T-23

As usual, I start something and then it's 4 days later and nothing else has been done.  So, Thursday I did start in the bathroom, but I didn't get very far.  I dealt with about 2 square feet in the back corner between the toilet and the tub.  My "after" looks like a normal person's "gee, this hasn't been cleaned in months, I'd better get on it."

In my (minimal) defense, a large part of that is issues we inherited with the house, like lousy caulking that won't come clean no matter what I do, and a floor that is a project unto itself.  There were 3 layers of linoleum in there when we moved in.  The bottom one is cemented to the wood floor and after trying to scrape it up I gave up about a foot into the door.  There's no removing that stuff short of a sander or new planks.  Above that was another layer, and above that linoleum tiles.  The tiles were relatively easy to get up, and the middle layer only a little more difficult.  This back corner had never been finished though, so I had two layers to remove.  I have tiles I bought years ago but don't know if they will help or if I can put them down any better than this bottom layer is.  Anyway, while I was down there I cleaned the bottom of that side of the toilet and tried to clean that seam between tub and floor and about then my back and knees decided there would be no more of that.

The weekend blew by uselessly.  Today I'm back on it...as soon as I eat something.

Oh, and Did I Mention?

My in-laws are coming to visit at Thanksgiving.  Oh yeah.  5 weeks I have in which to cram a year's worth of cleaning.  I'm planning some kind of blogging event to go with it, but I haven't decided what yet.  Open to suggestions.

5 & 1/2 Months Later

Yep, it's been over 5 months since I've posted which I just happened to notice because of Amanda's new post, so I'm posting an update and a few goals for the month of September.

I ended up slacking on the decluttering process back in April because I'd started college classes. Last week I'd finally decided that I was going to just have the garage sale with what I'd already decluttered and attempt to go through the garage as well (which I did). I'm pretty sure I sold well over 500 items, leaving me with 2 totes, a box and a rack of coats.

During the month of September, I plan to:

• Sort through the garage sale items and sort to donate or sell online.
• Drop off donation items
• Post items online for sale
• Scrub the shower & tub (I hate hard water...my tub is a "goldenrod" color (5 points if you know that color) and I'd like to see it white again
• Attempt to remove the paint from carpet in bedroom with goof off (pointless but going to try anyways)
• Begin job
• Start new college classes
• Clean out filing cabinet

I *intend* to post before/after pics now that I have a memory card reader again.

So I was talking to some of the girls the other day about my decluttering for my Memorial Day weekend garage sale.  Because I have such a headstart, I'm limiting myself to going through 10 items per day.  A box does not have to be completed in a day.  The attic does not have to be completed in a day.  I'm grabbing a box from storage and sorting into 4 piles: Keep, Donate, Sell, Trash  (Note: This is NOT 10 items per category. JUST 10 items per day) 

Keep items are packed away if I can (for my future move) or simply cleaned and put away.

Donate items are put into a box and any time I go into town, I drop it off at the charity donation center.

Sell items are priced, which can take more time to research online, but then put in the garage "staging" area for my future sale. 

Why am I telling you this?  Because it was pointed out that in one month, that's 300 items!  Just try it, you'll be amazed how quickly you can sort through 10 items!

Summer PCCX

Whose dumb idea was it to have PCCX in the summer? When it's hot? VERY hot!!  It doesn't matter where you are in the U.S., July is the hottest month of the year.  So, let's sweat our asses off and clean like our mothers-in-law are coming over in 2 days.  Except, we're gonna clean for 6 straight weeks.  Thanks so much for remembering Amanda.  Appreciate it.  Really.

Anyways, I actually started pccx a few days early.  I decided my living room is easier to do in sections to detail vacuum and steam clean because of moving furniture around and let's face it, its easier to say "avoid this 4x8 section of the floor" then "NOBODY walk in the living room for the next 8 hours!!!"  Besides, the bathroom is off of the living room, and the cats don't listen. So, I'm doing sections.

Now, I'm going to apologize in advance.  I rarely remember to take pictures for the before/after effect.  I usually remember while in process or after I'm done.  Maybe I'll get better at it if I do this daily, right? Right???

