The Great Purge!

Last week I read this article. Many of the suggestions in this are not applicable to our situation or are things we already do in our household. However suggestion #2 really caught my eye. (Oh and so did suggestion #1 as I hadn't pulled our credit score/report in over a year and I did - our scores were super duper high and I was able to call and get our AAA rates lowered! YAY!)

Anyway... I digress...

So suggestion #2... Nathan and I have decided to tackle this effort. It is hard because we have two very different styles of how we organize or go through the process of organizing. We have thankfully found a way to merge our styles. We started on Saturday evening with the front hall closet. We don't use it that much - mostly because we have stuffed it full of random crap when we have had the quick clean effort before company comes over. I'm mildly embarrassed to show the before pictures, but they really make the after more impressive!

Here are the before pictures:

I was relaxing/resting most of the afternoon/night after a visit to Labor and Delivery Triage (more on that later.) So Nathan emptied everything out and brought the items and together we separated into piles, keep - donate - trash. It was empowering!! I went through our donate pile, itemized a list of what we had, took a picture and now we are ready for doing our itemized taxes next year. (Yes. I'm a dork. I embrace it.) So - on to the AFTERS!!! Yipee!

(The wicker basket has our winter stuff in it and the red bin has some of my mom's things she keeps at our house that she may need on days she is here with Logan.)

HOW FREAKIN' GREAT IS THAT?!?!?!?! So clean!!

On Sunday we slept in (Logan was at my parent's house) and then Nathan decided to tackle the kitchen. I was still needing to rest/relax so I sat in a chair in front of our roll top desk. I love the roll top as I can close it up if people come by. However - again - it becomes a catch all for things. A bad habit we are trying hard to break - we are hoping this cleaning effort will help us move in that direction.

BEFORE:

AFTER - everything has a place:

Nathan emptied pretty much all of the kitchen cabinets and started moving things around and such. We also had a trip to Ikea in the afternoon. And if you have been to Ikea you know that is an event and not a quick stop. My back has been giving me fits if I walk for more than 5-10 minutes so I was questioning how I was going to make it. Nathan came up with the bright idea to push me around in a wheelchair. I must say - once I got over myself and worrying about people staring at me - holy cow was that the best way to go through Ikea! Seriously - was great! I was a very happy Momma! We bought some cabinet organization stuff and headed home to start putting things back together. Nathan did the overwhelming majority of the work which I very much appreciated. We have half the kitchen done and need to finish the dreaded tupperware/bakeware/random crap cabinets and our pantry. Hopefully both will be done tonight with the kitchen.

I am loving how great Nathan is at working through this process with me.

I am loving that we found a way to manage our two organization styles into a way that seems to be working!

I love that I took a car load of stuff to Salvation Army to donate yesterday during lunch.

I love that our next small project after the big kitchen project is our linen closet in our upstairs hallway - it is pretty big and wow is it unorganized right now!!

Good stuff! Okay - goooooooood stuff!