Ugh..I know, it's Tuesday. I meant to write this on Sunday, but I've been sick since last Wednesday. So sick that I missed classes on Thursday and I'm home again today. My Irish instructor is going to throw a fit and no matter how I feel tomorrow, I'm going to have to drag myself down to the Irish center. So..what does this all mean? I didn't do so great on my challenges for last week. I did manage to get one or maybe two boxes of books packed up and out of here, but my dishes..well, actually, while they're not all caught up (or probably even found), I did actually get the clean ones put away and some more done up. I'm going to try to drag myself to the kitchen today to work more on that.

So, for me, this week's challenge is the same as last week's challenge. Why? Cuz I clearly still need to do it..heh. For all of you, I'm going to issue a clean car challenge. Yep, the weather is getting nicer so how bout all of you go out, clear out the trash and whatever else is hiding in your cars and get them all swept out and shiny. For any of you where the weather is not cooperating, how about a nightstand challenge? Check out those night stands for things that just don't belong and throw it away, give it away or put it away.

As always, let me know. I love the comments and I love hearing how all of you are doing.

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.

Ack! I know! It's Monday! Where the heck did that weekend go? How the heck did all of you do on last week's challenge? I got mine done..well, I don't know about totally done, but I did box up a box of the boys toys (wow, that wasn't a redundant statement at all!) and moved that and their laundry bag worth of toys out into the laundry room..aka the launchpad of the move.

For this week, I'm going to keep it really simple. I have weekend company coming (omg I so cannot wait) so I'm going to be a busy girl what with school work and cleaning. Let's see..bookshelves. Always a good area to tackle. Now, if you're like me and never get rid of a book, well I can't blame you one bit. But, every once in a while it doesn't hurt to go to the shelf and see if there's any books there that are just kinda meh in your world. If there are, let's get them out the door!

Now, you have a few options here..as always, you could freecycle them. You could always donate them to your local library or children's program (assuming they're children's books) or women's shelter. The other option would be to trade them. Yep, trade them. I've never done this so I can't recommend a good site to use, but I googled book swap and came up with at least half a dozen different sites.

So there you go..let's see what's on those shelves this week. As for me, I'm going to be doing that as I try to reach my goal of packing up at least 2 boxes of books. We'll see how it goes!

I'm not late! Ok, yes I am, but it's because I've been deliberating forever about which one to do today. Have no fear, with some assistance, I have made my decision!

But first, how did all of you do on your cookbooks? Did you sort them? Did you just smile at them? C'mon, let me know! As for me, I got them all packed up in 2 boxes and shifted into the laundry room (where I'm storing them til the move). I left out about 8 cookbooks to use over the next few months. Oh my gosh, can you believe it's only 88 days untli graduation and that means like 90 until the move!?! Wow!

Ok, so for this coming week, I'm going into the living room. All of you..well it could be your living room, kids rooms, family rooms..or heck, just anywhere in your homes! What are we tackling? Kids toys. Even though my boys are only here for about 4 months of the year, they leave tons of stuff here when they go back to their dad's house. So, this week's challenge is to go through some of those toys (or all if there's time..it's a hectic week for me at school) and get them packed up and possibly even getting rid of a few of them. For all of you, I challenge you to go through your kids toys (or if you don't have kids, your own toys!) and sort out those that are broken or just not played with. Again, you could freecycle them or donate them to a local women's/children's shelter or a local charity store.

As always, let me know..are you participating? how are you doing on these? are you tired of me posting them yet?

So how did everyone do on their bathroom challenge? I have to say that I am darned proud of myself. I had a frantic week at school and still managed to get mine done! Did I mention that I just finished posting an entire grocery bag full of items onto freecycle? Wow! I had no idea that I would find that much in that little bathroom to get rid of. This sure will make packing a whole lot simpler. I also realized that I have no less..and I'm almost embarassed to say this...no less than 10 or 12 different bottles of body wash in my shower. And nope, I'm not freecycling those. Those will get used up. I've organized (or I'm working on it!) my bathtub/shower so that I have all the brand new never opened bottles on one end and all the opened bottles on the other. Now, I'm going to work my way through all those partial bottles til they're gone and my reward will be brand new super yummy smelling bottles! Yay, me!

Now...this week's challenge. Are you ready for this? Cookbooks. Yep, the next room in my declutter challenge (for myself..and I hope for you!) is the kitchen. I only have 4 rooms in my place so I'm starting at one end and moving towards the other. So, how many cookbooks do you have? How many do you actually use? Are you a user or a collector? Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with collecting as long as you really enjoy them. For me, I have a small bookshelf full of cookbooks and cooking magazines. I went through these when I got divorced so I don't think I'll be getting rid of many, but you never know! Plus, for me, I know I won't be using all of these in the next few months so I'm going to sort mine into 2 piles. Pack and Use. Those that I won't use in the next few months (because let's face it, I only cook for me and I'm pretty easy to please), I'm going to pack into a box, label that box and set it aside.

Anyone with me on this one? Let me know. Drop me a comment below and keep me updated on your progress. :)