So, to begin. I have before/after pics of my front entry.  Mind you, hardly anyone visits that area because we strictly use the back door.  The cats however, like to throw up there. Often.  Leaving wonderful stains for me to clean up because nobody else in this house has the balls (Yeah, I said it. Three men in the house and I'm the one with the balls).  I digress.  So, my only visitors to that area are perfect strangers that don't know any better and come to the front door. Isn't this the site I want them to see when first meeting us? NOT!!  So, I took everything out (a bench and about 50,000 boxes because my Dad can't bear to throw them out because we'll need a box that size one day).  THEN remembered to grab the camera

So, that was Friday.  Saturday, I did the section near the bathroom, about 4 x 8 in size.  Do you think I remembered the camera? Nope.  So, no pictures, but I swear, I did it.  Sunday I tackled the section across from the bathroom where we have a desk/computer.  If you own a pet, you'll understand the amount of pet hair in the before picture. (Oh, and I remembered RIGHT after I did one sweep of the vacuum LOL)

The next day, I took a break from the floor because I ran out of cleaner for the steam vac (except I found out last night that I do have another small bottle under the kitchen sink, which means that 1.) I can work on the living room floor again tomorrow, and 2.) I need to clean under the kitchen sink and see if I can find other cleaners and maybe Jimmy Hoffa.  Anyways, I decided to tackle the microwave.  Didn't get a before pic, did get an after shot though :)

My last group of pictures are strictly after shots, you'll just have to trust me that I did the job.  Why? Because I'm too hot to get up and take a pictures because its JULY!!! These shots are in the entryway. Today I decided to look up and dust. Can I just say, ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww...never look up!!!

Okay, so that's my last 5 days. Even though PCCX technically didn't start until yesterday. So, consider me ahead by starting a few days beforehand, or late because I didn't post yesterday LOL

A Tiny Task

You know those jobs you just put off and put off even though just doing it takes but seconds?  I discovered this problem about 3 weeks ago:

Have I mentioned I have 5 cats?  

I'm not a cat person...

Do you have any idea how hard this is to clean up?

I mean, I had to get the vacuum

Put in the attachment

Get on my knees to make sure I got it all.  

What a pain in the ...

Anyways, I finally decided to get around to it:

And then it took me 4 MORE days just to post this....

How to Waste a Day

If you really want to avoid everything on your to-do list, the best thing to do is create a blog.  The amount of time needed to find the "perfect" layout, choosing the font size and color, adding extras, finding pictures to add, and then actually writing the blog is time-consuming to say the least!

So, yesterday was a good cleaning day, as I reported yesterday.  But last night I was supposed to concentrate on homework.  Didn't happen.  Instead, I decided that my 2009 Goals Blog wasn't realistic.  Let's face it, the year is almost over and having a 2009 title in 2010 shows its outdated.  So, I began a new blog:

The Most Stressed Woman

Fitting title, right?

I really wanted "The Procrastinating Perfectionist" but that was taken...I'll have to check that blog out later LOL

Now, today will HAVE to be about homework catchup.  Maybe if I'm lucky, the homework won't be too difficult and I can still get some homework done.  If only...

A Little Bit Here and a Little Bit There...

So I realized after taking a few pics regarding today's housework that I had other photos from last week I hadn't shared. This is what happens when I don't blog daily LOL

You know those couple of things around the house that just irritate the hell out of you. And yet you procrastinate them because it just seems like so much work. Well, last week I finally decided to break down and clean the blinds. I hate window blinds. It's almost easier to just buy new ones. Dusting on a regular basis doesn't help because we have three smokers in the house, and tobacco stains don't just dust off. So, every time I would go to the bathroom, I would look at these nasty blinds and sigh, thinking I have got to clean those. Then walk out. LOL

I forgot to take a before picture so you could see the icky stains I always looked at, but did remember while I was cleaning them in the tub.



Can I just say: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....

