Merry Christmas and looking towards the New Year

Well, it looks like I could really be back for good! This feels lovely!

I hope you all (however many are still out there - lol) had a wonderful Christmas! My parents are in town and I've been trying to get work done in the office and spend time with them. Next week is a month end week and I have to do a fair amount of prep work so that the week will go smoothly.

Also, starting next week is a 91 Day Decluttering Challenge on this blog. I found Mary Organizes last year about this time and after reading through her blog a little and reading about the challenge, I signed up. Boy, did I need the challenge!

I moved into my condo in 2002 and there hasn't been a lot moved out over the years, for the most part. In 2011, I moved my bedroom to the smaller bedroom and set up the quilting studio in the larger master bedroom. There was a fair amount of rearranging and organizing, but that was still a few years ago. I figured that I needed something to get the ball rolling for me.

The 91 Day Decluttering Challenge is set up in such a way that you do a little bit each day focusing on one room or section of the house at a time. Last year, I started with the laundry room and got everything organized and felt so much better about the space that it propelled me into the next week and it was a domino effect.

The only problem I had was that I got stalled in my kitchen. And work got in the way at the beginning of each month, as it still does. I spent 3 weeks in the kitchen and had around 9 boxes of items to get out of the house. I found Pampered Chef bakeware that I didn't know I had! That to me was the biggest clue that I was heading in the right direction.

BUT!! Once I was done with the kitchen, it was so easy to move onto other areas of the house a little bit at a time. And I found it easier to keep the decluttered areas clean. Hooray!!

I didn't get the entire house decluttered in the 91 days. Heck, I still have areas to declutter now. But what I did get done was a huge boost! And throughout the year, when I had a few minutes, I worked on a bathroom closet or the bedroom closet or the vanity or a cabinet in the basement. I still need to work on the basement where decorations are and where the home improvement items are. And the quilting studio. I think I have been putting this one off because of the lack of Quilting Mojo. But now that I am feeling the urge to sew and piece, I am also feeling the urge to finish things up and declutter!

All of that to say that if you are so inclined, this is a great program that you can join to get the motivation or the direction to work on your own space! What are you waiting for? :)