29 Day Organizational Challenge Week 3 Update...only 4 days left!

 Are you wondering what happened to my week 2 update?  Yeah, well, I didn't really have any progress.  This week I kicked my butt in gear and got SOMETHING accomplished.  I started this week by revisiting Laura's PROCESS to get organized.  My Basement doubles as a storage/play room, so I still need to be a bit creative.  My biggest problem is the clutter and I need to purge!  Another problem I have is my darling sons constantly get into stuff that they aren't supposed to because I have it left out in the open.  First,  I finished organizing the only closet in the basement to house those items.

If you remember, this is what my closet looked like last time:

Here is the final product: 

On the left hand side, I put on my Thirty One supplies. On the right side I have my craft/school supplies organized.  I wanted to make sure I put these items in the closet because Little Bro would have a heyday with the markers, stickers, glue and anything else he could get his hands on.  I LOVE having a spot for everything.  Luckily, I already had the containers on hand.  The clear shoe boxes were a bargain find at Kroger for $0.15 each this past summer. I went a little crazy with the labels, but I love knowing what is in every box.

After I finished the closet, I started to tackle the mountain of totes in the storage area.  I couldn't really remove all the items out of the room because I would have nowhere to put them.  So I started by making piles and designating certain spots of the room for each category.  I then labeled boxes/totes: Donate, Garage Sale, Craigslist, Trash and even one for my sister-in-law who is having a baby.  It felt really good to purge!  I am not finished, but I would like to go through each and every tote in the basement so I can downsize my storage area and have more room for the kids to play.

All of this is leaving my house!  

My Garage Sale Pile 

While I was purging, I also found two projects that required my immediate attention.  The first was this entire laundry basket containing a little bit of everything.  I am pretty sure it was the result of an unexpected visitor.  I must have grabbed everything I could, stuffed it in the basement, and forgot about it. 

This took me one evening, but I found the home for every item in this basket or if it didn't have a home it went bye-bye.  Now my laundry basket is where is should be: in the laundry room! 

My other little project was this bin filled with greeting cards.  I originally had what I thought was a great way to organize them, but obviously it wasn't working.

 

This is my new system:  

It is questionably whether I will finish by Wednesday, but I am motivated to finish this project as soon as possible.  I am hoping with 2-3 hours of work each night, I will at least get the totes gone through and eliminate at least half!  Wish me luck!