Now, usually when I clean blinds, I'll hang them outside to dry. However, it's COLD outside and I didn't want to go out there, so instead, I chose to hang them back up and laid a towel on the floor to catch the water droplets. (This also meant wiping down the wall underneath it because of the water streaking down, hence...I also got a portion of the wall clean LOL)



So now back to "real time." Today hasn't been pccx work thus far, just daily cleaning. But its gone a little bit beyond daily cleaning. Did that make sense? Anyways...one of the tasks was to wipe down appliances. So, I decided to take off the couple of items on magnets and do a good wipe down. Now, my fridge is a nice eggshell type color so I don't have to worry about glaring dirt or tobacco stains because they pretty much blend in, so I don't notice just how dirty it is. I took everything off and OMG....Ewwwwwww again!!



Thankfully, a couple shots of Fantastic cleaned it up very nicely!! The next daily but beyond task was to dust. Normally, I'll just dust the living room and 2 bedrooms. But today, I decided to tackle Dad's office and get to that dang bookshelf of his. Just as a reminder, here's the before:



and the after:



So, we're now up-to-date with posts AND I've blogged two days in a row....baby steps = progress!

Last Weeks Results

Ok, I'm a horrible blogger. But I swear, I'm going to get better! Now that Dad has finished his radiation treatment, I have more time in my day and can better organize my schedule.

Last week I decided I had to get my Christmas list together. Just making a list of who to buy for and what to buy would be too simple. You see, I have this tendency to buy gifts throughout the year with no idea who the gift will be for until this time of year. For example, I found two quilt stands, new in the box, on sale at a thrift store for $10 each over the summer. So, anyways....I had the majority of gifts inside 1 tote and stacked on top of it in my attic space. When I opened the attic door, I discovered Jordan had stacked Kris' belongings right inside the door. Add the garage sale stuff, assorted Christmas decorations and other crap, and I had a job in front of me.

I began by pulling out everything:



Okay, I didn't pull out everything. I did leave Kris' bed, luggage, a kitchen chair, cat carriers and the Christmas tree. But I did organize all of that stuff. Then, I began condensing the other stuff. First and foremost was Kris' belongings, followed by Christmas decorations. Once I had that crap put away, I just had to make a list of the gifts I had already purchased. Here's a lovely picture of Jordan's room after everything was put back in:



Jordan had made mention that he wanted his desk (in the back right of his room) moved out so it was usable.





Now that the attic space was clean and organized and Jordan's room was all set, I decided to attack Jordan's closet too! I wish I had this much energy every day! You'll be shocked at the difference of before/after...and it only took me about 30 minutes to do!!! Trust me, it was bad! It looks fabulous now!!!





The rest of the week SUCKED! Dad's radiation was supposed to end Wednesday, but they extended it for yet another day, just in case. That just depressed the hell out of me! Then Friday came with no trips to radiation but a boat load of homework to do. All weekend I played catch up.

It's now a new week. The plan is a little cleaning and a lot of homework every day.

Today: I ran errands shopping for deals at Walmart and Walgreens, you can find those on my personal blog. I busted my butt trying to clean as soon as I got home, and then started homework. Let's hope the rest of the week goes as well!

PCCX Goals

I haven't gotten much done with PCCX, I've painted a couple walls to clean them up a bit, I've dusted my bedroom completely.....That's really not much. I'm ashamed at the state of my house right now.

Yesterday was the halfway mark, I did get the main areas of my house picked up finally. Today is the day I hit up the kids' bedrooms. I need to go through toys and get rid of about half of them. I'd also like to get in the closets and clean them up a bit. We'll see how today goes. I've been up since 3:30. Will hopefully update later with pics.

PCCX gone wrong

The past two weeks have been a bust for me. I've been lucky to keep up with dishes and laundry and cleaning up after the monsters. Between surgery 2 weeks ago, kids and hubby getting sick then I got sick I haven't done ANYTHING. Monday is a new day. I'll hopefully get my info so I can start my school work. I'd like to spend a few hours a day on that, and a few hours a day on PCCX. We'll see how it goes.

