changaTX's Profile

I have been doing well on the decluttering projects, and my entry, kitchen, living room, and bathroom are way more organized now. Completing some of the other tasks has been more difficult because of two things:

1) Money. Cord control, adding some lighting to the living room, and setting up a filing system will have to wait for February when I have money for it. I spent a lot of my "mad money" on little things for the home that added up. On a positive note, I put all my gift cards from Christmas to good use.

2) My husband, who is addicted to clutter. He's out of town often with his new job, so I've been able to dump and sort things without hearing him complain, but I desperately need to keep him away from the Outbox or it will turn into the Back In Box. I have yet to tackle the monstrosity that is our closet because he refuses to get rid of anything. Grrrr!

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can and shopping around for deals on the things I know I need to complete the Cure.

I decluttered a ton of old papers last week when I was getting my landing strip together. I am horrible at filing, but I am good about at least keeping all of my papers together. My husband, however, is not. He was out-of-town last week when I set up the new landing strip near our entryway, and it's taking him longer to adjust than I thought. Starting a filing system now would be overload for him.

I'm enjoying reading about how others have set up their systems. I think the one Dot525 has would work best for us. My plan is to have it set up at the beginning of February and then move files to a filing cabinet upstairs. I saw a cute one from cb2 that just might encourage me to be a better filer.

I was able to get to most of what I wanted to accomplish today. I cleaned out the pantry and was able to use my gift card from Bed Bath and Beyond to get some clear containers to store snacks and odds and ends. I edited the fridge but didn't deep clean it yet. I did that a few weeks ago and I have company coming over this weekend, so I'll give it a cleaning before then. I also took a huge box of kitchen items to Goodwill for donation.

I also got around to doing last week's homework: mopping the floors. We're good about vaccuuming because of our dog, but we rarely mop and even use the Swiffer just occasionally. Needless to say, this was quite a job. Atthe recommendation of fellow ATers I bought Mrs. Meyer's Basil scented all purpose cleaner and got to it. My house feels great and CLEAN!

I didn't cook a new recipe, but an old favorite: cheese enchiladas, rice, and beans. I finished everything in time to eat, grab a glass of wine, and watch Downton Abbey. Very pleased with myself and glad I signed up for the ATJC!

Well, I never got to clean my floors last weekend because 1) it was raining and I didn't want to keep mopping muddy paw prints for days, and 2) I was busy putting my kitchen back together after our budget reno (FINALLY!). Today I cleaned house and swept and vaccuumed the floors so that I can mop tomorrow. I also cleaned all the surfaces in the kitchen and filled up a whole box of extra items to take to Goodwill tomorrow.

I also plan to tackle the pantry and fridge tomorrow. My kitchen is small and I've been pretty good about paring down things, so I don't think it should be too hard. Then I'll mop the floor, take items to Goodwill, and hopefully have some time to head to World Market to get the table I want as my landing spot in the entryway. Then I'll reward myself with homemade enchiladas, rice, and beans. I'm loving this January Cure!

Love this post! I am in the process of gathering all the materials for our budget kitchen makeover and white subway tile seems to be the go-to material for the backsplash, but those penny rounds are adorable. Also love the herringbone idea to give plain subway tile a bit more pop.