Under the kitchen sink

"I am an organizing junkie" has a great 52 week challenge to get organized. I thought I'd jump in... now. You bascally chose the drawer, closet, room or area of your home you want to organize and blog about it. The author, Laura, also asked a couple of questions, so I will do my best to answer them.

1. Name ONE reason you want to get organized. It will be neat to see the variety of answers: Saving time by looking for what I need. I want to be able to know EXACTLY where I put something instead of looking for it for an hour or more.

2. What did you organize last week & were you happy with the way it turned out?

My first area is.. Under the kitchen sink, since this is one of the areas I skipped at a previous challenge. I am almost too ashamed to admit it... BUT there was a huge mess under my kitchen sink. It yould be so cluttered and disorganized I was stuggling to find what I needed. The reason why I wanted to organize it so bad is because I really need the items there daily, so having it organized will actually save me a lot of time! You don't want to see a before picture of this, do you? Noooo... You don't? Really? Well... okay then... Ready?

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You were warned.. LOL. Now, I checked those ubercool plastic bags, and realized it was old stuff my husband had put there after he finished painting the living room. It was stashed there to bring it to the recycling center ONE day. Since he went to the recycling center yesterday and the day before yesterday because he realized there was too much stuff we no longer needed or were broken and couldn't be fixed, everyhere, I figured it would be a great time to get the counter under the sink a little organized. The rags and cleaning products, well, needless to say I needed them. So I put the cleaning producs along with some pieces for my vaccumer into one plastic container, and the rags (which I still need to fold neatly), into another one. I labeled each one of the containers. This saves me so much space that I could actually put a six pack of water under the sink as well, so it is not standing somewhere on the floor or cluttering up another area. Ready for the after picture? I bet you are...

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Before I forget itm here's a picture of a premature Valentines Day gift for mister "I don't need to organize my tools because I always know exactly where I put which item, btw, do you know where I put ______????"

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NO before picture possible because I would have needed to take pictures of each and every corner of our place. He had spread his toolds just EVERYWHERE because of "ongoing projects".
Yes, I am very happy with how everything turned out and I am motivated to maintain it this way!

3. Have you had any breakthroughs or a-ha moments yet? I would love to hear them!
I guess my biggest a-ha moment was the one when I realized it actually doesn't take as much time to organize an area than I thought. My biggest reason why I didn't get really organized before was because I didn't have the time, and whenever I had the time I kept procastinating by saying that I was short on money and couldn't spend a lot on storage containers. After finishing the area under the kicthen sink, I realized that it had not taken me as much time as the total of time combined while I was looking for something and couldn't find it. Same thing for the containers. They didn't cost me as much money as new items (I'd have to buy because I can't find the ones I know I already have) would. Taking the time, and the few dollars for containers, to actually organize an area saves you more time and more money in the futur.

Motivated to join me in the 52 week challenge?

By the way, I checked the statistics of my blog and realized I am getting quite a lot of hits. I'd be glad if you could leave your link so I can visit you too! Who knows, maybe you inspire me? :)