40 spaces in 40 days--day 9/10 &11

So, I haven't posted in the past couple days...mostly due to laziness, but I have been super busy, and when I think of posting, I'm too tired.  Like tonight for instance, but I know I need to do this so here it is:
Day 9--Cooper's Closet

I forgot to take a true before picture, but here are some of the things I pulled out of the bottom of Cooper's closet...

 and you can see that I still had a pile of stuff to go...

After

I spent a lot of time going through my clothing that was hanging in Cooper's closet and found that all of them fit me now.  This made me go through my closet and pull a few larger items out to make room for the skinny clothes.  YAY!!!

Day 10 &11--Girls Cubbies/Armoire

 Before

 Before

 Before

 Before (all of the girls easy bake oven stuff they received for their birthdays)

 Cooper wanted to help try on winter hats and boots to see if they fit.  He also found a "treasure" (the sucker) while helping.

 Cooper loves to play barbies and comb their hair.  He will love all of these pictures when he grows up :)

 After

 After

 After

 After (now the easy bake oven stuff has its own bin)

I forgot to take a picture of the armoire before, but it wasn't too bad.  I had already put almost everything in here in bins.  There were a few items out of place, and some loose papers in some of the bins that were thrown out.

I may be a little crazy, but I have bins within the cubbies to keep things more organized and easier to find.  Oh well, I like it.  We'll see if the girls can keep things sorted.  They usually do well for a while, then it all falls to pieces.  I spent two days doing the cubbies/armoire so that it wouldn't be too overwhelming, and it wasn't.  The girls are so glad that everything is cleaned out and organized again...come to think of it...so am I :)

40 spaces in 40 days--Day7/8

Well, I completely forgot to post my project pics yesterday, so I have them below.  Can I just say how excited I was on Sunday that I didn't have ANY cleaning to do?!?  After this past week, which has been a like tackling a beast, I needed a break.  I have finished more cleaning in the past week than I have done in the past 6 months combined...well, maybe.  I can now say that this week, so far, has been much easier.  I haven't had to scrub so much, just a quick wipe down is all it takes.  YAY!!!  I also have been working on smaller spaces that are completed quickly.  The next few days of tasks will take a little longer, but at least my weekly chore schedule items take about 30 minutes tops (including the daily stuff).  My girls also made their beds as soon as they got up this morning.  YAHOO!!!  My life is slowly starting to feel more manageable again...and I LOVE it!

Day 7--My Top of Dresser

 Before

 After

Really, most of the stuff on top of my dresser was garbage.  It didn't take long to clean off.  Yay!  Now I need to find my jewelry box to put up there. :)

After all of my chores, I made some Amish Friendship Bread, and wheat bread (not pictured).  It was all SO yummy!

I started a HUGE project that I will complete in my spare time (ya right, who has that?).  I'm not divulging what it is at this time or posting pics yet because it's very frustrating and is taking some time to figure out.  I hate it when I'm not good at something.  It just about had me in tears, but I made a second attempt today and it was a little better...emphasis on little.  Hopefully it all turns out. :)

Day 8--Nightstands



Before (My top of nightstand)

 Before (My inside of nightstand)

 Before (Mike's top of nightstand)

 Before (Mike's inside of nightstand)

After (My top of nightstand)

I had SO much stuff crammed in this thing that really shouldn't have been there.  I tried to find a home for everything that came out...even if it was the garbage.  I'm glad that it is more functional now...other than to hold my phone and water bottle.

After (My inside of nightstand) 

It is now much easier to find what I need.  Oh yeah!

After (Mike's top of nightstand)

I forgot to take a picture inside, but I can assure you that it is well organized. Mike doesn't really use his nightstand much so there wasn't much to clean out.  That was a huge relief after going through mine.  I should have taken a picture of everything I pulled out of it.  You'd be surprised at how much was stuffed in there. 

I'm officially 20% finished with my challenge.  It's pretty exciting to see the transformation of my home and how nice it is to kick back and enjoy the spaces that are completed.  It makes me so happy!

Cooper's 2nd Birthday

I just want to give a little shout out to Cooper since it's his 2nd birthday. I can't believe how time flies.  I just love my little man.  He has the BEST personality, loves to be loved on, and wants me all the time.  Gotta love him!

 His Choo Choo

 Lego blocks and book that teach you how to build farm animals

 More building animals out of legos

The scooter 

Blow out the candles...oh wait, the slight breeze blew them out already.  :)  It was so nice to be able to celebrate this special day with so many friends and family.  Thanks for coming mom and dad, Britt, Richard, and Payton, Bryan, Katelin, Easton, Sylvie, Jason, Erin, Bryant, Chloe, Kade, Cathy, and Jonathan.  It was fun!

40 spaces in 40 days--Day 5 & 6

I had a few things pop up yesterday and wasn't able to complete my task, but I finished it this morning and kept on moving all day.
 
