If you missed assignment #3, be sure to check it out here.
So, today didn’t get off to that great of a start. Jesse and I stayed up late last night and then were up with a coughing child quite a bit in the night. Then, the smoke alarm started beeping and would not stop–even when we pulled it out from the ceiling. And there was no battery in it, so we couldn’t take that out. Jesse finally had to get up early and go out and buy a battery to get the thing to turn off!
I pulled myself out of bed early this morning (even though I really wanted to stay snug and warm under the covers!) and read my Bible, drank my coffee, ran 2.6 miles, and wrote a to-do list for the day.
I did get a shower in, got my hair washed and blow dried, and got dressed in a decent outfit, but I never got any makeup or earrings on. But hey, at least I didn’t stay in my PJs all day. Gotta try and look at the positive side, you know?! 🙂
We managed to have a good school day and I also accomplished a few business projects that had been hanging over my head in little chunks throughout the day, too. This afternoon, I had an hour phone call with a friend and then my mom and brother came over for awhile.
I finally had a chance to tackle the freezers tonight. And I was so glad I did. They weren’t too messy as it’s not been that long since they’ve been cleaned, but I discovered something I’d been looking for for at least three weeks.
Yes, see that there in the bottom shelf? My camera lens cover was buried at the bottom of a bunch of frozen vegetables! I’ve been looking everywhere for it, but I never thought to look for it in the freezer!!
I also discovered one lone truffle that really needed to be eaten. Oh yes it did. 🙂
The end result. Not a huge difference, but it’s clean and more organized now!
And then I moved to the garage freezer and tackled it…
Before
After
The 7 things I got rid of today — a stack of books from the children’s bookshelf.
I didn’t get to my bedroom today, so I’m moving that to tomorrow.
How you do on Assignment #3? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.
Day 3. Bedroom done. Even hung a picture that I have been meaning to hang since March. Freezer done. Only got to 6 of 7 things on my daily todo list. And got rid of s total of 9 items.
Way to go!
I think I’m missing something… where are day 1 and 2 of your challenge? I’m coming in late but I’m eager to get started. Help, please!! 🙂
I didn’t accomplish much on my list, but it sure felt like I was busy all day! I did remove 2 more boxes of “stuff” from our bedroom for a week total of 5. Started sorting baby shoes into ones that my littlest could still wear and ones for my sisters’ baby who’ll make an appearance in May. For some reason this box of shoes is in our bedroom, so in the end, I guess I made some decent headway in that room. Found a full Pampers box full of things to get rid of.
I am about to go have my afternoon truffle as I type this and I can completely commiserate on the smoke alarm battery beeping. But at least now it has a battery and will work properly right? Sorry you had such a rough night.
We would totally be friends–I still can’t find my camera lens (and yes, I did check the freezer after reading this!!), and I ALWAYS have truffles on hand ;).
I’m a day behind so I did the fridge yesterday and I’ll do the freezer today. I’m pretty sensitive to smells so I should obviously clean out the fridge more often! We have a tiny freezer and there’s not much to clean out so maybe I’ll get caught up today. I’m liking doing a little bit at a time instead of trying to cram it all into a weekend.
I have to say that when you started this series I enjoyed reading about your day, but didn’t join in myself. I don’t have a blog or anything to share my progess on, but for some reason yesterday morning I decided to take your daily challenge. I started the same way — reading my Bible with a cup of coffee and then making my daily list. What you said about 5-7 manageable tasks is so true!! Listmaking always made me stressed because I made giant, overwhelming lists that never seemed to accomplish anything. It felt so great to accomplish my goals yesterday — a few were small nagging tasks that hardly took any time. I felt a little slugglish this morning, but just making another to-do list has given me a spurt of energy! Thanks so much!
Well yesterday ended up turning out busier than planned. I was back and forth doing some things at our Church and ended up not getting much done at home. I did feed my family 3 meals yesterday but other than that, nada.
Today however we will be home until I have to go to the Church for Sunday School Easter Skit practice at 6:30. So my girls have already had fair warning that today is the day the 3 of us do a once over on this house. They are 13 and 16 and the three of us can really accomplish alot in a couple hours.
Whoo-hoo! Yesterday went amazingly well. I did the fridge instead of the freezer (I missed doing the fridge on day 2, and it needed attention more than my freezer did). I was amazed at how much stuff needed to be thrown out! My hubby had a full trash bag to carry down. It was sad how long it had been since I did this, but I’m going to be enjoying the results for awhile! 😀
Can’t wait to get on with today’s assignment!
Pregnancy nausea/low energy got the best of me yesterday. I did, however, get rid of at least 7 items. I actually got rid of more than that. Once I start purging my house of stuff, it is so refreshing that I can’t stop! LOL! I also took a shower and got dressed yesterday AND this morning!
I will get to the fridge and freezer today. This is so encouraging for me and I love reading everyone’s comments.
