Day 9: Books!

Guess what I'm doing today?? YEP! I'm resuming my POWER PURGE!! If you thought it would never happen again, you thought wrong! I know, too many exclamation points. But I'm excited!!!!

DAY NINE IS BOOKS!

I love this picture! I have this really cool background on my login on hubby's HP laptop - it rotates amazing pictures of libraries from all over the world! 

Here's the plan:

• Read Hannah's blogpost about books: http://hannahkeeley.com/blog/30-day-power-purge-day-nine
• Watch video about decluttering your books:
• Today's challenge is your book collection. Remember to sort your books into three piles--give away, throw away, and put away. Throw away if in shreds, give away books you no longer need, donate to library (you can write off the deduction).
• Your extra credit is to de-clutter your magazines.
• Your bonus is to organize your books into categories.

I love this quote: 

"It can feel overwhelming, but YOU CAN'T GO BY YOUR FEELINGS. You have to go by your commitment. That's what that timer is for. Even if you don't feel like it, just set it for fifteen minutes, that's all, and see what you can do. The hardest part is just starting the task. Once you get momentum moving, it just takes over. Before you know it, you've de-cluttered!" - Hannah Keeley

I'll check in later to tell you how it went!!

~JS~

Day 8: Toys and Board Games!

Surprise! A post about the 30-Day Power Purge! YAY!! You thought I'd finally given up, didn't you? Not me! I'm back again to show you that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Book of Mormon, Alma 37:6)

Lesson learned: Taking little baby steps moves you forward, no matter how slow of a pace you take, and no matter how many times you fall down. "Just take two steps forward and one step back, and you'll go a long, long way." (see the music values series for children: "Standin' Tall by Janeen Brady") But enough philosophizing. . . 

I know your next question: "Why is there a picture of the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" at the beginning of this blog post? Answer: Read on to find out!! Isn't that fun? A mystery! hee hee.

I will be honest about this - I have been avoiding the Power Purge: Day 8 Challenge like the plague! And yet at the same time, I was really excited about the day that I would finally have the COURAGE to tackle it! Now, luckily for me, I didn't have to worry about TOYS, because at my house, well, we really just don't have a lot of toys left. Since my kids range in age from 8 to 20, we don't have a toy room anymore, just a little basket of preschool-type toys for kids who visit, plus a few miscellaneous toys in the rooms of my two youngest. 

So - my focus has been, and still is, THE GAMES. "May the odds be always in your favor!" (random thought, sorry!) So anyway, this "week" is the "day" to re-organize the board games! I say "week" instead of "day" because, you see, after 20 years of buying, gathering, playing, organizing, storing, putting away, scattering, destroying, fixing, re-organizing, and playing some more, our board games have gotten a little rough around the edges! But I knew we needed to organize them again - we've needed to ever since our last move. We've made a few attempts at getting them organized again, but never back into good shape in a place that really makes sense. 

Now in my defense, here's what happened: Years ago, I got all the board games really well organized with these little containers according to the system taught in Christy Youd's "Organize Your Home in 10 Minutes A Day" (see "Board Game Organization System" below), but then the when we moved to California in 2008, the games cabinet they were all stored in literally fell apart! Yeah. Really. (It was one of those cheap fiber-board cabinets that looks really great on display at the store, but cracks if you slide it wrong across the floor - you know the type.) 

Anyway, when we moved back to Utah in 2009 (yeah, I know it was only one year, that is a long story for another day), I put all the game containers in a closet in the basement that I thought would be relatively convenient, but apparently it wasn't, because the games rarely got used, except just enough to get taken out a couple dozen times and completely mixed up. And due to a multitude of health issues over the next several years (another long story for another day), I just never had the energy to even walk down the stairs, much less think about re-organizing the games. SO - that's my excuse. 

Enough about the excuse! On to victory!!

Day 10: Family Entertainment

Okay, for Power Purge Day 10, the challenge was to take care of the DVD's, videos, CD's and computer games in your home and get them organized. I did a little bit on this, but not too much, because this is an area that was in pretty good shape already (yay!) Over the years, our family has used various systems for organizing our family entertainment paraphernalia - some with more success than others, lol - so here's a quick overview of a couple of the things we've tried - plus what is working for us right now.

Luckily for me, the videos have been done several times over the past couple of years, because one of my daughters got really motivated one weekend and labeled everything. So - she arranged them with typed labels right on the side of the videos so we didn't need to mess with cases (more on that later) - so the videos were all ready pretty much done. Yay!

Christianna's  Labeling system - no cases to worry about! So nice for little ones. 

