31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 20 - 22

Wow I can't believe how much paper I need to deal with. So the challenge for today and the rest of the weekend is to finish organizing the paperwork I started yesterday.

Have a great weekend, B.

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 19

Today's challenge is to organize all paperwork.  Here is my main focus:

Check back later to see how it's improved.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer. 
13. Oops day.
14. Determine any organizational supplies needed for the linen closet and get them.
15. Determine any organizational supplied needed for the kitchen drawers and purchase them.
16. Clean and organize one of the kitchen drawers you purchased supplies for yesterday.
17. Clean & organize the linen closet. 
18.  Take care of  any items from Christmas that need to be returned or exchanged.
19. Organize all paperwork.

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 18

I still have a few items from Christmas that I need to exchange.  So that's today's challenge.  Take care of  any items from Christmas that need to be returned or exchanged.  Then have a great day with your hobby.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer. 
13. Oops day.
14. Determine any organizational supplies needed for the linen closet and get them.
15. Determine any organizational supplied needed for the kitchen drawers and purchase them.
16. Clean and organize one of the kitchen drawers you purchased supplies for yesterday.
17. Clean & organize the linen closet. 
18.  Take care of  any items from Christmas that need to be returned or exchanged.

Enjoy, B.

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 17

Good Morning!

Today's challenge can be found on the Get It Together, Already Planner/Cleaning Schedule  If you haven't got yours yet you can download it here.  Today's challenge is to clean and organize the linen closet.

I will update this post later with pics of my progress.  Check back.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer. 
13. Oops day.
14. Determine any organizational supplies needed for the linen closet and get them.
15. Determine any organizational supplied needed for the kitchen drawers and purchase them.
16. Clean and organize one of the kitchen drawers you purchased supplies for yesterday.
17. Clean & organize the linen closet.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 16

Today's challenge is to clean and organize one of those kitchen drawers you purchased organizational supplies for over the weekend.

Check back later to see pics of mine.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer. 
13. Oops day.
14. Determine any organizational supplies needed for the linen closet and get them.
15. Determine any organizational supplied needed for the kitchen drawers and purchase them.
16. Clean and organize one of the kitchen drawers you purchased supplies for yesterday.

Britia

Update:

Ok it’s confession time.  Today for the 31 Day Organizational Challenge I cleaned and organized our candy drawer she says in a whispered voice.  I have purchased candy for various events over the last few months and we haven’t eaten it all.  And so since most candy doesn’t go bad very quickly I have just stuck what we had left in baggies and shoved it in a drawer.  Thus, was born, the candy drawer.

I forgot to take a before picture so imagine this and more all packed in baggies and thrown in a drawer.

At this point I have sorted the candy and thrown out anything old or that we won’t eat.  I also had a lot of candy that wasn’t wrapped so I divided it into serving sizes in snack baggies.  Easy to grab and put in a lunch box for dessert.

Then I went shopping for my organizers.  I went specifically for drawer organizers but found they were way expensive.  It was going to cost me about $50 for one drawer!  Yikes!!!  So I decided to go with Ziplock storage containers.  I chose medium size rectangles and divided rectangles.  I ended up paying about $12.  Still pricey, but doable.  Here is what I ended up with.

Hopefully, now, when we want something sweet we will be able to find it.  Who knows maybe it will even turn into a healthy snack drawer like I see on other blogs.  Yeah, you’re right … get real, already!

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Days 14 - 15

Wow,  yesterday was so busy that I completely forgot about the challenge until after dinner and by then it was just too late.  I'm going to call that and oops day.

I'm going to spend the next few days preparing for an upcoming crop.  So I wanted my challenges to be fast and easy for the weekend.  Here's what I've come up with...next Tuesday is the day to clean and organize the linen closet and I keep a lot more than linens in mine, so I need some organizational supplies for the other stuff, so that is the challenge for today to determine what I need and get it. 