I hope that I find chocolate truffles that need to be rescued in my freezer too. My husband says that it is one of the four food groups. LOL! Happy cleaning everybody!
Way to go, friend! You have a LOT on your plate right now, so I think that’s fantastic you found time and energy to declutter yesterday, too!
Yesterday was great. I even found items I had been looking for since I moved back in October 🙂
Yay!!!
Totally off topic…But I love your penmenship! However did your mother teach you to write cursive so beautifully? Could she come to my house and teach me and my kids?
When I was around 8, I became a bit obsessed about practicing penmanship. In fact, once I even got in trouble at the Christian school I was going to then for taking too long to do my school work!
But I guess all that practicing and attention to detail did end up paying off, even if my teacher wasn’t too thrilled that I was such a slowpoke! 🙂
Great work, Crystal! Hope you checked that Lindor truffle bag — the
last few times I’ve gotten them, there was a little $1.00 coupon inside!
If you found it, you could use it buy a another bag, and then get another coupon…and buy another — hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it!
Oh, maybe I should go dig it out of the trash and check… or, um, maybe not! 🙂
Okay, so I’m only behind on the freezer. My bedroom took longer than I thought, but at least it’s done. I keep opening my fridge just to look at how clean it is! Wonder what will be on the agenda today!
Crystal can I just say that your handwriting is ridiculous!?!? My lists look worse than if my 4 year old had written them. Chicken scratchings and extra notes and inserts here and there. I think I need to start with organizing my lists first! Oh bother….(think Eeyore here). This organizing challenge is definitely that! I haven’t been able to tackle the fridge and freezer yet (it has been a busy Holy Week at church) but my purse is SUPER CLEAN!!
Hm. Yesterday must have been the day of beeping smoke detectors. One of mine started and since I’m short I had to move a chair all over the house to figure out which one was chirping. I’m not tall enough to replace the battery so it had to wait till my 6′ tall husband got home. The trials and tribulations of being 5’3″!
I feel your pain! Though there are some blessings to being short, too. 🙂
I’m moving slowly through the assignments but making some progress. I always appreciate your positive thinking. It helps to encourage me!! Can you remind me, what time do you usually wake up & how much time do you have before the kids wake up??
I’ve been getting up around 5:30 a.m. this week. My kids usually get up somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.
I was looking for a library book for several weeks, could not find it anywhere. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table on the other side of the table from normal, looked at my open pantry and saw the book fallen behind some boxes. Never thought to look in my pantry for the missing book. Lesson learned:)
I kept thinking that we just moved and the fridge and freezer were in good shape because we got them new when we moved in. Well that “just moved in” was 6 months ago and they really needed some help!
They weren’t in terrible shape, but I did find some frozen veggies that I had no idea existed. I also found that we had a whole shelf in the large freezer dedicated to pork products. Apparently we need to put more of these on the menu.
Thanks for the inspiration and guidelines. I have a feeling I’ll be referring to this in the future when I feel like my home needs spruced up!
apologize for not getting this up yesterday – but better late than never….. 😀
http://www.couponblessingsnow.com/my-journey-to-an-organized-life-day-3/
trying not to beat myself up over what I did and didn’t do….
Behind today but will hope to make up for it tonight and get back on track. Thank you for the day by day. It is a great help and something that I can focus on.
We hardly even use our freezer since we moved to France (there’s no Costco equivalent here, no bulk buying), and STILL it frightens me!
The kids and I discovered dove chocolates that had not been eaten when I was cleaning our freezer we ate them too! Glad you found your camera lens!
We were up with a coughing kidlet too – turns out she has croup! Hope tonight goes more smoothly for us all!
This project is so inspiring! I got rid of my 7 things today and also wiped down our cabinets. I recently cleaned the fridge and freezer so, those didn’t need it but, I was surprised at how easy it was to find 7 things to get rid of.
Woot! When you start looking for things to get rid of, it’s amazing how you start looking at your whole house in a new light!
Today was a good day again, even if we all were “off” for some reason. Lots of fussiness, whining and complaining. Oh, and the kids were fussy too. 😉
Honestly though, I’m just amazed at how much progress I’m making, and at how encouraged I feel!
I was able to keep us on schedule for the most part today, including cleaning out the freezer and cleaning my bedroom. Both of these were pretty easy, so I’m a bit nervous about tomorrow’s tasks. 🙂 My only freezer is the one above my refrigerator, so it’s small, and it’s pretty empty right now. I had already been working on my bedroom in bits and pieces over the last two weeks, so there wasn’t very much to work on in there except basic straightening and vacuuming. Still, it’s nice to know that’s done too!
My husband only had to work a half day today. Once he came home I sat down and clipped a few coupons, made my menu plan (we go from Thursday to Wednesday, since we get paid Thursdays and my husband’s day off is usually Wednesday), and made my grocery list. Then I showered and got ready, including make-up and perfume again. 🙂 Then we got the children ready and headed out. We were able to complete several errands, plus all of our grocery shopping. I am so tickled by that!
