I made it!

Yay! I completed the 21 day organizing challenge!

I can't tell you how great it feels to be finished and a lot more organized.

I now have a pile of yard sale stuff in my garage and I have gotten rid of a lot of useless things as well. I am still working on my photos and setting up some keepsake binders for the kiddos but other than that I am done!

My grandma has been doing it too...she has rocked at this challenge. She didn't start until day 10 and caught up very quickly.

I've been working on becoming a healthier me and now because of the 21 day challenge...my house is "healthier"

...and because I enjoyed this challenge so much I am joining in on this one:

Who wants to join in on the new weekly challenge??

Day 19: Master Closet

My closet needed help! My shoes needed help!

I purged a few clothing items, some shoes, purses, and moved my wedding dress and a couple of other formal dresses to my son's closet (he has a double closet in his room...seeing that he is 3 he doesn't need all of it).

The before pics:

all my stuff

see what i meant: Shoes need help!
the purses that are still hanging up...i think most of the rest were in my sitting area

And now the after pics:

I moved the suitcases to the shelf and hung up my purses....so pretty to look at!
The scarfs that I tend to wear a lot I hung on a scarf hanger that I snagged at the See Spot Save section in Target.

My dresses and longer type of tops hang here now. Boots on shelf above and I straightened out my shoes too.

I do have more clothes to put away but they were being washed still.

The baskets on the bottom shelf hold my shirts, tank tops, and shorts.

On the top shelf I have more scarves in the purple bin. The hat box holds even more scarves, hats, and some belts.

my husbands side. Most of his clothes are in the dresser. The top half holds all his work uniforms and the bottom consists of all his button up shirts in a total of 4-5 colors only....

I'm slowly trying to get him to venture out on the whole color palate thing.

Day 17 and 18 and a BIG day for Kara!

Yesterday was the first day I didn't get my post up on time!

Unfortunately my laptop caught a virus (really I thought all the viruses had left my house)!

Thanks to Sally's husband....the good ol' laptop is feeling better!!

Anyhow..today was a BIG day for my kindergartener. Kara earned 90% or higher on her last 5 story tests!! Our school lays out the "red carpet" for these students and we honor them at flag pole.

She has been talking about it for the past 2 weeks.

There's my girl! Cute little blondie with the pink backpack!

Ok now on to the challenges.

Day 17: Organizing my mail center....

I didn't really have one to speak of...more like what pile holds what bills!

My mom bought me the cute box when we moved into our first house. It's supposed to be for mail only I was using it to hold whatever I could stash in there.

I cleaned it out and now all the bills go inside along with stamps.

Next: I had bought this little guy a few years ago to use in my classroom..only I wasn't really using it. So I brought it home to use as my organizer in the kitchen.

Couldn't stand the bright blue when it was in the kitchen so I used some of my shelf liner and started doing this....

didn't take too long and I had this....

Put some file folders...would like some cuter ones but these will do.

I added labels in the these categories: Receipts, coupons, take out menus, store ads, Sabrina, Wayne, Kara, and Michael.

It sits on the counter right next to my trash can for easy disposal or recycling of old items.


Day 18: Organizing your Keepsakes!

I have all of my special keepsakes for each child in boxes on the shelf in their closets.

However, ALL school keepsakes are currently being kept in this stylish keepsake box!

Actually it isn't stylish at all but it's doing the trick so far.

I love Toni's idea of using binders to store important and memorable keepsakes. I definately want to start one for each of my 2 lovely kiddos.


not the cutest of keepsake boxes..but it's functional and made of recycbled material!

Some art work hangs on our wall. I let the kids pick what they want to hang up.

I have plans to organize all of Kara's stories she has written so far this year and all the ones she will be writing.

I have been keeping them all together (well mostly...stacked in the keepsake box) and plan on putting them in a binder.
Here are a few samples:

She said the black lines means it's foggy!

I see a princess. The princess danced.

I love this pony!

This is linked to:

Day 16: A clean and happy fridge!

Oh how I love a clean fridge!!

I keep asking myself why I waited until this challenge to clean it out!?!
Any how...it's done, it smells fresh, and it's pretty to look at!!

Before: lots of leftovers from the weekend and week...all just thrown in there.

The top...

Door

After: I moved the sodas and juice pouches to the top shelf and adjusted that shelf to one of the higher spots.

Wow an empty shelf: not for long! Grocery shopping this weekend.

The door: In with the butter are some chocolate chips (kids can't reach them)
right below that is where I keep they breakfast type items.

The 2 middle compartments hold condiments, dressings, and sauces.
The very bottom holds our odds and ends.

My husband isn't too sure about the new positions of the shelves and the placement of some items but he did say he would give it a chance.

P.S. I LOVE Shaklee! The degreaser worked wonders in cleaning the fridge!!

Day 15: Medicine and Vitamins

This was an easy one for me...because I already did it when I cleaned and organized the spice cabinet a couple of challenges ago.
I moved the adult medication up to our medicine cabinet in the master bath all except some cold/cough tablets (only because I forgot about them).

My shelf where I kept the vitamins and medicine was a mess! I had a gazillion cough syrup cups, bottles of medication and vitamins that had expired.

Before: on the right hand side top and middle shelf.

After: Vitamins in one basket and medicine in the other.

Thermometer fits nicely in between.

I had more vitamins than this at one point...but due to lack of usage (bad) they had all expired!

Medication...mostly the kids. Allergy, fever & pain reducer, natural cough syrup, and a couple of other things.

Just because....

Just because I love them and they are too cute!

Playing dress up together!

This next little guy just melts my heart!

I got to spend time with this adorable little guy while my brother played cards with the guys.

William is just too cute and his cousins ADORE him!

Day 14: Under the bathroom sink (I have 2...lots of pictures)

I have 3 bathrooms but only cleaned out from under 2 of them. The bathroom sink downstairs doesn't hold much. A first aid kit and a couple of towels.

Bathroom Sink #1: Kids' bathroom

One half of the cabinet.

the other half....whoa I still have baby stuff!

My daughter's hair accessories. I really should buy stock in the Goody brand!

all this baby stuff! My baby is almost 4 years old!

Most was expired so I simply tossed it.

I did keep one of the pacifiers (his first in the hospital) and his baby brush.

hair accessories after. I sorted through them and placed them back into these jars.

The jars were used in my daughter's nursery.

Towels after: I moved them to the other side of the cabinet.

the cabinet closest to the toilet holds toilet paper and their stool.

Under the bathroom sink part 2!

Master Bath: my entire master bathroom was a mess. It's very easy for it to become that way because NO ONE ever sees it! I've included my bathroom drawers since they are a part of the sink.

my hair accessory drawer before

make up drawer before

lotions and hair tools before...they are in a container!

...and the other side....

after: nice and organized.....
I tossed out any expired products.

not much of a change except i pulled off the ugly label on the container.
I also weeded through my massive amount of lotions and foaming soap.

make up after: I need a skinny container.
My make up brushes are now in a cute canister that sits on top of my counter.

hair accessories after.