Along those same lines I have a drawer or two or three in my kitchen which is also in need of organizational supplies so that is my challenge for tomorrow is to decide what is needed and purchase it.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer. 
13. Oops day.
14. Determine any organizational supplies needed for the linen closet and get them.
15. Determine any organizational supplied needed for the kitchen drawers and purchase them.

.Have a great weekend,
Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 12

Today's challenge is to clean out the junk drawer.  Mine wasn't in too bad of shape.  Here is the before photo:

I took everything out, wiped out the drawer, cleaned out and organized the drawer organizer & the take out menu organizer, and put almost everything back in it's original spot.  I was able to find a location for the push pins in the drawer organizer so I was able to get rid of the box for that and I relocated the mouse.  We don't need him in the kitchen any longer.

Here is the after photo:

I realize there isn't much difference but I needed an easy day.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1. Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.
2. Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.
3. Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  
4. Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.
5. Make a menu plan for the month of January.
6. Start cleaning out the email account(s).
7. Finish cleaning out the email account(s).
8. Clip and organize coupons.
9. Clean & organize the computer desktop.
10. Catch- up day.
11. Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.
12. Clean & organize the junk drawer.

I hope you have an easy day as well,
Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 11

My challenge today is to clean & organize my scrapbook supplies that live in my crop totes.  If you are participating in the 31 Day Organization Challenge pick a portion of your craft supplies to clean up and organize today.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.     Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.   Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.   Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.   Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

5.   Make a menu plan for the month of January.

6.   Start cleaning out the email account(s).

7.      Finish cleaning out the email account(s).

8.      Clip and organize coupons.

9.      Clean & organize the computer desktop.

10.  Catch- up day.

11.  Clean & organize a portion of your craft supplies.

 

Have a great day,
Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 10

I need a catch-up day so that is today's challenge.  Use today to catch-up on any challenges you may not have finished the first nine days of the 31 Day Organizational Challenge. 

Have a great day,
Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 9

I’ve reached that age where I need contacts and reading glasses.  But, I haven’t figured out exactly how to shop for reading glasses, mostly because I haven’t really tried, but the day is approaching quickly.  Anyway, over the weekend I optimized my computer’s visual display – In other words I made computer “large print.”  In doing so, I also made the need to clean off my computer desktop more immediate.  Although, I no longer have to squint to read the icons on the screen, I have so many (unnecessary) ones on there, several of them are now stacked on top of each other.  So, today’s challenge is to clean & organize the computer desktop.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.     Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.   Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.   Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.   Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

5.   Make a menu plan for the month of January.

6.   Start cleaning out the email account(s).

7.      Finish cleaning out the email account(s).

8.      Clip and organize coupons.

9.      Clean & organize the computer desktop.

Have a great day,

Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 8

My coupons are a mess.  Today’s challenge is to get your coupons clipped and organized.  Watch for my Coupon Binder Printable coming soon.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.      Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.   Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.   Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.   Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

5.   Make a menu plan for the month of January.

6.   Start cleaning out the email account(s).

7.       Finish cleaning out the email account(s).

8.      Clip and organize coupons.

Have a great day,

Britia

Coupon Plan for 1-8-12

Here is my coupon plan for tomorrow morning.

