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!!

The To-Do Blues

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/whatever other holidays you celebrated and are ready to start the New Year out right! I have quite a few goals and have already started initiating them (Goal 1: Don’t eat cake for breakfast – Work in Progress). I posted on Twitter (@Serestia) yesterday that I'm going to start adding "Feel Accomplished" to my to-do lists so that I will feel good about myself even if I only complete one thing on the list. You can borrow that idea. Pin it. Feel good even when you fail.

But in these things below, I shall not fail!

The Nameless Room

The spare room is pretty high on my list because I am SO CLOSE! I just need yellow curtains, a trip to Ikea, and to get the futon I’m dreaming of from Target’s website. I expect (read: pray to God) that it will be completed by spring. Probably. [Please note that having deadlines for projects is not one of my goals].

I want you in my house! Get in my house!

Re-Organization

Then we start the other project (projects like this is how we test the patience of my husband). 

I like to think of myself as pretty organized and I think if you ask many of my friends they will share the same opinion (I hope), but I find that it is a process. I keep excellent records, spreadsheets, and files but there are other areas of my house that are not what I want them to be. Here's what I'm going to do and you may want to consider doing it yourself! 

Step 1: Easy-mode. I have been keeping records of utility bill payments since 2006. I really only need to keep the last year so I'm pitching all the pre-2013 paper stuff. (I also keep spreadsheets and have the "Bills Monitor" app which is a wonderful tool, I highly recommend it. Setting up all your accounts takes awhile, but once you get the info in there you will have an easier time.)

Step 2: Grunt Work. Post-Holiday rampage. All Christmas stuff put away in an organized fashion. (This will actually lead to cleaning out our hall closet too because I store my Christmas village there).

Step 3: Gonna need a step-ladder. "Re-move" into my kitchen. I can’t find things in my cabinets and I have unused items in them that have been there since we unpacked (in Fall 2010). Make them navigable using matching Tupperware/storage for uniformity.

Step 4: Organize linen closet and other nooks and crannies. 

Step 5: Get rid of stuff! Seriously!

Low on the Totem Pole

The Shed. This is part of Step 5 up there. We have a shed FULL of stuff. It's boxes upon boxes of things we keep for sentimental value, but the truth remains: we haven't used it all this time... we aren't going to.

The patio. Yea... I've mentioned it before. We don't even know what we are doing, but we have narrowed it down to 2 options, both involve taking up the stones that are there now. I have a feeling it will be both options in this order:

1) Let it grow over into a normal patch of grass until we have taken care of other projects.

2) Have a concrete slab poured for the entire area.

Pictured: "Ugh"

The Bathroom. Eventually it will get to the point where the bathroom is the only unloved room in the house. I dislike everything about it, but it's not as easy to tackle as some might think. So it's low on the list, but on my mind. We'll get there.

Pictured: "Grrr"

So what about you?

Have you set up some goals for yourself? Are you going to make your house more livable? Are you going to shed some pounds (that's on my list too)? Are you going to (not) eat cake for breakfast everyday?