An Easy Saturday

I woke up in a really good mood and ready to attack the day. My son woke me up and said "I wanted you to have enough time to wake up and drink coffee before you had to drive me to the bowling alley" This absolutely cracked me up! He's 15 and perfectly capable of walking or riding his bike the 1 mile, but the way he said it (or maybe I'd actually had enough sleep for once) just made it sound like the funniest thing I'd heard in ages. Anyways, that all came crashing down as soon as I came downstairs for coffee. My father was up and I began to tell him this hilarious story when he began yelling at me "Why did he wake you up?" Suddenly I was a 7 year old with no good explanation and was about to get the third degree. I stammered "I don't know" and tears began to well. So much for my good day. My father continued to yell at me about how he had taken my son to get my son's bowling ball out of my car (4 miles away where the car was stuck until some Fix-A-Flat was put into it) and how he told my son to let me sleep. For the next hour I just kept recounting the incident trying to come up with an explanation of why *I* got yelled at, but couldn't come up with one.

I really did try to get myself motivated after that. I did some basic house cleaning, but for the most part, I just wanted to go back to bed and have the day over with already. So, instead I pretty much played on Facebook all day. The be all, end all of time waste.

I did do sweep and mop the kitchen floor, which was sorely needed. Don't believe me?



This is the section of the floor near the sink and coffee pot and is the worst (okay, besides under the garbage can). So, now it looks more like this:



Today my main goals are the attic space in the boys room (I mean Jordan's room). Sighhhhh, I really have to get used to only having one child left in the house. I'll basically be taking everything out and putting it back in some form of organization. My Christmas stuff is in there as well, so I'll be able to start my Christmas list and see who I still need to buy for this year.

Bad 'manda

I am a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad PCCX-er. We are very nearly at the mid-point - you hear that, people, halfway done! * panic* - and the only pccx related things I have done are the inside of the freezer and the inside of one small dresser, oh, and most of an empty hallway (walls and floor). *hanging head in shame* I had the house looking fairly decent (if one didn't look too closely), and then I had back-to-back Bad Days this week and it's back to being a wreck. Possibly some areas not as wrecked as before, but still...

I'm bi-polar. I also have arthritis and other issues. So my mental status swings from depressed and useless to happy and ambitious, and my physical status swings from nearly crippled to not so bad. On an exceptionally good day the ups match, and on a particularly bad day the downs match. This week was one of those bad days...actually two in a row. On the plus side that is now behind me for a while, and things should be looking up. If I'm really lucky I won't have another downer until after PCCX is all over. Yeah, that'll happen. *snort*

Anyway...the house is trashed so one might think that this weekend's goal would be to get it picked up. Not so, Grasshopper. It's a weekend, which means everyone's home and in the way. It also means trips to town and shopping, which in turn means prep and follow-up and coupons to clip and file and mail and... So my goal for the rest of this weekend is to get ALL computer and paper related work done (as much as possible) before bedtime Sunday night. Correction: before NIC and ICA Sunday night, and I suppose Challenge too. So that's everything done by, say, 7:30pm tomorrow (I like to start late so I can skip commercials). The biggest thing on my side is that there's almost no shopping to be done tomorrow morning. Partly because grocery money is low, being the end of the month, and partly because there aren't any great deals at the store this week. There's a very few deals at other stores that maybe I might want to pick up if I wanted to store-hop, but I really don't so I'll just pass on them. That saves a ton in terms of time and effort. Shoot, I wouldn't even have to go if it weren't for the weekly requirement of newspapers and dog food and milk. What I wouldn't give for a store here that carried the big city paper on Sundays.

So much of the writing and coupon filing and such tonight and tomorrow, general pickup and getting back to order Monday, one room to be determined Tuesday, another Wednesday, another Thursday, panic about Halloween costumes Friday, Halloween carnival Saturday, back to shopping and writing Sunday. Sounds like a plan. Keep an eye out for mid-point challenges to be posted here and elsewhere this weekend.

Oh! I almost forgot - again - that I really, really need to take some pictures for holiday cards. That will definitely be this weekend as well.