Walgreens -

     Transaction #1

Buy 1 Reach Total Care Floss 30 yards @ $2.99

Buy 2 Colgate Total Toothpastes @ 3.00

Buy 4 Halls Drops 20-30 ct @ 2/$2 with in ad coupon

Buy 2 Pepperidge Farm Cookies @ .99 with in ad coupon

Total 14.97

Use the $1/1 Reach Floss coupon found here

Use 2 $0.75/1 Colgate Toothpaste coupons found in the 1/1 SS

Use 2  $1/2 Halls coupons found here

Use the $1/2 Pepperidge Farm Cookies cookies coupon found here

Pay $9.47

Get back $2 Register Rewards from Reach

Get back $4 Register Rewards from Colgate

     Transaction #2

Buy 1 Prevacid 24 Hour @ $20

Buy 2 Pepperidge Farm Crackers @ .99 with in ad coupon

Total $21.98

Use the $4/1 Prevacid coupon found here

Use the $1/2 Pepperidge Farm crackers coupon found here

Use $6 in Register Rewards from Transaction #1

Pay $10.98

Get back $10 Register Rewards from Prevacid

     Transaction #3

Buy 1 Reach Total Care Floss 30 yards @ $2.99

Buy 2 Colgate 360⁰ Toothbrushes @ 3.00

Buy 4 Purell Hand Sanitizers 8 oz @ Buy 1 at $3.99 get 1 Free

Buy 2 Pepperidge Farm Cookies @ .99 with in ad coupon

Total 18.95

Use the $1/1 Reach Floss coupon found here

Use 2 $0.75/1 Colgate Manual Toothbrush coupons found in the 1/1 SS

Use 4 $1/1 Purell coupons found in the 11/6 RP or here

Use the $1/2 Pepperidge Farm cookies coupon found here

Use $10 in Register Rewards from Transaction #2

Pay $1.45

Get back $2 Register Rewards from Reach

Get back $4 Register Rewards from Colgate

     Transaction #4

Buy 1 Prevacid 24 Hour @ $20

Buy 2 Pepperidge Farm Crackers @ .99 with in ad coupon

Total $21.98

Use the $4/1 Prevacid coupon found here

Use the $1/2 Pepperidge Farm crackers coupon found here

Use $6 in Register Rewards from Transactions #3

Pay $10.98

Get back $10 Register Rewards from Prevacid

Leave the store with:

     2 Prevacid 24 Hour

     2 Reach Total Care Flosses

     2 Colgate Total Toothpastes

     2 Colgate 360⁰ Toothbrushes

     4 Halls Drops

     4 Purell Hand Sanitizers

     4 Pepperidge Farm Cookies

     4 Pepperidge Farm Crackers

at a cost of $32.88 and $10 in Register Rewards.  Making my total cost…$22.88!!!

CVS –

    Transaction #1

            Buy 3 Multi-Grain Cheerios @ 3/$10

            Buy 1 Mars Chocolate Single @ $.75

            Total $ 10.75

            Use 3 $1/1 Multi-Grain Cheerios coupons found here

            Use $5 ExtraCare Bucks from last week.

            Pay $2.75 with gift card from last week

            Get back $4.75 ExtraCare Bucks

     Transaction #2

            Buy 2 Listerine Total Care Zero @ $3.99

            Buy 2 Suave Invisible Solid @ $1.00

            Total 9.98

            Use 2 $1/1 Listerine coupon found here

            Use 2 $0.75/1 coupon found in the 1/8 RP

            Use $4.75 ExtraCare Bucks from Transaction #1

            Pay $1.73 with giftcard from last week

            Get back $4 ExtraCare Bucks

Leave the store with:

     3 Boxes of Multi-grain Cheerios

     2 Bottles of Listerine Total Care Zero

     2 Tubes of Suave Invisible Solid

     and a candy bar at a cost of FREE!!! 

     And with at least $5 left on my gift card and $4 in ExtraCare Bucks.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 6 & 7

Girl Scout day is always a crazy day for me thus the late and short post.  Today and tomorrow's challenge is to clean out the email account(s).  I hate to admit it but I have thousands of old emails I don't need any longer so this is the weekend to get rid of them.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.         Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.      Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.      Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.   Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

5.   Make a menu plan for the month of January.

6.  Start cleaning out the email account(s).

7.  Finish cleaning out the email account(s).

 

Let the crazy continue...

 Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 5

Today’s Daily Task List in the Get It Together, Already Planner/Cleaning Schedule (get it here) says, “Plan weekly menu/shopping list.”  Going along with that task our challenge for today is to make a menu plan for the month of January.  If you’re like me you already have most of the months activities scheduled so you can plan appropriately for those days. 

Here is my plan for the month of Januarry.

