Here are some "before" photos:
There were a couple things I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything about. The pillows and blankets cluttering the top of the closet are government issue. We replaced them with our own from home as soon as we arrived. Also, notice the box of books on the floor? We were blessed to be provided with a furnished apartment. The one thing missing? A book shelf! So, that's been our make shift "book spot" these past 5 months.
The first thing I did was pull everything off my "stash" shelf and onto the bed. Here's what I discovered:
2 purses in desperate need of being cleaned out (as in, I found cough drops in there that I know, for a fact, were given to me by someone at church in Tallahassee almost 3 years ago...)
Baseball caps
An ice scraper
3 pedometers (provided by our health insurance company as a bonus for filling out a survey. One for each insured member they proudly proclaim. I'm temped to strap one on the back of Caleb's diaper and take a picture : ) It was fun to discover we walk 2300 steps during our evening walk (or 4600 if we do 2 laps, it depends on the night).
Lots and lots of paper clutter that should have gone to the trash can instead of the closet (are you surprised?)
Probably the most interesting find was a stack of magazine articles I've saved out for my "mom notebook". My mom notebook is my attempt to keep things organized in our crazy, frequent travel, life. It has Caleb's medical records and some of mine and David's as well, the phone number for my lactation consultant, recipes I didn't want to be without and new ones to try, activity ideas for kids I loved and want to try when Caleb is ready for them. However, these things are supposed to be stuffed into plastic page protector sleeves and organized by section. In reality about 6 of them look like that, the rest are stuffed in the front or back pocket or in this stack in my closet. Seeing the stack motivated me to purchase more page protectors and actually get my notebook functioning this coming week!
This hot spot was perfect for helping me meet my goal to get our apartment ready to move one step at a time, rather than scrambling at the last minute. Because of this project I:
Got rid of a bunch of trash
Organized important papers
Packed all our winter clothes into a suit case for the return trip
packed another bag for good will
and organized all our random electronic bits into one spot
And the result of all that hard work?
I really need this accountability to stay motivated for things that don't need to be done right now. I'm looking forward to the next 4 spots!
1 comment:
Good job Sarah! Looks great. No matter how "small" the challenge may seem for one week, it's still a challenge when you add kids to the mix! I had to do mine in spurts. I would clean clean clean while Alaina was napping, and then go tend to her until she napped again. We got it done. It was really only one day that I was cleaning. Then it was just organizing the stuff to take to donate and put in the garage sale stuff. Now I really need to have a garage sale. Too bad you dont live closer, we could do one together!
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