Now off to bed and looking forward to tomorrow’s challenges! Thank you again for doing this!
Wow! You’re doing so well, despite the fussiness. 😉
Thank you! 🙂
I found some taco soup in the freezer that will be perfect for supper tomorrow! Thank you, I SO look forward to the challenges.
Hi Crystal,
I am enjoying this series. Thank you. I have a question I have been meaning to ask you. I see today you have the picture of your journal and bible. How do you do your bible reading…do you follow a specific plan, or just pick something out to read, do you write about what you read, etc. Just curious on how you do it I notice you are very consistent with it.
Here’s the plan I’m using right now:
http://www.esv.org/assets/pdfs/rp.through.the.bible.pdf
Great! Thank you : )
I didn’t actually participate in this since I just found out about it this afternoon, but geeze…that smoke alarm business is really bizarre! Things like that always seem to happen when you’ve been stressed out and up all night with a sick kid. Just when you feel like you can’t take enough something stupid happens!
I totally messed up on my first link-up and put the wrong url in the hyperlink. I added the right link to my blog now, but I’m not sure how to delete the first one. Sorry about the mix-up 🙁
My allergies got the best of me and the only thing I got done today was a few loads of laundry! There’s always tomorrow! Loving this challenge!
Those chocolate truffles are great!! I seem to really crave them when I’m pregnant!!
I did everything but the freezer. While cleaning the frig I fell and am very sore today. I feel like I broke my tailbone :(. I got many things done on my list as well–take my daughter to get her learner’s permit, drop off library books, make granola, run errands and many things done for my job. I hope to get freezer done tomorrow. I stay on top of my freezer so I hope it is not too bad. My refrig looks good; I finished it up today.
Oh, I found lots of items to donate!
Yay for all the things you did get done! I’m so sorry you’re sore from your fall, though. 🙁
I’m doing great on this challenge. I just got my new purse and moved everything to the new one, threw out the old purse (it was ripped), and streamlined everything to go in my purse. I also went through my work bag and cleaned that out. The fridge is cleaned out and the freezer is done. And I’ve been off work all week with three sick kids. Please keep up the challenge…it’s been a great motivation.
I’m so glad it’s been a great motivation. It sounds like you are doing wonderfully at keeping up, too!
I decided to go ahead and start on this with assignment #1 tonight! Got the house picked up and purse cleaned out! Also moved 6 unplayed board games and an old purse to the garage sale pile! Felt great!
Woot! Yay for adding more stuff to the garage sale pile!
Thanks for the motivation this morning Crystal! It was way worth spending a little time getting my freezer into shape!
http://simplymykitchen.com/freezer-organization-4-4-2012/
Oh my goodness! You totally win the award for the most organized freezer! Can you come get mine all snazzy like that, too?! 🙂
Thanks Crystal!
If I lived closer, I totally would! 🙂
I found cleaning the freezer wasn’t as big a deal as cleaning the refrigerator, possibly because freezer burn just isn’t as gross as the things that grow in the refrigerator. My freezer looks pretty much the same as it did this morning.
Yay! I’m glad it was a fairly easy project for you!
I wish I found some chocolate in my freezer…lol =) Instead I found a screw driver!
http://logansinmo.blogspot.com/2012/04/money-saving-moms-4-weeks-to-more_6899.html
A screw driver — that’s too funny! 🙂
Your freezer looks fantastic, by the way!
I tackled my fridge today. Tomorrow I hope to do both freezers and my bedroom which I did start a few days ago, just have to finish it. Hard to get much done with a 25 month old and 27 month old running around. (Only one is mine 🙂 )
I got up extra early to go workout at the gym, drop off some stuff at Goodwill and do a quick grocery run. I was home by 9 am. Showered and put on something I feel good in 🙂 I made a lot of progress on my to do list and even worked on my bedroom for 15 minutes (and had the kids work on theirs at the same time). Still haven’t done my fridge and freezer. And I really really really need to finish up my Freezer Management 101 series on my blog – I haven’t added to it in almost a week and it’s only halfway into the series. Tomorrow is a new day!
Sounds like you’re making some great progress!
Once we had a middle of the night smoke alarm incident too. Pulled it off the ceiling, took out the battery, and to my amazement it still kept beeping. Tried burying it in the laundry basket, but in our small apartment it was still audible. Finally, I opened up the balcony door and tossed it out (we were on the 3rd floor). Got it in the morning, and had it still worked.
Too funny! I felt like doing that last night!
I substituted my guest room today instead of my own room because my sister in law is visiting tomorrow. I am so enjoying this challenge! All things I need to get done, and blogging along is certainly keeping me motivated! Thank You! (Wish I would find a truffle in my freezer! LOL)
Yay for productivity! And I’m so glad you’re enjoying this challenge!
Your day sounds good to me! Great job. Keep it up. 🙂
Aw, thanks for your encouragement!