Operation Organization--on to week five!

I have loved the Operation Organization challenge that Melinda started several weeks ago. It makes me focus on one area besides my regular cleaning (I'm chuckling, cause "regular" is just a wee bit of an overstatement these days). Knocking off these little areas one at a time (and they are little--I don't pick "clean out the basement" cause it wouldn't get done) has a spill over effect. Makes me feel a small sense of accomplishment...like I'm getting somewhere. The "regular" cleaning gets undone almost right away...these tasks have potential to stick around for a while. Love it!

If you are following along on this spine-tingling adventure, you'll remember that I've already tackled the paper baskets, the junk drawer, and the mess-o-jewelry. This week I chose this little area right outside my house/garage door where mess piles up...cause I was starting to trip on everything. Here is what it looked like last week:

and now:

Taa Daa!! Hubby helped a bunch (thank you hubby! cause it had the potential of all kinds of creepy...) and half the stuff there was trash or in the wrong place. We got the storage cubes at Tar-jay on sale this week. We needed a place for wet boots, muddy shoes, etc. There is one for each of us. We don't have a mudroom...

(Aah, wouldn't that be nice? You'd think my dream home would have a spa or a two-story fireplace...I'd take those too, but my dream home has a mudroom! That would be awesome...a place for backpacks and snow pants and ball caps and gardening shoes and one of those cute benches with hooks above and cubbies below pieces of furniture...oh, I digress. I bet if I had that mudroom it would be my next operation organization task...but one can dream, right?)

Anyhoo, you'll also notice a red bin which is my attempt at corralling all of those stuff-mart bags that we need for disposing of doggie's business. You'll also notice it's in one of the cubes. That cube is supposed to be for my boots, etc, but mine actually are put away for the summer...cause making a snowman is not on my summer to do list. They will go there eventually and the red bin will go on top.

Note the hand sanitizer--we must find a way to de-germ...the swine flu is already here in our area. Here is my attempt--thought it would make us do it on our way in if nothing else. We'll see on that one.

Basically, that's all it was...pick up trash, sweep, and cube the boots. Don't know why I was putting it off! And now I won't trip on the way out! I will have to find another way to know I've got the car in far enough though...the boots won't stop me now!

This week, I've gotta go with the linen closet. It's making me nuts. It's been organized in the past, but my labels have come down and lots of stuff has been shoved in. Time to redo! Looking forward to it! (what's wrong with me?).

It's not too late to join in on all of the organizing hoopla! Click here for more info.