But here's the funny part: We don't have a working VCR in our house. hahahaha! Yes, it's true! So we have all these neatly organized videos and no way to watch them! Because of this, I have decluttered quite a few more, especially because with Netflix and YouTube and Dish Network, we don't have much need for videos anymore, so I tend to just keep our very most favorites. Each time we re-organize, I get rid of more and more of them. All the preschool types have been given to my niece who lives nearby, and many others have been sent to the local donation place.

I know your next question - if I don't have a working VCR, why am I keeping any videos at all? I guess I just can't quite let them go - too many memories of my family when everyone was little. :) And honestly, I am planning to get a VCR just for watching these few precious videos - I thought we could probably find a decent one on Ebay or something - do they even sell VCR's in the stores anymore? I guess they probably do, but I assume it's not super common, because I never see them anymore. Just another thing to add to the to-do list. :P

Enough about videos. On to the DVD's, CD's, and computer games! This task was mostly part of our Day 11: Office challenge as well, since we had a lot of the computer & audio CD's stored in there and we decluttered them when we were moving things out for my nephew to use that room.

I have a bunch of different organizing systems for discs, so here's how I handled it - I put all the computer games in a CD organizer that I purchased a few years ago, it's a pretty neat idea by "Discgear" - here's a link & picture:

Discgear 3700-09M Selector 100 - Silver
This is a pretty awesome little organizer, you will have to check it out. You can even keep an inventory of all your CD's/DVD's on the internet with their program. However, I decided not to do that. Why?

Day 17: Shoes!

Okay so I know I haven't written for a few days - but here's the important part - I did another decluttering challenge! Yep, that's right. I did it on. . . Thursday I think? Wow I feel so ridiculous admitting to my inconsistency. But hey, if no one ever admits to it, we'll all feel like we're alone, right? So guess what - YOU ARE NOT ALONE! No one is perfect, we are all just doing our best and we have successes and failures - that's OKAY.

So here's the challenge I did - my shoes! Here's my picture just to prove what I did:

GORGEOUS! Right?? hahaha! Yes! And *all* the other shoes have been sent to D.I. (or they are lost under a bed somewhere. . . ) But truly, every shoe that was tossed on the floor in this closet was either decluttered into a donation box, or lined up neatly on this lovely little shoe shelf thingie that my most awesome hubby Lonny made for me a couple years ago. Nice.

And it was really fun because I got a bonus out of it! I'll give you a clue - it's in the picture!!

Read on to find out what it was. . .

Day 11: Home Office (Part 2)

Okay, so today I DID do something on my decluttering challenge! See, I *can* be dependable and consistent! Thought you had me there, didn't ya? Not a chance! Ah-hahahahaha. . . (don't know how to write it, so imagine a wicked cackling sound there, lol . . . )

Here's what I did: I went through all the challenges that I haven't done over the past 10 days or so and organized my to-do's for each challenge day so far onto my Kanban Flow chart. If you are interested in being invited to this board so you can use my check-off lists, send me your email address here: jumbledsunshine@gmail.com and I will be happy to add you. You just have to promise to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS in the left column before you copy any of the challenges to your own color/name. (This will all make sense after you join and read the instructions!)

Anyway, the reason I did this was because I'm a visual person and I need a way to check off what I've done and keep track of what I haven't done. I found Kanban Flow several weeks ago when I was on my quest to find the best time management software. I really like it for something like this - a major project that has a lot of different parts) - it's been very handy! Oh and did I mention the best part about Kanban Flow? It is combined with the Pomodoro method! So you have a timer that you connect to each task as you are doing it. So awesome!

Day 23. . . er. . . Day 11. . . er. . .

So I had to laugh when I opened up the Day 13 Challenge and read this:

"Here we go...We're almost halfway through the 30-DAY POWER PURGE and this is crunch time. This is the time that most people say, 'Aw, forget it. I'm tired and way too far behind.' Well, I'm telling you to silence those voices! You CAN do this. Don't look at what you haven't done. Look at what you are going to do. Set your sights on these next couple of weeks and let's make it happen!"

Hahahahahaha. . . why am I laughing? Because it's very tempting to think that way, and I have heard some of those exact words in my mind several times the last few weeks. And so, I finally decide to be re-committed and I open up the challenge to see where I'm at and what I need to do next. Then what do I read? A reminder to not give up!! Not only that, but that woman actually PREDICTED what I was thinking! Ha! How do you think she did that? Hmmm, probably because I am NOT alone - lots of people are in the same boat! So - that's just one big giant reason to not get discouraged.

