Getting Organized 2014

I don't know about y'all, but I say this same thing every year - "I'm gonna organize EVERYTHING in my house and it will STAY that way!" But this year, I'm really gonna do it. Now, I'm not making any promises about it staying that way - there are two other people who live in my household who do not share my passion for organization. Anyway, I'm starting with drawers first. Don't wanna go TOO big too soon, ya know? Last night I started on the junk drawers in my kitchen. Yes, I said drawers, plural. We have three just in the kitchen. Only one is for kitchen junk, the other two are for all of the stray stuff that always seems to end up on my kitchen counters. Pens, spare change, old keys, hair clips...you know the drill. I bought some organizers at Marshall's for $6.99 each - they're really for jewelry I think, but I like how pretty they are. More motivation to keep them looking nice and neat, right? I'm almost embarrassed to show these, but here's the before pictures of the drawers:

Awful, I know. But I suspect we all have at least one. You wouldn't believe the junk I threw away and how many dollars in change I found!

This is all the junk that needs to be redistributed to appropriate places in the house.  We had a disturbing number of tongue depressors and allen wrenches in one drawer.  Have no idea where they all came from, but I'll use the sticks to stir paint with or something and I think I'll keep one of the wrenches just for good measure.

And here is the after...

So much better! That's about $15 in change there.  I can add that to the $40 in other change I've collected from around the house and buy myself a treat for doing all this organizing!  We shouldn't run out of writing utensils anytime soon either...

Now I have some extra space for more junk. Yay!  The big cow is a crumb sweeper - turn him on and he sucks up anything - you can twist his head off and empty him out.  Love him!  And the smaller cow is one of the Bub's toys from when he was little.  He carried it around all the time and I just can't part with it.

One drawer was left completely empty and will be a much more convenient place for my dishtowels.  Yes, those are cat feet you see in the picture.  Ginger, aka "Nosy Rosie", knows she is NOT supposed to be on the kitchen counter, but I couldn't keep her off last night for some reason.  I don't know what got into her. Could it be the fact that I found about a hundred cat toys in one drawer?


I felt GOOD after I got this done.  It's going to be really cold here this weekend, so I plan to stay inside and clean closets.  The coat closet in our entryway is atrocious.  We don't even use it for coats. Stuff falls out every time I open the door and I can't stand it anymore!  I keep my reusable shopping bags, the dog's stuff, small appliances, big platters and bowls, and anything else I don't have a spot for in there.  Sometimes the Bub's instrument (which is huge) or the Hub's golf clubs get shoved in there too.  I remember when it used to be so neat and organized........  Anyway, it's about to get that way again on Saturday.  I can't wait!

Here's my list of areas I'm going to organize in the coming weeks and months:

Junk drawers
Entryway closet
Hall closet
Utility closet
Linen closet
Garage (for the 1000th time!)
Storage barn (for the 500th time)

The garage and storage barn will have to wait until it gets a little warmer here.  I do a lot of my "crafting" in the garage, so I'm planning to get rid of a lot of stuff that we never use (namely a broken 40 year-old generator, a five gallon bucket of roofing tar...huh?, hula hoops, a 100 year-old rug with a hole in it) and make myself a nicer area to work and figure out a way to keep myself warm out there.  Maybe I'll use all the spare change I've collected to buy myself a space heater and a Dumpster Bag!

Tell me - what are your organizing goals for 2014?

Today I am linking up with: http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/

Toodles,