Laundry Room

I am still doing the organizing challenge from A Bowl of Lemons, but falling behind...again. Probably because I spent an entire day re-doing my laundry room.

We woke up on New Year's Eve morning to a broken washing machine (as we were trying to head out of town) and what should have been as simple as drying the jeans from the washer, turned into tearing apart the washing machine...thereby flooding the floor with however many gallons of water that was still sitting in there! Needless to say, my floor was SUPER clean!

Apparently there is a switch that turns the washer on and off, and prevents it from draining when broken, that is triggered by the lid of the washing machine. NOTE: DO NOT slam the lid to the washing machine, because it will break the switch and then you have a problem...and a cussing husband! LOL

I moved everything in here away from the walls to paint the baseboards because all the water stripped off the paint...so I did the shelves, the stripes and the door mouldings too. Ha, I told you, once I get started...

All organized and featuring my vinyl from Shelley over at House of Smith's/Wonderfully Wordy. In hindsight, maybe I should have gotten one that said,

"Don't slam the lid to the washer!"

LOL

That basket has all our winter gloves, hats and scarves...easily accessible as we come in and out.

Found this perfect rug at Marshall's...just wish it were bigger!

And, yes, I decorated my laundry room - it is the first room I see everyday when I come in from the garage, so I wanted it to look nice. I also thought it might motivate me to spend more time in there doing laundry...I was WRONG!

Organizing...Getting Caught Up on the Challenge

BUSY weekend...I worked on getting caught up on the 21 Day Organizing Challenge going on over at A Bowl Full of Lemons (abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com) and am caught up. That is a great feeling, but not as great as having these "trouble" areas of my home organized, purged and clean!

So, while I hesitate to post these pictures, I must...so don't judge! While I may look perfect on the outside (ha ha), the truth has been hiding in my cupboards, pantry and linen closet. I was thinking yesterday - you know how when you are moving you want to get "settled" so you just put stuff away and it doesn't always have rhyme or reason (or organization)? And then you think, "I will organize that later"? Well, we have been in our house for 6 years in March (yikes)...and later has apparently arrived!

Here we go...

DRESSER DRAWERS:

Yep they were a mess! I have too much stuff (I got rid 0f a lot)...and when Handsome gets angry because he folds my clothes and I don't put them away, sometimes I just shove them in a drawer (oops!).

PANTRY:

Like I said...don't judge (even though that blue stool is just thrown in the bottom here...hehehe. I can't believe how much old, expired, food I found - stuff we will never eat. Into the trash it went.

I still need to paint the inside of this pantry and line the shelves (which I can't do until I paint)...but is is sparkly clean and super organized. I found some cool little black and white baskets at the Dollar Tree and then, of course, still have my Tupperwares from eons ago (but still so handy!).

A little side-note...I think I created a monster in Princess. She was using the label maker to do all the labels for the Tupperware containers and then disappeared into her room. She called me in later and, low and behold, she had labeled all her bins in her closet (which she had earlier organized herself). LOL...she LOVES that label maker!

LINEN CLOSET:

This area wasn't too bad - I do try to keep it somewhat neat ("Sure," you are thinking as you look at the before picture). What you can't see is the towering stacks of decorative holiday towels that is shoved in the corner!

I will say that my hubs does most of the towel folding...and he does a great job. So I had him give me a quick lesson on his style, which looks prettier in the closet than the way I normally do it (the lazy man's way). Again...still needs a paint job, but it is clean and organized.

CUPBOARD ABOVE OVENS:

This cupboard is not on the Challenge list (yet?)...but it was driving me nuts trying to put stuff away up here because it was a mess...

This literally took me 5 minutes to organize and clean (with the help of a pan organizer I bought at Big Lots for $5) and so worth it!

So that's it for today....now I have to do today's challenge, which is the coat closet - oh yay! Another troublesome spot for me!

Just remember...one day at a time - one space at a time!

~alicia

Organizing Challenge - Day 1, 3 and 5

Sooo...I started out behind and am still behind (but only by 2 days as of today). But I managed to get Day 1: Junk Drawer, Day 3: Tupperware Cupboard and Day 5: Under the sink (eew)...Here are my before and after pix. Now I just have Day 2: Desktop and Day 4: Linen Closet and whatever tomorrow is (hopefully something easy)

Not to mention...I *STILL* have to take down Christmas and finish a Christmas project. Ugh...but my kitchen is getting organized. LOL Nevermind that the rest of my house is neglected...I have 3 clean, organized areas!

While each of these areas took me only 15-20 minutes each to empty, clean, organize...I tend to then move onto another cupboard or area, which takes me hours! It is kind of like that book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"...ha ha. But realistically, this just takes a few minutes and is inexpensive. I bought a bunch of crates and storage stuff at the Dollar Tree and Big Lots for cheap (no one will really see it anyway). I bought rolls of the shelf liner paper at the Dollar Tree for, uh, a dollar! I have to go get more so I can line all 12 of my kitchen drawers. My pantry is on my list...and I am sure it will be on the 21 day challenge...but I have to paint the inside of mine, so I am hoping to get a jump start on that this weekend - ha! (after I take down Christmas and put up Valentine's Day). DAY 1: JUNK DRAWERS: This is embarrassing and gladly no one every showed up and attempted to open these two drawers - they are at the far end of my kitchen and not easily accessible...although accessible enough for us to shove stuff in!

DAY 3: TUPPERWARE CUPBOARD

Hopefully this new system will help Princess not just shove lids wherever in the drawer (which I couldn't even open all the way) when she empties the dishwasher. And, I even freed up a drawer...what will I ever do with that?

DAY 5: UNDER THE SINK

Well, this is the *the* gross-est places in my kitchen, and I typically ignore it. But I got all my new Shaklee products this week (they are all natural, non-toxic for a clean, healthy home), so I felt compelled to throw out the old stuff and get this area cleaned up.

Check back tomorrow or the next day for more updates!

If you want to join in the fun, check out the link to A Bowl Full of Lemons...she has a ton of great ideas on her blog!

~alicia

21 Day Get Organized Challenge

As most of my friends know, I am pretty organized already...but I am joining a challenge to get organized in 21 days...I have my problem areas too! If you want to take the challenge with me, click on this link below:

Happy Organizing and Happy New Year!

~alicia