30 Day Organizational Challenge - Final Results

First of all, I want to say that whether I win or lose the Challenge, I am so happy to have this room done. I feel great about it. Second of all, I really do want to win.

Seriously, I love this room now. I feel a tremendous amount of relief to have it done. Having that room be so messy was really draining on me. Our bedroom, Amaya's bedroom and the laundry room are all right by this room so I have to see it numerous times a day. Every time I would see it before I felt stress. Now I feel totally relaxed about it. I have actually spent a lot of time in it just staring at it. I'm very happy.

The kids love it, too. When I first showed them the finished room they couldn't stop saying, "Wow, cool," over and over and over again at everything they saw. They all hung out in it today playing computer games and drawing pictures. Carson and Hayden both said their favorite part is the art table. Amaya said her favorite part is the big red ball. You'll notice there is no big red ball in the room. There is a big, blue ball. She's learning her colors very slowly. She was also very bossy with me while I was getting the room finished. Yesterday she pointed at the room and said, "You go clean." So I did.

As far as the questions for the challenge, here they are along with my answers:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? I think the biggest part was just the sheer volume of stuff that had to be dealt with. Almost any category of items in our house could be found in this room: toys, clothes, photographs, personal paperwork, business paperwork, work supplies, scrapbooking supplies, arts and crafts supplies, tools, outdoor toys, etc. I did overcome the challenge but not until very late. I was trying to save everything and find a place for it, but with only a few days left I realized that wasn't going to happen, so I started throwing stuff away. It felt great to finally be getting rid of stuff we didn't need and I kept anyway.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? I think just the way I organized it will do it. I've learned a lot about organizing from you and I think the systems I've put in place will really help. Before I always felt like I knew how to organize but the systems I used really weren't working so the organization would never last. Now I know to put like with like and to use containers to help keep things neat and together. I'm also training myself and the rest of the family to put things away when we're done instead of moving on to something else and leaving things lying around.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? I threw some stuff away that for some unknown reason I had been keeping. For example, I had a huge container full of bows to put on presents. As I started going through them I realized most of them were smashed and I would never put them on a present, so I threw almost all of them away. It was kind of hard because I felt like I was wasting them, but after I got rid of them I felt good about it. A lot of boxes that weren't in great shape and a lot of papers went to be recycled. Some stuff moved out to the garage, where it belongs. Some stuff moved into a storage cabinet in another room where it used to be but somehow crept into this room just to make a mess. I have some boxes that were put in the garage full of baby stuff that I will get rid of but I need to sort through it first and I haven't had time yet. The rest of the stuff is still in the room, it's just organized and filed and in order.

4. Now that you have completed the challenge, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life? I think it will make a big difference. I already feel a lot less stress just having it organized. It has also given me the motivation to organize the rest of my stuff. It will also make a difference with my kids. Now we have a nice big place to play games and color and paint and spend fun time together. There are different things for them to do in the room so, hopefully, they won't be fighting over things.

6. Why do you think you should win the challenge? I think I should win because I have made a big difference for my whole family. Now Mike has a place to exercise, play his video games (after the kids go to bed, since they are not kid friendly) and play with the kids. I now have a place to exercise (which I really need to do), play with the kids and start being able to finally get my photographs in order and put in albums. The kids have a place with different activities to do and they are very excited about it. I think I did a good job with organizing the different areas in this room. It is a room with more than one purpose, and I feel like I have really defined and organized each area separately. I loved figuring out different uses for the containers I had. Whether I win or not, I am so glad I participated in the challenge and I can't wait to see everyone else's results and maybe pick up some more organizing tips based of what they did.

Here are the before and after pictures.

Before looking from the stairs:

After looking from the stairs:

Before looking from Amaya's doorway:

After looking from Amaya's doorway:


Here is the before looking from the laundry room doorway:

Here is the after looking from the laundry room doorway:


Here is the before of my gift wrapping supplies corner, among other crap:
Here is the after of the former gift wrapping supplies corner, now the art table:


Here is the before of the north wall, which isn't very good because I could only stand about two feet away from it due to all the crap behind me:
Here is the after of the north wall, which, as you can see, is a much better picture because I can get the entire wall in:

Now here are some pictures of each section in more detail and with some explanation.

I really like the game shelf. It has all of our games on it in one centralized location and there will be no more dumping out of game pieces in certain small peoples' closets until there's just a big mass of hundreds of pieces that need to be sorted out.

Here is a basket I put on the top shelf so as I find missing pieces to games I can throw them in there and put them away either when I have time or when we play a game that has pieces missing.