Day 5--The Linen Closet

I have been wanting to redo the linen closet for a long time.  I'm tired of not being able to find everything I need, stuff falling out at me, and having a hard time closing the door because stuff has fallen out at me. 

Before I got started on the linen closet, I needed a really good breakfast.  Since I had left over strawberries from making jam the night before, I decided to try making strawberry syrup.  Can I just tell you that I don't ever have fruit on my pancakes, but this was TO DIE FOR!!!  MMMmmm!!!  It was so good, I had it again for breakfast this morning.  :)

 Before (bottom)

 Before (top)--Now I forgot to take a picture before I got started, so I took a picture of what I hadn't taken out yet.  I should have taken a picture of what I took out to give you a perspective as to how much I actually fit onto these 2 shelves.  It was CRAZY!

 After (bottom)

 After (top)

 I also reorganized the bow hanger. I am pretty proud of this little accomplishment.  I threw away so much stuff.  empty boxes, expired medicines, etc.  It makes me so happy, yet my garbage can is more than full and it's not garbage day until Tuesday. 

Day 6--Mike's top of dresser

My excitement in cleaning this off is that it has looked like this for almost 2 years now.  I hate it.  I have this awesome mirror that attaches to the dresser that has never been attached.  In fact, it's still in the original package.  Mike is going to attach the mirror for me tomorrow.  Yippee!!!

 Before

I decided to pull the dresser forward to get a "few" things that had fallen behind. There was more than a few things, but now it's nice and clean.

After



40 spaces in 40 days--Day 4

Day 4--The laundry room

Today was our bathroom cleaning day, and what better day to also clean the laundry room since it shares a space with my downstairs bathroom.  There are clothes that have fallen behind the washer and dryer by the window that I haven't seen in months.  It's a bit crazy down here.  There are also random socks all over the floor in front of the dryer that have dropped and lost their place.  I couldn't wait to get this space in tip top shape!

Before

 After

Wow!  It looks great!  I love that I can actually walk in here now :)

 When I pulled up the rugs to sweep and mop, this is what I found...or should I say what is left of it.  I decided to take a picture because, what rug actually sticks to the floor?  That's right, the whole back of the rug came off and stuck to my floor.  YUCK! It took 20 minutes or more just to scrape it all off.  UGH!  Time for new rugs! 

 Most of it came up easy enough, but there was still a little bumpy residue that I had to scrub off with an SOS pad.   

Now it is all clean!!! and ready for a new rug.  Kohls, here I come!

 Kazia really wanted her picture taken.  She is such a big helper.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  She helps keep me motivated...and also sits back to enjoy what we've just accomplished with me. I just love her SO much!

After dinner tonight, I made a quick batch of strawberry jam...and OH is it YUMMY!!! I thought I used a lot more strawberries last year, so I have a bunch left over. I decided I'm going to make strawberry jam tomorrow along with the best pancakes ever. Breakfast is going to be delicious tomorrow. I can't wait!

I laid down with Kazia this evening for a little bit (at 7:30) and fell asleep until Mike came to bed at 10:40pm.  I thought I'd better come down and blog about my day so I don't forget, and now I'm heading back to bed.  I think I'm going to be loving those extra 3 hours of sleep tomorrow!

40 spaces in 40 days--Day 3

Day 3--the OTHER living room corner

I'll make this short and sweet.  Today my space was the last thing I needed to make my living room spotless (since we deep cleaned it yesterday).  It was so hard not to just clean it yesterday since everything else was getting cleaned, but I waited, and oh is it SWEET!

 Before (the end table is in there somewhere, can you see it?)

 Before (left side of the couch)

After

There's the end table.  See I told you I had one hiding in my pile of mess. :)  I really like the end table and am glad I can now enjoy it!

After (left side of couch)

I'm super stoked that now my living room is more functionable and not embarassing anymore!

Sorry this is so dark (I forgot the flash was off) and I can't figure out why the picture keeps turning sideways, no matter what I do.  Oh Well.  This is a shot of both spaces that were cleaned today.



On top of all the other wonderful things I did today (which consisted of almost dying of heat at Lagoon), I made apricot/pineapple jam.  Becky took me to her neighbors' orchard to pick apricots.  She told me it would be enough for 1-1 1/2 batches of jam.  Needless to say....2 batches later, I still have enough for ANOTHER batch, but the 3rd batch will never come to be.  Those apricots are going straight to our tummies; just the way they are. :)  

Can you smell it?  MMMMmmmm!!!!  It smells delicious! 

There you have it!  16 jars of reduced sugar jam.  I tried the no sugar added stuff last year on my strawberries and it turned brown and icky looking, so I'm sticking to the reduced sugar recipe.  Now I just need some fresh bread to put this on...if only my oven wasn't on the fritz.

What will tomorrow hold?  Not sure.  I know I'm making 1 batch of strawberry jam and letting the girls pick the next space to de-clutter.