Blog Catch Up

I have no excuses for not posting the last couple of days. I've not only done some pccx work, I've even remembered to take photos. I've made goal every day this week and will reach my monthly point goal today. So, why does posting seem like SO much work? It's sad when you'd rather scrub the bathroom down then post a blog LOL

So, here's a little catch up over the last few days. I did a bit of cleaning in the boys room, which is just Jordan's room now. It's time to pack up Kris' belongings that he didn't take with him when he moved earlier this year and put into the attic until he has room to take them. I stopped at Walmart on Tuesday and purchased 2 totes (only $4 each, a great buy!). Here's the before and afters of the boxes stacked in the corner (in front of the closet and attic doors, making it difficult to get into either):




I do plan to get this into the attic space, just as soon as I'm prepared to clean out the attic so this will fit LOL Getting into the attic also means I'll be going through the tote of gifts I've purchased throughout the year and putting them into my file so I know who has gifts/who needs gifts still. Overall, I'm probably 50% done with my shopping. Maybe I'll attack that tomorrow....

Then on Wednesday, or was it Thursday...whatever, ONE of those 2 days, I did start working on the bathroom. I decided to start with the bathroom organizer, which wasn't really organized at all. The first drawer was a bit of a mess of this and that stuff that didn't go anywhere else and oral care. The 2nd drawer was a combination of cosmetics and hair care. Most days I had trouble shutting the stupid drawer and would have to push things around so it would shut again. The third drawer was travel kits. I decided to just do one drawer at a time, removing everything and then scrubbing it inside and out before putting stuff back in. Now, the first drawer is cosmetics, second drawer is hair care, and the third drawer is oral care and razors.

Here's some of the after shots of the bathroom organizer (I do plan to get the before shots in here, but having sizing issues):













My new college classes begin on Monday, but one benefit of an online class is that the professors generally open them a week early so you can get a head start on work, which is exactly what I've done. Not a lot, but at least 15 minutes a day I do something. Dad's radiation treatment ends on Wednesday, so I'll have a LOT more time to work on pccx. Granted, its only 2.5 hours out of my day, but its during prime energy time...and who wants to start cleaning after that long of a drive?

I don't think I'll be able to finish pccx, but I will put a good dent into it so that when we start again in January, I'll be in much better shape!

What was I thinking?????

I am such a glutton for punishment and I really have the desire to have a clean and organized home, I really do.....BUT, I can't seem to get it all together AT THE SAME TIME *snort* I am a 1 step forward, 9 steps back kinda girl apparently, lol. I did manage to get all my coupons clipped, organized, sorted and shared last night....this used to be part of my Sunday routine and beleive it or not helped me get on track for the week, when I did it regularly.

On the other hand...........I have a 60th surprise birthday party for my dad that is only 1/2 planned, homeschool with dd every day, hair cuts for both myself and dd, eyebrow waxing, family holiday portraits, sign language class for dd, pe for dd, art for dd, a community yard sale that I am in charge of, weekly client work, a field trip to the pumpkin patch, shopping for birthday decorations, meal planning and preparing, quarterly payroll returns, personal tax prep, unpacking, cleaning for said surprise birthday party this weekend. Ummmmmm, where oh where do I put in pccx and going potty????????????????????????????

One tada and then I am outie....Dd and I sat in her room for 5+ hours on Saturday and cleaned out her closet, under her bed, all her nooks and crannies. She has bins for all her toys, but enjoys irritating me by putting stuff where it doesn't belong....the only thing left to do in there is hang her wall art, hang her window treatments and go thru her closet to purge smallish clothes and summer wear. I also managed to scrub down, clean and polish our stainless steel gas grill. I took all the grill grates....8 peices in all and then I used stainless steel cleaner on the outside. Saturday was wrapped up with trimming and watering all hedges out front and cleaning up the scraps. OOH, OOH, OOH....I guesss that cleaning the grill and trimming the hedges could be on PCCX under "winterizing".....hmmmm, I definately need to check that out, lol.

Tomorrow will be spent on client work, clearing off my desk, credenza and filing cabinets and hanging clothes back in my closet. After losing 3 dress sizes, I was forced *gasp* lol to buy new clothes and they are ALL on my bed....my closet is completely empty, so that MUST be taken care of tomorrow.