Here is a wrapping paper holder I was going to throw away because I didn't want to use it anymore and one section of the lid was broken. I put it next to the game shelf to hold a few games that are awkward shaped and won't fit on the shelf.

I love these game boxes that you can buy to put games in whose boxes have been destroyed when they've been dumped out onto the closet floors of certain small peoples' closets.

Here is the bottom of the video game cabinet. Separate boxes hold other game systems, Mike's games and the kids games.

On top are my exercise tapes and books. It's been so long since I've used them that I can't remember why I like some of them and why I don't like others. I am going to pick one tape a day and do it and then the ones I really can't stand I will get rid of. I've realized there's no point in keeping the ones I don't like because I'm never going to use them anyway. One of my favorites is a very old Jane Fonda step aerobics tape and I'm dreading the day it breaks or my VCR eats it because it's a great workout.

Here is the kids' art table. I was going to throw that wire shelving unit away because I didn't think we had a need for it, but then I got the idea to put it on top of the table and put containers with supplies in it. I love it. I bought the containers at a dollar store and they contain things such as paint, paintbrushes, clay, clay tools, markers, colored pencils, crayons, chalk, glue, scissors, tape, etc. I bought some hooks and put them up on the wall for the kids to hang their art aprons on. They made those aprons by drawing and coloring on them, so not only is it a good place for them to hang them, but since they made them it is also like artwork hanging on the wall.


There is even a small container for the kids to throw crayons that are too small to use comfortably and then when we get enough we can use the crayon maker or the oven to make new crayons.

The kids use markers and crayons the most so those are in the two yellow buckets. That way they can carry them into their bedrooms or the family room easily if they want to use them somewhere besides this room.

I used part of the lid to the old wrapping paper container to put papers and pads in for the kids. The broken part got thrown away. I like that out of something I was going to throw away I found two good uses for it.

I put up a bulletin board to hang the kids' artwork on. I have a plan for something nicer, but this will do for now.


The kids now even have access to their easel. It has a chalkboard, a white board and a paper pad. They love it, especially since they haven't seen it for a few years.

This is the computer and gift wrap area. The computer is a very old desktop that the kids can play their games on. It still works good enough for that. That is not the best place for the gift wrap boxes, but it will have to do for now until I can find somewhere better to put them. They will work good there through the holidays, though, because they are easily accessible and there is a lot of floor space to make wrapping presents easier.

This top shelf has boxes containing all kinds of greeting cards and thank you cards.
The basket contains stationary and note cards. That picture of the flower is actually one of a set of three that I need to get frames for and hang. For now I like the way it looks on the shelf.
That little pink box is a box to store my personal computer CD's in.
Here is the printer and the CD holder which contains program CD's and games. The little containers to the left contain various office supplies such as paper clips, push pins, etc. The good thing about them is they are hard to open so there's no way the kids can open them and fling them around the room.

I love this cabinet. I bought it from Martha Stewart years ago and it is one of the coolest things I own. It is great for small things like scrapbooking supplies.


On top are photo boxes filled with photos waiting to be put into albums.

Here is the inside of one of the drawers. It has that gray insert that has moveable partitions so you can make the spaces as big or small as you want to. The gray insert is also removable if you have something bigger you want to put in.

The coolest thing about the drawers is they are removeable, so if you need to take your collection of scissors, for instance, to another area to work on a project, you just pull the drawer out and go on your merry way.

Here's what it looks like when the drawer is removed.

Here is one of my most embarrassing things. These little baskets are filled with 90 rolls of undeveloped film. They go back up to five years ago. I have my digital camera, which I use a lot, but my 35mm is my favorite because it takes excellent pictures. I just need to get in the habit of taking the rolls to get developed within a very short time after taking the pictures. I am going to get on a schedule to take so many in each week until they are all developed. The only fun thing about doing it that way is seeing what the pictures are because it will be a total surprise as to what year they were even taken.

Now to the exercise area. Here are my small dumbells that I use frequently (or at least I will once I start exercising again.) They are set to the side in an easily accessible place.

Here is the long-neglected exercise machine. I love this machine. You can do almost anything on it that you can do with free weights. It is a very sturdy and smooth machine to work out on, from what I remember.

Before we bought this machine I measured the height of the ceiling so we would be sure to get something that fit. When the guys came to deliver it and put it together, they worked on it for a few hours and all of the sudden they came running to me in a panic because it was too tall. They didn't know what to do. Well, I really wanted this machine so there was only one solution:
Now it fits perfectly.

