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Week #20 Organized Home Challenge: Mudroom & Entryway Organization

May 22, 2012 3 Comments

We had a little break from 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge last week, therefore we’re only on week #20 this week and we’ll be able to start #21 on Thursday–then we’ll be back on track.

And I keep saying “we” although I’m not sure anyone is doing the challenge with me anymore.  :( Anyone?  Anyone?

I’ve got some catching up to do when it comes to these challenges as well as some other “life” tasks.  I’d like to really–I mean REALLY–catch up on household organization this week.  I’ll keep my camera handy so I can document my befores and afters.

This week’s challenge focuses on mudroom (if ya have one) and entryway organization.  Coincidentally, I’m working on redecorating my entryway area so hopefully I’ll be ahead of the game before Thursday.

Wish me luck!  And the same to you (anyone?)!

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Week #19 Organized Home Challenge: First Aid & Medicine Organizer Center

May 9, 2012 2 Comments

It’s all about first aid and medicine organization in week #19 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  It’s suggested that you consider moving these supplies out of the bathroom since the varying temps and humidity aren’t ideal for medicine, etc.  Probably.  But I can’t think of a place I’d rather store all our first aid and medicine.  We have these items split between our 2 upstairs bathrooms.

Time to think on this one and then take action so I can cross this task off my list quickly.

What do you think?  Do you store first aid and medicine in your bathrooms or do you have another doc-spot in your home?

Good luck on this challenge!

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Week #18 Organized Home Challenge: Bathroom Organization

May 4, 2012 12 Comments

Bathroom organization is Week #18′s challenge in Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  It’s suggested that you work on one bathroom at a time, but try to get to them all during the challenge.

I just reorganized our master bathroom last week and I realized something–I could care less about having 2 sinks in the master.  It’s just an extra sink for me to clean and my husband and I are rarely at the sinks at the same time.  I’d like to tell the young House Hunters couples who insist on 2 sinks to reconsider that “need” before letting it be the deal breaker on their home choice.

I think I might be alone in this.

Good luck on this challenge!  Let me know how it goes!  Why am I shouting!

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Week #17 Organized Home Challenge: Create A House Cleaning Schedule & Organize Cleaning Supplies

April 24, 2012 9 Comments

Week #17 of  Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge is all about cleaning house.  Time to create a schedule for cleaning and organize cleaning supplies.

Truth be told, I’m still working on our office.  I feel like I’m always working on our office.  I suspect it’s because I don’t like our office set-up which throws me off and then it becomes a wreck before I know it.  But because I already have a cleaning schedule (daily and weekly) and recently re-organized our cleaning supplies, I’m going to take this week to forge through last week’s challenge instead.

I’ll share some of my organizing tools this week for keeping my home clean.  Having small daily tasks and then a couple larger tasks for the week really helps me keep a clean house (most of the time :) ).  Though this week’s challenge isn’t about decluttering or organizing a room, a clean house results in a much more relaxing and “organized” home for me.  And when my home feels fresh and clean, I find it easier to maintain organization!  How about you?

How do you keep on top of your household cleaning?

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Week #16 Organized Home Challenge: Home Office Organization

April 17, 2012 2 Comments

Week #16 of  Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge focuses on home office organization.  Dread.

I shouldn’t dread it.  I should just tackle it.  The Organized Home Challenge has already addressed the mail center, organizing home files, and organizing bills so that should make it easier, but I use our office as a dumping ground.  If I don’t know where to put something, I drop it in the office.  If I don’t feel like filing paperwork immediately, I drop it in the office instead of just sticking it right in the proper office file. 

It’s time–I’ll organize and declutter the office COMPLETELY this week. 

How does your office work for you?  Do you need to clean it up and organize or are you mocking people like me who will be spending a good amount of time on this week’s challenge?

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Week #15 Organized Home Challenge: Organize Passwords, Warranties & Manuals

April 10, 2012 5 Comments

Week #15 of  Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge is already upon me.  Thankfully, it’s one I think I can complete fairly easily this week.  Whew.

This week I (or we if you’re joining the challenges) will be organizing all passwords, warranties (bleh), and manuals (ugh).  I have to say that as much as I loathe the warranties and manuals I shove into a file, I’m glad to be organizing them.  Since I have 483 million passwords (yes, that many), I will certainly benefit from organizing them.  There are software programs & phone apps you can use to organize your passwords, but I’m going to stick with the old-fashioned way–pen and paper. 

And those manuals….I’ll get to those after I’m on a password organization high.  Baby steps.

Hope you’re finding the challenges helpful and good luck with this week’s!

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Week #14 Organized Home Challenge: Magazine and Newspapers

April 3, 2012 2 Comments

Week #14 of  Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge has arrived!  What!  How is it April?  How?!

Time to get over that and just focus on the task at hand: dealing with any magazines and newspapers your abode has accumulated.  This week’s challenge is all about your magazines and newspapers. 

Yikes. 

