January Challenge:Organizing/Clearing Clutter!!!

[peach]

Welcome to the January Challenge!

Our theme for the month is Clearing Clutter and Getting Organized


-Anyone is welcome to participate. There is no sign up, no membership, no secret handshake.

-There is no competition. No voting will be done, no prizes, no winners. The purpose is to be motivated and kept accountable to get things done, and have some fun!

-This first month is one that everyone should be able to participate in. You are welcome to take the theme and get creative with it, but I don't think anyone will have to look very hard to find something they need to organize or a clutter spot that needs to get under control.

-Remember to take photos of your before and afters. At the end of the month we will do another thread where everyone can share what they accomplished! Again, just for fun - no winners or losers.

-Add the badge to your siggie for the month, directions will be posted below by Emo


Here are some ideas to get you started....

-Organize your wardrobe. This chart is an awesome way to go through your closet!
modern-eve.com/life/mindful-consumption/wardrobe-editing/

-Defrost your chest freezer and sort through the food

-Clean out the medicine cabinet

-Go through your photos and put them into albums

-Create a home organization binder
theinspiredorganizer.blogspot.ca/2010/08/family-organization-binder.html

ginaraemillerphotography.com/2011/09/home-organization-binder-diy-printables/

-Put all your manuals and warranties into a binder
desiringvirtue.com/2011/07/when-you-get-stuff-you-get-papers/

-If your goal is to clear clutter, I highly recommend flylady's method. You can read all about it here
www.flylady.net/d/super-fling-boogie/

-Go through closets, cupboards, and drawers - wash them out and organize the contents as you put them back


If you need more inspiration, here are some of my favorite organizing sites

-iheartorganizing.blogspot.ca/
-orgjunkie.com/
-www.abowlfulloflemons.net/
-www.getorganizedwizard.com/blog/



I hope to see lots of chatter on our board this month about the theme! Share any cool ideas, websites, or tips you have. Ask questions, post pictures asking for ideas on how to organize your space.. let's get this board moving again

[emoflamingo]

The official badge:

Rectangle: [*IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/k3t5he.gif[*/IMG]

Square: [*IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/a4ilz.gif[*/IMG]

To insert, click profile at the top of the page (under where you see messages). Then click modify profile. About half way down, you will see "signature" under the bold heading personal information. Insert your selected code and remove all asterisks. Scroll down and click modify profile.

Note: I realize that the square is a little too big and awkward to use with other items, so if no one uses it I will only make the rectangle for the next 11 months.

Please send me a message or page me on H&G if you have any issues posting the image in your signature.

Thanks and happy organizing!

[jhawks482]

Yay! Is there any way to make this post sticky for a few days or a week, so it doesn't get lost?

[emoflamingo]

Mrs.J should be able to do it!

[ssmjlm]

If you want to make the pictures smaller:

Do the code with [*img width=100 height=100] and adjust as necessary. You probably will have to make the width 200 for the rectangle.

[prazenjc]

i'm definitely in!

dh is awesome about keeping most of our clutter to a minimum, but despite that we need to go thru a few areas (under sinks, in cabinets, etc.). not to mention, i need to go through some drawers of baby blankets, etc. in DS room to see what we can keep, what we need to get rid of, before the new baby arrives. since we will know mid-month if it is a girl or boy, that will help with that editing.

[peach]

I organized a couple of our worst drawers today. Feels so good! I also got rid of a huge bag of garbage and made a pile of toys to donate.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I've made it sticky for a bit. And I'm in, although I'm not sure what I'm going to be organizing (not a ton of space going on at the moment.)

[peach]

I am planning to re-organize my entire kitchen, its a disaster. And the baby's room, which is also a disaster. And lots of little things; drawers and closets, my purse!

[emoflamingo]

I have a whole house and a mess of boxes to unpack. I have cleaned the dust off 2 rooms so far, all by myself with no help (yeah, my H is being a jerk right now and he is in for it). I have a loooooong way to go.

[mariesd]

This is soooo great! I've actually been trying lately to get more organized and have a handy reference for all of our doctor information, etc, but had no idea how to do it. Thanks to your link, my home organization binder is now in progress!

[Deleted]

I'm in but haven't decided on my project yet.