Now these boxes contain things related to putting pictures in albums and displaying them. The bottom box has scrapbooking supplies such as decorative paper and stickers. The next box up has frames of all shapes, sizes and colors. The next one has photos and negatives, which I need to figure out what to do with. The top box has empty albums. All this stuff will have to wait until I get all the film developed and decide which digital pictures to print out so I can put them in the albums. Hopefully after the beginning of the year I will be able to start filling the frames and albums.

Last, and definitely my least favorite, is the filing cabinet. I do have a filing system which is done by the placement of the tabs and the color file folders. There are different colors for different categories. All the drawers contain this same system just for different types of papers or supplies.

The top of the filing cabinet contains my laminating/sticker making/magnet making machine, which is very cool, and some empty magazine holders, which will soon be filled. My plan is to keep only enough magazines as will fit in these holders. Then I will need to go through each magazine and either scan whatever articles or recipes I want and get rid of it. I've had a problem in the past of keeping way too many magazines, so I think this will take care of the problem.

I am so happy to have participated in this challenge, and I know if I hadn't that this room would still look like the before pictures. I am so happy it's over and I'm so happy with the way the room turned out. This room is going to be great for my whole family to use and enjoy. Thank you for hosting this Challenge, and I can't wait to see everyone's results.

Psycho Neighbor

Last night I had Mike take out some garbage and a bunch of stuff to recycle. There was a lot of stuff to be recycled, but we weren't worried about it since today is our garbage day and we knew our recycle can would be emptied so we could put more stuff in it today. We live in a cul-de-sac so everyone in the circle is supposed to put their garbage can and recycle can in the middle of the circle in a straight line. The garbage truck comes early in the morning and the recycle truck comes in the early afternoon.

When Mike took our cans out last night, the recycle one was a little full and it was windy. He was worried about stuff blowing out, so he took out a couple of cardboard boxes and put them in one of our neighbors' cans that wasn't very full. This morning, our psycho neighbor called Mike at work and bitched him out for putting stuff in her recycle can. She knew it came from us because one of the boxes was a diaper box and we are the only ones in the circle that have recently used diapers. She was totally pissed off because a couple of boxes were in her can. He told her if she was so worried about it she could take them out and put them on the ground and he would pick them up later.

He stopped by home a while ago because he was picking the boys up from school and she had taken the boxes out of her can, put them on the ground and turned our can around so the truck wouldn't be able to pick it up. He turned it back around and left. He ran into another neighbor of ours while picking up the kids and she had called that neighbor and told him that we put a bunch of dirty diapers in her garbage can and now she was going to have to sterilize it, which was a total lie. Nobody in our house even uses diapers anymore.

First of all, she has lived here for about 10 years and this is the first time we've ever put anything in her can. Second of all, it was an empty diaper box, not used, dirty, stinky diapers. Third, she must have a completely pathetic life if something like that gets her panties in such a bunch. We've had neighbors put stuff in our garbage or recycle cans if theirs were full, and it didn't cause us any amount of stress. I can see if we were putting stuff in her can every week, but once in 10 years, give me a break.

We've lived here for almost 17 years and we get along great with all of our neighbors. Some of them are annoying in small ways, but we realize that overall they are great neighbors and it's not worth it to complain about small things. I've heard plenty of neighbor horror stories, so I think we've been pretty lucky over the years.

On the one hand this whole incident really makes me mad. For someone to make such a big deal out of something so small is absolutely ridiculous. On the other hand it really makes me feel sorry for her. Her life must really be pathetic for something like that to cause her to waste half of her day making phone calls and sabotaging our garbage can. I am so happy that I don't let little things like that bother me. I just vent about it here.

Organizational Challenge - Update 8

I got a huge amount done yesterday. I spent about five hours in the room and made the most amount of progress in one day so far. Unfortunately, with everything that was in the room there's not a lot to get rid of. The two main categories of things to get rid of are baby items and paperwork.

The baby items I am not ready to get rid of yet. I need to sort out the clothes and toys by ages and then give it away. I can't to that yet because I have boxes buried in the back of the garage that I need to get to first. The bigger items I want to get cleaned up and try to sell them. We have always taken really good care of that kind of stuff so it is in good shape. I did put together our baby swing, put new batteries in it and it works and looks like brand new. Hopefully I can get a decent amount of money out of it. All the baby stuff has been boxed up and put in the garage.

The paperwork is going to take some time to go through and either scan it in and get rid of it or just get rid of it. For now I am just filing things according to categories in the filing cabinet. I did get rid of some of it yesterday. As I was sorting through things if I could tell it was not something I would ever need, and I don't need a copy of it, I just threw it in the recycle pile.

