Day 10 of 31: Getting my Pantry in Order

After I went through my bathroom cupboards yesterday I realized that other areas of our house may have outdated, empty or unnecessary things in them.  What better place to look than the pantry? So I went through and threw out all the expired cans, mostly empty boxes and stale bags of chips.  Now my pantry is nice and clean.

Day 9 of 31: Getting my Bathroom in Order

Overall I felt my bathroom was pretty organized.  Under the sink I have cute little bins and each drawer has plastic organizers.  If I need something I know right where to look because all the hair stuff has its own place and all the sunscreen has its own place, etc.  However, just because things are where they need to be doesn't mean that my bathroom is completely in order. 

 I opened a drawer yesterday to get some lotion and realized that there were two empty little lotion bottles in it.  They were where they needed to be, but that made me curious....how many of the other things, that are where they should be, are empty, out-dated or unnecessary?

So I went through all my drawers and cupboards to see how much stuff I could throw out.  What did I find? Some pretty random things and a lot of trash.  We have only lived in this house for 2 years and I know I didn't bring trash when we moved, yet I threw out:  two old tooth brushes, a very empty tube of toothpaste, 4 bottles of expired children's medicine and their boxes, two old retainers (yeah, that used to go in my kids mouth's), four empty shampoo/conditioner bottles, 3 old razors (eww, sorry I shared that one), 3 expired prescription bottles, two bottles of nail polish that would not even open anymore, an empty deodorant and an old contact case. 

That's pretty cluttered for an organized space.  

It didn't take me very long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, but now there is a lot less junk in there.

I wonder what can be found to throw away in other areas of my house?

Day 8 of 31: Getting a Little Secret Service in Order

We started the tradition of "booing" people a couple years ago and my kids absolutely love it.  There are so many creative versions of it out there that I try a different one each year.  This is the version I chose for this year.

Source: greysquaredesigns.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

If you are not familiar with the idea of booing someone, basically it is ding dong ditching with treats.  You make three sets of treats and three copies of the booed sign and the booed instructions (if you want the version I am using, click on the picture above.  You can find the other versions on pinterest). Then you pick three friends or neighbors and put a treat and the sign and directions on their doorstep, ring and run for cover.  

That is my kids favorite part.  They feel like they are special ops or something.  They wear all black and feel all sneaky.  The idea is that it should continue.  The three people you boo, go out and boo three more.  Each time the person makes copies for their "victims" and places their sign in a window or on their front door. That way they don't get booed again by someone else.

My favorite part is the treats.  This year I am really looking forward to caramel apples, so that is the treat that I am going to leave. 

Source: eatatallies.com via Cindy V on Pinterest

I just love how this is so sneaky, yet so kind.  

Day 7 of 31: Getting My Garden in Order

Last year I had the most wonderful garden.  My dad lives about a mile away from us and has an acre of property.  It used to have an orchard, but as he has gotten older he has wanted less maintenance so now about half of it is just empty.  In May 2011, I built a 10x10 raised garden in his "orchard".  I had pumpkins, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, peppers and melons.  But this summer I was just too busy with the kids swim meets and I had a hard time getting over to his house, even though I could basically walk there.  That meant I never got around to replanting.  Now it is Fall and I know I don't have enough time to go to his house that often just to check out the garden and going in the orchard when I visit him at night is not fun.  So I built a new raised bed on the side of our house.  It is not as big, but I can always add to it later and I can still plant some of things I don't have to check on as much at my dad's.

 It's about 4 x 8.

 Since it is Fall I had to plant a winter crop.  I just love that October is still planting season in Southern California.   

This was my garden last year. 

I think I will probably turn that one into a pumpkin patch in May.

Day 6 of 31: Getting my Bootie Back in Order

For Day 5 I mentioned our work out area in our garage.  Before we went to Hawaii we decided we were going to try a popular work out routine.  I have never been overweight and really can hide most of my problem area with clothes, but there is no hiding bingo wings and a muffin top in a swim suit.  90 days later I felt so much better and I was ready to face Hawaii and a swim suit without any shame (except the blinding white skin, but I have red hair so that isn't going away anytime soon).  However, after the motivation of our vacation was gone and the craziness of school started back up again I have kind of gotten a bit relaxed on my exercise schedule.  Did I say a bit relaxed?...Ok, so I haven't worked out since we got back.  How could I do this, I spent all that time and sweat.  There were nights when the only time I had to work out was at 2 in the morning and I still did it.  In fact there were a couple times where I woke up on the garage floor after falling asleep during the ab workout.  Now my muffin top is resurfacing and I feel super gross.  So I am starting up another round.  To help me out I organized our work out area a little more.

I added a white board to remind me of the workouts and hopefully I can add something motivational to it every once in a while.  I also organized our workout discs so I can find them all easier.   Day 1 will start on Monday!  Even though this is more ordered than it was before, I know it probably still isn't very exciting to look at so here are some more inspiring work out areas I found on pinterest.

             Source: houzz.com via Jake on Pinterest

                   Source: hgtv.com via Debra on Pinterest

                Source: bhg.com via Shanda on Pinterest

                  Source: hgtv.com via Davina on Pinterest

Maybe someday my workout area will be this beautiful, until then I will just work on that muffin top. 

Day 5 of 31: Getting my Garage in Order

This past summer we went to Hawaii with my whole family.  When we first got our plane tickets we decided that we wanted to be in our best "Hawaii Worthy" shape.  My husband decided to turn our garage into a work out area.  We have a three car garage, but for some reason he thought we should park my car outside to give us more room (his truck is always outside since it is too long for the garage).  That was back in March.  You would think that not having the car in there we would have tons of room.  However, I think there must be some physical law that states the more room you have the more room you will use.  Since we had all that space we started leaving more things in there.  An unfinished project here, yard equipment there,......  It got to the point where I was constantly stepping over things just to get into the house.  And on top of that my car constantly needed to be washed.  So instead of having one side full of junk and the other side a work out area, I cleaned out the junk side and reorganized all the stuff laying around.  Then I moved the work out area to the middle and had plenty of room for my car on the other side.  There is no way I would show you the before of this one, I didn't even like to look at it and I had to, but here is the after.

While  I was at it I relocated our recycling center (I got these recycling bins online for free- woo hoo) and even replaced a lightbulb in the garage door opener that has been out for 6 months.  Now that is getting something in order! :)

Day 4 of 31: Getting Some House Maintenance in Order

Last weekend we were out of town and the night we got home I noticed an extremely annoying chirping.  It was the fire alarm in my office.  I have been ignoring it mostly because I have just been too busy to stop for a minute and get the ladder out.  So today's getting in order is pretty simple.  I got my husband to bring the ladder in and I changed out the batteries.  Life more in order, safety more in order! It was actually really simple and the quiet of the removed chirping is heaven. 

While I had the ladder in there I decided to just go through the house and change all the alarms that I haven't changed in the last year.