My problem areas

Hey hey!! How are you on this fine Thursday? I love Thursdays. :) I’m feeling GOOD because I’ve finally been tackling some my problems areas over the past couple of weeks. Not my hips and stomach – but the ones in the house. ;) I’ve let the house go just a little lately – I’ve been so focused on the reno that everything else kind of falls apart. Well, I mean, we aren’t living in filth or anything – but I don’t keep up with clutter well when I’m distracted by DIY projects.

There comes a point when I’m done with it though. Like D.O.N.E. You know it’s serious when the caps come out. So I’ve been working on small projects here and there just to make me feel better.

Our garage, along with my car and our kitchen island, are just spots I don’t keep up with. They are perpetual messes. I’ve tried to change my ways and have gotten a little better with age, but not much.

The garage is worst of them all – after a summer of working on projects it is an absolute disaster. Thing is, we always park in there – so no matter how bad it is we make room for the cars, so that’s something. We may have to jump over things to get to them, but we can park inside!

My work bench had become an absolute PIT:

I can’t believe I show you some of these pictures – but I always want to share the real stuff with the pretty. I’m normal. Well maybe not, but close.

But I had that spot looking GREAT after about an hour of concentrated clean up:

I’m gonna be honest here – a few of those things were chucked into the other side of the garage – that’s also a disaster. I really would have just put it away, but we can’t really walk through that part right now…cause it’s a disaster. Baby steps. (For the easy DIY instructions on how to make that work bench go here.)

I have talked for YEARS about trying to get a better handle on the paper that comes into our house. I’m just a piler – it’s me and I refuse to fight it any longer. I pile it up for a couple few weeks and then tackle it all at once:

The basket is now mostly empty again:

My goal is to sit down once a week to address everything in the basket – we’ll see if that happens. Snort.

My favorite organizational project of the past couple weeks is this one though. Listen carefully when you look at it – you’ll hear angels singing:

Do you hear them??

I picked up this little organizer from the hardware store about, oh I don’t know – six months ago? Yeah. 

My little bits of DIY things have been floating around everywhere up till now. I’ve kept some in tackle boxes:

Which is actually a great solution if you only need a nail or screw occasionally. They aren’t big enough to hold the number of pieces I have though.

Mama needed something bigger and better. This thing is amaaaaazing:

I sat down and sorted everything and was in absolute heaven. I’m not kidding, I kept saying “This is amazing” out loud every few minutes. I would worry I was running out of little drawers and then I’d realize I had a ton more and I’d say “This is amazing!” again. I’d find random little things that I just had a few of and there would be a spot just for them. It was a beautiful time.

It was made even better by my BFF the label maker:

I mean, this is a must. All that organization is worthless if you’re going to have to pull out eleventy billion drawers to find one little thing.

I rediscovered all kinds of little doodads that I love. Tons of my favorite anchors that I didn’t realize I had:

You just screw them in instead of drilling a hole in the wall first – so easy! And those jobbies on the right are great for corralling cords behind furniture. Cause you know how much I hate cords.

It was GLORIOUS! Whoo hoo! Now I just need to decide where I’m going to keep my little organizer – you can hang it so I’m thinking maybe in our utility closet. That way I don’t have to go out to the garage for every little thing.

I tell you what – a little decluttering and organization makes a girl feel good! I say it all the time but even focusing on small areas will make you feel so accomplished. If the clutter is overwhelming in your house set your sights on one problem area at a time. Set the timer if you need to and just go after it in little bits so you don’t get frustrated.

What’s your worst problem area? Areas? Overall our house stays clean and picked up…most of the time. But there are spots that I let get out of control way too often.