30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 25: My bedroom

My room is a mess a lot of the time. Mostly it's laundry, clean laundry, that sits in unfolded piles all over the floor. Some days it appears I live like a disorganized bachelor.

It happened after I had kids. I used to be so neat. Everything had to be "just so".

Another reason for the untidiness, in my bedroom in particular, is that the shevling holding my clothes is just not in a convenient place. So I rearranged a few things (getting rid of 3 bags of stuff in the process) & came up with a different set up. I hope it works. Believe me, the Mr. is crossing his fingers that it does.

30 Bags in 30 Days tally so far: 45 bags

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 24: Zoey's Room

Zoey is my tidy girl. Her room is mostly nice & clean all the time. She likes things to be this way. It makes her feel awesome to have a tidy room. Believe me, she stuffs things under the bed & has her piles here & there. But for the most part, she has a fairly orderly space.

And she LOVES it when I go in her room & help her purge ever so often.

Like, this week.

We got rid of 4 bags of stuff. (2 trash & 2 donate)

I must admit, I've already done her closet as part of the "30 Bags in 30 Days" project, but that was months & months ago! This time around I was able to get rid of a new season of outgrown clothes & pass them on to her little sister. (Who, of course, must try on all the new pretty dresses & show me how each one twirls so magnificently.)

Zoey's now beaming with uncluttered pride.

Her favorite thing to do lately is grab a pillow & a blanket, & read in her closet.

(And I'm really proud of my girls for letting go of things. They're setting a good example for me.)

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 23: Storage Closet

(I've got to finish this project! I've just GOT to!)

I've already completed 22 days.

7 more to go...

I'm purging at a snails pace. But still, it's getting done.

Day 23 brought me to the storage closet.

My storage closet houses boxes of holiday decor. It's not a lot of stuff, but it needed organized. It seriously looked like Easter had thrown up all over Christmas.
But, how convenient that Christmas just happened & I had to get all the decor out anyway.
1 bag of donation items & a Christmas tree later, & I was done.
♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 21 & 22: The Mr.'s closet & his side of the room

Golly, I'm stretching this 30 Bags in 30 Days Project as far as it can go, huh?

BUT, I'm emphasizing, once again, the fact that I know me. And I know that I would in no way be able to tackle all this in one month. It's getting done in 30 days. Just not 30 consecutive days. And if I tried to get it all done in one month, somewhere along the way I'd be overwhelmed & give up.

Better 30 full bags then a 4 half full.

The Mr. had his turn this time around. His side of the room, as compared to mine, is rather orderly. He is a tidy Mr. So, he had nothing to do there. Easy check off my list. In his closet, he prolly got rid of about 1/3 of his clothes. Gave them to friends. Wasn't that nice?

So, 2 bags gone is a job well done, Mr. WhiMSy love.

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Days 18-20: The Playroom & Family Room

The next on my list for the 30 Bags in 30 Days Project was THE PLAYROOM, & FAMILY ROOM. And I don't know why, but whenever I clean these rooms, it is always VERY satisfactory. These rooms are connected, & right off the art studio in the basement. Everyone enjoys using them. The minute Zoey saw the cleaned up & tidy space, (I cleaned while they were sleeping or away at school), she screamed SO LOUD,  & shook with happiness. It was quite a sight. haha! And of course the girls played the whole afternoon down there.

I got rid of 6 bags of trash & 2 bags of donation items.

Tally so far: 35 bags in 20 days!!

I'm 2/3 of the way through: 10 days left!!

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Days 14-17: Art Studio



My 30 Bags in 30 Days project is plugging along. I gave myself 4 days to purge that awfully messy art studio of mine. I had a fire of sorts under my crafty bum too. I had committed to donate items to our church yard sale & the date was fast approaching! That definitely helped keep me on target.

I got rid of 10 bags total!!!! (4 bags of trash & 6 bags to donate.)

I am in no way completely done in there either. But it's a great starting point. And I can walk on the floor without stepping on stuff! Cool. I really want to declutter & organize to the point of having only a few boxes of craftiness, but it's awful hard to do that when I feel like I might need any of those bits & pieces & things & stuff for a future project. This is the hardest room by far. But I have noticed it is easier to let go of things, once I start. I have really softened on my "I can't let go of this" stance as the weeks have gone by & I've been able to take part in this project.

This week & weekend I plan on attacking the playroom/family room---which sits right off the art studio & is almost just as messy as the art studio. And, again, there's another fire of sorts keeping me on my toes: my birth dad arrives in 10 days, & that's where he'll be sleeping.