After yesterday's work I had a huge pile of recyclable stuff. It won't all fit in our recycle can so after the truck comes today we can put the rest in. I had a small bag of garbage. I put about 10 boxes (some large, some small) of supplies for work in a storage cabinet in another room where it's supposed to go. I had two large boxes of stuff that goes in the garage, like painting supplies, outdoor toys and tools. I have a tool box that stays in the house so I don't understand why all the other tools slowly make their way in the house. I had one box of miscellaneous things that go upstairs. I haven't put that stuff away yet, but I will today.

I think all I have to do today is figure out what to do with all the paper. I will have time to go through some of it so hopefully I can get rid of some of it. I also have to sort through and organize all of my gift wrapping stuff. I have a lot of it, but, unfortunately, over the past couple of years every time I needed to gift wrap a present I just bought new stuff because I couldn't get to my old stuff. I'll also be able to do an inventory on my Christmas wrapping supplies to see if I need to buy any. I need to do a little bit of organizing on craft and scrapbook supplies, but that stuff is already pretty organized. Then I just have to clear out a few more small boxes with miscellaneous stuff in them.

My goal is to have everything cleared out by the end of today, and then tomorrow I can go buy any containers I might need. I don't need much. I might just want to buy a few baskets to put on my desk. Oh, I forgot about the computer. I need to decide whether I want to move it downstairs. I think I will. I'm going to do that before the boys get home from school so they can play some games today. They'll be excited.

Well, I better get to work. I have a long day ahead.

Idiots on the Road

Why do people who are driving during the first snowstorm of the season suddenly cease to have functioning brains? Unless this is the first, or maybe second, winter since you've had your driver's license, you should be able to drive just fine. You drive the same way you normally drive, only a lot slower. There should be no reason you get in an accident just because it's snowing. If there's ice on the roads, that's a different story, but there wasn't any when I was out driving around. If you live in my city and are planning on driving during a snowstorm at the same time I am, don't do it. Stay home because I don't want you near me. Here are some tips to follow (based on behaviors I saw people exhibit when I was out driving about a half an hour ago):

1. Traffic lights function the same way and mean the same thing when it's snowing as when it's not. Don't run red lights and almost run into me just because it's snowing.
2. Don't stop in the middle of the road just because you are looking for an address. People might run into you. If you can't find the address you are looking for, pull off the road and figure it out. Don't block traffic.
3. If your destination requires you to turn left, get in the left lane and prepare to turn instead of being in the far right lane and then at the last second cross three lanes of traffic and slam on your brakes, almost running into me...you idiot.
4. Don't cause a three-car accident because you are driving 40 miles an hour when everyone else is driving 20 miles an hour.
5. Just because you have a four-wheel drive doesn't mean you are immune from the hazards of snow and ice. It might help you get out from some deep snow, but it won't help you on a slippery road. I know because I have one. I love it when I see someone in a four-wheel drive flying by everyone else because they don't think they have to drive slow, only to see them down the road a half a mile off the side of the road. Duh!
6. When your vehicle has been sitting outside when it's snowing and you need to go somewhere, scrape the windows, ALL OF THEM. Don't just clear off a basketball-sized circle in front of your melon so you can only see 1/100th of what you should see. You could actually kill someone by being so lazy.
7. Don't talk on your cell phone while you are driving EVER. It doesn't matter if it's snowing or not. It really pisses me off when I hear of someone getting killed because someone else couldn't wait to yack on and on about they had for lunch to someone who probably doesn't even care.
8. Don't text message while you are driving EVER. Same explanation as number 7.
9. When you are coming up towards an intersection and the light is red, start braking really early instead of waiting until the last second and then slamming your brakes on and sliding into the intersection. Just because there's no ice on the ground doesn't matter. Snow is slippery, too.
10. When it is snowing really bad, pretend like you are in a school zone and only drive 20 miles an hour -- oh, wait. I forgot. You don't know how to drive through a school zone either. Never mind.

This is the first snowstorm of the season, and there will be plenty more. Follow the above tips and save yourself and everyone else from your poor driving habits, or stay home.

I'm done with my rant. I'm going to go do something now to put me in a better mood, like maybe eat some ice cream. I feel better already.

Organizational Challenge - Update 7

I can't believe there are only three days left. I still have a lot left to do. It's the paper clutter that is the main problem. I only have two boxes of non-paper things to find homes for and the rest is paper of some sort.

