Columbus Day Clean Out Session

What do I do on a day off from work? Clean out my room of course!

I started with those baskets on my shelves that just seem to hold tons and tons of items inside. 

I was able to toss a few things along the way. Mostly expired medicine and things I had thrown in there from free samples that I didn't need. I was able to move a ton of items into better storage (future kitchen supplies for when I move out, and other random things that just didn't need to be accessed regularly)

I moved on to the storage space in the eaves of my bedroom. Inside I kept boxes of memorabilia, Christmas decorations and kitchen supplies. I had tons of old items from dance costumes, t-shirts from high school and college, and just a lot of items I didn't need anymore.

I ended up with a decent amount of items to get rid of! One bag of trash, two bags of clothes and three bins of memorabilia and kitchen stuff gone!

I always feel so much lighter after doing a big purging. Have you done any major cleaning lately?

Less Stuff, Less Stress: End of Summer Update

Hey everyone!

I think my last Less Stuff, Less Stress update was wayyyyyyy back in April! A lot has happened since then and I have quite the collection of items to get rid of. The best part? Since we're moving mid-September, my mom has gotten on board as well and together we have a huge collection of items.

So huge in fact that we are going to be holding a yard sale next weekend. Yikes.

What kind of items are we getting rid of?

Clothes, Jewelry, Childhood Toys, Books, Furniture, Decor, Holiday Items, Electronics, etc...etc...

I guess the better question would be, what are we not getting rid of...

We have stacked a ton of items in the basement and hopefully this weekend we will sell most if not all of them!

Although I'm not thrilled about moving (at all), it has been a great reason to go through all of my stuff and get rid of everything that I don't absolutely need and love. I want to let go of things I don't use so they don't take up precious space in my world! =)

There's still a ton of stuff to go through, and packing isn't exactly coming together easily. Here's the current state of my "to-be moved" items:

Just keeping it real folks!

Now I'm off to sort through some things, while waiting for the Safelite guy to come fix my windshield. (Yes, on top of everything else going on a rock flew up on the highway and cracked my windshield at the end of last week...Oh well, it's annoying but an easy, free fix!)

When you move do you declutter before you move all your stuff? Or do you just box everything up and hope for the best?

Have a great day!

An Organization Haul and Some Weekend Projects!

As I alluded to in yesterdays post, I spent quite a bit of time organizing and cleaning this past weekend. My bedroom definitely needed a deep cleaning and I had a few projects that I wanted to start.

I did some shopping at Walmart, Staples and JC Penney's and got some great deals!

I bought a new set of towels on impulse at JC Penney's. I had been thinking about getting new towels for some time, and when I saw these tan towels I knew it was time to upgrade! I wanted something that was neutral enough to match everything I could possibly want in a bathroom.

I showed these bins from JC Penney's in yesterdays post- but I absolutely love them! I think they are so gorgeous!

At Staples I picked up some label maker tape (which unfortunately doesn't fit my label maker and has to be returned) and I also picked up a Staples Better Binder (my favorite kind of binder) which you will see later in this post.

I quickly stopped at CVS, and picked up my FREE birthday present, a spray from Essence of Beauty!

Finally, at Walmart I was only going to grab a power strip but I ended up finding these silver knobs which I knew were exactly what I wanted for my dresser.

As I showed yesterday, here are the bins in their new home. Beautiful, organized and simple- my favorite.

Roxy spent Sunday afternoon hanging out in my bed while I worked.

The bigger bin I bought holds all my blankets and an extra sheet for my bed.

My old towels look so dingy next to my nice new towels! They have been donated and now are out of here!

Here is my dresser before with the old icky gold knobs...

Then the new silver knobs! This is not the end of this project. Eventually I will be painting the entire dresser white and lining all the drawers in order to complete this project.

The old gold knobs were so tarnished- I am happy to see them go! (Little known fact- I hate gold. I don't think that gold looks particularly nice and much prefer the look of silver)

So you might be wondering why I purchased a binder at Staples...

I am in the process of creating a blog binder where I will keep all my information about this little blog. As things are starting to grow around here, I definitely need a place to put everything!

