De.Clutter.Ed.

Declutter.
It's like a magic word from baby Jesus. 

Where do I sign up?! Oh, I already did...I am following the "My Simpler Life's Declutter Calendar" during 2012. So far, I am loving it. I already feel so challenged and victorious over clutter!!

Sunday, I thought about "Who I want to be this coming year." Not sure I came up with a real answer, other than the fact that I want to become more organized. Funny thing is...this calendar will help!!

Monday, I set up a "donation station" downstairs. It's nothing super formal...I plan to get some rubber tubs specifically for this. Then I want to quarterly take whatever I collect in this station to Goodwill. This also helps with taxes. You know you get credit for that? Awe.some.

Tuesday, (well, actually we did this last Friday...whatevs.) we decluttered the top of our cabinets (kitchen and bathroom), which actually didn't require any decluttering, however it DESPERATELY needed a dusting. Thanks to Husby who stood on the countertop for over 25 minutes to vacume up there, and all over the ceiling and walls in the kitchen! That job, simply made me breath easier! Since that task was already done, I moved onto Wednesdays' task...So on Tuesday night...I kinda got ahead of myself here, and I did Wednesday and Thursday's job too. I decluttered the top shelf of one of my cabinets (I picked the Baking/Spice Cabinet). I even ended up decluttering the entire cabinet. As well, I went through and discarded all expired and old spices. Gosh, I should have done that a while ago...the oldest one was from 2003. "No wonder the food is bland sometimes," I quipped to Husby.

So, I guess technically I get a day off today and tomorrow since I finished that task yesterday...but I will stick with the organizing game. Tonight, just for the heck of it...I am organizing and decluttering the sock drawers. If there are no matches, old socks and the like...they are gonezo. Tomorrow, I will probably make a run to Wal-mart for the rubber tubs I need for the donation station downstairs.

So I would say that the longest tasks took just under a half on hour each. That's not a bad amount of time to take out of your day to declutter.
I think I'll stick with this.

How will you declutter life?

30 Before 30 Update

It's been nearly a month since I last updated...so let's see how I am doing...

1. Finish all drywalling in the basement.
2. Recover a chair. 
3. Complete our Master Bedroom. (Paint, Furniture & Decor) 
4. Sew a dress for myself.
5. Make Sushi from scratch.
6. Get pregnant.
7. Pay down Credit Cards. (I am sure you see what I did...changed "pay-off" to "pay down." It was a lofty goal at best, but we did put over $3000 towards Credit pay down since the list creation date...so I am marking this off. Deal with it, it's MY list! :) haha!)
8. Print out photobooks of my favorite photos. *adding photos...
9. Have a Family Photo taken. Husby and I...and us with the Pups. 
10. Grow vegetables.
11. Learn how to use my DSLR in manual mode. 
12. Start journaling.
13. Lose 20+ pounds. *still on WW...losing slowly but surely.
14. Make new curtains for my kitchen. *getting ready to purchase fabric.
15. Successfully launch my Photography business...aePhotography.
16. Grow out my hair.
17. Bake my own bread.
18. Surprise Husby at least once a month with something fun. August, September, October, November, December, January, February Planning March now...
19. Create our "Family Story" wall. *Gotta make the shelves
20. Organize and add shelving to our Master Bedroom Closet.
21. Hit 35,000 visitors on our Blog.
22. Successfully keep an Orchid for more than 30 days.
23. Have a successful Yard Sale.
24. Paint a picture. *Painting soon
25. Slow dance with Husby.
26. Go to a show on Broadway.
27. Hold a puppy.
28. Make a necklace.
29. Grow Peonies. Planted!
30. Get Husby to dress up for Halloween.

16 out of 30 completed, and that leaves 14 that I still need to complete. 5 of which I am about to jump on this month. I do realize that I will not COMPLETE this list, however for the first time doing this I am pretty darn excited! And I have 77 days left...I  still may surprise myself!

