In case you're wondering...

And I hope you are...

I've had a sick sweetie at home this week. My youngest (aka Superman) has been down for the count with a respiratory infection.

I promise to return soon (hopefully tomorrow) with updated posts on my 40 day challenge.

Day 9: 40 bags, 40 days!

The drink cup cabinets...one for adult people, one for little people...and odds and ends in between.

Before:

 Before:

What I pulled out from  both cabinets combined:

 Why do I own so many medicine measuring cups?!

And...drumroll, please...
After:
This cabinet now holds all water bottles for both adults and kids, my only nice pitchers, and a box of wine glasses way at the top.

After:
This cabinet is now for travel coffee cups (for now), drinking glasses, straws, etc. I have a few different collections of glasses, so they are all grouped together.

 These dishes are temporarily finding their home here. I was attempting a Frankoma collection, but have since decided to abandon that idea and sell them either to a local dealer or on eBay. Any takers?

The first entire bag of stuff...from the 40 bags experiment.

Day 8: 40 days, 40 bags

Perhaps I should have mentioned when I started this organizing process that I might not be able to manage a post every single day, though this was originally my intention. I am finding summer more and more difficult to stay on track...since I'm so busy going to pool with my kids. :)

It must be the heat wave, but it seems the best place to be is either inside with a Redbox movie or outside at the pool to beat the heat.

So as I walked through my bathroom yesterday, it hit me that this particular drawer wasn't even on my original list. How could I not attend to it, though, when it looked like this?

Perhaps this terrible photo is deceiving, but this drawer was a mess and full of hair.
I was trying to repurpose an egg carton as my hair elastic holder, but that just wasn't working well. And it looked a little yucky.

And now the after:

I removed the egg carton and replaced it with a muffin tin from the thrift store. That also meant I had to cut down on the number of elastics I kept...which was really okay.

I removed all cosmetics that I wasn't actively using...and let's face it, I'm still not using much of this due to the summer season. But this is what I wear when I wear cosmetics.

Much nicer, right?

Again, mostly trash was removed and tossed. Tubes that were practically empty, broken elastics, etc.

Why do I hang on to so much trash!?

Day 7: 40 days, 40 bags

Today I tackled my master bathroom cabinet.

Before: jumbled mess.

And after...cue the music...

 Just made a few adjustments to the organization.
Ah, much better.

 All the items I removed...a small bag, but still it's a bag!!
Baby lotion, hair shine spray, Bumble sand spray, Frizz Ease creme, 3 nail polish colors. Yippee!

Day 6: 40 days, 40 bags

I've hit a bit of a slump with my cleaning...

I started on the wire baskets...not sure which number that is on the list. But I started. This is where I keep a lot of craft supplies, sewing stuff, extra material, etc. The bottom two drawers are where my sweet daughter keeps her doll house items, so I didn't get into those baskets.

The problem I ran into...things I planned to purge...planned to get rid of knowing they were in there...
I just couldn't do it when it came down to it. That famous old question of..."but what if I need them later?" kept creeping up in my mind! Ugh!

The drawers before:

 Top drawer after: 3 items removed. Tiny items...scraps of grosgrain ribbon. And Heat 'n Bond. An entire roll. Couldn't get it to work for me. Hm.

 Second drawer after: Nothing removed. Why am I keeping a broken plate? Seriously...am I really going to make a stepping stone with the pieces like I think in my head?

 Third drawer after: Nothing removed.

 Fourth drawer after: This keyboard will be hooked back up to the computer soon...as well as the speakers. Then this drawer will be empty! Yea!

 Fifth drawer after: Nothing removed. These are two sets of twin sheets to use as fabric for pillow case dresses, pillow cases, etc. I bought these two years ago. Haven't made anything with them yet. But I love the paisley. Isn't it cute?

 Sixth drawer after: Nothing removed. We use these supplies fairly regularly for crafts and projects. This drawer gets a lot of use.

 Seventh drawer after: Extra burp cloths to make custom burp cloths for baby gifts...and my mother's cross stitch kit.

 The items I'm  parting with...
scraps of trim, Heat 'n Bond, 3 skeins of yarn.

