Bathroom Cupboard - Hot Spot #5

Well at first, when Tsh announced that the final Hot Spot in her 5 weeks of organizing was the hot spot of our choice, I felt a little let down. Wait, I thought, that means I need to pick an area on my own! Then I realized that with my hectic life these last few weeks, that would work really well - I could pick a cluttered spot around my house that is just the right size of project for me to accomplish in the amount of time I have - perfect!

First I thought I would do the kitchen/dining room table. But then I realized that I could simplify it twice a day and things would still end up there - and that's ok for this point in our lives. Then I thought I could do the front hallway/entryway. But I realized that to really make that better would require some restructuring of how we store things in other areas of our house - and I definitely don't have time for that. So then I thought of the bathroom - although I have sorted and purged things from the wall cabinet above the sink, the cupboard under the sink hasn't been touched in months at least, if not almost a year. Ahah - perfect! Here's my before picture:

First I pulled everything out onto the bathroom floor. First to go were the assorted screws and old toilet parts - either to the garbage or to the front hallway where we store our tools and spare parts. Next I sorted through our cream, soap, and shampoo bottles and tossed the empty ones and the ones that haven't been used in years. Several items went into the wall cabinet above the sink, and several more were tossed. Then I put the keepers back in, arranging bottles, boxes & toilet paper rolls to make everything look nice. Here's my after picture:

Head on over to SimpleMom to see what everyone else has simplified this week!

Pantry & Fridge - Hot Spot #4

Well, after skipping Hot Spot #3 last week, I figured I had better put my best foot forward and make a real effort with this week's hot spot. In the past week we have some home stuff that has kept my husband and I busy with some planning and strategizing, and occupied me later in the week when I would normally have been working on house cleaning and blog posts - hence my lack of a post on or progress for Little M's clothes & toys which was last week's hot spot.

This week's hot spot is the pantry & fridge. These are 2 areas that although I try to keep simple, and take action on every couple of weeks, they are always getting cluttered and definitely needed some attention this week! Here are my before pictures of my pantry areas & fridge (ignore the patchy paint & uncovered electrical outlets, I'm mid-project and still need to do the second coat!)

I basically just shifted things around and organized, but it was amazing how much more space I ended up with! I threw some things out, but the space they were taking up was definitely less than the free space I ended up with. Here are the after pictures:

Head on over to check out everyone else pictures at SimpleMom!

Paper Clutter - Hot Spot #2

I've finished going through Project: Simplify's Hot Spot #2, Paper Clutter, which for me involved my desk in the closet of our guest bedroom.  I forgot to take a before picture (oops!) as I was so excited to be able to see my desk surface that I just dove right in and started making piles. But this pic shows pretty much the quantity of paper I had to go through - not too much.

I made a 'to be recycled' pile, a 'to be filed' pile, and a 'to deal with file'. Luckily when I moved my desk from the nursery into the guest bedroom about a month ago, I went through a ton of papers and so my piles weren't too bad.  I did manage to set some hanging files on the side of my desk up to help slow the paper pile build up in the future though - a 'current' folder for my current projects, and a 'to file' folder for when I don't have time to do more than move old bills to my desk.

I also tried to be better about dealing with the mail when it came into the house, hanging the bills to pay up on the fridge, opening and recycling any junk-type mail that comes in my husbands name (I rarely get junk mail addressed to me, and he rarely deals with his), and moving the newspapers immediately to the hearth for starting the fire in the mornings. I am going to really try to stop paper piles from starting so they don't get so overwhelming! Here are a couple of after pictures:

Simplifying my closet - Hot Spot #1

I'll be linking up with Project Simplify on this week's hot spot - my wardrobe! Here is a before shot of our master closet. My dresser sits in there so all my clothes are in there.

I didn't have a lot of time this week to do this project, but I'm happy to report that I accomplished a lot in a short time. I didn't have a whole lot of extra clothes, I really don't have many and most of the ones I have I wear a lot, but there were some that I bought second hand thinking I would love them and wear them lots but they just don't really fit or work with any other clothes that I have. Those ones got tossed!

Here are the clothes that are heading to our front hallway 'give away' shelf.

Luckily we did this over the xmas holidays with my husbands clothes, so his portion of our closet is looking better than it did previously as well. I was hoping to free one drawer of my dresser up, so that I could put wrapping paper in there to free up some space elsewhere, but I realized that's where I had my maternity clothes stored for future use. I guess the wrapping paper can stay out of my closet! Here are some of my after pictures:

I think the main thing I learned from this challenge is that I need to sort through my bedside table! Oh, and figure out somewhere to store or organize my jewelry! I kept pulling things out of my dresser that shouldn't have been there, and that ended up in my bedside table... They barely all fit, and likely should be somewhere else... perhaps in the next couple of weeks I'll get to the bedside table. But in the meantime, I can enjoy my tidy & roomy closet!