31 Day Organizational Challenge: Progress Report

It's time for a progress report on the 31 Day Organizational Challenge!  I've been trying to work up in our loft area a little bit each day.  Sometimes (most of the time), the kids are upstairs "helping" me too, so I never get much done at a time, but bit by bit I am making progress.

Goals for this week:

• Pack up Jesse's books
• Go through hoodies/clothes in closet to donate
• Start getting rid of craft stuff (whether by creating projects or giving away/trashing)

So first came the books.   Here's the before shot of the majority of them again:

I asked on Freecycle if anyone had a few small boxes for books, and was able to get some by the middle of the week.  I put a few more books on the bookshelf (nicely of course), and packed the rest up in the boxes, which I stacked in the corner of our storage area.

 

 Here's what that book corner looks like now:

It's not anywhere near done yet (and I still haven't decided if the bookshelf itself will be staying out here - it will depend on how well Hannah's crib and everything fits).  But it's nice to not have stacks and stacks of books on the floor right as you walk up.

Another goal was to go through these hoodies:

I went through mine, picked a few to donate, and put the remaining couple in my closet in the bedroom.  My husband still has to go through his, although he did add some shirts to the basket in the closet to donate.  Once he picks which hoodies he wants to keep, the rest will go to our bedroom to clear out this closet.

And finally, my other goal was to start getting rid of craft stuff.  I started with this bin of jars, boxes, and other odds and ends I was saving:

And narrowed it down to this much smaller box of jars that I actually have plans for (plus a few Christmas tins that I'll use for gifts). 

The small boxes went to live with my gift wrapping supplies, which is where they should have been in the first place. Some of the other jars I'll be offering on Freecycle, and if no one wants them, I'll recycle them.  The rest of the odds and ends got recycled.  As for what I saved, the applesauce jars are large enough for most mixes in jars, which I do fairly often for gifts.  The bottles to the right are from fancy lemonade, and I'm saving them for when I attempt to make my own vanilla extract.  The small jars with the red lids (yeast jars) will eventually store spices, but I don't have very many yet, so I haven't switched them over.

Working in little increments is actually going really well for me.  I can think throughout the day of what part I want to tackle next, and then when I have a bit of time, I can quick go get something accomplished.  One of my next big steps will be to start Freecycling/trying to sell some of the stuff that we don't want, and not letting it sit around for too long.

Next week my focus will be on purging craft stuff.  I'm definitely a pack rat, so I'm a bit excited and scared...