This weekend wasn't all about organization...there was definitely some deep cleaning going on as well.

One of the things I'd been meaning to do for a long time was clean my blinds. They were absolutely disgusting. I need to remember to clean them more often!

Yuck!

I also took down my curtains and washed and ironed them. I also did a deep vacuuming and dusting- even behind the furniture!

Look at all that dust! Man that's embarrassing!

Although I always feel good seeing how much stuff the Dyson has picked up.

To finish off the weekend of cleaning and organizing- I went through some more of the boxes in the attic.

I found quite a few items to donate to the Salvation Army!

What did you do this weekend?!

Time to Organize the Bathroom!

The bathroom is the smallest room in the house- but one of the most important to keep organized. Unfortunately I share the bathroom with my brother- not the most organized person in the world. He is also not the cleanest person in the world. He also has friends that like to use my things- meaning I don't keep a ton in my bathroom. Someday I hope to be able to store more items in the bathroom but for now only a few things of mine actually live in there. I knew going into this project that there wasn't a ton of things to get rid of the bathroom but I mostly wanted to reorganize a few things and make sure everything was clean and nice!

Opening the under-the-sink cabinets was shocking. Yuck. I keep my towels in my personal closet- these are guest towels and my brothers towels. The first step was to take all of the towels out- refold them and place them back in nicely. I also lined up all the cleaning supplies nicely. I would like to get a little caddy for the cleaning supplies but for now having them lined up nicely will do.

Looking better already!

Next I checked out my side of the medicine cabinet. Like I said- I don't have a ton in here but I definitely had a few items to sift through.

I found a few items to purge in the cabinet but mostly just lined everything up nicely and made sure I still needed each item. 

Then I went into the drawers and checked inside each one.

My top drawer is the only drawer I'm in everyday. I have my toothbrush top, my toothpaste, a spare razor, and extra razor blades. 

In the middle drawer I keep all my LUSH bath products. I also have a spare hair brush and some wax strips in there too.

In the bottom drawer I have all of my feminine hygiene products...I take all the outside packaging and throw it away and put all my items inside a blue container.

When all was said and done- I only found a few items that I needed to let go of. I really don't have much in the bathroom to start off- meaning theres not that much to give away!

Luckily since I stay pretty on top of my bathroom, there wasn't much to worry about with this project. The items I keep in the shower rotate frequently and I don't keep much in there. As you saw, my drawers and medicine cabinet are pretty sparse as well. Someday I'm sure I will keep more IN the bathroom-but for now organizing it is a breeze!

Ebay and Coupons

Ebay

I have a newfound love for Ebay. I had never really put much stock in Ebay I didn't really care to check  it out. That was until my friend Kristin told me that she had been selling tons of childhood items on there for quite a bit of money so I decided why not give it a try!

I listed 20 items, just random things such as American Girl doll clothes, a pea coat, some boots, and other random things. I sold 6 of them for over  $40! I would have donated these items and received nothing for them! Although I firmly believe in donating items to people who need them but I also think that if you can get a return for the item you purchased that is great too!

The items I sold too were just simple things I had hanging around that I was no longer using!

• an American Girl doll raincoat for $6
• a Magic Attic Club doll gymnastics outfit for $7
• a peacoat for $9.05
• a mini American girl doll for $8
• a sony memory stick for $2.05
• an Iphone case for $10

plus the buyers paid for shipping! 

I have a bunch of items I'm hoping to sell on Ebay because it just makes it so easy to make a little money for my used items!

Coupon Time

• If you have a Dunkin Donuts near you- you should definitely sign up for their rewards program. On their website you can find the link and you get free items from them very frequently. In the past month I have gotten FOUR free coffees. That is about $10 in coupon savings!
• I also saved $5.50 in coupons at Walmart the other day. Just from printing coupons off coupons.com! It truly is a lifesaver and amazing how much you can save on little items that you might need. I would definitely like to get better at couponing so I will continue practicing!

Do you do Ebay sales? Have you made a lot off of your items? 

Do you coupon? How much have you saved doing couponing?