March Accomplishments!

I am joining in the fun at My Insanity's Spring Cleaning Party! All you have to do is post what you have accomplished around your house in March. I have been organizing a lot, and it feels REALLY good!

The first project was organizing my scrapbooking closet/workspace. When we finished part of our basement a year and a half ago, we built a closet for me that was big enough to hold our old kitchen table. It has taken me this long to get it functionally organized! Before, I could use it, but I spent so much time just trying to find everything. I used to have this organizer from IKEA on top of the table, but it ended up not being as functional as I thought it would be. So, I moved it into the unfinished part of the basement, where it now holds gift-wrapping supplies (before, all my gift bags were stored in one giant gift bag, and it was a pain to find anything!) Now, I can find gift-wrapping stuff easily. I also hung a wrapping paper storage bag that I got on clearance after Christmas. It is supposed to hang in a closet, but this works better for me. Now back to the scrapping closet! I love the space now! I used a small plastic shelving unit to hold photo boxes, stamping supplies and stuff for upcoming projects. At Lowe's, I bought two sets of black Stanley organizers for a garage or workshop. They work perfectly for storing supplies--especially with some cute Martha Stewart labels from Michael's! I made my own ribbon hanger from a dowel rod and some cup hooks. And I used some picture hanging wire to make a line to hang my chipboard alphabets from. I used to always forget that I had these cool letters because they were stored away. Now I just have to look up to remember them. My giant scrap bag on wheels (where most of my paper is stored) fits nicely under the table beside my chair. I am very pleased with my efforts in here, especially since I managed to do it very inexpensively. I used what I already had, other than the Stanley organizers.


My next project was cleaning out my boys' closets. With each seasonal change, I go through clothes and sort out stuff that doesn't fit. Most of it goes to my husband's cousin's little boy and some of it goes to Once Upon A Child. It is all boxed & bagged and ready to go!Clothes for John's cousin!
Items ready for Once Upon A Child!


I should have taken a before pic of my next project, but would have been too embarrassed to post it anyway! I cleaned out and organized our linen closet in our upstairs hallway. This has been put off for way too long! And it feels great to have the separate, LABELED bins for toiletries, light bulbs, cleaning supplies, etc. Before it was a jumbled mess, and now there are even separate shelves for our linens and guest linens. Fabulous!


Next, I organized all those magazine articles that I rip out and place in a pile. I had started a binder before my boys were born of ideas from magazines. But, since they came, I haven't kept up with it well (at all!) I had two years of issues of Southern Living and Martha Stewart Living that I hadn't even gone through yet! So, in the evenings I went through the magazines, then organized them into categories . . . decorating, crafts, recipes, Halloween, Christmas, travel, etc. Then I placed them in protective sleeves and voila! My idea binder is back in shape! I have vowed to keep it up, and even placed empty sleeves at the back of each category to help me along!


My final project didn't involve cleaning, but it was something that we had wanted to do forever. We have a wall of windows in our family room. We inherited vertical blinds with them when we moved in, and we never really liked them. We never closed them, since our house doesn't back up to anyone else's property. So, we finally took them down and I made these toppers. And a close-up of the fabric . . .Yay! Mission accomplished!


So, what have you accomplished? Get on over to the Spring Cleaning Party and let us know! Or just go look at what everyone else has accomplished and get inspired for April!