That’s what I would’ve said last month, but as I’ve mentioned, I just completed my magazine purge.  It wasn’t easy.  I didn’t have this challenge’s guidelines to help me so I didn’t donate them (I recycled and passed some on to friends) or file the tear-outs in my home filing system (I’ll have to deal with my tear-outs. Right now they’re in a binder).  I’ll also have to follow the instructions for putting an end to mass amounts of junk mail being sent to me.  I did that years ago, but I think it might be a more effective process today. 

Are you a fellow magazine addict?  Do you have to rip pages out of each issue before tossing them or are you able to release them to the recycling bin without a second thought? 

Good luck with this week’s challenge!

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Week #13 Organized Home Challenge: How To Organize Files In Your Home

March 28, 2012 4 Comments

Welcome to week #13 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge!  This week, as stated in the challenge, culminates several weeks worth of work.  So you might already be on your way to finishing this challenge up. 

I have some work to do with our filing and I like this challenge which offers a few tips that will help me clean out a bit more of the filing.  I tend to keep paperwork for longer than necessary (paranoia) and this is a good time for me to shred and toss a lot of that clutter.  The challenge offers suggested typical home file categories (I have a few of these categories combined into one file which is a pain in the neck when I’m in a rush) so I’ll be re-categorizing this week as well.

How are you doing on the challenges?  Is your whole office system already running smoothly or do you have a bit of work to do as well?  Oh and next week’s challenge deals with magazines and newspapers–I’m ahead of the game!  My magazine purge is complete!!!

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Week #12 Organized Home Challenge, Plus Week #4 Picture Update (ugh)

March 19, 2012 13 Comments

It’s week #12 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  Time to create a personal tax organizer system and organize your receipts.  Chances are you did one or both of these tasks when you organized your bills or mail center.  If that’s the case then I virtual high-five you and say Congrats!  For those of us who have a little work to do, no problem–with tax season in full effect, this is a great time to set up or reorganize both areas.  Best of luck to you!

Week 4 Update: Freezer organization

I was tempted to organize the freezer a tad before taking the “before” shots.  Of course, I couldn’t do that.  I promised I would be honest and real with myself (and my blog) on my self-discipline and accountability adventure.   Sometimes I’d rather not though.  But here we go… Continue reading

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Week #11 Organized Home Challenge: How to Organize Bills

March 12, 2012 9 Comments

Here we go with week #11 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  Your mission or challenge for this week is all about bill organization. Having a working system that leaves little room for late fees, lost paperwork, and clutter.

I like that these challenges piggyback off earlier weeks.  So although I should be done cleaning up my mail center, I’ll finish it up today and then move to the bill organization in the same area as my mail center.  Kind of like two birds with one stone.  Kind of.

Good luck with the challenge!  Do you enjoy seeing before and after pictures of these type of projects?

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Week #10 Organized Home Challenge: Create a Home Mail Organizer Center

March 6, 2012 2 Comments

Yesterday I forgot to post this week’s challenge for Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  Better late than never!  The challenge for week 10 is to create a home mail organizer center.  I’m hoping this is an easy week for most of you because you probably have some version of a mail center in your home already.  Maybe you just need to clean it up or tweak your center a bit to reveal its full potential:)

Throughout 2012 I’ve attempted to rid my home of paper clutter (as well as all clutter, but paper clutter takes the cake here).  Much of this paper clutter ends up in our office where the mail center is.  Not good.  This week I think I will finally just tackle the mail center regardless of the state of the rest of the office.  Focus!

I’ve slacked with pictures on my decluttering progress and Organized Home Challenges so I will get back to pictures this week.  I hope you will share your progress (and pics?) as well!  And a shout out to the lovely Purple Pixie in Dixie who has joined the challenge and already kicking butt!  Go girl!

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Week #9 Organized Home Challenge: Create Address Book & Organize Contact Information

February 28, 2012 2 Comments

Oh man, it’s already week 9 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  Are we 9 weeks into 2012 already?!

Time to create a simple address book and organize all contact information.  Whether you have information on your phone or keep an address book in your home office, it should be up to date, accurate, and complete.   I am one of those people who doesn’t like to put addresses and such in my phone.   I like to write things down.  I like to turn pages and make little notes next to the names like ” favorite dessert–pineapple upside down cake.”  So I’ll stick with updating my address book and business card file.  Yes, business card file–anyone else still have one of those?

No matter how you organize your contact information, this challenge is a small yet important one:  no more last-minute, panicked digging through junk drawers for that phone number you scribbled on an atm receipt and swore you wouldn’t lose –get your paper, electronic, or hybrid method figured out and get to it!

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Week #8 Organized Home Challenge: Healthy Meal Planning & Grocery List

February 20, 2012 2 Comments

Week 8 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge is getting into the habit of healthy meal planning and creating grocery list before hitting up the market.  I love this challenge because I can always use pointers and new tips when it comes to meal planning.  My planning system works for me (most of the time), but there are certainly areas I can tweak and adjust.

Do you have a system for meal planning or do you just play it by ear and see how your day/week is going before you get cookin’?

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Week #7 Organized Home Challenge: Organize Coupons

February 13, 2012 Leave a Comment

I am more than a little relieved that week 7 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge is all about coupon organization.  whew.

I need only to file some of my stray coupons for this challenge and I’m done.  I’m pretty darn relieved because I have some other projects to work on this week and I need all the time I can get to complete them.