When I started doing this I assigned a type of food to each night of the week. 

     Sunday – BBQ/Soup –  

BBQ when it’s warm and soup when it’s not.

     Monday – Easy –            

I’ve cleaned hard most of the day dinner has to be easy.

     Tuesday – Chicken  -

I take into account special organizational/cleaning tasks assigned to the day.  If I know the task is going to take a while I chose and easy chicken meal.  Notice the 17^th.  The task for that day is cleaning/organizing the linen closet.  Mine is a disaster!  So I chose Glazed Chicken Drumsticks, Rice-A-Roni and Green Beans. I can pop the drumsticks in the marinade the night before and the next night is easy.

     Wednesday – Fast Food –

          It’s just my kiddo and I on Wednesdays so we grab some fast food or eat
          sandwiches at home.

     Thursday – Dinner Out –

          Like most families we like to eat dinner out one night a week.  We chose
          Thursdays a long time ago in order to avoid the crowds and wait times on Friday
          and Saturday.

     Friday – Sandwiches –

It’s Friday I want it to be easy.  Here is another place where the months activities come into play.  The 1^st Friday is Girl Scouts – After spending the last 1 ½ or more with 20 3^rd graders I’m done.  It’s fast food.  The 2^nd Friday is scrapbooking – I want to be out of the house by 6:30 it’s my night to play.

     Saturday – Beef –

And once again I’ve had to take into account the months activities.  The 21^st is Scrap-A-Palooza.  It only happens 3 times a year and this time I’m going!  Hubby and the kiddo are on their own.

Now that I have my menu plan I’m off to make my shopping list and gather my coupons!

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.         Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.      Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.      Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.   Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

5.   Make a menu plan for the month of January.

 Britia

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 4

Because today is craft/hobby day on the Get It Together, Already Planner/Cleaning Schedule the challenge today relates to scrapbooking or, memory keeping, if your not a scrap booker.  Today’s challenge is to gather, download, print and organize you photos from last month.  I will post later today about my scrapbooking system. 

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.         Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.      Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.      Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

4.    Gather, download, print & organize your photos from last month.

Have a great day.

Britia

Update:  
I didn't make it back yesterday to post about my scrapbooking system.  Look of that later in the month.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Day 3

Wednesdays are craft/hobby day on the Get It Together, Already Planner/Cleaning Schedule.  (If you haven't got yours you can get it here.)  So in preparation for tomorrow, the first day of 2012 scheduled to craft (scrap in my case) the 31 Day Organizational Challenge is to clean/organize the surface of your crafting area.  For me that’s my desk.  And this is what it looks like at the moment.

YIKES!!!  My craft room is the dumping ground in our home and in the past month its been dumped on a lot!

If I want to play tomorrow I’ve got to clean it up today.

31 Day Organizational Challenge – Challenge List

1.         Take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.

2.      Make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

3.      Clean/Organize the surface of your crafting area.  

Britia

Update:

Here's the after photo:

 

Its not great but at least I can scrapbook at it.  B.

My Couponing Score for 1-1-12

Ok, my plan was to get up early yesterday morning hit Walgreens before church, then go to church, pick up my weekly KC Stars then hit CVS on my way home.  Well, I stayed out too late New Year’s Eve and instead I slept in another hour, skipped Walgreens, picked up my Stars on the way to church, hit CVS on the way home and went to Walgreens later that afternoon.  As it turns out this was a much better plan. 

As you know from my previous post at Walgreens I needed Children’s Tylenol Cold and plain Cheerios.  As it turns out neither were on sale.  I suspected this might be the case with the Tylenol.  Cheerios were on sale, just not the plain ones, and my kiddo will only eat original Cheerios.  If she won’t eat them, I don’t buy them, unless the bargain is charity good and this one wasn’t.

My trip to CVS went as planned.

I bought:

4 Pantene Shampoos @ $3.33,

4 Pantene Conditioners @ $3.33,

1 Pantene Hairspray @ $3.33,

3 Dawn with Olay Hand Renewal @ $.99,

4 Nivea Lip Care @ $2.50,

and 1 Always Infinity pads @ $3.99.

