Maybe I am more organized than I thought.  I started this challenge over a month ago and it took me at least 2 weeks to get through the first challenge, corralling all the paper!  I had lots of hiding places.  Baskets and piles all over.  What I found?  A $100 gift certificate to the Adidas store that had been missing for sometime and the extra Entertainment book.  So that’s good news.  I haven’t dedicated much time to organizing my paper since, but at least now I know where to find all my paper things.

Week 2, 3 and 4 were already done at my house (a relief when I received the weekly emails). A calendar where everything is on it.  I cannot use a digital calendar, I have tried many times and they just don’t work for me.  We use the calendar that comes home for school.  It’s got all of the kids breaks and days off already on it and let’s face it, my life revolves around their schedule.  So Week 2…done.

Week 3 was organizing for lunches.

Lunch DrawerTop Snack ShelfBottom Snack Shelf

  I did this 2 years ago and it works amazing.  All of my lunch specific containers are in one pull out drawer.  Snacks are organized in the pantry for easy grabbing in the morning. Top 2 pull outs are for snacks (mostly). When we redid our kitchen we put pull out shelves in every cupboard.  I then decided that the best use of those shelves was to add appropriate sized baskets to contain whatever was going to go in there.  I’ve got baskets for bread, plastic containers take up 2 shelves in my kitchen, kids drinkware, and the list goes on. It totally works!  I didn’t have to do anything to these shelves before I took the pictures, so I’d say it’s been a success!  A little tip, I use clothes pins to keep my snacks clipped, so I just keep them clipped to the basket so they are always there when I need one.

Week 4 was creating a donation station.  We’ve already got that in our laundry room.  It is not a perfectly organized station, but anything going out goes into a bag, one for clothes, one for other things (mostly toys).  When the bag is full, M takes it to Goodwill or a local clothes/blanket donation box.

Week 5 is going to be a killer.  I anticipate it will take me more than a couple of weeks to tackle this one.  The Laundry Room.  These are my before pictures. Don’t judge. A total disaster, right?  This is a catch all room, for donations, seasonal clothes bins that need to go to the basement, but somehow never quite make it. It’s got that slanted ceiling so it makes it tough to define storage on the walls, no room for cabinets and such so I think I will have to get creative.  Pinterest, here I come. Stay tuned to see how I survive this challenge.

Are you doing the challenge with me?  How is yours coming along?

Sign up for the challenge newsletters here. Join me, please!  Misery loves company! 🙂  But when this is all done.  We’ll have an organized house!