Day 2: The Vanity

Well, I obviously have a problem. I collect makeup like no other. Seriously guys, you name it I've got it. From the cheap drugstore lip gloss to the Urban Decay palettes, I've got it all. 

Sweet Brandon bought me this beautiful vanity for Christmas this year - and I am so thankful! I finally have a place to store my massive collection. But that being said - I really needed to go through everything and get rid of some old makeup. (Especially the box that's been sitting there since we've moved - full of other random cosmetics). 

So today I finally tackled the beast! Here's the after photo: 

Wahoo! Everything is organized and beautiful now 👍 I feel so much better having everything at my fingertips. I can post some photos of each drawer if you guys like! 

And here's a super blurry shot of everything that got tossed - woohoo!

Day 1: The Pantry

So for the first day of this challenge, I decided to attack the pantry!

Before

When we bought the house, these wonderful little shelves were already attached to the pantry door. I have no clue where you could find them, but they really are helpful!

*DISCLAIMER - I am into couponing - I am aware we don't need 2 boxes of Trix. Or 6 boxes of pasta. Or 3 cases of water. But when things are on sale and cheap, I buy them.*

Thankfully, our pantry hasn't had a chance to get super unorganized since we've only lived in our house for a few months. My main problem is because of couponing, it's easy for me to let things go out of date before I use them. Cooking for only two people can be difficult at times (especially when your husband doesn't like to eat leftovers!) so my main goal of this project was to go through everything, throw away what was out of date and re-organize!

Here's everything that got thrown away. Thankfully it wasn't a whole lot, but I hate being so wasteful! But that is the purpose of going through this - now we will only keep what we will actually use in the pantry :)

Here's an after shot of the beautifully organized door. I got rid of several old bags of chips and cookies, which left room for the cooking sauces!

Here's a close up of all the sauces. They were taking up a ton of space on the shelves just sitting next to each other. Thankfully they can squish into these baskets easily, allowing me to open up an entire shelf for snacks!

Here's an overview of our organized pantry. It really doesn't look like I threw much away - I know. But things are much more organized and facing out so I can actually see what we have. When things are doubled up and you have layers and layers of boxes, the things in the back are less likely to get used. This way I can see everything and keep track of what we have!

40 bags in 40 days ... am I crazy?

I'm a borderline hoarder. There. I said it out in the open for all of the internet to read! Truthfully though, I often times find myself holding on to things that are so unnecessary. That is why I bring you this blog ... to hopefully help you too! Because let's be real. We all have garages and closets full of junk that we do NOT need!

I present to you: The 40 bags in 40 days challenge.  I've seen this challenge done in several variations on the internet through different blog posts, so I decided to take on this challenge with my own spin. The basic idea is this: Over the course of 40 days, one can tackle small areas of their home in order to de-clutter and ultimately "simplify their life." Sounds great, right? Right! Now you can be as strict or lax with this as you like. If you're interested into how I am going to break it down, keep reading.

Every day for the next 40 days I'm going to take a bag (box, sack, bin, something or other) and fill it with useless or old things from different areas of our house. Not only will this help us de-clutter, but also reorganize! The great part of this is dividing the entire house into small achievable sections (instead of trying to tackle the entire house in one day). It is so easy to get overwhelmed while cleaning house. I believe this will be a great way to help me divide things up and finally achieve a clean house!

Now, what do we do with all the things we get rid of? Well there are several options. For the things that are simply old/junk/outdated - throw it out! For things that may still be of value, we're going to have a yard sale! Brandon and I both lived on our own for several years before getting married a.k.a. we've accumulated a TON of stuff. I know that lots of things are still in perfect working condition so why not sell it, right? For everything else (and things that don't sell) we are going to donate to a local shelter!

Through this process I hope to accomplish several things.

1. Actually stick to something for 40 days. Seriously - we all get lazy and give up on projects easily. I want to prove to myself that I can do this for 40 straight days!

2. Simplify our home and assess what we really need!

3. Break that totally ridiculous emotional attachment with inanimate objects. It really is a struggle for me to get rid of things guys. Going through this daily and physically throwing things out will hopefully help me get over it!

So there you have it. A quick breakdown of how these 40 days are going to work. I would love for you to follow along with me! I'm going to be posting updates and photos daily of our progress and what we're sorting through in our house (because you guys totally want to see all of our junk). If you would like to create your own variation of this, I'm going to attach a spreadsheet for your own use!