I have to say a serious shout out to Kate because now that she's sucked me into the artist chat, I'm becoming far more productive online. I sit there in a virtual room, watching artists work and feel like a slacker, so I pull out a project and get to work.

Of course, it keeps me sitting here at the computer so not much else gets done during that time. Although, it's so late at night that nothing else would get done anyway so it balances out!

Last week, I was camping all week long though I did manage to add half a dozen more items to our Goodwill clothing bag. This week is going to be totally insane, as well. Roger starts football camp tomorrow and that runs until Thursday night. Then, on Friday, I fly to Phoenix for 10 days! I'm going to do my best to actually write up next week's challenge ahead of time and schedule it to post for y'all on time. We'll see how successful I am, though. The best of intentions and all that...

This week, the challenge is to head back to your living/family rooms and check out those dvd/video game racks. Do you have any that you never watch or never play? Pass them on to someone who might love to have them. How about those that have scratches or don't play? If you want to replace them, add them to something like an Amazon wishlist to remind yourself and get rid of the broken ones. There's no reason to hold onto them. Clear the space and smile at the organization!



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Week 28?!? We are somehow over halfway through this year and I honestly don't have the first clue how that even went and happened. It's been a mad whirlwind and it's just been over the past couple of weeks that I've been starting to feel like I have some control over things again. This is a good thing. It means that things are getting done. Things  getting done means that I'm a calmer, more contented person. All in all..things are good.

So, know what that means? I got last week's challenge done! Now, I'll confess and say that some of the items were stacked in another location. This is because I need to come up with some new organizational plan for "The Wall" aka my studio aka the office. That and I need to do some purging in there. For now though, here is my finished space!



Ta da! I have space! It's a lovely thing. This week will be a continuation of the never ending attempt at catching up on laundry. Since it's also a make up week, I'm going to go back and tackle one of my drawers. It's time to purge some clothes and to just generally tidy it up so that I can actually fit the clean clothes in the drawer again! Let's see if I can score a picture of my top drawer for you...I'm honestly a bit afraid to open it up and see just how bad it's gotten...


Hmm..I suppose it could be worse but there is certainly work to be done. I wonder when the last time I purged this drawer was..Well, I guess next week I'll be able to answer that question for you. Until then, don't forget that I love to see your before and after pictures, so please feel free to link up to your posts here!



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I'm so sorry that this is late. In all of the drama that has started happening since my grandma's death, I just didn't get this posted yesterday. I do hope you can forgive me. These last few days have been really hard on me and I'm trying hard to make sure I do what needs to be done.

In the spirit of keep on keeping on, I bring you this week's challenge. This week, we're back in our bedrooms We're going to open up that top drawer and we're going to get rid of anything that we don't love or that doesn't fit. For me, this is my underclothes drawer and I can guarantee that some purging is going to get done. I swear I have bras in there that haven't fit since I started having kids! Here's a peek into what I mean:

Aren't slipper socks sexy?

I'm looking forward to being able to reach into that drawer and actually find what I want. Right now, it's dig around in the hopes it's in there. Not conducive to stress free living, I tell ya!

Speaking of stress (I'm the queen of transitions today!), I do have to say that having these yay locations in my home has really helped over the past few days. Granted, most of my house looks like a tornado hit it, but being able to walk into any room and see a space that's clean and tidy has helped calm down the chaos in my brain.  It even works in last week's challenge...the laundry shelf...

Everything in its place!

It's so nice to be able to walk into the laundry room and just throw in a load of laundry without digging around for where I put anything that I might need. Plus, my kids were super excited when I found this:


Yep, that's an entire container of batteries. This used to be our battery jar but somehow the lid got misplaced and I must have put the jar up on the shelf until I found the lid. Well, I haven't found the lid, but I did move this container out to the shelf that holds all of the Wii supplies and the kids now have an ample supply of batteries to run their remotes for a while. That's almost as good as finding cash, folks!



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Wow, week 9. The last time I posted, it may have been week 6. I bet you're wondering what happened to 7 and 8, eh? I know there were really good reasons that they didn't get posted but blast if I can remember now what they were! I do hope you'll forgive me though!

This might be a good time to mention that if the challenges don't go live here, they are going live over at the Facebook group. It is a closed group so nobody outside of the group can see your before/after photos. If you'd like to join, just drop me a line and I'll get you added.

Now, on with the show....Since I didn't post my before and after photos for weeks 6, 7 and 8, I'm going to share them with you now. I don't want any of you thinking that I'm not right in there with you as we do these. Ready? Let's go!


