pile, glanced at the Pfaltzgraff catalog, first time to see one.. way too cool!!... in the garbage... woman's catalogs... in the garbage... Terri's Village, glanced at it.. oh.. some cute things.. in the garbage (it is online if I find I really can't live without something!)... Cooking With Paula Deen... yummy recipes.. ok this is one I never throw out.. Into the Magazine holder with other Paula Deen magazines... a couple of other mags, tossed, flung.. into the garbage...

Next Pile: Oh good grief! A Whoopers container! recipe clipping, old receipts.. flung, filed in the round file neverr to see their way back to my desk again. Gift certificates.. one I forgot I had! Put into my purse and a note in my organizer to USE them with a list from the stores of what I need. A couple of computer disks put away in my box where I store them. My new gas card put into my purse where it belongs! A stack of paper clips that won't fit into my paper clip container - in a plastic baggie to go to work with me. Vehicle repair receipt from August 9th, filed in my vehicle file. An OLD QVC schedule - garbage. The desk is improved but a long ways to go! But sure feels good to get rid of the clutter and working on my plan! Plus I decluttered my camera. I erased the pictures after downloading them to my computer! :)

The third picture? It is a yearbook. It is not my yearbook. It is not my husbands. It is not for any school that I attended. It is for a neighboring school ... I don't remember the circumstances but it was given to me because someone thought I might like it! I remembered this book while visiting Virtually Organized this morning! She was talking about the most bizarre thing she had decluttered and it brought this to mind. I had only to glance over to my bookshelf to see that yes, I still did possess this yearbook. It doesn't bring me happiness, it doesn't make me smile. I don't get it out and look at it! It is GONE. FLUNG! Not needed to clutter up space!

Want to see what others are doing? Check out The Organising Queen to see! While you are there check out her new layout! Looks so chic! What have you decluttered this week?