End of Week 4: Room A Week, Bag A Day Challenge

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving!  I'm so grateful for family and friends.  Here's a look at our feast...

 We called these our version of PB & J.  It's Prosciutto, Brie and fig Jam on a whole grain cracker.  Very yummy.  Here's a look at our table....

 And our food...

 We have to give a big shout out to kneaders bakery for our lovely dessert bar...

Having the desserts catered makes life so much easier and somehow it just tastes better when someone else makes it!

Okay, it's time to get back to business!

The Room:
Remember the before of the living room and dining room?

Here's the after...

In addition to getting it all cleaned up and ready for Thanksgiving this week, we also cleaned up Thanksgiving and dressed it up for Christmas!  Here's a closer look at some of our holiday cheer...

 I made these little book page trees with a group of friends last week.  I love how they turned out.  Also,  my new dough bowl had to get transformed...

Here's a look at the dining room...

 And here's the entrance way...

I did NOT get the entrance way cleaned!  just decorated.  In fact if you could see just past the edges of this photo you would see empty Christmas boxes, shopping bags from black friday and the vacuum!  Just trying to keep it real! Here's a few more close ups...

 I just picked up this terrarium at Front Porch Pickens Vintage Market in Peoria- I love it!

We tried to use lots of fresh pine boughs in our decorating this year, Why?  Because they make the house smell great (since we don't have a real tree) and at the end of the season we can just throw them away instead of storing them!

The Bag:

Lots of past holiday items are being sold.  I've decided I'd like to be able to do all my Christmas decorating in under 5 hours.  Years ago our past house was part of a holiday tour for ladies in our church.  I felt the need to add a major holiday display each year.  We had a themed tree in each room (9 total), special dishes, towels, bedding etc., etc.  Now I just want to simplify and enjoy time with my family, with no stress to create a perfectly decorated house.  My good friend says we must be getting old if we don't want to spend days decorating.  I think we're just getting smart!  

This pile of santa dishes, snowflake plates and mugs, buffet servers and decor weighed in at a whopping 142.5 lbs!   I know its the house losing weight, but I seriously feel so much lighter!  Purging decor I don't use anymore is opening up some much needed storage space, which is going to help me with the room for week 5.  Before I show you the room I just need to know that by now we're friends, right?  I know it's only been 4 weeks, but I'm hoping in that time, as I've shown some of the dirtiest areas of my house, that we've bonded.  I'm hoping, because we're friends, that you won't judge too harshly, that you'll be understanding and supportive.  That if you think I'm a hoarder you'll keep it to yourself just to save my feelings.  I'm going to need all the support I can get because this weeks room is...

The craft room, aka (almost) the messiest, most cluttered room in the house.   The worst room in the house right now is actually the TV room, where I'm storing the 400 plus pounds of stuff I'm promising to have at my garage sale!  That room may or may not be shown at a later date- I may have to wait until we're best friends!  Ok, enough stalling, here's goes nothing... 

I have no excuses!  Just this promise... by the end of the week this room will be cleaned, decluttered and completely organized!  I'm super excited to get started.  Wish me luck and be sure and send me your before and afters (please! I need to know someone else has disorganized spaces!).  

Total Loss:  585 pounds

PS.  Had to share a pic of our little elves...

Week 4 Continues: Room A Week, Bag A Day Challenge

The Room:

Excellent progress has been made on this weeks room.  I was able to finish the dining room on Tuesday and the living room just needs a few more shelves dusted.  Knowing my daughter was arriving home from college and that were hosting 15 people for Thanksgiving tomorrow was very motivating!  Here's the before...

And here's the after:  (It wouldn't be fair to show the whole room, since the weeks not over, so I'm just giving a little peek. )

I was able to get a few fall displays set up just in time for Thanksgiving.  

I've been looking for a dough bowl for a few years.  Every time I find one it's way out of my price range... until last week.  A group of friends and I happened upon a german antiques sale and now I'm the proud owner of a 3 1/2 foot long dough bowl.  It was so fun getting it all done up for fall.  I also made a trip to Hobby lobby and updated a few lamps...

With nothing to purge from the living room I decided to tackle the pantry.  With the refrigerator all clean for Thanksgiving, I figured the pantry was a logical choice.  I'm not going to lie, it turned out to be a whole other room.  Here's the before...

And here's the after...

It wonderful to walk in and see everything clean and in it's place.  