This is my bedside table after I got it cleared off, but clearly before I dusted it. Eww! What I love most about this is the fact that I now have space to put my new table lamp..as soon as I remember where I put it! I do need to take some time and get those stickers off of there. I have no idea how they got there, but they need to go!  (Week 6)



 Week 7 - Before : The bookshelf of doom..Ok, it wasn't that bad but it was pretty ick. The challenge for the week was to tackle just one shelf in the living room. This was my choice. There were books falling off the shelf and about an inch of dust.

Week 7 - After: Far less dust and far less books. I actually pulled a dozen books off of this shelf and posted them to PaperBack Swap. I realized that as much as I love John Grisham, I rarely, if ever go back and read his books again so I kept only a few that really appealed to me and let the others go. Actually, they're still here so if you're a fan, find me over on the site and request them!

 Week 8 - Before: Last week, our goal was to tackle just one side of the kitchen counter. In this case, we started with the left side. This folks, was my left counter before I started. Food that needed to be put away mixed with dirty dishes waiting to be washed and all sorts of things! You see, I haven't had a functioning kitchen sink since before Thanksgiving. We did have a plumber come out but he didn't fix the problem and we haven't really had the money to try again since. What does this lead to? Using up all of the dishes in the house and then being completely overwhelmed with what to do about it. I'll tell you my solution below because I can't wait to show you the after picture!

Look! Clean counter! My favorite part? The labeled containers. This is something I've wanted to do for a while but never had the proper tools. Justin got me a new labeler for Christmas and I had the most fun labeling all of those containers. I still have a couple of empty containers that will get filled soon but for now, seeing the ones that are done puts a big smile on my face! Where did all the dirty dishes go, I'm sure you're asking yourself...Well, they went to my bathroom. That's right..this girl has been kneeling over her bathtub doing dishes. It's a slow process because I only have a small shelf in there that I'm able to use for drying, but bit by bit, I am catching up on all of those dishes. I refuse to let a goofed up drain/vent/whatever it is get in the way of me having an area that I can prepare food for my family. After all, there are those who don't even have running water, how can I complain about a few minutes kneeling on the floor doing dishes?

There we go. I think that has us all caught up until this week. I don't actually have a before picture because this is a task, that for me, is a relatively small one. This week, I challenge you to go into your bathrooms. Find wherever you store medications and check those expiration dates. If it's expired, let it go! That's it. Pretty simple, huh?

See you next week for a new challenge!


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I know I say this practically every week, but where the heck did last week go? Well, for me, it went curled up in bed as much as possible. Yep, I came down with some sort of stomach bug and it laid me out. I did manage to get last week's challenge done though! Ok, it's mostly done. Let me show you the after pictures and then, I'll fill you in.


Doesn't that look so much better? I say it's not done because I have a few more things that I want to do. First, I want to put labels on those two small totes. The bottom one holds spare cables that I keep finding. Eventually, I'll get those matched up to their devices and that will only hold extra cables. The top one holds things for the cats, like combs and such.  I also want to get rid of that second misc bin. Right now, it holds tools that I find laying around the house. I do have a tool box somewhere and as soon as I track that down, it will go into the laundry room and the tools will be placed in that. The only other thing I want to do is add to that grey case there. By add to it, I mean stack other things on top of it. I have a variety of small cases that hold nails, screws, etc and I want them to be all stacked up there. That will happen as I find them.

Now, for this week's challenge..We're going back into our bedrooms and we're going to tackle one of our nightstands. Now, for you overachievers out there who tackled your nightstands when we did the top of the dresser, don't think you get an off week. Nope! Instead, I want you to go back through the 5 areas that we've already covered and make sure that they're still yay locations in your home. Easy enough, right?

Here's what I have to tackle this week..if you're squeamish at all, I suggest you stop reading right now...


Horrible, right? Yes, that's a Halloween pumpkin sitting on the night stand. I have no idea why it's there unless it's there to hold up that cereal bowl. Yeesh!

Ok all, I'm off to tackle the world, but I can't wait to read your posts and see your before/after pictures. Remember to post your links here or pop over to our Facebook group and join us there. :)


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It's Monday night and we're back! I can't wait to see all of your links this week showing me just how you tackled last week's challenge of the top of your dresser. I'm happy to say that mine is looking pretty good and it makes me smile every time I walk in the room and see that one clean space in the chaos surrounding it. I cleared so much junk off of the top and the smell of orange oil made my room smell so good for a couple of days after I wiped it down. I love that small! I promised you I'd show you my spaces if you showed me yours, so here's my dresser after I finished wiping it down:


Ready for this week's challenge? It's another quick and easy one. I want you to go to your living room and look at those end tables. Are they piled high like mine? I have one just inside my front door (actually, it's a small bookshelf) and it becomes an instant dumping ground.


