Clean Sweep Part 1

OK so my friend Alisha asked me months ago to blog about organization since I guess she thinks I'm so good at it:) This first post is just an overview. I will get into specifics in a later post this week.

I confess I do enjoy organizing and have done it for other people in our church when I was in high school. Kinda nerdy you might think for a high school girl to organize people's game closets, but it was my hobby of sorts. It is therapy for me to organize a cabinet, toss some toys, label bins, alphabetize our movie cabinet. You catch my drift. By now I guess you have me pegged. I am Type A, perfectionistic, clean, and sometimes OCD (I have it balanced.)

When I am on a mission to organize anything (books, toys, clothes) I first rid out of the obvious things first, i.e., outdated clothes, broken toys, toys with missing pieces, novels I don't wish to read again, clothing with stains, etc. Those go into the dump pile.

I then begin to sort the remaining items. Clothes or shoes that I haven't worn in a year or two go.

My not-so-favorite purses go (Most of us have our favorites that we carry all the time so toss the ones that are too small to hold your stuff.)

Toys that Libby is no longer interested is or that she has too many of go (babies, barbies, balls.)

When ridding through magazines, keep your favorite issues that you will refer back to, but then dump or give away the rest.

Instead of continuing to buy fiction books that you probably won't ever read again, check them out at the library or borrow them from a friend. I do have my stash of Janette Oke books that I loved reading as a teenager that I want to pass on to Libby. Those type of books are ok to keep, just don't go overboard.

If you have board games that are missing pieces, get rid of them. If you haven't tried buying replacement parts (if they are available) you probably won't now.

I will always get new clothes. The kids will always get new toys.Don't be afraid to throw away, give to charity, take to consignment. You can earn some extra money on those items that are still in good condition.

Immediately put those items into trash bags or boxes and load them up into the car so you won't be tempted to go through the pile again and keep the things you really didn't want to get rid of. Plus by loading them into the car it keeps the clutter down in the house from having bags and boxes piling up.

So your assignment for the next two days is to pick one closet/room in your house and rid out of one particular item or group of items (games, magazines, clothes, shoes, books, toys.)

Be ready for part 2 on Wednesday.

Happy ridding!

*Not happy organizing because we're not there yet...we're only in the ridding stage*

Radical Debt Elimination

In our quest to become debt free and pay off long overdue debt, Joey has taken on a summer job. He started today working for a neighbor of ours doing odd jobs and yard work. Yard work doesn't say it quite right...pasture work is more like it. Joey is said there is more mowing and weed eating than he has ever seen in his entire life! He definitely won't be able to complete the job each week, but our neighbor said it was quite alright because he said it would take 40+ hours/week to really complete the whole thing. Just do what you can he said. Anyhow, he came in for lunch today and all I could see were two big blue eyes staring at me because you couldn't see the rest of him. I said, "Have you been mowing a dirt pile!?" He said, "No, but what made you think so?" He was the filthiest I have ever seen him. After lunch and a short nap, off he went to "finish" the job for the day. I felt like a farmer's wife...cooking lunch (if you call a sandwich cooking), letting him rest, and then sending him off until dark. He will sink into bed tonight. I also have been working for my mom the last two weeks helping her organize and rid out. I put the pedal to the metal when Libby is taking her naps and when she is awake, Amy will help babysit or she can play while I do some stuff. I have to work in shifts, but I'm glad she can be with me. How do working moms do it all? Between working 12-14 hours a week, cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, running errands in town and grocery shopping, I almost can't keep up...but on I trek!! We are so sick of debt that we are trying our hardest to eliminate it. A borrower really is servant to the lender as Scripture says. Joey has got us a game plan for paying it off, so hopefully nothing disastrous will happen (car repairs, sickness, etc.) that will threaten our plan and get us off track. So for now, the working mom is signing off!