I am really gonna hit the list now that March is here and the weather is on it's way to gorgeous! Come May, I think I am going to challenge the Husby and I to make monthly lists in the areas of:

Enjoy, Create, Organize, Grow, Save, Home, Cook and Health. (Idea taken from here)

I think it should be fun to challenge ourselves!!

30 Before 30 - Update...

According to my Timer, I have: 118 Days, 8 Hours, 53 Minutes and 15, 14, 13...seconds left to complete my 30 before 30 list.

Let's take a look at how well I am doing...

1. Finish all drywalling in the basement. *We are so close...just a small portion of the laundry room needs to be finished and all the bulkheads. But we are on a little break after Husby's injury.
2. Recover a chair. *heehee, need to finish painting...but it's been too cold!
3. Complete our Master Bedroom. (Paint, Furniture & Decor) 
4. Sew a dress for myself.
5. Make Sushi from scratch. *It's on the calendar...January 28th. If I have talked to you about coming over when I do it...save that date! :)
6. Get pregnant.
7. Pay off Credit Cards. 
8. Print out photobooks of my favorite photos. *adding photos...
9. Have a Family Photo taken. Husby and I...and us with the Pups. 
10. Grow vegetables.
11. Learn how to use my DSLR in manual mode. 
12. Start journaling.
13. Lose 20+ pounds. *On Weight Watchers since January 4th, 7 pounds down so far.
14. Make new curtains for my kitchen. *In design phase :)
15. Successfully launch my Photography business...aePhotography.
16. Grow out my hair.
17. Bake my own bread.
18. Surprise Husby at least once a month with something fun. August, September, October, November, December I am working on January.
19. Create our "Family Story" wall. *Gotta make the shelves
20. Organize and add shelving to our Master Bedroom Closet.
21. Hit 35,000 visitors on our Blog. *Getting so close...almost at 33,657!! 1,000 more than last check in!
22. Successfully keep an Orchid for more than 30 days. We are on "orchid watch" It's day 14...so far, so good!
23. Have a successful Yard Sale.
24. Paint a picture. A plan is in place to work on this soon. Next month!
25. Slow dance with Husby.
26. Go to a show on Broadway.
27. Hold a puppy.
28. Make a necklace. Planning this one.
29. Grow Peonies.
30. Get Husby to dress up for Halloween.

So I think we are doing pretty good!! We only have 20 left and many of those are SO close to being done!! I am proud...and while we are at it...how about I check in with my 2011 Goals so far...

• Join Weight Watchers again I joined on January 4th. I have lost 7 pounds as of this morning.
  
• Start a friendly weight loss competition with some friends. I have joined two competitions. One online with Bobbi and Mike, called the HealthyTrain. One is still in the works between the Young Adult Small Group and the VERB Youth Leaders at our church.
• Exercising. I won't strike through this yet, because it has not become a habit, but I HAVE made an effort to be more active and do some workouts here and there.
• Start couponing. I will go ahead and strike this one, because I am in collect mode right now...I will start using them soon.
• Finish the decor in the Master Bedroom gosh, I am so close to striking this one, but I still need to hang some shelves and make our mirror first. By the way...I need options on shelving location...go here and let me know what you think!
• Read my B.I.B.L.E. more. We are a go on this one....but won't strike just yet.
• Read more period. Not striking, but I have three books ready to read...
• Get at least $500 into savings. Ehhh no where close.
• Go to bed earlier. I will say I have accomplished this a couple nights here and there...
• Wake up earlier. haha, I would hardly say that one or two days counts.
• Eat breakfast. I have done this everyday since the start of Weight Watchers.
• Hit my Photography business hard! Won't strike it yet, but I am hittin' it pretty hard already. Got a Grow-With-Me Package booked and my very first Wedding!
• Get knocked up. :) Working on that ;)
• Get crafty-er I am striking this one...because I have already completed about 4 projects and I have a huge list of more to come!!
• Sew more Working on it...maybe that dress finally?

Not bad!! This is all super exciting! How are you doing on your goals?!