Monday's Before/After Debacle

So, as promised, here's my before:



and here's my after:


and here's what happened as a result:



I'm going to cry over my burnt dinner now...

Monday Mania

Yesterday went off pretty well. I got the majority of the house in order enough that if someone came over, I wouldn't be totally embarrassed. I didn't get around to vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, etc but I could live with that for a day. I'm hoping to accomplish all of that this afternoon after Dad's radiation appointment. I did get through a LOT of paperwork and sold my college books back to Barnes and Noble and got them packaged for shipment to the post office.

It's 9:45 a.m. and I've already dropped them off at the post office - not bad for only getting 4 hours of sleep LOL I don't know why, but I just was not tired last night. Maybe it had something to do with the chocolate that I ate around 8 p.m. (I'm referring to an entire bag of Hostess chocolate doughnuts, yes I ate the entire bag). I'm giving up on my weight loss efforts until after Dad's radiation is complete and I have time to get back on the treadmill. So shush....

I didn't get to clip newspaper coupons yesterday, which really bummed me out. While the lack of the job saved me a lot of time, I really like clipping my weekly coupons! From now on, I'll make sure I get to the store much earlier than 2 p.m.

Today's plans:

Post office - Done
Dad radiation
Maple syrup farm
IGA for Totinos pizza rolls sale
WHB (Weekly Home Blessing)
At least 30 minutes of pccx - room to be determined later. I'll post before/after pics of whatever job I choose.

The Calm Before the Storm

I know I haven't been good about posting my blogs as well as I should. But, I have a really good reason: I'm swamped!

Friday I finally completed two of my classes: Geography and Psychology. Last week I had 2 projects to complete as well as 3 tests and other miscellaneous assignments, so I was on a major deadline and everything else had to wait. I did just enough housework so that the house didn't look like a F5 tornado hit it, now its more like an F3.

I'm still taking Dad to radiation (a 2.5 hour loss of prime time energy each day) but he should wrap up his treatments around the 28th of this month. Nearly 8 weeks of radiation is just cruel. I want to cry every time some new person comes in and only has 3 weeks of treatments.

Today will be basic house cleaning, laundry and shopping. Fortunately I don't have major shopping to do, so it won't take too long. As I stated before, house cleaning and laundry will be a huge effort.


So, my new classes don't begin until the 26th (Business Ethics and Chemistry). Which means more time to clean this week. I'll be working super hard - as in trying to do a room every day or two. I will post daily...

Progress, or the lack thereof

Anyone who thinks I'm some kind of "leader" or inspiration or even facilitator has got to be out of their mind - and you know who you are. ;)

It has been such a struggle just to get back to where my daily chores actually get done daily - and I'm still not there. Part of this is lack of inertia; it's so much easier to sit here than to get up and actually work. Part is pure laziness. Part is physical limitations. And part is the sheer volume of "daily chores".

I sat down last night and made a list of things that needed to be done by 8:00am in order for me to feel ready to start the day, along with estimates of time needed for each step. It added up to 3 hours and 10 minutes. Sorry, I am NOT starting my day at 4:50 just so I can "start my day" at 8 without a sense of already being behind. So this morning I got up at 6:00 and got to work on the list to see how long it would take me to finish it. It's now 10 after 9 and this blog post is part of the next to last item (the last item is starting laundry which doesn't take long but the sky is still looking like rain despite assertions to the contrary by the weatherman, so I'm waiting for proof before going out on that limb). I did spend some time just sitting and chatting, and I did drive the girls to the bus stop and got a coke at Sonic, so those took up at least half an hour. Once I finish this post and write one for my personal blog I'll have no excuse (no good one anyway) to sit and fiddle with the computer instead of cleaning.

