Home Base Zone Part II

I'm still on my quest to organize my house. However, I have finally realized after 32 years, that this is not going to happen over night and I'm cutting myself a little slack. Not so much slack that I've abandoned my task, but enough to realize that just getting my Home Base Zone organized may take me more than a day.  If it's going to take me 2-3 days to get that small part of my house organized, it's going to take me all year to work on the rest of the house!

Yesterday, as I was wrapping some Mother's Day gifts for the grandmas and the Godmothers, I had to make a concerted effort to put away all of my supplies. Usually I leave them be because I'll get back to them. But I made a conscious effort to put everything away (even my son helped!) even though I wasn't done with my supplies. Then I spent an extra minute putting other things away. As a result, my living room is starting to look a little neater!

Today is my self-designated 30-minute "Clean Sweep."  I'm going to go through each of the boxes and just start putting them in piles:  trash, keep, donate, Swaptree.  (Swaptree is an online swap where I can trade books and music for other ones that I want. I've got a ton of books in great condition that I know that I will not read again. I don't want to donate them, but willing to trade them for books I do want. Saves me money...and if I'm careful to choose books that I really want, maybe I'll swap out more than I swap in???? Is that possible?)  My only concern is finding the 30 minutes to do this.  I can't do it when my littlest one is awake. So it's either before the kids wake up in the next 2 hours if they don't wake up any earlier or during afternoon naps. Let's hope I don't take one with them ;)

Here is my work in progress in my little corner of the world. It's been Day 2 and my counter has stayed clear!!!!  No pics of the counter, but instead pics of my nearly empty drawers.  As I needed items from the boxes I slowly and carefully put things back in drawers where I think I'll need them the most. Thoughtfully putting back items is helping me realize what I need on a regular basis.

Cabine with all of my cookbooks. I've decided to leave the bottom shelf for the cookbooks I use most often.  The middle shelf is the for the stationary I use on a regular basis: address books, cards, etc. The top shelf is for cook books that I use, maybe not on a regular basis.  I think I'm going to take them back down and go through them again in my 30 minute Clean Sweep.

Bottom drawer underneath the printer. My trusty labeler and a phone book. No longer a junk drawer!

The craft cabinet for the kids. In the tub I have coloring books, crayons, glue sticks, construction paper, stickers, and markers.  On the top shelf are the computer supplies: paper, photo paper, ink catridges.

My mostly cleaned out drawers. The items that are in the drawers are things that I used in the last 24 hours, so they stay. Just much more organized!

Ah, here is the Heather we know and love. The discomboubulation!!!  In case you thought aliens invaded my body, here are the two boxes of shtuff I have to go weed out.  Wish me luck. If you know me at all this is going to be the hard part!