I’ve had a successful coupon system in place for a few years and if it ain’t broke…  Yes, it involves a large binder, but no, I am not what one would call an extreme couponer.  I do encourage people to use coupons wherever they can because the savings certainly add up.  Whether you’re a family of 4 or living the single life, coupons are a great benefit to all.

What about you?  Do you coupon and do you have a system that works for you?

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Week #6 Organized Home Challenge: Trash and Home Recycling Center

February 6, 2012 1 Comment

Here we are at week 6 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  And I haven’t completed week 5.  I’m heaving a large sigh over here.  Thankfully this week’s trash and recycling center challenge should be a snap for me since we already have a system in place.  Hopefully.

I still haven’t completed the freezer organization because it is still acting like temperamental teenager.  I might just do it anyway and if it completely flips out on me, then I’ll slam it shut and sob in the corner.  I feel like doing that today with all the ironing and filing I need to address.

Must think good thoughts.  Be positive.

Have you been working on any of the challenges?  I’d love feedback on your own progress! ;)

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Week #5 Organized Home Challenge: Organizing Recipes and Cookbooks plus an update on last week’s challenge

January 30, 2012 5 Comments

I have mixed emotions about week 5 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  We are still working in the kitchen: organize recipes and cookbooks.  I have all the tools I need to organize my recipes so I’ve been looking forward to addressing this area of my kitchen for ages.  However, I have hundreds of recipes to organize and a gazillion cookbooks I can’t seem to get rid of (I’ve tried.  Really, I’ve tried to donate half of them, but ended up donating 2).  I’m starting to sweat already.

This week’s challenge talks about the “fantasy recipe” category: all those recipes I’ve torn out of magazines or printed from websites that I’ll likely never even try.  Boo.  Continue reading

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Week #4 Organized Home Challenge: Organizing Refrigerator and Freezer

January 23, 2012 3 Comments

Whew, this is going by very quickly for me just like January has flown by!  How is it the 23rd already?

It’s week 4 of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge.  This week’s challenge remains in the kitchen: organization of your freezer and refrigerator.  I’ll admit I didn’t quite complete last week’s challenge, but I’ll tie up those loose ends tomorrow and no harm done:)

I like that each challenge offers storage solutions, tips, and ideas and this week’s challenge has two downloadable cheat sheets: one for refrigerated food storage guidelines and one for freezer storage times.

Reading through the challenge has me itching to get started this instant.  I try to clean and wipe down my fridge each week, but I’d love a deep clean.  Plus, my condiments are threatening to overtake the fridge real estate and it’s time to oust a few of those spacehogs.

Does your fridge or freezer need a little tlc?  Let me know how you’re doing!

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Week #3 Organized Home Challenge: Organize Pantry, Spices & Food

January 16, 2012 2 Comments

Can you believe that we are already on the third challenge of Home Storage Solutions 101′s Organized Home Challenge?  I’m enjoying these challenges particularly because they set me up for success.  When I only have to focus on a very specific area each week, I’m not overwhelmed and I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I’ll be honest–I MUST see the light or I’m likely to bail.

This week’s challenge continues with the kitchen and focuses on the pantry, spices, and food areas.  This means I’ll be decluttering, categorizing, and organizing, and taking inventory of food areas…I thought I did this before the holidays, but I have a feeling that I did a pretty skimpy job.  So here goes…

Love to hear about your progress as you join me in the challenges.  How are you doing?  Talk to me!

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Week #2 Organized Home Challenge: Kitchen Drawers & Kitchen Cabinet Organization

January 9, 2012 3 Comments

It’s time for the second challenge of the Organized Home Challenge:  The Kitchen Drawers & Cabinet Organization.  I started this last week since I had already decluttered my cabinets in the fall, so all I have remaining is under the sink organization (yuck) and I need to find a shelf for my spice cabinet that fits (many don’t fit my space properly and I have a lot of spices).

Love to hear about your progress as you join me in the challenges.  Are you working on the kitchen or did you choose another challenge and tackle another room/space in your home?

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Week 1 of Organized Home Challenge: Complete!

January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

Yesterday I completed week 1 of the Organized Home Challenge.  I’m feeling pretty darn good right now.

Week 1 was  Kitchen Organization: Countertops and Sink.  Not a terribly difficult task (heck, kind of easy actually, but it’s an important step, nonetheless!), but it is complete and I’m patting myself on the back. pat pat.

The Reveal:

This is part of the decluttered kitchen.  Ah.  Feels good just looking at the picture.

Except that my kitchen table and the surrounding area is covered with Christmas decor I have yet to pack up and store.  No, I will not post a picture of it so stop asking.  Let’s focus on the good stuff today.  That means don’t look at the corner of the floor and note that I took the picture before I did my daily vacuuming of dog hair and cookie crumbs.

How did you do with your 1st challenge?  I’d love hear about your progress…begging you to share and keep me motivated as well:)

If you’re interested in joining me in this home organization challenge, please feel free to read about it here.  And don’t forget to visit Home Storage Solutions 101 to read all about the challenges and get a peek into what next week will have in store.

Good luck!

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