{Project Organization, Part 2}

I love having things in their place. It makes my brain so happy.

I've been on a mini mission of home organization lately. It was part of my goal in February.

I did the first part, as planned. But I had to steal a little time from March to finish up my resolution to retain order of some disorderly areas.

* Went through and eliminated 'the pile': I can't be the only one to have one of

these. Mine is on the corner of my desk. Sometimes it's small and other times big, but it's

always there. Not anymore!! It was just a matter of going through and dealing with it,

piece by piece. There were a bunch of little details I had allowed myself to procrastinate

into pile form. The rest of it was junk that needed recycling or things that needed to be

filed. Liberating!! I rewarded myself by putting nothing in it's place (except for my to do

list). Ahhh.

* Restored order to the cabinets and linen closet in the master bathroom:

I emptied all our bathroom storage and put the stuff into bags and a laundry basket on

my closet floor when we started our bathroom remodel. A fine plan when I thought it was

going to take a month!

The before look at my closet floor -- so annoying. Climbing over this heap to get

dressed was ridiculous. And don't even get me started on how rattled I got when

I had to wade through it to find something. I made more than one trip to Walgreens

to buy an item I knew I already owned just so I didn't have to riffle through this mess.

There was no reason to put it off any longer with the vanity and linen closet finished.

I recycled-donated-threw out quite a few things; reclaimed my closet floor; put all

my things in easy to reach and find proximity; and created a much more comfortable

area in general. Both the closet and the bathroom storage areas feel great once again.

Now for some after action with everything in a designated spot:



* Generally tidied up in the closet and bedroom. Main accomplishments:

- Refolded and reorged the clothes in our dressers & on the closet shelf.

- Bought and put up a belt hook for me. My belts have an actual home now!

- Reassigned David's running stuff to the otherwise mostly empty white storage bin in the

closet. (Those running clothes were not fitting into one dresser drawer before, so they were

never orderly.) Moved his comfy and sweat pants into his old running drawer, making a

spot on his closet shelf for work clothes (like for painting and yard work) -- a category that

had previously been homeless.

(I love when our things are in order!!!)

* Took photos of everything at the house for insurance. This was part of the

original February goal. I hadn't done it since 2004, and we've bought and upgraded a

lot since then. It feels good to have everything documented in the event that we need

it for our home owners insurance. There's no way I could do it all from memory!

* Typed up my holiday card list: It takes a long time to write out holiday card

addresses by hand during an already busy holiday season. So, I typed them up and

bought labels. This will save time in November and December so I can focus on the

traditions and the people rather then the busy work.

* Brought in the fireproof box (that I bought in December!) and put our

important stuff in there so it's safe and sound. This involved organizing the

closet floor where I put it, organizing the top shelf of the closet to make it work better

in general, going through all of our papers (tax, home, work, school, etc.) and getting

rid of everything we didn't need, making new file folders. It was a lot! And it feels good

to have it done, safe, accessible, and ORGANIZED.

Whew! I still have a few spots to conquer. Like the top shelf of our coat closet

and the top shelf in my closet that is overloaded with school stuff. Oh, and that

drawer in my office loaded with picture frames. (There's a little bit of hoarding

going on there.) But for now, I'm happy with my most recent organizational

accomplishments, and I plan to bask in the glory of having finished them.

If you're in the mood for some organizational motivation and ideas, check out

OrgJunkie! It's a blog that I've recently discovered and am loving.