So what do I do? How do I stop listening to the voices that tell me to keep hanging on to this junk that someone else could really use? Two perfectly good sets of sheets. Seriously...someone might really need sheets. Not pillow case dresses.

Day 5: 40 days, 40 bags

Drawers in cabinet under TV. This TV is new and the table underneath is really a sofa table...and not nearly big enough for the TV. Until we find the right table, though, this is the table. And there were three drawers in it that needed my purging attention.

The drawers:

 Drawer 1 before:

 Drawer 2 before:

 Drawer 3 before:

 Drawer 1 after:

 Drawer 2 after:

 Drawer 3 after:

One thing I am amazed at...how much trash and junk papers I keep. It's ridiculous...and a function of this way of thinking:

"Oh, I don't have time to read this now. I'll save it for later..."

And into the abyss it goes...

Day 4: 40 days, 40 bags

The junk drawers...2 of them!

Again, not much here was given away. A pair of brand new shoe laces. Some keychains we got at an athletic event, some penguin shaped erasers. You know, important stuff.

Drawer 1 before:

 Drawer 1 after:

I keep these great little trays to corral stuff and keep like stuff together. Each tray holds the following items (tray 1 tissues and handkerchiefs, tray 2 Command Hooks, tray 3 child proof items, tray 4 extra pieces for various things, tray 5 a TI-84 calculator that needs a new home, tray 6 Altoids and some items we use annually at Thanksgiving).

Drawer 2 before:

Drawer 2 after:

In this drawer I do the same thing with the trays. You can get them at the Dollar Tree or the Target dollar spot. I love them. 

(tray 1 stamps and sticky notes, tray 2 erasers and rubber bands, tray 3 nail clippers and hand stuff, tray 4 tape and stapler, tray 5 lighters and matches, tray 6 deck of cards and mini dominoes.) 

Why do we have so much tape? Because our kids like to use it. For various things. And before you know it, it's gone. So I try to keep a lot so I have some when I need it.

Why do we have so many lighters and matches? This I do not know. We don't smoke. Hm....If you need a lighter, I have one for you. A present. For you. From me.

Day 2: 40 days, 40 bags

Alrighty. Today I started with the kitchen island.

Knocked this one out in about 30 minutes also.
YEA!

What I got rid of? Trash to start with. But this time I also will be selling or giving away the following items:
1. Beaba baby food cooker
2. Black and Decker blender that has a cracked blade mechanism. I could have easily replaced this long ago...and I haven't. Shame on me.
3. 3 white glass bowls from Walmart.
4. Box with parts to a Hamilton Beach hand mixer.

I also vacuumed out the cabinets and wiped them down. Feels so good to get started on all of this.

I did have a question about whether or not I thought a list was helpful. Yes, I do think a list is helpful...to me. A list provides me with some direction and a sense of whether or not I am actually accomplishing what I set out to accomplish. Most days I am working, working, working throughout the house. A lot of those days I feel like I've gotten very little done because I haven't written down what I needed to accomplish anyway. The list I have helps me see what I need to do, get it done, and then see my progress.

Enjoy! (And yes, :) I am working on more before and after pics so you can tell the difference.)

Day 1: 40 days, 40 bags

Today  I tackled four drawers in my kitchen: the grocery list drawer, napkin drawer, towel drawer and miscellaneous drawer. Day 1 down. Only 39 to go.

Actually, I had trouble only tackling one item on the list, but that's the beauty of the challenge for me. I can easily get overwhelmed by trying to do too much and being exhausted. This was fairly easy to accomplish and took me all of 30 minutes at the most. YEA!

I also noticed that I am most likely going to skip around on the list out of necessity. I started with these drawers randomly. Perhaps I picked them because they were easy. Or annoying. Yes, annoying is probably the true reason.

Next is the kitchen island...out of necessity. Must make room for a new (small) appliance.

Here's my list...and I'm marking them off as I go...

Here you go...the after photos. You can refer to some of the before photos from this post.

And...most of what came out of these drawers was indeed trash...so only a few items went into a bag for giveaway.