Not to mention, I have already determined that this time I am seriously going to finish no matter what, even if it takes me months to do this, because after all, the point is to get through all 30 challenges and make a difference in my home. Of course, I would prefer that I had actually stayed on target and done them every day in order. . . but I didn't, so, that's not an option. Can't look backwards, only forwards!

So here's where I'm at: I basically did NONE of the challenges last week, so they are on like Day 23 and I am still trying to finish up Day 11: Office. Yeah. Really. So. . . how many of you give up when you get to this point? Huh? Yeah, that's what I thought. Been there, done that.

And you know what? Sometimes it's fine to give up. Why? Because sometimes the goal you made just isn't important anymore. Life changes, goals change. That's okay. And you shouldn't beat yourself up about it. As long as you make a conscious choice that you feel good about, you can (and should) let it go.

Day 11: Home Office (Part 1)

I'm here! Really truly, I am! I bet you all thought I had given up and QUIT on you, didn't you? Well, you are WRONG! Unless of course you had faith in me that I would be back to finish, because then you were RIGHT!

I have gotten WAY BEHIND on my 30-Day Power Purge challenge! But I have a long list of really great excuses. . . do you want to hear them? Yeah, I didn't think so. Alright then, let's just say that I actually HAVE decluttered quite a bit since the last time I wrote. But it's ALL been on the HOME OFFICE!!! And the reason it's taking me so long is because this past weekend, we started cleaning out our office so we could turn it in to a bedroom for my nephew, Evan, who is living here with us. So - OUT with all that accumulated clutter, and IN with Evan's stuff!

It was really fun because Evan was gone with my husband Lonny for the afternoon on Saturday, so my daughter Christianna decided we should surprise them by getting the bedroom put together while they were gone. She just started going at it and pretty much "cracked the whip" on the rest of us so we would jump in and help. Hahaha. I was glad because I wanted to get it done. Plus it sounded like fun to make it a surprise. BUT - it wasn't such a great idea as far as moving around furniture because the two oldest men in the house were not here! So it was a bit crazy with the rest of us trying to move a big computer desk down the stairs, get all the stuff in boxes and transferred to the other room, bring in the extra bed, and get everything done "enough" that it could at least feel somewhat like a real bedroom before they got back. Plus we had to move several large pieces of furniture, boxes & computer equipment to the downstairs family room into the new "office" area.

Here's our new office space in the downstairs family room! Can you believe we moved that computer desk down the stairs by ourselves without the men home? It was insane! Especially when we almost dropped the whole thing on top of Christianna as we went down the stairs! And then, just as we saved it, Jessica got hit in the forehead with the upper cabinet door as it swung open! Whew! Thank goodness for strong teenage daughters and my buff 13yo son Joshua. You kids are the best ever!!

Day 6: Kitchen Cabinets

Day Six of Hannah Keeley's 30-Day Power Purge was a biggie for me! It was finishing up the rest of the kitchen cabinets. And in reality, I still have several cabinets left to do. But wow, we've made some progress! The kitchen is the most-used place in the house, so there was an awful lot that really needed some help, all leftover from several years of poor health. But, luckily for me, it was A HOLIDAY thanks to the wonderful Martin Luther King, Jr. So. . . guess who was home to help me? The kids!! Yay!

So I put them to work by asking each of them to pick one cabinet to empty, wipe out, put the rarely-used stuff in a pile for me to look over so we could decide what to give away, and then put everything else back. We put on some fun music and everyone pitched in, so we got a lot done.

So. . . drumroll please. . . here are the photo results of our kitchen cabinet clean-outs!

The spices were organized by my 19-year-old daughter, Jessica.
Thanks Jess!

Day 5: Dining Room

So, day five of Hannah Keeley's 30-Day Power Purge was. . . drumroll please. . . the dining room! And what did I do? NOTHING! Absolutely nothing!

Why? Because my dining room already looked great! haha! So - day off for me. . . but if your dining room is a mess, or you haven't seen the top of your table for weeks, or months, go ahead and read about the challenge here: http://hannahkeeley.com/blog/30-day-power-purge-day-five 

Then, get crackin' on it! You go girl! (or guy. . . )

Day 4: Kitchen Drawers & Counters

Yesterday was Day Four of Hannah Keeley's 30-Day Power Purge! This one was soooo needed in my kitchen! I started late last night (again) so I did the drawers but not the counters. The counters get pretty regular de-cluttering in my kitchen, so I'm not worried about them. But the drawers? I'm so glad that I did them - they really really needed it! 