After I get the paper dealt with then I just need to organize the kids' arts and crafts stuff, my scrapbooking stuff, my wrapping supplies and a few work items. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep any of my work stuff in this room or not. Also I'm thinking about moving our desktop computer from upstairs down to this room so the kids can play games on it. It can't hook up to the internet because it is too old to work with our DSL so we may as well let the kids have it.

I'd like to buy another shelf like the one I organized their games on to put puzzles on, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I will for sure do it eventually, but I won't do it this week unless the shelves are on sale. I need to run to the store today and check it out.

I plan on working on the room most of the day today. I am going to be downstairs all day getting caught up on laundry, working on the room and doing a little bit of work. Our bedroom and Amaya's bedroom are downstairs so Amaya can hang out in her room, and Carson (who claims he's sick and is staying home from school) can hang out in my room.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has done with their rooms. I think this is a great challenge, and I don't think I would have started working on this room any time soon without it.

Military Jets Are Very Loud

I had to work today. My job is to listen very carefully to what people say and write down, on a special machine, what everyone is saying. That is very hard to do when you have extremely loud military jets flying overhead every 15 minutes or so. My job today lasted for two hours and it took place just a few miles from Hill Air Force Base. I think that people who work or live near there have got to have a certain level of hearing loss. People who live on the west side of the Salt Lake valley are always complaining because they live in the flight path of the Salt Lake International Airport. Trust me, people who live on the west side, commercial airliners have nothing on military jets. It could be worse.

I think airplanes of any sort of very cool to watch. I don't really like to fly in them, but I love to watch them take off. There is a spot by the airport where people go and park and watch the planes. I'd like to take the kids there to watch the planes land and take off. Mike thinks the people who do that are geeks. There's a golf course right by the airport and whenever we've golfed there I always get distracted by the planes. Not because they are loud but just because it's neat to watch them. It amazes me that something that big can fly. It's hard to believe that someone actually thought they could build something that people could ride in that would fly thousands of feet in the sky.

I don't like to fly that much. I'm not terrified of flying, just a little uncomfortable. I always imagine we are going to crash. I know that most crashes happen on takeoff or landing, but I don't get nervous during those times. I'm more nervous being so high in the sky. You know if something happens that high up you are toast. At least if you crash taking off or landing you have a slight chance to survive.

The scariest plane ride I've ever been on was in China. We were flying from Nanchang to Guangzhou. At one point we started descending so I mistakenly assumed we were nearing our destination and would be landing soon. I was wrong. We started ascending. We flew over a mountain and started descending again. I, again mistakenly, thought we were going to land. After we cleared the mountain we ascended again. Basically instead of just getting to an altitude where we could safely fly above any mountains that came along and staying there, we were flying up and down over the mountains. Now, I'm no expert on flying, but that seems a little dangerous to me. It seems like it's just upping your risk of flying into the side of a mountain. At one point we hit some turbulence and the plane dropped about 500 feet. Okay, I might be exaggerating, but it felt like it. I know I wasn't just being paranoid about it either because everyone on the plane screamed. Luckily the kids were unaware of what really happened and they just thought it was a fun ride. When we got back from China Mike golfed with a guy who is a pilot. He said he would never fly in China because their maintenance and their training of pilots is horrible. Judging on their theory of flying over mountains I'd have to agree. I'm just glad we found that out after we got back safely.

Another creepy thing about our trip to China was on the way over. We were mostly flying at night and we were in the middle aisle so we couldn't see out. Also for some reason they made everyone keep their windows shut all the time. If people tried to open them they would come along and make them shut them. Some time in the morning I had to go to the bathroom so I was waiting at the back of the plane and looked out a large window. It was the creepiest thing I've ever seen. Everything was blue. The water was blue. The sky was blue. The weird thing was you couldn't tell where the sky ended and the water began. It's like we were flying in outer space or something. You couldn't make out anything. It was a weird feeling not to be able to see anything. It reminded me of the Twilight Zone.

The first time I flew I was probably about 13 years old. We were going to California. Since we had five people in our family, and the plane we flew on only had two seats together on each row, someone was going to have to sit alone. That turned out to be me because my brother and sister were younger so my mom and dad didn't want them sitting alone. As I was sitting in my window seat waiting for my as yet unknown seat mate to arrive, I noticed a long-haired hippie-looking guy walking down the aisle. I was saying to myself, "Please don't sit by me. Please don't sit by me." Well, guess what? He sat by me. I was really freaked out by him. He turned out to be a pretty nice guy and keep getting me drinks. Little did I know that just a few short years later I would be totally attracted to long-haired guys. I went more for the rocker type than the hippie type, though.

