I love to organize.  LOVE.  And sometimes I really good at it.  But I find myself little pockets of space in my life that are complete disasters.  For instance, my office/craft/I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this-throw-it-in-there-and-close-the-door room.  Awful.  It's a complete embarrassment.  So one of my goals for 2013 is to be more organized.  Like ridiculously, annoyingly organized.  I'm finding lots of good ideas on Pinterest and I'm slowly but surely making lists and implementing ideas.  Here's two I'm starting with.

Cleaning Schedule
The first idea I started with I found on Pinterest.  I actually created my own list and started using it in November of 2012.  And then Christmas and 3 weeks of sickness hit and I stopped doing it.  But the weeks I did do it I really loved it.

Here's why it works:  I felt like I was accomplishing something important every day and my house looked better and I just felt better!  Also, with the swing day I was tackling one big thing that really did need to be done at least once a month but I never seemed to find the time for it.


Challenges:  Make sure you have what you need for your cleaning.  And for the daily chores it might take you a few days to figure out the best way to tackle them.  For me, I enlisted the help of Jackson for bed making (starting him early!) and then tried to tackle the dishes and counters while he was eating breakfast.  I found that the chore of the day I usually had to wait until my hubby got home.  And I didn't even think about doing the night chores until everyone else was in bed.

30 Bags in 30 Days
I've seen a version of this on Pinterest but decided to definitely go for it when I saw Bekah over at Country Mouse tales posting pictures of her bags on Instagram!  Such a great idea and really quite easy!  I referenced Bekah's list and then set about creating my own.  My list will start today and runs for 30 days, so that puts me at February 5th, which is PERFECT because The Boy's 3rd birthday party is just a few days after that!

Because I'm AWESOME and totally on top of things I just realized that I never shared with you the boy's room.  I LOVE it!  It turned out so cute in all it's Dr. Seuss glory.

We got the bedding from Pottery Barn Kids.  Orginally I had planned on doing his room in retro cowboys but then I saw the Dr. Seuss and fell in love with it!  I love to read and Dr. Seuss was my favorite when I was a kid.  So I'm bound and determined that he will love books too. 

As we walked through the house each room brought a different treasure. Complete with the stained glass windows. So much of the old house was still there. Beat up but surviving.

If I was independently wealthy, and my uncle didn't want to buy it , I would snatch this place up. I would take all the years necessary to bring it back to it's former glory. I think it's beautiful all beaten up, imagine what it would look like with a spit-shine and a some paint. I mean for heaven's sake it has a claw tub!

She's a beautiful old girl and I hope she finds someone to love her real soon. Someone that can see beyond the dust and muck to what she once was and what she can be again.

Look at my pretty mushroom.

I immediately began calling the office at our complex. They weren't there. Of course. Oh and the EMERGENCY pager number they have on the answering machine? Yea, that is an invalid number. Oh yes. So I proceeded to blow up the office telephone. I left them 3 messages. I then did what any self-respecting person would do. I started stomping around my complex looking for other residents to harass, I mean ask advice from. Go with me. I'm in my sweats from working out, my sports bra, the largest TIE DYE t-shirt I own, slippers and bun in my hair. Oh yes. I saw a 12 year old girl, yell at her from across the complex, make her go and ask her dad where the manager lives. That proceeds to bring out 3 other neighbors to whom of course I spill my tale of woe. Finally someone gives me the apartment number of the manager with strict instructions that I'm not to tell who gave it to me. So I stomp my unhappy butt up to HER door and bang on it. Lucky for her, she wasn't home. I left her one of those really specific notes where you underline the really important thing about 12,000 times. I'm so grown-up. I lost my mind people. She did call me late that night and left me a message that they would be at my apartment on Monday to take a look. Fantastic. Now I have to go into work late on the ONE day we have mandatory meetings.