40 Days, 40 Bags: Days 2, 3, & 4.

I started with the yarn because it plays into my prep for my new Etsy shop, but I didn't fully realize how bad my other craft things are.  My goodness.

*Note: I added a tab that lists how I separated my house.  I'm just dealing with an apartment, but I used specific tasks to separate it further.

Day two's was to organize my scrapbooking supplies as well as my memory boxes.  Stuff was just everywhere...so much so that there isn't even a before picture.  There wasn't a single "before" location.  The books were in my hall closet (above the crochet stuff), some supplies were there; others were in my craft dresser.  Finally, I had numerous memory boxes and "to-scrapbook" boxes, primarily in huge, dilapidated shoeboxes.  This system was not going to work any longer.

I have a scrapbook for everything!

The entire process ended up taking three and a half hours!  I went through every box, every drawer, every pocket.  I purged, then I organized what was left.  Jason was amazed at all the stuff I had for scrapbooking, and how it spread all over the room.  I used plastic envelopes (which I found while cleaning out the crochet things) to put pieces for specific scrapbooks.  Those, plus the bag, are things for Elliott's scrapbook and our wedding book.  We did a scrapbook instead of a guest book.  People wrote notes on small squares of cardstock and we pasted them into the book.

My cleansed memory boxes.

I thought scrap booking supplies was going to be the most tedious task.  I was incorrect.  My other craft supplies turned out to be a lot more complicated, paired with Elliott's inability to nap on Friday.  My initial thought about these supplies (crayons, beads, glue) was that I had one drawer.  What could be so difficult.  I then remembered that I had a cardboard box full of collage materials, mainly magazine cut-outs.  Woah.  This was a whole new day now.

Ack!  How did I let it get to this!? 

Everything spread out for evaluation.

The whole project took 5 hours.  I had to go through every little supply and evaluate what was needed and what could be pitched.  In the end though, I had two bags of trash and a box (and a 12 year old Trapper Keeper!) to go out to the dumpster.  It opened up room in Elliott's closet, and I eliminated so many collage things, I now have a short list of definite projects and never again will I have to take on such a daunting task.

The resulting trash box.

So much better!

My final project this week was cleaning Elliott's room.  It wasn't the next on my list, but I'm not bound to the order, just that it all gets done by Holy Thursday.  My parents were up again yesterday and since we're probably moving back "home," they offered to take some things to their house for storage.  The one thing I could think we'd never need in the next three months that was ready for storage was my maternity clothes and Elliott's out-grown things.  I went through every onesie and sock, and the bin is now full!  Once we move again, I'm going to buy a smaller bin for my maternity things so we can better organize things for the future.

A collage of the "after" for E's room.

Future 40 Days posts will not be this detailed...I'm just still astonished at how much junk I have in my apartment!  This week's agenda will allow Jason and I to both see a lot of change in our everyday organization.

Trash Bag Total: 4 Target bags, one box, and one 12-year old Trapper Keeper

Do you have any questions about either the challenge or organization?  I'd love to answer them.

Also, how do you organize linen closets?  I'm going to try something...we'll see how it works out.

- J & M.