Which were all on sale.  Saving me $20.64.  My total was $46.93. 

 I used:

            4 $3.00/2 Pantene products from PG 1/1

            3 $0.50/1 Dawn with Olay Hand Renewal from PG 1/1

            2  $3.00/2 Nivea Lip Care Products from RP 1/1

            1 $2/1 Always form PG 1/1

            $5.00 off $25 on CVS Extra Care card

            and $.50 off ExtraCare Bucks I got out of the machine at the store.

Saving me $27.  My final total was $19.93 + tax!!! 

Also, I got back a $10 CVS gift card and $5.00 ExtraCare Bucks to use next time.  WhooHoo!!!  

At CVS yesterday I saved $47.64.  A 71% savings!!!

31 Day Organizational Challenge - Day 2

Today's challenge is also on the Daily Task List of the Get It Together, Already Planner/Cleaning Schedule.  If you don't have yours already you can get it here.  Today's challenge is to make your 2012 financial file folders and store your 2011 financial files.

If you need file labels here is a simple list you can use.

Download it here, then print it out on card stock, cut on the solid gray lines, fold on the dotted lines and insert into your file folders.  Because I will reuse my file folders in a few years I like using paper lables as opposed to label maker ones. 

Now enjoy having that little task out of the way.

Britia

Happy New Year!

 I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration and you are ready to kick off the new year with me and the Get It Together, Already 31 Day Organizational Challenge.

Today's challenge is actually on today's Daily Task List in the Get It Together, Already Organizer/Cleaning Schedule although not all of the challenges will be.  Today's challenge is ... to take down, organize and put away all of the holiday decorations.  So as soon as you're up and functioning (I'm not sure I am yet) get in and get those decorations down.  Then enjoy the freedom of being rid of all that holiday clutter.

See you tomorrow with a new challenge.

Happy 2012,
Britia

Coupon Plan for 1-1-12

Here is my coupon plan for tomorrow morning.

Walgreens –

     Transaction #1

            Buy 2 Children’s Tylenol Cold a@ $5.00 (if included in sale)

            Total = $10.00

            Use 2  $1/1 – Tylenol Product, Any – (tylenol.com)

            Pay $8.00

            Get back $5.00 Register Rewards

     Transaction #2

            Buy 4 boxes Cheerios a@ $2.50

            Total =$10.00

            Use 2 $1/2 coupon found in the 12/11 SS

            Use $5 Register Rewards from transaction #1

            Pay $3.00

            Get back $3.00 Register Rewards.

Leave the store with 2 bottles of Children’s Tylenol Cold and 4 boxes of Cheerios.  Total cost $8.00.

CVS –

     Transaction #1

            Buy 4 Pantene Shampoos @ $3.33

            Buy 4 Pantene Conditioners @ $3.33

            Buy 1 Pantene Hairspray @ $3.33

            Buy 3 Dawn with Olay Hand Renewal @ $.99

            Buy 4 Nivea Lip Care @ $2.50

            Buy 1 Always Infinity pads @ $3.99

            Total = $ 46.93

            Use 4 $3.00/2 Pantene products from PG 1/1

            Use 3 $0.50/1 Dawn with Olay Hand Renewal from PG 1/1

            Use 2  $3.00/2 Nivea Lip Care Products from RP 1/1

            Use 1 $2/1 Always form PG 1/1

            Use $5.00 off $25 on CVS Extra Care card

            Pay $20.48

            Get back $10.00 CVS Cash Card and $5.00 Extra Bucks

Leave the store with 4 bottles of Pantene shampoo, 4 bottles of Pantene conditioner, 1 bottle of Pantene Hairspray, 3 bottles of Dawn, 4 Nivea Lip balms, and 1 package of Always Infinity pads.  Total cost $5.48!!  WhooHoo!!