The Bag:

Here's what was purged from the pantry...

 20 pounds of candles I don't use and 15 pounds of trash...

I won't be posting tomorrow since it's Thanksgiving, so look for Week 4 afters on Monday.  I hope you all have an amazing day!  

Total Loss:  442 1/2 pounds

Week 4: Room A Week, Bag A Day Challenge

The Room:
Today I was able to tackle the dining room.  Halloween is put away and my version of this years Thanksgiving is on display.  Here's the before...

And here's the after...

 Here's a closer look at our Thanksgiving decor...

 I just love these little bird frames.  I added the "Grateful" by printing on book page scrapbook paper.

 Here's another frame with "Thankful"

The Bag:

So when I put away my Halloween box I had to move my Valentines decor box and realized I haven't really decorated for Valentines day for the last 5 or more years.  I ended up purging most of those decorations as well as Thanksgiving decor from the past that I no longer use.  Also, when I set up my mostly neutral Thanksgiving decor on the dining table I noticed my red and cream chandelier shades don't really match anymore.  I temporarily stole the burlap shades from my kitchen, so I'll be making a trip to Hobby Lobby today.  Here's 22 more pounds leaving the house...

Total Loss:  407 1/2 pounds

End of Week 3: Room A Week, Bag A Day Challenge

The Room:
This week I was able to remove almost 200 pounds of unwanted items from my master bedroom.  And now it's been cleaned from top to bottom (I even made my bed!)  Here's the befores...

And here's the afters...

The Bag:  

After cleaning out both closets there wasn't anything left to remove from the master, so I chose to clean out the refrigerator.  The whole family jumped in to help!  Here's the before...

As usual, I like to take everything out so we can do a thorough cleaning.  Little Biggs 4 is obviously enjoying lending a hand...

Mr. Right was in charge of washing all removable parts...

 Little Biggs 5 was in charge of the door...

 There's great satisfaction in a job well done, as Little Biggs 4 demonstrates...

 It was all very serious business.  We wouldn't even think of having a contest to see who could fit themselves in the empty refridgerator...

 Little Biggs 6 was the winner!

 And here's the after...

It's all ready to be filled with Thanksgiving supplies.

The Bag:

I'm embarrassed to say we had 23 1/2 pounds of garbage from the refrigerator!   

So what's next?  Since we host Thanksgiving dinner each year (15 people this year) I figured I better chose the dining room and living room this week.  They say a pictures worth a thousand words, these pictures should clearly explain my choice...

 It's official!  We're hoarders!  There is a constant struggle in our house with where to put all my shopping finds each week.  Because I have a home decor business we have a constant flow of merchandise coming into the house.  I'm usually able to get it painted (if needed) cleaned up (if needed), priced and loaded in our trailer with-in the week, but come the weekend we're out acquiring more treasures for our next show.  I'm hoping to get a workspace built in the backyard so I can shelf items rather than bring them in the house.   Here's a peek at the dining room...

There's probably no excuse for still having my halloween candy table up, but things have been a little hectic lately.  This week I hope to take down Halloween and get Thanksgiving up (just in time to take Thanksgiving down and put up Christmas!)  Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

How's your purge coming along?  I'd love to hear from you. 

Total Loss: 385 1/2 Pounds 

Week 3 Almost Done: A Room A Week, A Bag A Day Challenge

The Room:
You may remember I said I had two closets to tackle in my master bedroom.  Here's number 2...

 It's not normally this messy, but I've started Christmas shopping and this is my hiding spot.  Normally I like to completely empty the closet I'm working on, but honestly I knew I didn't have the time or energy to do that this week so I had Mr. Right go through his things and I went through mine to remove all items we no longer need.  Here's what we came up with...

The Bag:

A massive pile of clothes from my side.  Most of these items are suits I wore when I was planning on being a Junior High Principal.  I retired 10 years ago, so that's how long they've been hanging around!  Here's a combined pile from both sides of the closet...

 I've been wanting to switch out my jewelry box for months now.  I bought a tall multi drawer dresser as a replacement, but haven't found the time to go through my jewelry and make the switch!  After painting the new dresser the drawers are having a hard time sliding, so I'll have to do a little sanding and finish putting the new hardware on, but here's how it looks today...

Total weight lost from closet 2:  94 lbs.  (that includes the jewelry box cause I want credit for every single item I'm purging)  This is going to be one massive garage sale!

Total Loss: 362 Pounds