Organize my life...

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. One could say I was addicted. And it motivates me to get busy. Most of the time I squirrel away the pins with grandiose ideas of a more streamlined life and home. Now, I'm going to do something about it and get busy working! It's also a good way for me to be productive and focus the adoption thoughts in a healthy way. While we save our money to get off hold, I can turn to this project as a distraction.

Organize my life... is a Pinterest board of mine, so is Cleaning up my act (follow me on Pinterest by clicking on the red tab in the right column). Most of my pins include Food and Entertaining but I also love the organizing and cleaning ideas. And I am getting excited for Easter. So, my first deadline is going to be the day before Easter, April 19th.

I tend to be a master procrastinator. In fact, I could have majored in that at school. So, in order to be kind to myself and have realistic expectations without the guilt I will do this in stages so I don't get overwhelmed. Because, let's be honest. Clearing out the clutter, organizing what remains and cleaning as you go is a very big task. I also will include Spring Cleaning in here as well. The yard will be taken into consideration as well as getting the basement in working order. AND getting pictures up on the walls. That's another story.
I will be taking pictures along the way, before and after's even if it's embarrassing, documenting my progress. I think being accountable to the blog will help me with my efforts and keeping those procrastination skills I honed over the years at bay.

Here it is.
Spring is here, the sun is shining and the house needs to be purged, organized and cleaned. I am going to start planning a schedule for it all. Let's start with getting rid of anything unnecessary!

Deadline #1 ~ On or before April 19th.
Organizing my life...
Purging and sorting items to leave the house.
We need to purge what we are not using by donating, exchanging and selling. Anything we sell will go directly into the adoption fund and get us just a little bit closer to coming off hold. I will go through each closet, drawer and storage area to look for clothes specifically to get rid of. If they fall into any one of three categories.

1. Lightly used or out of date (donate).
2. Nice but not our size (Buffalo Exchange-anything they will not exchange will be kept for a garage sale). 
3. Anything we have not worn in the last 6 months (Buffalo Exchange-anything they will not exchange will be kept for a garage sale).

The Buffalo Exchange. The reason I am going there as opposed to a consignment store is because the consignment store may or may not sell our stuff. The Buffalo Exchange will give me a better deal if I choose the exchange option instead of the sell option. Plus, shopping for clothes is not in our budget while we are saving for the adoption and this is kind of a loop hole!

And anything that is not clothes that needs to leave the house will fall into similar categories.

1. Anything that we do not have a use for anymore that is not worth selling (donate). 
2. Small ticket items that we do not have a use for anymore or have duplicates of (garage sale).
3. Big ticket and nice items (online selling, Facebook, craigslist, etc.).

This is just the plan for my first deadline. I will only continue with the next deadline after Easter so I am not overwhelmed and I stay on task. Wish me luck!

xo Abby