Yuck, right? Before any of you ask, yes that is a jar of mustard. Why is it there? My only guess is that it fell out of one of our camping supply bags and instead of being put in the kitchen, the kids put it on the nearest empty'ish surface. Ugh. We're just going to pretend we went camping last week and not Labor Day weekend, ok? Instead, we're all going to tackle one of our side tables and create another yay spot in our homes!

Now, for those of you who have spic and span side tables..I'm going to challenge you to spend 15 minutes in your garage. This is an area we're not going to spend time in this year so if you don't need to do a challenge, that's where you should head.

One last thing before I leave you to posting your after pictures from last week and this week's before picture. We now have a Facebook group. If you would like to be added or you would like more information, just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll drop you a line.

Until next week...happy organizing!


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I'm so glad that I wrote the other night. It's helped me pull things back into perspective and to focus more on what I can do. Things are still going to be rocky around here and chaotic but as long as I keep going and don't give up, it will be ok. So, in the spirit of just keep swimming..or in my case, just keep organizing...I have our very first challenge. Some of you may recall me doing a similar challenge last year before life swallowed me up.  The rules are really simple.

1. Come here each Tuesday and check out the challenge for that week.
2. Take a before picture of your area.
3. Post that each Tuesday with your post along with an after picture of the previous week's challenge.
4. Stop back here (or do this along with step 1) and in the comments section, leave a link to your post.

If I get enough interest, I'll put up a more official linky. Don't worry if your area doesn't look perfect. We're working on baby stepping our way to clean and tidy spaces. I bet you can finish this phrase just like my kids do...Progress not ...Perfection. They hate when I say that but they understand the concept.

Now that we've covered the rules, let's jump right into our first challenge! This week, I want you to go to your bedroom and look at the top of your dresser. If it's anything like mine, it's piled high and covered in dust. Don't believe me? Here's mine:


I do want to point out that my house isn't on fire. I have a small lamp that sets below where that doll is and I had it on when I snapped this photo. Combine that with the pink walls and you get the illusion of fire. See how messy that is? Eww!

I am so ready to tackle that area! In fact, it might even get tackled tonight. Make sure you come back next week for a new challenge and to see what oddities I found lurking on the top of my dresser!



PS Challenge posts will (hopefully) go up on Monday nights so that everyone has a chance to see the challenge before the day before pictures are "due."

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Welcome back to another challenge week! I hope that some of you stopped by and saw last week's challenge to tackle a dumping ground spot in your house. I am happy to say that I have a nice, clean table and I'm hoping that my boys and I will be able to sit down at it this weekend and enjoy dinners together. If so, it will be the first time in 4 years since we've sat down at a table and enjoyed a meal together.

Now, part of the fun of all of this is that I get to share my after picture with all of you.  This is good because it holds me accountable to actually tackle my own challenge! So, here we go, one cleaned off table:

Yuck, right? Books stacked taller than the stand, wrappers, more books, kids' water bottle and yes, that is a box of cookies. That poor teddy bear looks like he's hanging on for dear life! I guess not only am I going to clean, I'm going on a teddy bear rescue mission! Who will join me?



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Happy middle of a darned snowy week, everyone! I cannot believe it. I went outside yesterday and cleared the snow from the porch and the porch steps. Then, I shoveled a pathway to the driveway and shoveled half of the driveway. What did I wake up to today? More snow! Nononononono! C'mon weather gods, have pity on me!

Well, I'll deal with all of that outside later. For now, I need to deal with the next phase of "The Wall." The end is within reach and I'm not giving up. I also need to show you my photo for this week. The theme at Sunday Shutterbugs is Door. Well, since I've been so focused on The Wall and getting stuff handled around here, I didn't take the time to go take a cool picture. I had some awesome photos from England that I wanted to share, but I can't find them anywhere. I'm a bit freaked by that. So, instead, I went back to May of last year and found this photo.


This is actually a set of doorways. These are important doorways. These are the doors that I walked to on my way to Commencement 2009. I almost didn't go because I didn't have anyone there cheering for me, but I went because I had walked through a lot of doorways and up a lot of hills to get to that point. I won't say it was easy. It wasn't, but I don't regret any of it for a moment.

I want that for all of you. I've learned that sometimes the most rewarding things are the most difficult things to achieve. I count cleaning, organizing and decluttering in that. I know just how hard it can be to start, let alone to finish. When your physical surroundings are in chaos, so are you. I want you to find peace. So, your challenge for today is to go through your bed linens. Do you have those that have holes in them; that are just plain wearing you? Donate them to a local animal shelter. Get them out of your house and keep only those that will surround you in comfort and peace while you sleep.