Tally so far: 27 bags in 17 days!

(13 days/rooms left to go.)

YAY ME!

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 11, 12 & 13: Bathrooms & Hall Closet

After school today, I walked with the girls to the library for story time. Then I dropped the Mr. off to work out at the gym. I had about 45 minutes to myself. And rather than have a sit & knit, I decided to tackle the upstairs bathroom as part of the project: 30 Bags in 30 Days.

Well, the bathroom led to the hall closet, full of vases & glass jars of all shapes & sizes. And candles & holders for the candles too. And then THAT led to the downstairs bathroom. (Which is really bare, but still can't be left out.)

And a few hours later, I was done.

(I tackled 3 "rooms" from my list!)

I found one of Zoey's baby teeth in the medicine cabinet. (Gross.)

And plenty of lotions & bath gels. (Too many.)

I discovered some mud masks. (The girls & I will have fun with those this weekend!)

And once again it felt good to let go of things that I've been hanging onto for years---& yet never using.

I got rid of 2 bags of stuff: (1 trash, 1 for donation)

Tally so far: 13 Days = 17 Bags

Yahoo!

Zoey's room & closet, AND Mr. WhiMSy love's closet & his side of the room are the final areas to complete upstairs---then it's downstairs I go, to the rooms I'm most scared of & have been putting off: The storage rooms. The playroom. My. Art. Studio.

Yikes!!

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 9 & 10: Kitchen Cupboards, Drawers & Shelves

Ok, I'm inching my way along with this 30 Bags in 30 Days Project. But I'm proud of myself that I'm keeping at it. My latest attempt involved me, spontaneously attacking the kitchen. Well, it came by accident. Mr. WhiMSy love opened a cupboard & things started flying out. So, I figured since it was already started for me, I might as well finish the rest of the cupboards & drawers & shelves.

I got rid of one big bag of garbage (old stained linens, a glass lid to a pot that's been forever missing, tupperware in the form of plastic ham, & plastic macaroni salad containers, etc.) & another big bag of donation stuff!

So far...15 bags purged, in 10 days!

In all my decluttering & purging, I uncovered 2 cast iron pans. They are small pans. One is a mini skillet (made in China & not as heavy as the other pan)—about 6 1/2" across x 1 1/4" deep. The other is a tiny pot—4" across x 2 3/4" deep. I'm not kitchen-savvy. I try. And, sadly, I've got a few appliances in my cupboards I've never even used. (Wedding prezzies!)  Maybe I'll reveal those later.

But first, help a girl out.

These pans are not in the best shape. Well, the Chinese one looks awesome. But I know I can clean the rusty one properly. I'm pretty sure I've googled that before. But then what? What do I do with them? We aren't campers, but we do grill. And we have a flat glass stovetop--so I know it can't be used there. Any advice? Do you have a favorite 'cast iron recipe'? Is there even such a thing as a 'cast iron recipe'? I think I may have used one of these pans ONCE in the past 10 years. But I'd really like to try to use them properly & give it a go before I decide to give it up.

I can't wait to hear your comments!
UPDATE: OK, so I keep hearing that glass stovetops + cast iron pans = "A-OK". I guess my naivety on the whole subject of cast iron cooking had me fooled! Can't wait to try my pans! And thanks for the cast iron encouragement!

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 8: Zoey's Closet

Day 8 of the 30 Bags in 30 Days project brought me to Zoey's closet.

And rightly so.

I am shopping with Pazely in 3 days for school clothes. (We can't wait!) And Zoey's wardrobe provided lotsa hand-me-downs for her little sister.

Pazely was so excited with her new clothes from Zoey. She changed her outfit about 3 times today.

With both girls' closets & drawers gone through, I have complete list made of things they need.

Pazely & I have a special day planned this Saturday: Shopping, lunch, more shopping!

Next Saturday it's Zoey's turn!

(1 bag removed from her closet, too!)

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 6 & 7: Pazely's Closet & Bedroom

I have made plans to take both of my girls out school shopping for clothes. Separately of course. (I'm no fool.) And, oddly enough, this will be the first time I've ever taken them school shopping. We've always been gifted with clothes in the past, but this year we're on our own. And I'm perfectly fine with that! In fact, I'm more than perfectly fine----I'm giddy!!!!

Anyway, this has prompted me to go through the girls' closets & figure out what doesn't fit them anymore, what still fits, what won't work for the coming season & what they still need. Pazely's turn was first. And cleaning her closet just naturally led to cleaning her room.