I keep forgetting to take "before" pictures, but here's my after pictures! Not much to say except - YAY! So proud of me! Oh, and thank you to Lonny and Evan for your help. :)

My newly decluttered silverware drawer!

Day 3: Bakeware & Plasticware

Day Three of the 30-Day Power Purge: Declutter Bakeware & Plasticware! Okay, well, I didn't get to the bakeware because I decided to start with the plastics first since they were the worst. (Well, and because I didn't start until 11:40pm. . . ahem. . .) 

I am so excited to have all these lids and containers matched up! On Thanksgiving I had been fairly frustrated when I was looking for containers to split up all the leftovers with my sister-in-law and realized that I seriously could not find a large container and lid that matched! It took me like 5 minutes just to find one that would work. . . . silly. Look at all those lovely containers!

 My favorite set are the ones I purchased a few years ago on "Black Friday" They are seen in the picture above on the bottom right shelf and they are so awesome because the lids all stack up together underneath the containers, so I can actually keep them together! The containers various heights all have the same size lid, so it's really great. I also have a bunch of older and cheaper containers that I just stacked with the lids on. If I had a bunch of matching, I might do the lids separately on the side, but I think this will work for me.

Another great little gadget is the turn-around container holder on the bottom left shelf. There are 3 different sized containers all with the same little blue lids, and it pulls forward plus rotates. Pretty nice. For some reason quite a few of these are missing, so. . . hmmmm. . . . 

Day 2: Declutter the Pantry!

I was sooooo excited about this challenge (and not so excited, depending on the moment's thoughts!) because my food storage room has been badly in need of fixing for months. No wait, I have to be honest and say YEARS! Ever since our move to California and back in 2008-2009, I have not had my food storage organized and it drives me NUTS!

Here's what I wish my food storage room looked like!
Hey - quit laughing! It's possible.
For at least a few days. . . right?

I think it all started because of my health issues that pretty much limited me for a very long time to hardly ever going downstairs. It sounds really crazy now that I'm in a high-energy time of my life, but for months, no years, going down the stairs was just too hard so I avoided it much of the time. And so you can imagine what happened to my downstairs - especially since it's mainly the kid-zone! Yeah.

Now I will give some credit here to my wonderful children. They are all jumbled like me, so that means that while they are perfectly capable of making messes and making them well, they are also extremely good at digging in and getting a job done well when the mood hits them. So the downstairs has gone through it's up's and downs over the years. Right now it's teetering somewhere in the middle. The public rooms are doing fairly well considering that I don't spend a lot of time cleaning and organizing down there, but the bedrooms - well, they are pretty much unmentionable!! 

SO - now to get back on the topic. . . Food Storage Room, Day Two, right. 

Day 1: Declutter the Fridges and Freezers!

My fridge AFTER I finished with it!
(I forgot to take a "before" picture)

Today I was busy with Day One of the 30-Day Power Purge, so when my kids arrived home from school, I was cleaning out the refrigerator. When 8 year old Steven came in and saw what I was doing, he said, "Can I help?!?" (much to my delight!)

"Sure!" I said. So I had him help me re-assemble the drawers and gave him a cloth to wipe down the last few shelves. As he got busy cleaning, I heard him having a little conversation with himself, and here's how it went:

Steven: "You think you're really tough, but I'm stronger than you!"

Me: "Steven, are you talking to the fridge?"

Steven: "Nope, I'm talking to this stain!"

Me: ♥ LOL ♥

My fridge and freezer -
All clean & organized!

30 Day Power Purge is Starting Soon!

Wow, there's a lot going on right now! I have really gotten into the swing of the new year, and probably gotten myself into too much again. haha. Oh well, so far so good! The biggest thing I am working on right now is that I have taken the plunge to do Hannah Keeley's "30 Day Power Purge" and I am so excited!

I can't write much about it now because all the kids just walked in the door (of course, because I was distracted chatting with a friend on Facebook instead of writing this blog post!) SO - go read her blog entry about it to see what I'm getting into. I'd love to have as many jumbled friends join with me as possible!

Click on the picture to go to Hannah Keeley's blog and read about the power purge challenge of 2013!

Here's the link if the picture above doesn't work for you for some reason: http://hannahkeeley.com/blog/30-day-power-purge Read up on it and let me know if you want to join! We can chat about our progress on here and maybe on Facebook too. I will have to start a Jumbled Sunshine Facebook page!

One important thing: Don't wait until Monday to do anything, there are a few assignments that we need to do this week first! So check it out soon if you want in. Talk to you soon!