In fact, I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it before, but when I met Mike he had longer hair than I did, and my hair was pretty long. He had a mustache at one point (luckily before I met him) and one time a lady came into his work with a little girl and the little girl said to her mom, "Mom, why does that lady have a mustache?" Mike pretended like he didn't hear her, and I'm sure the mom was totally embarrassed. Kind of like the time I went to the grocery store when Carson was about two and there was a really fat lady in line behind us and Carson said, really loud, "Look, mom, that lady has a baby in her tummy." She clearly didn't have a baby in her tummy, so I just pretended like I didn't hear him. Now Amaya notices fat people and whenever she sees someone who is obese she just points and yells, "Fat!" I've started trying to explain to her that if she says that it might make the person feel sad, but that idea hasn't caught on yet. She did it just the other night at a restaurant. There was an obese man sitting behind us and she did it. I don't think he heard her. At least I hope he didn't. If he did he pretended like he didn't.

I don't know how this started out about being about airplanes and turned into being embarrassed by my kids, but somehow it did, so I think I'd better stop now. If I tried to think of all the embarrassing things my kids have done I could go on forever.

Organizational Challenge - Update 6

I NEED HELP. During the process of cleaning out The Messy Room I have come to a sad conclusion. I am a hoarder. I have boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff. I feel like I can’t get rid of it because I might need it someday, or I feel like I can’t get rid of it because it has a lot of memories.

The stuff that falls into the first category is paperwork. It is personal paperwork, my work paperwork and my business paperwork. This stuff I think I will be able to get rid of it because I am really sick of it. My goal is to scan everything I need to keep and just keep files on the computer so we don’t have to keep the hard copies. I need to talk to my accountant about if it is okay to do that with certain documents the IRS may want to see in the future or if I need to keep the originals. I know there is a lot of stuff I can just throw away without scanning. So getting the paperwork under control is going to be time consuming but doable. For now I’m just going to have to stick all of the paperwork in the filing cabinet and go through it slowly because there is too much to do all at once.

The second category of stuff falls into the memories category. I’m embarrassed to admit that even thinking about it is making me cry right now. I save everything. As I was going through the room today I found boxes that have paper plates, cups and decorations from my baby shower when I was pregnant with Carson. There are also the same types of things for my kids’ birthday parties. I also have stuff like that from my bridal shower and wedding. I have a bunch of wedding invitations and even those little cards that you send to people and they send back saying whether they are coming or not. I also save cards from every occasion. I have every birthday card and every Christmas card I have ever received. Of course, I am also doing this with my kids. They have every birthday card they have ever received. I have every single piece of paper I laid my hands on to do with Amaya’s adoption. I have every piece of correspondence from our adoption agency and every piece of paper, including receipts, that we got in China. I just feel like when she gets older she might want to look at this stuff. So all of that stuff is just cluttering things up, but I feel like getting rid of any of that stuff would be wrong. This is the type of stuff that I am going to have a hard time figuring out what to do with. It really makes me sad to think about throwing it all away. I wish there was some way to do something neat with it all. I like looking through the stuff sometimes. It brings back memories.

Anyway, I’m making good progress on the room. Mike is clearing out a space in the garage to put all the baby stuff, along with all the baby stuff that is already out there, until I have time to sort through it all and clean it up and either sell it or give it away. Once he does that, the main stuff left in the room is just the paper clutter, which will take me the rest of the week to go through.

If anyone has any advice or tips about my problem, I’ll take any advice I can get.

Organizational Challenge - Update 5

All I can say is that with only one week left I still have a ton of work to do. As of tonight I am done sorting things into boxes and piles. That's not saying that everything is all perfectly sorted out, it's just saying that I am tired of sorting. I need to start finding places to put stuff. I think that as I start putting stuff away, or getting rid of stuff, and seeing how things look, I will get more motivated than I feel right now.

The boys are happy because they are actually playing video games in the room right now.

I realize they are probably sitting a little too close, but they can't back up any further. This area looks messier than in the last update, but that's only because I have a pile of stuff to get rid of sitting in front of the newly-organized game shelf.

Here's the rest of the room. It still looks like a major mess, and it is, but most stuff is sorted into the various boxes and piles and I just need to start putting it away. The second picture looks worse than it is. I know it looks like a pile of garbage, but it is really just boxes that are stacked two or three deep full of stuff.



