Get Your Bike Ride On!

BUT...before you do that.....pics from last night's eggplant....

Does this look yummy or what??!  Easy peasy!  IF you follow the instructions...and you know who you are that did not!  That's all I'm saying...yep...that's it. EVE, my sister in law!  *cough*

See that smile?  Happy Eggplant Face. 

Here's a shout out Happy SIXTEENTH (ahem...apparently I had a senior moment and wrote Happy 15th Birthday on their card) Birthday today, to my favorite nieces and nephew.  4 of them.  All at one time.  Right.  Quadruplets.  Yep.  Here's their gifts all bagged up and ready for delivery yesterday.  It's hard to believe they are turning 16 today.  They are the sweetest kids evah...and I love them very much!

So...to finally get down to what this blog is really all about.  BIKES, bikes and more bikes.  It was sometime in the Spring...of this year...I guess it could be worse if it was actually LAST year...so only a few months delay....when I really got the bright idea that we should be a bike riding family.  Where did I turn?  Goodwill.  What did I find?

This one was found before Christmas last year for Hannah.  Brand new...tags still on it...it needed a tube in the tire and it was perfect for her.  $50!  Great bike for her to ride in our neighborhood.  Finally, a big bike for her and the Brat & Barbie day bikes were over!

Prior to Mother's Day...I found yet another bike at Goodwill.

This bike was $9.99.  It had a bent wheel.  It sat in our storage building forever and then Mother's Day rolled around and this is what I got.....

 Here's my bike I got for Mother's Day.  I've rode it once...twice maybe and then it just turned HOT.  I've been promising that once Fall arrives...I'm so out there to ride my bike with Hannah.  Ahem. 

Hub NEVER did anything with the $10 bike.  My son came over and picked it up...took it to a bicycle shop and for $20 it's in perfect working order.  He's riding on it often and I'm just happy someone took it and did something with it.  I think hub was afraid we were going to railroad him into family bike rides.

So...a few more weeks I'll be out there riding, right?

What's Happening in Your Kitchen??

This morning finds me full of energy.  I finally got a good night's sleep!  I had not slept in 3 nights and I was miserable.  Between the coughing and hot flashes...this has not been a good last few days.  So bad last night, that I summoned the help of hub.  He ended up giving me a pill...ahem....muscle relaxer he said....that would help me go to sleep.  I had to be crazy in the head DELIRIOUS to accept anything with the evil grin he had on his face.  Last thing he said to me was..."I hope you wake up tomorrow"....ummm...ummmm....and I was snoozing and not caring anymore.  He didn't kill me...and I did get a good night's rest. Maybe he loves me after all!  :)

My mornings are very busy.  We have a system here.  He's in charge of Hannah and I'm in charge of the daycare children arriving at 7am for breakfast.  I think I got the better end of the deal.  Hannah can be difficult some mornings.  I try to make certain her mind is clear when she goes to bed.  Homework is done and clothes are picked out.   I try to make sure all issues are resolved by night fall.  Even though she doesn't always wear what we've picked out together...it helps to have those 2 things done.  She's on her own if she changes her mind.   She knows at the end of the evening, it's time to do the pick up of all her things and put it away.  One thing that will send me over is having to clean up the next morning.  That includes any coffee cups in the sink or her itsy bits of paper everywhere.

This morning I had chicken soup on my mind.....

 Chicken in the pot boiling at 7:30 this morning.

My cabinet is never low on spices!  As you can see, I'm a spice user when I cook!

Prep on the carrots done.  I didn't have celery or onion, so thanks to my spices those will just have to do.  See my pretty green knife?  LOVE IT.  I got a set of these from TJ Maxx.  They are very sharp and are color coded.  I just have to remember what each color is for!  I think I've got it down...but it would be nice if they would actually label the knives for old folks like myself!  I decided to add vegetables to this chicken soup and instead of noodles I'll use rice, so they are in the pot boiling as I type.  Anytime I make chicken soup, I think of Christina.  This is her favorite soup!  I wish she were here today to enjoy a bowl with us at lunch.

