40 bags: week five

Confession: my 40 bags resolve weakened a bit this week.

For the most part, I have been keeping up with one space per day (besides Sunday) and this is the first week that I fell behind. 

I was gone over the weekend and when I came back home the week hit me like a truck + I wasn't looking forward to the items on my list.

I soldiered on, however, and doubled up a couple of days until I was back on track.

Day 28: paper piles.

We have a desk in our kitchen and it collects major clutter. I have a pretty good system in place, it just needs to be weeded through every now and then. I try to recycle things immediately if I know I won't need them and then I have a square bin on the desk that I use as a catch-all for the maybe's. The for-sure-keeps get filed in these folders (above) that are housed in a PB caddy.

Day 29: books & magazines.

I don't usually hold onto a lot of books and magazines after I read them because I know I won't reference them again. I don't like to read books more than once (with a few exceptions) and I try to tear interesting articles from magazines as I go. Tossing catalogs promptly keeps me from being tempted to buy things I don't need.

Our Paper Gator recycle bin benefited from today's purge!

Day 30: craft/office closet.

This closet is semi-organized but it can quickly deteriorate into a hot mess. (I like to blame this on the children). We keep the kids' craft supplies in here as well as office supplies and games. 

I removed some trash (i.e. broken crayons and used up coloring books) and added some items to the donate pile.

Day 31: paperwork & files.

More paper...ugh! Again, I did work at developing a system a while back and it's holding up pretty well. I have two places where we store files - a small file box and then these three binders (originally inspired by this post). Therefore, I have two magazine holders in place for needs-to-be-filed items...one for items that belong in the file box and one for items that go in the binders.

Day 32: front closet.

We have three different coat closets in our house which is overkill if you ask me. One of them actually holds coats, the second one is our craft/office closet, and this third one is a catch-all for my scrapbooking supplies, file stuff, note cards, exercise equipment, random electronics/cords (on the upper shelf that you can't see), and, of course, the vacuum.

Day 33: digital files.

I have a basic folder system in place and I try to keep up with it, but in the busyness of life this often falls through the cracks. I keep our photos sorted by year and then by month. Within each month, I also have a spot for blog-related (usually edited) photos and Instagrams. It's really hard for me to delete any pictures involving my kids, 

but I'm learning to be better at it. 

(For a good post on digital photo organizing/purging check out this one from IHeart Organizing.)

I also backed up our music and photos on to our external hard drive (which I hadn't done since January 2010!)

Day 34: craft supplies.

B.P. (Before Pinterest) I can't say that craft supply organization was a problem for me...because I didn't own any craft supplies. Now that my inner-crafter has been awakened (and thanks to our monthly craft night), I find myself with piles of crafting goodness. I had this three drawer plastic organizer in the basement that I had re-purposed into my supply cabinet, but the existing system involved simply shoving things into the drawers.

Post Purge: an hour or so later, and I was back in the game. 

I dumped everything out, sorted through the keeps and the tosses, carefully reloaded, and then labeled the whole shebang. 

Ahhhhh. Much better.

* * * * *

This week was a bit of a challenge for me, but now the end is in sight. One week to go, six more spaces. Home. Stretch.

And I'm taking a nice, deep breath because next week it's time to tackle the {very unfinished, very full-of-stuff} B-A-S-E-M-E-N-T.

Stay tuned.

{Linking Up}