I got rid of 5 bags!! (2 trash, 1 to donate & 2 full of clothes to hand down to her cousin.)

In the photo, Pazely shows her excitement by jumping on her bed (I let my kids jump on their beds), & wearing a too-small set of winter feetie jammies she discovered while cleaning with me. She just can't let go of those jammies. (Even though it's almost 90 degrees outside!)

(30 Bags in 30 Days tally: 12 bags in 7 days!)

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 5: Linen Closet

I read somewhere that a good "rule of thumb" is to keep 2 sets of sheets per bed. I kept this in mind when going through my linen closet. I could not believe how many sheets I had! And I finally found all my "missing" pillowcases----shoved behind a pile of sheets, of course. What a mess everything was. The linen closet functioned in this manner: open the door, cram the clean sheets in & shut it fast before everything spilled out!

I got rid of 2 bags!!! (1 for trash & 1 for donation!) I prolly still have too many bed linens. (My weakness is vintage sheets & vintage pillowcases. So, I've got my stash of those still.) But, now they're all nicely folded & you can actually get to everything VERY easily!!
(Tally: 7 bags so far!)

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 4: My closet

It's been 8 days since my last active "30 Bags in 30 Days" purge. And, though this project might have been intended to get completed 30 days in a row, I'm breaking the rules & spreading the 30 days out a bit. It's just been too busy around here to get it done every day.

 I was in a funk today. I decided to take advantage of that funk & attacked my bedroom closet. I found that being in a funk was rather helpful in letting me discard things that I otherwise might have been attached to. I decluttered to the tune of 2 trash bags full: 1/2 a bag of garbage & 1 1/2 bags of items to donate to our church garage sale.

The bags of items are already starting to pile up in the basement downstairs.
It's really rather inspiring.

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 3: Dining Room

I love how I can pick & choose from my 30 Bags in 30 Days list.

(I'm thinking the weekends will be reserved for the hefty cluttery rooms. Except not this weekend. I'm leaving tomorrow on a day trip with some gal pals to Keystone, SD. No idea what's there. But I'm bringing my camera, so I'll have pics to show later!) 

Today was another busy day. So, the dining room was my decluttering room of choice. Again, not much there. A dining table. A rug underneath the dining table. Crumbs. A few accessories. And our music CD's. Music is a hard one to declutter. But I managed to get rid of several CD's & a few other items hidden away that I haven't touched in years.

Bag 3 down. Woohoo!

This feels good people!!

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 2: Living Room

I had a busy day, so I chose a room on my "30 Bags in 30 Days" list that was a bit on the easy side to declutter: the living room. There's not a lot there. My piano, a giant couch, the TV & that's pretty much it. Although, there IS a little side table with a HUGE stack of mags on it. I flipped through the mags, tore out a few great ideas I found inside, & then tossed them. I ended up filling one more bag. YAY!

By the way, if you knew Mr. WhiMSy love, you'd know how much he loves getting rid of garbage. He loves throwing stuff away. (In fact, I've learned that before I start hunting for something missing that I've lost, I ask the Mr. FIRST if he threw it away.) So, when I explained to him this project I'm doing, he was IN LOVE with it! Those bags & bags I'm filling up are making his heart go *pitter, patter*. Who knew this would be a romantic endeavor as well?

P.S.  And tonight for dinner, I made Penne with Roasted Asparagus & Balsamic Butter as a result of yesterday's pantry cleaning. (All that pasta, remember?) Except, I used rotini 'cause that's what I had. I love asparagus. Absolutely love it. Not the most healthy dish with all that butter, but something different than dumping marinara on top.

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days: Day 1: Pantry

I got rid of my first bag!! Yay! It's a small one, I know. 

My pantries are filled with more pasta than I know what to do with. I found 5 opened bags of powdered sugar. And a box of taco shells from Fred Meyer. (I haven't been to a Fred Meyer in over a year & a half.) I started writing down some of the ingredients I found {that I didn't even know I had} so I can come up with meal plans to use those items up.

♥

30 Bags in 30 Days

I found this idea on pinterest, only it was "40 Bags in 40 Days". I made my own list & only came up with 30. In a month's time (right before the girls start school) I hope to be decluttered & on my way to living a simple life. And, yes, I've devoted 4 days to decluttering my art studio. If you could only see it, you'd prolly suggest I even add another day or two. That'll be the hardeset room to go through. I'm tackling these in no particular order. I'll let you know how it goes...