Projects Coming Soon!

I know I have slacked on the craft projects lately! I do have some in the works, and will be posting soon! I do have some good excuses though. I have been trying to get organized and doing the daily challenges with A Bowl Full of Lemons, and my other excuse is:

I'm expecting Baby #2! 

So, with trying to get organized and feeling icky from the pregnancy, I haven't done a lot. However, the morning sickness seems to be going away, and I hope to be getting back to doing lots of crafts soon! Along with trying to get ready for this baby. :)

New Weekly Challenges!

A Bowl Full of Lemons is doing weekly challenges now!

Day 17-Mail Organization

For a long time, our mail would go pretty much wherever we put it. Sometimes on the computer, sometimes on the table. So, I made this mail box to help contain it, and so I could find the mail.

Here is the before: I haven't sorted through the mail in a few days

 Here is the after: Nice and clean. I sorted through the mail and filed what needed to be filed, and through out the junk mail.

Day 16-Fridge

So, today was the fridge. This was probably long overdue. I've never really pulled the shelves off before to clean it, but I did this time. In doing so, I realized the bottom piece on my fridge has never been in the right spot. I just thought my fridge was different to have the bottom drawers open a little. Come to find out, they actually close all the way!

Here is the door before:

 Here is the fridge before:

 Here is the door after: I tried to put like things together.

 Here is the main part of the fridge after: I put all the cheese in one container, and in the other container I put sandwich meats, pickles and jams.

And the drawers are actually closed! :)

Day 15-Medicine

I already went through all my medicine when I did the spice cabinet, so today I worked in the bathroom.

Here is the top drawer before:

 Middle drawer before:

 Bottom drawer before: (technically my daughter emptied this out for me a couple days ago)

 Top drawer after:

 Middle drawer after:

 Bottom drawer after: EMPTY (ok, lets face it, whatever I put in here my daughter will pull out anyway, so for now, it's just going to be empty.)

Day 14-Under the Bathroom Sink

I figured this one was coming, so I've been holding off on doing it until now. It wasn't too bad, but there was stuff under there that I didn't need. Sorry, they aren't very good pictures.

Here is the before:

 Here is the after:

Day 13-Medicine Cabinet

I pretty much took care of the medicine cabinet when I did my spices.I thought about taking the day off, but decided I really shouldn't. I have so much to organize in my house! Pretty much the whole house needs to be done, except for what we've done in the challenges. I know the challenge had said we should do drawers in the bathroom, but I decided to do parts of my kitchen. I really want my kitchen to be organized. I'm tired of searching for things. Now if only I can get my husband to help keep it that way and not just put stuff anywhere. :)

Here is my cooking utensil drawer before:

 Here is the measuring cup/spoon drawer before:

 Here is another drawer with different things before:

 Here is the cooking utensil drawer after:

 Here is the measuring spoon/cup drawer after.

 Here is the other drawer after.

 Here is one of my cupboards before:

 Here is another cupboard before:

 Here is the first cupboard after: The purple container has drink mixes that you put in your water. I hated having a bunch of opened boxes of different kinds so I just combined them.

 Here is the other cupboard after: It's now more just baking stuff and other goodies.

Day 12-Spice Cupboard

I have always hated how small my spice cupboard is. I seem to shove things back in there and have to search to find the spice that I need. So, I decided I was going to move my spice cupboard.

Here is my spice cupboard before:

 Here is the other cupboard I decided to use for my spice cupboard: It's basically the medicine cupboard and then whatever doesn't fit in other cupboards gets put in here.

 Here's the spice cupboard after: I left the big liquids and other stuff we don't use as much in here. I still have room. I may put our noodles or something up here, too. Not exactly sure yet.

 Here is the new spice cupboard: The top shelf is vitamins/medicine. The middle shelf has some spices and other cooking things, as well as the bottom shelf. I put all the seasoning packets into the small green container on the bottom.

I'm tempted to get one of those shelf things to put the spices on instead of the containers. That way I can see them all and just pull what I want out instead of pulling the whole basket out. We'll see, though. I do like having more cupboard space for the spices, though!

Day 12 down! Not many more to go!

Day 11-The Freezer

Here is my freezer before: I've pretty much just shoved things in there where ever I can make them fit. I really wish I had a bigger freezer! If I know that I won't be able to fit something in there, I don't buy it. Which can be hard when needing something for a meal. I have been known to use my parents freezer to store some of our things, though (they live right next door, so it's really easy to get to).

Here is the door before:

Here is the freezer after: I put all the fruits and veggies into a container. It still looks a little bit of a mess on the top, but it is organized and I know where everything is. I did get rid of some things. Now I just need to get my ice cube trays filled up and put in!

Here is the door after:

Day 10-Laundry Room/Closet

I did the cupboards above my washer and dryer for this. I wish I could say my laundry soap and stuff go here, but they just don't fit. My shelves don't move, and so most of my laundry stuff doesn't fit. I keep them on the side of the washer and on the dryer until I can figure something else out, or we move.

My husband thought he would be nice and put the toilet paper away the other day. The problem is, I can't reach way up there! So I had to enlist his help to get it down today.

Here is the left side:

(anyone notice the dvd on the 2nd shelf? NO idea how that got there!)

Here is the right side:

Here is the left side after cleaning it out. Nothing on the top shelf. I figure there's no point putting anything up there if I can't reach it.

Here is the right side: I did put one thing on the top shelf. I believe it's for the dryer, but it was here when we moved in 3 years ago, so I figure if we ever move out we will leave it here, too.

Day 9-Toy Organization

My daughter doesn't really have a lot of toys right now, and the ones she does have don't really have categories to go in. So, what I do for now, is I have 2 baskets that sit on the bottom shelves of our book case in our living room, and in those baskets go most of her toys. The stuffed animals and books are around them, too. I decided to wait to do this until after she went to bed because I knew she would pull everything out as soon as I put it away.

Here is the before with my helper making a bigger mess: I had my scrapbooks and other books/paper on the shelf right above the toys. I have wanted to move these for awhile, and finally did.

 Here is the right side. Some of those stuffed animals could go into her room, but she was sleeping so I didn't want to mess with it.

 Here is the left side. Her books are all nicely stacked. These aren't all her books. She has some in a basket in her room for bedtime stories. She loves books!

Day 8-Coat Closet

I have to admit, this was another place that I was dreading. My coat closet is more storage. It's pretty much the only place I can store our Christmas tree. We don't have a ton of storage. We do have a little bit of an outside storage, but I live in the desert and don't trust putting the Christmas tree out there for fear it will be ruined in the summer from the heat. As you can see, the top is pretty much just craft stuff waiting for me to get to it and use it. The bottom has the tree, a few sweaters/coats, and a few other things.

Here is the after: I put a lot of the craft stuff into one container. There are still a few things on the side. Of course the Christmas tree is still there. I did get rid of some other stuff and managed to finally fit my vacuum in there! It's been sitting by it for awhile. I organized the sweaters/coats better and took out the extra hangers. There are a few things in the back that have to stay there. They go with the place, so if we ever move, they stay there.

I'm sure there's more I could do, but this is it for now!