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope you're all having a great one. Over here, things are going just great. Nothing seems to be going as planned, but we're having a great time together, just being a family. I love that as fast as Roger is growing up, he's still my little boy who can get excited about little boy things. I love that both of the boys like to just sit and have family time talking. In fact, they quite often ask if we can do it. I think it helps them handle the changes that are happening in all of our lives.

So how is the weather where all of you are? Winter is still very firmly in place up here in Michigan and I have been working on keeping all of us warm. This is an old house and pretty drafty so I think that we feel that 68 degree as cooler than it really is. It does keep the heating bill down though and it's why I've kept all of our blankets while doing various purges.

Speaking of heating and energy bills (great transition, huh? lol), I'm going to just give you a few more quick tips on how to keep those bills down.

1. Install efficient shower heads
2. Fix leaks - Did you know that 1 leak of one drip per second can cost $1 per month?
3. Improve your window shades - Keeping room darkening shades on your windows can keep warmth in during the winter and heat out during the summer.
4. Change your television display. - Did you know that most televisions are defaulted to showroom settings? If you lower the display setting down to home or the equivalent, you'll extend the life of your television and lower the amount of energy it needs to run.
5. Watch television as a family. - In most households, more than one tv is now the norm. Instead of everyone going and watching multiple tvs, have a family tv night or movie night.
6. Turn the tv off. - Bring back the family game night. Dedicate one day/night a week where the television remains off and you do something as a family. Play cards or board games or go hang out at the local park.

All of these seem like such little things, but a dollar here and there adds up to multiple dollars over a course of a year. These are all things that we can all do. Now, since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I'm going to give you a really simple challenge. I'm pretty sure I haven't done this yet for our 28 day challenge, but if I have, I expect all of you to let me know.

Valentine's Day is all about love and it's not unusual for us to wear a little something special on that day. I want all of you to go to your "unmentionables" drawer and sort out anything that you wouldn't want a hot new love to see. That's right. I want you to get rid of all those panties/boxers/underclothes that have holes in them. I want those mismatched socks or holey socks gone! Make sure that your drawer is only filled with things that when you put it on it makes you feel sexy. That's right, even if you don't have a special someone in your life, you deserve to feel sexy. Sexy is empowering. Did you know that your underwear can actually increase your confidence level? I know that when I want to give myself just that little extra boost, I put on something that makes me feel really good. I want you all to experience that so get rid of anything you don't love so that every day can be Valentine's Day for your panty drawer.

I finished my bedroom yesterday, like I mentioned, and honestly, I got so excited with how it looks that I took pictures to show all of you here. I think this is the cleanest my bedroom has been since I moved in and I just love how it looks. I slept so well last night. I can't wait until every room in my house looks this good.


This is my alcove. It sits right between two closets and I have no idea why it's there, but it was crying out for these shelves. I'm proud to say that I hung them all by myself..and it also reminds me to add a stud finder to my household wish list. The other picture is my dresser. It's an antique that belonged to my great-grandparents and I love it. The suitcases stacked beside it act as a night stand for that side of the bed. I want one more to bring it up but haven't spotted one in a thrift store in a while.


And it's been a bit since I've shown you pictures of my babies. As you can tell, the kittens were thrilled that mom was cleaning the bedroom. As soon as I finished tidying the bed, Mittens curled right up in the warm spot behind the laptop and went to sleep. Her brother, Hemingway, on the other hand, chose the corner by the closet and took a nice long nap.

I still cannot believe that this is my bedroom. I swear it's like walking into a hotel room and I'm loving it! Now, I'm going to go find those candles and enjoy the tranquility. I hope all of you are finding time to take care of yourselves today.

It's Friday again! This summer has flown by way too fast. Next week will be the boy's last week here until they're off on Christmas holidays. It's going to be so weird not waking up every morning and hearing their voices. I much prefer when I have them during the week and their dad has them every other weekend. School is starting up on the 9th though and that means they need to be back there. At least I'll be far more active in their school this year. I wonder if they're looking for a teacher's aide or anything like that...

Anyway, no more melancholy. It's Friday and that means I need to look around and finish a task that I've been needing to get done and I haven't..and I know just the one. My bedroom. When I started trying to catch up on all the laundry and things that had gotten damaged in the not so waterproof basement apartment, I neglected to get them all put away. So, they've been sitting here stacked (and then not so stacked as kids/cat came through). Today, I'm going to try to find the time to put some of it away where it belongs.

What do you have out that needs to be put away? I challenge you to put it away..clear space makes for nice clear minds!