Closet and Basement Organization

I constantly struggle with messy closets, and unorganized basement. I am really sick of it, and want to see organized spaces for mental health and clarity. Over the holiday, I did make a dent in all of this... here's my progress.

1) Got rid of a junk drawer and a few boxes collecting junk in the basement. Found my old sunglasses, which I thought I lost! Still can look hot now in the sun.

2) Packed up a few bags of clothes/items not needed anymore, or not being used.

3) Cleaned up the basement, boxed a few items, and going to buy another shelf to put my stuff on... and maybe some books put on there too.

4) Re-organized 4 closets, moved some stuff downstairs in boxes/crates, but still seem to struggle with the amount of stuff, even though we don't buy a lot. I wish I could just get rid of it instead of piling it in boxes. However, it's hard to part with Latin and German Flashcards... just an example.

5) Painting supplies are now in one box downstairs.

6) All tools are in one area downstairs.

7) Unused pans/kitchenware in one box. Taking up space when not needed. For example, blender doesn't need to be upstairs all the time.

Path to 20lbs weight loss

I still have about 20 lbs to go to make my comfortable weight.
Here's my plan.

1) Walk at work. I am moving offices, so this is going to make walking a bit easier, especially in the Spring. I have already blocked my work calendar during lunch time to do this. I have my clothes packed and ready to go.

2) Go back to my fish lunches and packing enough snack food for work. That includes yogurt, fruit, etc. That helped me the most when I lost the last 16lbs.

3) Stop the sugar/cookies. Sort of fallen off the wagon during the winter w/sugars. Will stop this immediately!

4) Eat smaller portions. I tend to be a healthy eater, but will overdo it on portions occassionally, so this is going to be sized down. For example, measuring the amount of pasta on my plate instead of just heaping it up.

Getting Enough Fiber

Well, another week has gone by... not much was exciting, except for my increase in Fiber this week by eating enough bran cereal. The great thing is...that's going to help w/weight or any cholesterol issues.

Lane Bryant--Enough's Enough

I took a trip to Lane Bryant this week because of some crazy holiday sales, and because pants won't fit me from any other store. To my surprise, Lane Bryant has re-sized their sizes, so for the first time in my life, I can say I wear a size 3 (which is like a real 16 or something). Anyway, I found it to be confusing and ended up in a different style and size than what the Pant Finder Person in the store told me I needed. But either way, I am not sure I follow Lane Bryant's style choices and resizing efforts. I predict this new sizing will be a major failure, as most ladies were ultra-confused in the store as to what size/style is needed. Some things are meant to be left unchanged I must say.

Cloth Diapers

It's official. I've moved to cloth diapers because of the huge expense on paper/huggies diapers, and the nasty-iness of having an extra bag of trash per week due to diapers. Right now, we're at a solid 1 bag o trash per week due to recycling efforts. U can't recycle diapers!

Here are some tips for cloth diapering:

1) Use a plastic covering (very cheap gerber ones work well) over the cloth diaper.

2) Do a pre-clean with Simple Green before throwing in the laundry.

3) Sanitize cleaning area regularly.

4) Wear gloves. I bought some latex ones for the poop removal.

5) Wash and wear!

1 Week Off and Resolutions

I've had about 1 week off and some days from work. It's been really fun, and I've caught up on my sleep... but hopefully can return to blogging even though my days don't really lend themselves to much blogging and reading the internet. Through these days off, I've given some thought to what I want to try and accomplish in 2009

My 2009 goals are the following...

1) lose 20 lbs. I tried this last year and got nowhere although I didn't gain any weight. Will try again with increased workouts because my eating habits are not poor. Drink more water, etc.

2) start looking for graduate schools again. Possible try at MLS degree.

3) improve my professional wardrobe.

4) read more books

5) get more organized and get rid of items not needed or being used. This is huge for me, because I keep things for eventual use, but never get there. I already got rid of two bags of clothes this month.

6) be more social and develop professional network. I try to do this w/disciplined focus, but have slacked of in a major way in the last 2 years.

7) work in some fashion in a community post (school board or something). Not sure of what exactly to do here, but thinking local school board if I can handle dealing with more people than my usual day time job.