I have made a teensy tiny bit of progress in the cleaning arena in the last couple of days though. The other day I bought an actual mop, the kind with a bunch of string for a mop head. I have 2 kinds of wet Swiffers, a steam mop, and a scrubber on a pole, but for one reason or another none of those were quite cutting it on these floors. The good news is that this mop does seem to work beautifully on most of the tasks I put it to. The bad news is that it doesn't get into corners or crevices, much of the floor is too stained or damaged for it to make a great difference in appearance, and there are some spots that still require the scrubber or scraper. The worse news is that in its first day out yesterday I managed to get the string loops so tangled that it's difficult to use now. However, I *did* get most of the back hallway floor mopped (except for the edges where it wouldn't reach) AND I used it to wash the walls too. These are old fashioned wood paneled walls painted white (where the paint hasn't been peeled off) and they were *filthy* from kids' messy hands and in a few places crayons or pencils. I still need to do some detail cleaning in the crevices of the paneling and the edges of the floor, and try some polish on the floor, but what I did get done is a significant improvement.

So here I am, with a lot of daily things and most computer things out of the way, so it's time to get to work. Oh look, one task has just been decided for me. A shipment of frozen meat arrived (mom likes ordering such things) and now I have to reorganize my freezer which will also require defrosting it. There goes the rest of my morning. :)

Part 1 of my dungeon

Before & After Photos of the Coupons - Part of my dungeon

The first photo is of all the MONTHS, yes months of inserts that I had accumulated as well as coupons I picked up along the way or received in trains or from other group members. There was NOT semblance of organization, they were scattered everywhere and I had no idea where in the heck the ones were that I actually needed to use. My daughter went to her dad's this weekend and I spent a total of 13 hours on organizing the heaps of the mess. (4 hours on Thursday night, 6 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Sunday)

First, I had to go thru all the uncut inserts and determine which were expired (sadly, that was alot). This was approximately 9 1/2 " of inserts to go thru and does not include the enormous stack that was already clipped. Then I clipped all the good dated coupons. After getting them all clipped, I sorted them into stacks of coupons I need/use and ones that I will send to friends and members of my coupon groups that can use them. I tackled the "other" coupons for the groups first and grouped all like coupons together. I keep these in a bin with cards labeled by month. I chose to do this by month because when we send out coupon trains in the group, we must make sure that the coupons aren't short dated to go around to 4 people. I keep the current month first and then in month order work back. The coupons photo'd in the very back of the bin are either NON expiring or expire 12/2010 or LATER. Yes, I grabbed an entire stack of organic coupons. I don't see them often, use them when I can and I experience NO SHAME in helping myself and my friends :D

Once that was accomplished, I did the happy dance, not only for completing 1/2 of that task, but also because I got to take fling points for all those wasted coupons :) I "auctioned" off several stacks of the unwanted coupons to the girls (the collaborators of this blog) and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it...we kinda felt like we were at an auction, lol. Next began the task of organizing all my personal coupons. I do the organizing for those a little differently. I organize my personal coupons by "type" of coupon. For example....beverages, breakfast items, bread, ice cream, frozen, frozen veggies, medicine, deoderant, paper products...you get the idea I hope. I shop the sales and I stockpile, so I often times have multiples of coupons and actually welcome them from friends, neighbors, family and fellow couponers. :) If I can get items for free or close to free that we won't personally use, I donate them to women's shelters, pet shelters, churches and even victims of wild fires, tornadoes and hurricanes. I paperclip all like coupons together, with the earliest expiration date first. I also like to have each variety of coupon clipped together, meaning.....I have a section for soups, but I have all the chunky campbell's coupons together, all healthy choice campbell's coupons together, all cream soup campbell's coupons together, etc. That's probably a bit anal, but if I see a sale, I can grab the coupons quickly and take them with me.

The final step in completing the coupon organizing is to organize my bin by ailes in the store. I have not done that yet and am waiting when I can leave my daughter at home to walk the aisle at kroger. I do shop at other stores, but mainly kroger, and I could actually probably just do this at home since I am smart enough to figure out that all cheeses, milk, yogurt, butter, cookie dough, etc are all in the same section, same with all the frozens, canned goods, etc. :)

I think I mentioned I have several BIG issues with my dungeons in trying to get unpacked, but I am happy that I was able to get this large task completed although it was only a VERY VERY small, minute dent in the big picture. I went shopping Saturday afternoon and it was so nice to look at the ads, make my list and pull my coupons....took me 30 minutes tops for this weeks shopping at 5 stores. YAY me!