Goals for 2011 (organizing)

I'm making some organizing goals for this year. Figured I'd track it here so I'm accountable.

1. sort through, purge, and organize the stack of recipes and cookbooks.
2. do something with the bins of school papers
3. plan and purchase closet organizer for DS2
4. do something with the piles of photos (scan, organize, ??)
5. eliminate the huge pile of things to sell (sell, donate)
6. go through all the kids books and get rid of ones that are never read
7. label bins in DS1's room

That's all I can think of right now. I'll probably add to it as the year goes on.

Anyone else want to share a list?

Oooh, yes please! We moved into this house in May 2006 and it looks like we moved in more like October 2010! We are notorious about moving into a place, unpacking mostly, and then decorating...um, never! So this year, I made a list of each month and a room in our house. So this month it was the mudroom and the pantry...February, it's the kitchen. I think that if I have one month to completely do a room, I will find it less overwhelming. So far it's working...I do a little each night and I have sorted out the shoe madness in the mudroom (we are a no shoes household), cleaned out the pantry, sorted out the closet...and organized the cleaning supplies (that are in the closet). Now I basically have only to deep clean the rooms and I will be done!

I will try to post each month with an update. FWIW, this seems like it's going to take a long time to finish the house, but next year at this time my entire house will be decorated and organized! Awesome!!

Great thread!!!

Organize Entire House
Well that might be a little over whelming so I am going to start by:
1. Going through DC clothes and getting rid of things that no longer fit and pass them down to DNs who can use them.
2. Going through my clothes and not keep things because they were expensive and I really SHOULD wear them :bag and send them off to Goodwill
3. Go through DC's toys (this is hard because I have such strong emotions tied to them) and toss or give to goodwill
4. Paint my guest bathroom vanity and change out the mirror and counter top
5. Paint master bath, change mirror and and flooring and counter tops.
6. Clean off the window seat in my master bedroom. Home to everything that otherwise is homeless:innocent:

This is good to list, make s me keep my eyes on the prize. There is lots more that needs to be done but that would be such a HUGE start!!!

I'm pumped! 2011 is going to my year! I'm going to...

1) pack up all the baby gear/toys that DS has outgrown
2) make the drive to IKEA to buy the extra storage units
3) clear out the dining room and the catch-all
4) sell my strollers taking up space in the back room
5) re-organize the closet in the back room w/ new shelving system
6) clear off the top of the refrigerator
7) sort out the organizer in the kitchen that has 3-year-old coupons in it
8) clean.my.office.
9) actually get the house picked up enough to have cleaners come in for a deep clean

I'm glad others are in, too!

I like the room-by-room concept. And, it sounds like we're all clearing out toys! I'm using some of the empty bins from Christmas stuff to hold toys in the attic that I want to put away for DS2.

1. Finish kitchen "remodel"
--new receptacles/switches (DH is working on this tonight)
--new window treatments (purchased, currently in wash, need to buy hardware, then they need to be hung)
--new light fixtures (DONE)
--under cabinet lighting (need my dad's help with the electrical)
--clean the cabinet faces and install new hardware (almost DONE--just ordered the final hardware today)

2. Finish basement "remodel"
--paint the office (I tore down some drywall and found another foundation crack, so this might take a while)
--new receptacles/switches
--new window treatments
--track lighting (DONE--thanks, dad!)
--new flooring
--new trim
[this is going to be a long project that we'll complete as finances allow]


3. Finish photo project--sort through all old albums and loose prints and send them in to be scanned (500 photos done, bought another Groupon for a different service, so I'll be sending those in soon)

4. Get all the kids clothes in the garage sorted and organized. (way too cold for that right now!)

We need to paint the entire house interior, and before we do that I want to go through and minimize/declutter a lot of things.