My plan for tomorrow is to organize the inside of the filing cabinet, the white cabinet that can barely be seen, and the video games inside the cabinet the TV is on. Then I'm also going to clean off and organize the top of the filing cabinet, the white cabinet, the black desk and the kids table. That way when as I start to go through boxes and piles, I can immediately find a good spot to put things. As I'm doing that I'm going to start writing a list of containers I may need. I don't think I need many more, but I might need a few. I have a stack of empty containers that I came across in this room, so I'm sure I can find good uses for them.

It's kind of funny to think about the things I have found in this room that I haven't seen for a while. One thing that I found today is a notebook that you keep track of Christmas cards that were sent and received each year. Unfortunately it is blank inside. I have another one that actually has the list in it, but I haven't found that one yet. ***Update: I just found the other one and it is blank also. Apparently, in the last four or five years since I've had them, I've never been able to find one to actually use. I brought one upstairs and put it on my desk so it is ready to be used. I also found an old Nintendo system that my husband has been trying to find for the last three weeks. My brother came over a couple of days ago to look at some of my old laptop computers, and I was actually able to find them. If it had been a few days earlier I wouldn't have been able to get to them.

I know I still have a lot to do, but I am getting very excited to get it done. I can't believe that in a week we are going to have a room that we can exercise in (I really, really need that), wrap presents in, do scrapbooking in, do arts and crafts in, and play games in. It is going to be great. The kids are going to be really excited to see it when it's done.

All right, after talking about it and getting excited about it, I think I'll go start working on the filing cabinet. I'm energized now.

Christmas Giveaway

Over at 5 Minutes for Mom they are having a fantastic Christmas Giveaway. There are a lot of great giveaways to enter. They would make great Christmas gifts. Go on over and enter a few, or all, of them. Good luck.

Organizational Challenge - Update 4

I am finally starting to make a dent in the pile that fills up The Messy Room. I can see some progress. So far I am still in the sorting mode. I have numerous boxes set up that are slowly being filled up with things that need to find a home. I also have a garbage bag that is slowly being filled up.


I have to say that so far I have not resisted the urge to go shopping. This weekend I bought a bookshelf and set it up next to the TV that the video games are hooked up to. The bookshelf now contains all of our games. It has cleared out one shelf in my linen closet, one shelf in Carson's closet and one cupboard in Hayden's dresser. I now have more room in my linen closet and the boys have more room to put things in their rooms. Amaya only had one game in her room so it didn't help her out much. I love the game shelf idea so much that I really want to go buy another bookshelf to put puzzles on. If I do that it will clear out two dresser drawers in each child's room, and they could really use some extra room to put stuff.


Here is the video game area and the game shelf:


I still can't get back far enough in the room to take a decent picture, but at least I can get farther back than I could in the "before" picture.

I still need to find a good way to organize the video games, which are just hidden behind the doors in the TV stand.

The overwhelmed feeling is starting to dissipate a bit. I think it is because I am starting to see some progress, and also I am starting to get caught up with work, and I know there is a four-day weekend coming up so I know that will really help. Having Mike at home for four days in a row will really help. I am pretty sure that by the time next Monday rolls around I will have everything sorted out, some of it put away and then I will have five days left to organize things. That really only puts me two days behind my goal. I wanted to get everything sorted out in three weeks and have one week to organize, but, since I couldn't resist the shopping, I do have to areas (the game area and the kids' craft area) already set up. The craft area still needs stuff put in it, but the game area is mostly done.

I cannot wait until it's done. I already can feel a burden being lifted off of me just knowing the worst room in my house is only weeks away from being a great and useful room.

To check out the before pictures and some of my updates go here:

30 Day Organizational Challenge - Before Pictures

Organizational Challenge - Update 1

Organizational Challenge - Update 2

Organizational Challenge - Update 3

Halloween Party

I know I'm a little late but here's an update of our Halloween party. It turned out really good and the kids have fun. I want to have a Halloween party every year.


Here are the witch, the dragon and Darth Vader.




This is my nephew dressed up as a butterfly. I think he lost his wings somewhere.

Here is Grandma helping with a game that Carson made called "Pin the Head on the Three-Headed Dragon."

Here's everyone eating. I did forget to take pictures of the food. We had ghost-shaped sandwiches, lady fingers, eyeballs, bat chips with monster guts, witches' brooms and bug juice.

After playing a few games and eating the kids decorated pumpkins.

Then we ate cupcakes. Yum.

At Least Some People Are Having Fun...

but it sure isn't me. I hate to say it this way, but work is totally kicking my ass, and I'm not very happy about it. I have way too much work to do and not enough hours in the day to get it done. Of course, since I can't keep up with work, everything else is suffering, too. I am really stressed out right now. The only thing that keeps me going is thinking about the money I'm making, especially since Christmas is coming up.

