2012: The Year I Get It Together

My New Year’s Resolution for 2012 is to get my life together. In every way. I’m not just talking about losing weight (which I want to… and there is a MAJOR plan that is currently in progress!) or being a better person (Lord knows I need to!)… I’m talking about also getting organized and cleaning out the clutter in my life (both emotionally and physically).

I researched a lot of different organizational websites to get some ideas and then I found “All Squared Away.” All Squared Away, LLC is a professional organizing company that helps clients de-clutter, organize their homes and businesses, etc. They will help you find a system of organization that will best fit your needs! So far, I am completely obsessed with them and can’t wait to start our first actual session together next Saturday! And how much do I love that my Mary Kay money is going to something that is going to be helpful to us for YEARS?! Check them out at http://www.allsquaredaway.com .   Just in the consultation, they came up with some great ideas. (Keeping a basket in the closet to automatically put those clothes you don’t “feel good” in or don’t fit anymore or just don’t like anymore so you can donate them instead of shoving them back in your closet?  HELLO!  BRILLIANT!)  I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with next week!  They have seriously no judgement as they go through your home, they want to help you make the most of your space and your time!  I LOVE IT!!

They came for a consult last week and we tried to come up with a plan for each of the rooms I need help with. It’s not that our house is a complete disaster with rat poop everywhere featured on “Hoarders”. It’s just that we didn’t take the time when we moved in almost 3 years ago to get systems set in place for what goes where and the ones we did set up aren’t working anymore or we didn’t keep up with them. For example, we never set up the garage with the shelving it needed, so instead of our extra comforters and winter clothes being stored neatly away in plastic tubs… they’re piled in the guest room or tragically shoved into open spaces in closets.

While our kitchen may not look like it needs it from a glance… it drives me batty that we have to take many things out of our deep “lazy susan that doesn’t turn” cabinets to get anything. We don’t have a pantry, so we have to make do with what storage space we have in there, and I’m positive that we didn’t set it up the best way all that time ago. We just haven’t had the time or gumption to figure out the best way to fix it.

Our office is a catch-all room with no organization for what is where. We need to go through all of our books and see what we actually would like to keep… get the wires bundled up together and decided what boxes that are in the closet (like my wedding dress and Nick’s books for when he gets his own classroom) could be stored in other places so the room is actually usable for what we want it to be used for.

Our basement/movie/mary kay room is a hot mess. When I have a big party or Mary Kay rush like this past Christmas season (YAY!) things get put everywhere. I don’t have a “great” system yet for my inventory and paperwork that go along with my business. Michelle has been AMAZING in helping me get my ribbon, tissue paper and things stored away… it’s a great start and I really think she’s the one who’s made me see that I can do this and get it together! (Michelle, if you read this… I have put all the MK away in the black cabinet, put the decorating things in your white organizer, ribbons on the spools and taken the boxes and trash out!  HOORAY!)

Then there are all of our movies, which for the most part, thanks to me working at Blockbuster for 4 years and Nick keeping up with our awesome ginormous rotating shelves and database, aren’t too shabby. We just never hung the shelving down there for all of our movie memorabilia amd haven’t found a set up for the furniture that we like. So things… once again… are piled into corners.

One of the first things that the ASA team recommended was getting some rolling 5-6 shelf racks for the garage. We weren’t using ANY of our vertical space down there! I went and got them on Sunday… did you know that they don’t fit into a Honda Civic? I do now! Last night I put the other 2 together and just went through the right side of our garage. I took out 4 bags and 2 boxes of trash. Stuff that was either actually trash that had been misplaced on that side when we’ve cleaned out our cars, broken things, etc.

The photo below is how it ended up looking last night. Now granted, 9 of the boxes on those shelves and the giant stuffed animals on the floor are going to be donated/sold. I just put them on the shelves for now so once we take things to the big dumpster we can park in there. I really should have taken a before photo… but this is before the ASA people actually come and help me get this stuff in order and the donate/sell boxes are taken out… so consider this the post-before photo or something. If you want to picture all of the stuff, plus 4 giant trash bags and 2 boxes of junk all piled up with no rhyme or reason on top of each other without the racks… that would be the more accurate before LOL.

The boxes to donate/sell include photo frames, cooking utensils and pans, DVDs galore, books, jewelry and various other items left over from our last garage sale. If you are in the need for something or just want to look through the DVDs let me know and you can come over and take a gander! The DVDs are pretty much all duplicates from either when we moved in together or made the switch to Blu-ray. There will be plenty more as we go through the house with ASA and declutter our lives! I also have 2 bags of clothes ready for Goodwill to be donated…if you wear an XL or size 22 you can look through before I donate as well!

I am seriously beyond excited that we’re actually taking the steps to get organized and cleaned out! Around Christmas it hit me that by this time next year there’s the POSSIBILITY (no… nothing is planned or happening, people!) that we COULD MAYBE be expecting. There’s so much that I want to have done and ready before that happens. We would make the guest bedroom into the nursery… but even now when guests come over there’s piles of comforters and boxes in the corners because we have nowhere to put them (ask Kate, Jim or Adam & Joe!). That’s only going to escalate when we add another tiny human into the picture! I am in complete awe of my friend Michelle who is incredibly organized with her baby, Noah. I want to be like that!

The ladies at ASA are beyond amazing. Like I’ve said, I’ve only had a consultation with them and I’m so inspired that I’ve started tackling things on my own to make it easier and quicker when they come next week. If you would have told me a month ago that I would have spent my Monday evening cleaning out the garage I would have laughed so hard! Now, I can’t wait for tomorrow night when I’ll have the evening free to tackles the dreaded left side of the garage! And all of this is before they actually come and help me set up actual systems for the house! AHHH! I’m totally nerding out and I LOVE IT! If this is what I can do without the help of the professionals, I can’t wait to see what they can do!

As far as things happening other than getting cleaned up and organized… tonight I’m headed over to fellow blogger and friend Elisha Dew’s home for a post-holiday baking and cooking hang-out! You can read her blog at http://mythunderthighs.com/. I’m so excited! 🙂 We’re going to have a blast… and I’m sure there will be a post tomorrow about all of the awesome things we made! Now I just need to find a replacement recipe to bring!  I realized about half an hour ago that the recipe I was going to bring needed to have things frozen over night… so it’s off to the food blogs I go!