Contouring more clutter!

Today's task was cleaning out & organizing under the master bathroom sinks.  It was total chaos and pretty gross when I started.  I containerized everything and labeled (my new addiction) everything.  I sorted into First Aid, Splints/Wraps, Surplus, vitamins, and cleaning supplies.  I did not get a picture of before, but I threw away a 1/3 of a kitchen garbage bag full of out of date, dried up, and generally yucky things that were no longer usable.  Here is what it looks like now...

  I am planning on putting down some nice contact paper in the new house and I might even paint under there.  But for now I just vacuumed out all the dust bunnies (RIP) and gave it a good scrub.  I figure if I clean as I go there will be less to do after we move out.  Hubby already said he will not be doing any cleaning afterwards, so any deposit we get back will go to the decorating fund.  I already have my eye on some really nice fabric at JoAnn's that would make lovely curtains.  I seriously can't believe how much they charge for hemmed rectangles!    Now to tackle my side.  Gotta go scrounge up some more containers from the garage.

Uh...after a cup of coffee.  I'll post pictures when I'm done. Maybe I'll watch a little tennis first too.  I have to say it sucks doing this, but I already feel a sense of relief that the house is getting in order.

I have to find a good system for tackling mail.  If any of you have one that works-let me know.  I always seem to end up with piles on my desk that make me cringe every time I walk by them.  I found a coupon organizer while cleaning out the boxes in the garage.  I'll have to clean it up and put it to use.  

The Missing Hippo

Alex has had his blue & white polka dot hippo his whole life.  I got it from one of my co-workers for my shower. His bedroom is jungled themed and of all the cute stuffed animals he chose hippo.  He could not say hippo so he called him peepo.  The name stuck and that brings me to the story.  While at preschool the kids walked to a little park right behind the preschool.  He got distracted while collecting pine cones for their nature lesson and peepo was left behind. They came back ate snack and laid down for "quiet time" at which point Alex noticed peepo missing and melted down.  I'm talking full on defcom 4.  Miss Helen sent her assistant to the park but peepo was no where to be found.  When I came to pick him up he was very upset so we went to the park again and still no peepo.  We went home and Alex remembered on one episode of Caillou that he made a sign when he lost his kitty and it was returned.  So I made up a reward/lost poster to put up in the park.  I walked about a half a mile on each direction from the park (it's on a nice bike path) and no sign of peepo.  I put up the signed and went home.  The next day right when I got home from work I got a call from a very nice high school student who noticed the sign while visiting the park with her friend.  She said that someone had pinned the hippo to the sign.  I rushed down and she was still there and so was peepo.  I offered her money and she refused stating it was the right thing to do.  Perhaps there is some hope for our future generation-lol. We got to the park to find this...

The button he was pinned to the sign with said God is Love.  Alex (and me) were both relieved and after a good washing he was back to normal.  I saved the reward sign for prosperity. Now peepo sits in the Elmo chair in his room (of course he plays & reads books while Alex is in school) and hopefully this won't happen again.

OK. Here is my first blog.

We are moving into our first house soon.  I have set out on a mission to finely get organized and purge.  We have too much "stuff" and it is cluttering our home.  Besides the less we have the less we have to move.  I'm hoping that an organized house will lead to a little less stress in our day to day lives.  It sure can't hurt.  I was inspired by a friend who is doing the same thing via the 21 day challenge on the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons. http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/  I like that she post inexpensive ideas-this is one of my favorite! http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-make-magazine-storage-boxes.html  I have completed day one: the junk drawer and it was a hit with the hubby who is a bit OCD and like everything to have a permanent "home".  Check it out.

The new organized junk drawer.  

Teh best part of this transformation was finding very cheap and cute baskets.  Big Lots has the long narrow ones 3/$1.00 and the bigger ones 2/$1.00 I figure I can get about a hundred baskets for the price of one hour of therapy needed to deal with the stress of clutter. LOL

My next step was my desk.  This project got interrupted twice.  Once to deal with the missing Hippo crisis and the second was a mild concussion I gave myself.  I was getting something out of the crisper and stood up and hit the top of my head on the corner of the freezer handle.  @#%$#@ yes it hurt bad, I got dizzy, and still have a headache.  I know enough to follow the precautions for a concussion without spending 4+ hours in the ER only to pick up some kind of  secondary infection. LOL  So I had to break this into two parts Here is day one progress.  

The "before" can you say embarrassing.

OK-here is half way through.  I will finish tonight provided there is no "fire" to put out. LOL

Half way-need to sort through the stuff on bottom left.

I really like how it's going so far.  I love the "new" lamp (found in the garage with the black plastic drawer thing) free is always good.  I'm going to make a cover for the plastic drawer thing and the big bookcase will be moving to a new location.  I think I'll get a large plant for the corner as well.  Now that the cats are living outside I can put plants on the floor again and not have them used as a litter box.

Check out the labels! Hopefully this will eliminates a few of the "honey where is the..." questions.

Gotta get off to work.  Will fill you all in on the "Case of the Missing Pee-Po" later.