Goodbye Junk Challenge!

Well, this weekend, we did it. Carey and I tackled the office. It wasn't pretty. But, it is pretty now! :-)

A few weeks ago, when my dad was visiting for my birthday, he installed a ceiling fan in our office. Between the dust and dry wall that fell from the ceiling during installation to the fact that we had to remove every single item from the closet so my dad would have access to the attic, the office was a mess. I thought that this would be the perfect task for this week's Goodbye Junk Challenge. Instead of just putting stuff away, we sorted, filed, and threw away all sorts of stuff.

I give you the before pictures...

Um, yeah, I know it's bad...


There is a desk under there. Somewhere. I think.


Our shred pile. And our file pile. And our goodness-knows-what-else pile.

Here is what our living room looked like on Saturday night as Carey and I finished sorting all the junk, er, paperwork that had piled up in a corner.

I absolutely love bins with hanging file folders! Our three bin systems includes a bin for all things Abigail, a bin for our personal papers, and a bin for house/car information. The cardboard boxes contained paper for recycling (on the left) and paperwork for shredding (on the right). Carey and I will take turns tackling all that shredding this week!

And here is the finished office!

Oh my goodness! There was a desk under there!


The piles, all under control now!


And just so you don't think that I shoved everything into a closet, I give you...the closet!

In the interest of full disclosure, we're still not quite done. I have a box of photos (from last year - yikes!) that need to be labeled and put into albums. I also have a few gifts that need to be sent, which I plan to get to this week. Carey is also going to re-sort his bookshelf, and the extra books that are currently piled up on the floor next to his bookshelf will find new homes either upstairs or downstairs. But, not too shabby, huh?

This week's/weekend's challenge will likely be our bedroom. Since autumn is here, I think it's probably time to store our summer clothes and bring out the fall/winter stuff. Like we do at the end of every season, we'll go through our clothes and see what we didn't wear this year - anything that wasn't worn will be donated. And those things that have seen better days will be donated (if they're not too bad) or thrown out if they're beyond help. I hope to have some more good pictures for next weekend!

It's not too late to join in the challenge yourself! Just stop by Shell's blog for information and great tips to help you along the way. (Last week's tip was for organizing your pantry. Goodness knows that will be a task and half for me one of these weeks!!)