1. get rid of clutter hot spots in the MBR

2. get DH to weed through his old clothes

3. purge finished basement being used as storage area

4. make finshed basement into usable play room

so far we have done most of the downstairs (still need to do the office section) and are slowly working our way through the finished room upstairs (cape cod with one side finished, the other not and both full of cr@p). We have a 12x20 storage shed ordered/being built and that will help a ton with DH's junk. So the plan is to get the house cleared out and the upstairs finished by thanksgiving. That means finishing out a bedroom (which will be DS') and a bath. And then we will finally have the 2000 SF 3 BR, 2.5 bath we planned! It will be 6 years in Oct since we moved in....

DH did get rid of 2 or 3 computers this weekend and a box of stuff to go to church. I pulled the duplos (we evidently are NOT duplo people-DD wants her own legos, lol!) for church as well and we are slowly finding the stuff we haven't seen since we moved. Sigh.

I soooo need the accountability to get motivated!!

Here goes:
1. Dining room
DONE * Thank you cards - finish Xmas and bday cards and mail pictures
DONE * Returns - gather returns - find missing receipts - schedule date for each return
DONE * Gifts - put away gifts in gift closet
2. Paperwork
* Catch up on filing
* Organize receipts
* Call re: FSA payment made in error
3. Toys
* Pull toys to donate
* Find space to store extra toys and decide on which items to rotate out
* Move some toys to basement
4. Kitchen
* wipe cabinets and clean food splotches from walls
* remove items not used regularly
DONE * set up school notice notebook for DS1

I'll add more as I think of things. :)

I updated my post. Can we make this a sticky?

Here are mine..

1. Put away 2010 files, and set up space for 2011 files

2. Regularly file, like once every 2 weeks.

3. Open mail everyday and deal with it - I let it pile up and then it takes time to open once a week.

4. My closet - organize top shelf and floor area.

5. Garage - sigh, always on my list. Purge cabinets and shelves.

6. DS's art work from 2010 (yep, still in one bin) and memory box

7. Set up ING bank accounts and auto. transfers

8. Photos!!!! Huge pile that needs to be dealt with

9. Send back volunteer research files, so have space for my class textbooks/notebooks.

10. Go through DS and my closet with season change and purge. I did this before the holidays, and they're still nicely organized. DH's closest is his job.

11. Check into last FSA payment..think something went wrong, and want to resubmit a new claim if need be to use up all our money

12. Back yard - every year we say we'll work on cleaning out the backyard, flower beds and we never get to it. DH wants to redo it, which will be a few years off, but we can do some tidying up.

Here we are about 2 months into my goals. Here is my progress:

1. sort through, purge, and organize the stack of recipes and cookbooks. I bought Mastercook software last week, but haven't done anything with it. I am planning on putting all the recipes I use in it and then storing the actual recipe books elsewhere.
2. do something with the bins of school papers. Plans for this to happen are in April.
3. plan and purchase closet organizer for DS2 Not started
4. do something with the piles of photos (scan, organize, ??) Am working on this. I emptied a few albums and put photos into envelopes and in a box, but I think I'm going to get the Cropper Hopper Box instead.
5. eliminate the huge pile of things to sell (sell, donate) Have sold a handful of things on CL lately. I need to get more done.
6. go through all the kids books and get rid of ones that are never read I did this and sold them at the mom2mom sale a couple weeks ago. I priced them at $.25 each and every one sold. Cheap and gone!
7. label bins in DS1's room Not started.

Another couple months have passed...

1. sort through, purge, and organize the stack of recipes and cookbooks. I bought Mastercook software last week, but haven't done anything with it. I am planning on putting all the recipes I use in it and then storing the actual recipe books elsewhere. I still haven't used the software! But, I did go through all my recipes and cookbooks and donated a bunch of books and got rid of a lot of things I'll just never make.
2. do something with the bins of school papers. Plans for this to happen are in April. DONE! I put things in 3-ring binders. Hopefully, it won't be hard to continue!
3. plan and purchase closet organizer for DS2 Not started
4. do something with the piles of photos (scan, organize, ??) Am working on this. I emptied a few albums and put photos into envelopes and in a box, but I think I'm going to get the Cropper Hopper Box instead.
5. eliminate the huge pile of things to sell (sell, donate) Have sold a handful of things on CL lately. I need to get more done.
6. go through all the kids books and get rid of ones that are never read I did this and sold them at the mom2mom sale a couple weeks ago. I priced them at $.25 each and every one sold. Cheap and gone!
7. label bins in DS1's room Not started. DONE with his help!

