Throwing out the last year, literally.

Happy New Year, folks! 

Did you have a glorious night of fun with friends and family? Or did you sit in front of your computer beating a video game like I did? (And crying because it was a sad story!)

I wanted to finish up 2013 in a nice, clean organized way so that I could start the new year refreshed and feeling accomplished. I stuck to my goal of getting the Christmas decor down last Friday which led to re-organizing and cleaning up two closets that evening. Then Saturday I went to the Dollar Store and got some more organizational materials to do some more work! My husband was a big help in getting the decor put away and helping me move and lift stuff up high (I'm so glad he's tall).

I managed to get all the closets in order this weekend except the office closet because I don't even know how to start. Most of it isn't my stuff and I have no idea what to do with it.

But the linen closet is in line with the help of some fabric cubes I snagged for $4 at the dollar store (they are between $5 and $10 at Target so it seemed like a steal to me!)

I walked into the kitchen to do some dishes, and when I opened my cabinet to get a detergent packet I decided it was not to my liking...

So I yanked out all the crap under it and grabbed my contact paper.

Then I grabbed the rejected desk organizers & a matching waste basket to stuff things like sponges, gloves and such in. Now it is pretty and organized!

Of course I couldn't stop there. Even though I haven't gotten half the stuff I want for kitchen organization...

So I gutted the drawers filled with potholders, towels and aprons and moved them around and pulled out a grocery bag's worth of towels to be tossed or donated. I moved the aprons to the bigger drawer (I have a few aprons...) and stacked up the other stuff nice and neat in order by time of use. [That last part sounds weird but it just means that the Christmas and Halloween towels are in the back since those days are further away.]

Then I stopped myself because the rest of the kitchen needs to wait till I have made my Ikea trip. (And I still hadn't started the dishwasher...)

Apparently my organization/cleaning sickness is contagious though, because my husband started cleaning his desk that night. It snowballed (maybe with my help) and the end result was this:

The whole reason I wanted an "L" shaped desk was so I could work on the section opposite my computer, but it was piled up with the printer and a server underneath and I had no room. So Chris moved the server and the printer and now we both have desks that are quite clean!!

We also cleaned up the laundry room and got a rack to hang my cleaning supplies on.

The biggest accomplishment this week was purging, though. I am almost positive our garbage men hate us.

We took out 10 bags and 2 boxes of garbage! That of course includes Christmas and our normal weekly garbage, but GEEZ! That's is a lot of stuff! But don't worry, I didn't just throw away everything. I have multiple containers of items that I washed up and packed to be donated to my church for a missions fundraiser. And I am sure I will have more once spring gets here.

I still have so much to do, but I have to wait till my Ikea trip is over and a few things get moved. I'm really looking forward to all the accomplishments of this year, though! I have a good feeling about about 2014 and I hope you have a great year!!