Carson's birthday is on Saturday and I haven't really even planned much for it. We are going to take the kids (he invited three friends, but since nobody knows what RSVP means I have no idea if they are coming or not) to do something fun and then have ice cream and cake, but I haven't even invited any family over because I don't have time to get ready. I'm thinking we'll have to have a family party maybe next week. That should be okay since nobody in our families is going out of town.

I am getting my hair cut and colored tomorrow morning (8:00 a.m., yuck) because my birthday is on Saturday, too, and I would like to try to not look my age. I'm depressed enough. I'm not depressed about my birthday. I love having birthdays. I'm not depressed about my age. I could care less about that. I am depressed about my hair, though, because there is way too much gray in it. I got my first gray hair when I was about 20 years old. I have to blame it on my dad because he got gray hair at a very young age. He always said he didn't care how gray it was, as long as he had it. The funny thing is that even when he had cancer and went through radiation and chemo he never lost a hair. I hope my hair hangs on like that when I'm older.

My house is a mess. I know my goal was going to be to have everything organized by my birthday, and I was on a good track, but work derailed me and now it's worse than ever. Since I'm doing to Organizational Challenge, though, I've got to get my butt in gear. I have been working on that room slowly, very slowly, so I've got to step it up a bit. I still have half a month left, but I have more than half the room left to do.

All right, I'm done complaining. Here are pictures of the people that are having fun.

Organizational Challenge - Update 3

Here is another update, but this time I've included pictures. First, though, I'm going to answer the questions that Laura has asked.

1. How many of you have taken large boxes or baskets and labeled them keep, donate, toss, relocate and possibly sell in order to do your sort? This is important to doing an effective quick sort. Without giving it too much thought start tossing things into the applicable boxes. The purpose of this is to do some initial weeding out and getting all the “toss” stuff out the door as soon as possible. This will give you some more breathing room and allow you to focus on your keep pile which you’ll now want to go through again to reconsider why you may have chosen to keep the things you have. I’ll post more about this step next week. I do have some boxes, but I haven't labeled them. I can just tell by looking what goes into them. I have a few piles that aren't in boxes, but as soon as I get some other boxes emptied and the stuff in them sorted then I will use the newly-emptied boxes as sorting boxes.
2. How many of you have designated a certain length of time each day to tackling your project? I did designate an hour a day, but I haven't stuck to it. I realize that I need to stick to that or I won't be done in time, so I'm going to start doing that again today, I hope.
3. How many of you want to run right out and buy containers and baskets before doing the remove, sort and purge? [fight that urge!] I admit that I've already done this. I went to the dollar store and bought $15 worth of small containers that I am going to use to put the kids' arts and crafts stuff in, like crayons, colored pencils, markers, paint, paintbrushes, etc. I am going to try to resist the urge on any further purchases, but I feel good about the ones I did buy and it helped me to feel a small sense of accomplishment because I have one area looking pretty a lot better.
4. How many of you are feeling overwhelmed? I am feeling totally overwhelmed, but it's not all because of this challenge. I am self-employed and all of the sudden I have been swamped with work (most of which I do at home), which I can't turn down because when it's there I have to take it because next week it may not be there. Basically for the past week my waking hours have been spent working or cleaning, and, yes, my kids have spent a lot of time watching TV and playing video games. Bad, I know, but it's a temporary situation. They have been reading a lot, too, so does that make up for the TV and video games?
5. How many of you are feeling excited to keep going? I am very excited to keep going. A good portion of the room is going to be for the kids, and I am very excited to have it done so we can have a nice space to do arts and crafts, play video games, play board games and just have a nice, big area to play.

So here is a before picture of the section I've been working on.

And here is an after photo. You can see some of my piles on the table and boxes underneath it.

For the next week or so I'm going to start sorting the huge pile to the left (which can't be seen in the above picture) and sorting the contents into the boxes under the table. I am going to have a lot more boxes when I'm done, but at least now I have room to put them. Before I didn't have anywhere to put the things I was sorting, so having more room to work is going to help tremendously.

I've had fun looking at what everyone else is doing, even though I haven't had time to look at them all yet, and I can't wait to see everyone's spaces when they are done. I think this is a great challenge and it is going to help a lot of people tackle the clutter in their homes.

We Have Winners!

The winners of the Fall Y'all Bloggy Giveaway are:

Sheila
and
Shoeaddict

Congratulations! I will send them out as soon as I get mailing addresses.

I got so many suggestions for children's books in the comments and I appreciate all of them. There were very popular favorites that I am fam