So, I'm doing okay. A couple things are done. I need to get that Cropper Hopper Box and finish up the photos. The closet organizer is a big one and I'm not sure about what I want.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by liamsmom

I'm pumped! 2011 is going to my year! I'm going to...

1) pack up all the baby gear/toys that DS has outgrown
2) make the drive to IKEA to buy the extra storage units
3) clear out the dining room and the catch-all
4) sell my strollers taking up space in the back room
5) re-organize the closet in the back room w/ new shelving system
6) clear off the top of the refrigerator
7) sort out the organizer in the kitchen that has 3-year-old coupons in it
8) clean.my.office.
9) actually get the house picked up enough to have cleaners come in for a deep clean

---

Well, I haven't accomplished as much as I wanted to by now, but I have cleared out several items. I've worked on the dining room and my office and made great progress, but things got hectic again and I slipped back. I'm looking forward to the next two months to enjoy my summer and work on the house. I'm afraid I'm going to add something to my list--my bedroom. I need to a) clean it. I can no longer stand to look at it. b) go through my drawers and closet and get rid of the clothing that I haven't worn in years and don't want anymore.

I have sold my strollers and bought Expedits for the living room and DS's room and they rock! I also got rid of the changing table that I had been trying to give away. If I pack up all the baby gear and sort through all of the paper piles my house will look empty! :D

Just found out about this and I just posted this: http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/sho...light=aboutone

"Get organized today with AboutOne! Safely store and manage your precious information: photos, children's artwork and health, education and home records.

Use TYPEAPARENT code for free year to AboutOne.com (worth $30). Code expires 7/31/11 (Mamasource had a deal today - $8 for 1 yr. - I looked into company/service & found the above better deal.)

review that had the code
http://typeaparent.com/a-review-of-a...pe-A+Parent%29"

Well here I am with an update.....

1. get rid of clutter hot spots in the MBR: some progress here, but not tons

2. get DH to weed through his old clothes: sigh, see above

3. purge finished basement being used as storage area: significant progress! maybe half done?

4. make finshed basement into usable play room : need to finish #3, but I am hopeful this will happen by the end of the summer

My end of year update (which is late!)

1. sort through, purge, and organize the stack of recipes and cookbooks. They are fairly organized. I purged a lot and can find things now.

2. do something with the bins of school papers. Done and I am doing well keeping caught up.

3. plan and purchase closet organizer for DS2 Not started

4. do something with the piles of photos (scan, organize, ??) I'm about 75% done. I got a good start and got side-tracked.

5. eliminate the huge pile of things to sell (sell, donate) I got rid of a huge amount at a mom2mom sale and through CL. Need to do more this year!

6. go through all the kids books and get rid of ones that are never read Done, but need to do it again...

7. label bins in DS1's room Done


Overall, not too bad! How about everyone else?

I only have a few goals, since that's about all I can handle right now:

1) De-clutter and organize our, "study" (which is currently a junk room).

2) Ditto our unfinished side of the basement. This time *I* will organize it. Last time DH insisted on doing it (when DS3 was a newborn) and came up with the dumbest system that I HATE. Things that I need, he put way in the back, things I don't use he put up in the front, I'm still annoyed with him that now it's twice as much work, b/c he was impulsive and wouldn't wait for me to organize it with him.

3) My friends and I have already agreed to do a 3 family garage sale in June, so I want to sell off as much stuff as possible at that sale.

4) Declutter kitchen stuff, I have a ton of sippy cups and other small containers cluttering up my cabinets, I just need to sit down and throw things out and re-organize.

Oh Gosh, so much on my 2011 list can be moved over to 2012. I need to figure out how to get some things done and juggle my school work, as I'm even further behind now with all the 2012 stuff to do.