40 Days, 40 Bags: Day 1

No, I'm not going to do a post per day, but I figured I would help motivate myself with a blog post.

Day 1's task was organizing my crochet supplies.  Now, if you're not into needlecraft, you might not understand how out of control all the yarn and notions can get.  Let me tell you, it does.  Easily.  I organized my yarn and supplies about a year ago when we were prepping to move and again over the summer (one of the many things I did to pass the time while I was waiting for Elliott to arrive).

I'm lucky enough to have a lot of closet space in my apartment, and the hall closet has mainly games, crafts, and workout equipment in it.  There is also gift-wrap.  Don't even get me started on the gift wrap.  That's its own day.

Here is the before.  Please ignore the other nonsense.  That closet has three separate days devoted to its contents.

Before: Oh. My. Lord.

The 40D40B Challenge is not just about organization, at least when you go all out.  It's also an opportunity to perform some serious spring cleaning.  Therefore, the first step was to remove EVERYTHING and clean the drawers and frames.  I'm going to vacuum the closet as a whole after I'm done with the gift wrap day (Can you tell I'm dreading it?).  My trusty side-kick in this was my favorite all-purpose cleaner, Method's Multi-Surface cleaner in the oh-so-lovely cucumber scent.  Mmm.  These were so dusty because it's not something that instantly strikes a person as something to dust.  

I'm not getting paid to endorse them, but I love Method.

After that, I cut scrapbook paper in some really cute patterns to line the front of the drawers.  They are transparent or translucent, and with all of the things inside, it ends up looking so messy.  They ended up looking so good that I'm going to line all of the plastic drawers I have.  

I found all kinds of weird things to throw out (yarn wrappers, lollipops), and everything else was organized.  My tackle box, which held make-up until I finally purged the old stuff, holds all of my notions: buttons, scissors, needles, thread, hooks, measuring tape.  It keeps it organized, but it also makes it easy to put those things out of Elliott's reach.  Yarn was organized by type (acrylic v. cotton), and projects were put into Ziploc bags and organized.  I'm going to label the drawers, but I haven't figured out the best course of action.  

Here is the chaos at the peak of the project:

Just as I was at this point, Elliott woke from his nap and required a bottle.

Here's the finished product:

After: How nice.

I found a number of patterns that had gotten lost in the yarn or behind the drawers, which was like getting all new patterns.  I also re-discovered the wheels for the white drawers, making them easier to move around.

It was incredibly satisfying to actually complete one day.  I also collected my obligatory "bag": 

Bonus: I obeyed the request of my Giant bag.

Trash Bag Total: 1 Giant bag

I'll be back on Sunday to update the progress.  In the future, I'll try to limit myself to just "before" and "after" shots.

- J & M.