[house]

I'm in and also don't know where to start. Thanks for the links OP! I need to purge as much as possible ASAP because I don't want to pack up and move junk to the new house!

[peach]

Sounds like you need to do the flylady thing - it's cheesy but seriously it works!

basically, it's called the 27 fling boogie. 8-D

You take a trash bag, and walk around and toss stuff. Don't stop until 27 things are in the bag....NO LOOKING IN THE BAG after, tie it up and put it in the trash.

You can also have every member of your family take a trash bag and everyone has to fill it in one hour.

Corny, but fun and it worked really good when I was trying to get rid of excess stuff before we moved last year.

[ohjessica]

Ooooh, I totally love this. I assume this challenge (with different themes) will be a monthly thing?! So excited.

We seriously need to clean out our garage. It's basically become a giant trash can (this sounds like such a stereotypical thing to say, but it really is my DH's fault). I've cleaned and organized the garage time and time again, but my husband just opens the door and tosses things in. With Christmas and redoing out bathroom, it's now a hazzard of boxes, old tile and tools. Seriously can't even walk in there. That is going to be my challenge. Some of it depends on my husband though because he needs to rent a truck to dispose of some of the trash in there, but I will do my best!

How do we do this? Do we make a thread and post pictures when it's all done? Or do we update on progress here?

[peach]

If you read the OP it tells you. Just take photos of your projects, and at the end of the month we will have a different thread that we will all share what we did!

Feel free to chat about organizing and your projects here, and post threads asking for help/ideas or sharing tips!

[ohjessica]

Awesome. Sorry, I totally skipped over the sentence about the thread at the end of the month

[Deleted]

I have a home binder if anyone wants copies of my pages they can pm me.

I also started a manual binder, but it became a PITA. I ditched that idea and started downloading pdf manuals whenever we bought something new or I had to reference something we already had.

[heartmama]

Ooh sounds like fun! I started my pantry last week, but forgot to take a before photo since I was so excited to open my new containers, lol. Hopefully I can get it finished this month and at least share some afters.

[sassafrass]

I'm in! I'm taking back my kitchen cabinets this month! I look foward to opening the cabinet doors without something falling on me!

[simpsongal]

I am way ahead of you. w
We have 5+ boxes of stuff in my car waiting to go to Good Will. I'm planning on buying a closet organizer to create a closet area for DH, and refinish a dresser in our garage for more clothing storage. We still have boxes to go through from our move....ugh.

[kristilynnmy]

I'll be working on my home office to start. Kitchen's usually organized routinely or else it gets out of hand (have to re-do pantry). I would also like to organize my daughters closet and add in a new closet shelving system.

[Deleted]

Once the kids go back to school I am going to start organizing for a garage sale this spring. 4 years of clothes, toys and gadgets. I may not make it by the end of the month, but I hope to put a big dent in it.

[wawa]

We're moving back into our bedroom this weekend, which means I get to organize our clothes into our brand new closet. I cannot WAIT.

[lemondrop]

So far I've already organized a few little things today: DVDs, game cupboard, and medicine drawer. Tonight and through the weekend, DH and I will be reorganizing our garage and sorting out the things we want to get rid of. We need to make room for his car in the garage, and get started on our spring/summer garage sale.

I also need to reorganize my pantry and our hall cupboard.

[LauraMoser]

I occasionally lurk on this board, but I am up for the declutter challenge this month! I have a huge urge here lately to declutter and organize!

[grover]

I finally started organizing our spare room- it was supposed to be our office, but H moved his computer downstairs near his video games, and I use my laptop on the couch in another room. It has been filled with junk and boxes since we moved in.
I'm also trying to dejunk/re-organize the rest of the house as we finish the flooring project. We put laminate down but still need to put baseboards and trim in.

[pickle123]

I"m totally organizing my pantry, it's redonkulous.

[lightbulbsun]

This is great. One of my goals for this year is to go through the attic, all of my closets and drawers, and organize and purge.

[Deleted]

I posted this in peach's closet thread, but thought I would share it here to:

One of the best ideas anyone has ever given me is to hang my clothes from the back side of the rod when I am going through my closet. As soon as you wear something, hang it up normal. Next time you go through your closet, everything hung backwards you didn't wear and can decide whether to keep or give away much easier.