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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Wow, I am so totally still getting used to this new format for writing posts. I hope it becomes second nature sometime soon! So, we're back for another Monday. Did anyone else's weekend go by in a flash? I could swear it was just Friday. No matter. The days change whether or not we're ready and here it is Monday again and I'm back with a new challenge.

Sadly, there will be no before/after pictures this week because to be honest, Monday snuck up on me and I forgot to take before pictures of my van to show you..so yeah, way to go me! I refuse to feel too bad though because the back of my van is now unloaded! Woo!

This week, we're all back in our living rooms (or wherever this piece of furniture exists) and we're clearing off the tops of our entertainment centers. Mine was lovely for quite a while but as I started cleaning and painting in other rooms, somehow it became the catch all again. Time to clear it off and wipe it down! Next week, I'm hoping to actually have some pictures to show you!

Until then..happy cleaning, organizing and creating yay spots in your home!



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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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How did everyone's weeks go? It's hard to believe it, but we're already on week 3 of this year! That means it's time for a new challenge, but before we do that, how about we check in on last week's challenge? Here's my after picture for cleaning off one of the end tables:


I'm so much happier with how it looks! I confess that it's probably the only clear space in my living room (including parts of the floor right now!) but every time I walk into the room, my eye is drawn to that space and it makes me smile. I love creating yay spaces. Having them motivates and inspires me to work on the next area which is....


The top shelf in one of my kitchen cupboards! Yep, this week we'll be creating a yay space in our kitchens. Mine apparantly looks like something the creative folks behind Chopped would use to create one of their baskets. I see Chocolate Cheerios (how long have those been there?!?), hard taco shells, bacon bits, bisquick and who knows what else. Time to throw out the old, expired food, keep what we love (and will eat) and donate any of the rest. If it's unopened, it will go to the local food bank. If it is opened, I'll post it to Freecycle. People around here are in some tough places and even a 2/3 box of bisquick can be a real blessing.



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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 know I've been missing for a while. I spent a week in Michigan and school has been a bit nuts. I'm back now though and what better to come back with than this week's challenge! The challenges for a bit are going to be two part..one part cleaning, one part organizing. I'm down to less than 2 months before my move and I swear you can't even tell how much work I've done. It's amazing how much I've crammed into this place.

Cleaning : Ok, my focus for this week is dishes. Since I need to start packing them soon, I ought to track them all down. With the boys, you just never know where you're gonna find a spoon. So, the challenge is to find all those dirty dishes and to get them all washed up.

Organizing: Well, I know we've already done bookshelves, but since that's my packing goal right now, I'm going to be focused there. For all of you, how about board games? I'm going to challenge all of you to go through those old games, find out which are missing pieces, which you just don't play with and which ones you just could never get rid of. Then, freecycle, thrift or donate those that you don't want anymore.

Please let me know if you're participating! I'd love to feel like I'm not in this alone.