I thought I'd share with you a few more pics of some of my thrift store finds for the kitchen.  Seriously!  What is this?  It is covered with glass.  I found it at Goodwill a few weeks ago.  I always stand there and try to figure out where I would use this and could come up with NOTHING.  Hub said it was a hot plate.  Ummm...no.  Not with glass.  He still INSISTS this is what it is.  I know better.  It's decorative though, don't you think?  It has 4 little balls on each corner, so it's clearly to be used flat.  It was $2.99.  Just $3!  I was in the check-out line when I went back to get it.  I thought I'd have a brainstorm over it once I got home.

This is where it ended up.  What else could I do with it?  I don't even know what it is!!   For now, this is its new home.

So...what else is going on in my kitchen today?

How about this wooden bread holder?  It even has the open slats to cut your bread!  Goodwill.  That's right!  With the tags still hanging on it!  We're huge bread eaters here.  Not that that is a good thing...but the wooden bread holder makes it easier!  The crumbs land in the bottom of this and it's a no mess clean up!  Bread just seems to make a real mess when you attempt to slice it.

I bought these banana's last night while grocery shopping.  I think you can never have enough banana's!  Especially with kidlets running around.  These two eggplants came out of my sister in laws garden.  I'll be using these tonight for dinner.  We're having spaghetti with sausage and I thought some baked eggplant on the side would be nice.

Here's my recipe for the eggplant.  You've got to try it!

~Slice the eggplant in approx 1 in plus slices with peeling on.
~Fill a bowl or your kitchen sink with water and put LOTS of salt in the water.  This allows the eggplant to soak in salt water and removes that bitter acid taste.  Trust me, if you don't do this...you will know it!  I always recommend soaking no less than 30 minutes.
~Drain the water and take a paper towel and remove any excess water off of each eggplant slice.
~You'll need 2 containers for the next part.  One container will be filled with Italian Bread Crumbs.  The second container will have an egg wash in it.  (egg wash = 2-3 eggs beaten with water)
~Each eggplant slice will then be dredged in the egg wash and then the Italian Bread Crumbs.
~You'll need to have a cookie sheet ready and sprayed with your favorite cooking spray.  I use the Olive Oil Cooking Spray.
~Each breaded eggplant slice will then be individually laid on the cookie sheet.
~Last step is to drizzle a very small amount of Olive Oil on each slice.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Your bread crumbs will begin turning a brown crusty color.  Your eggplant should be firm and not mushy.  Too much olive oil equals mushy eggplants!

We love eggplant here and use it as often as possible.  These are even good on bread cold.   You have to try it!  This has gotten hub and I through many lunches here at home.  Another idea after you've made the eggplant is go ahead and make the eggplant parmigiana!  Good Stuff.  For tonight..we'll have some good spaghetti with some baked eggplant on the side!

Tomorrow's post is all about bicycling!  Clearly, not me...well....I keep saying when Fall arrives.  *gulps*  Not much longer, huh?

Saturday's Findings!

I had not been to Goodwill in a couple of weeks.  It seemed that every corner I turned there was clearly something I liked...I just did not need it.  I hate that!!!  See?  You should have been shopping with me and I would have found you some great stuff!!!  I had a friend join me at Goodwill a couple of months ago.  I think she was sick of hearing about what all I had found.  She made the trip over and we loaded up her cart and she got some really good stuff.  It was more fun spending HER money than MINE that day!  I love to see someone get a deal.  What I like about our Goodwill is that it is neatly organized and everything is within hands reach.  It's much like a retail store.  Stuff that is piled up on tables is a huge turn off for me...but I will say...if I'm in the mood I will DIG.  Ahem.  Just saying.
 
Hannah found this.....

This was an awesome find for her.  For $.99..she got it.  She's collecting LP's...thing is...she has no LP player.  We thought she had one over the weekend, but it stopped working.  So....we're still looking for her one.  I know you can find one...but clearly I'm not interested in paying $100 for them and that's about what they are priced to be.  Surely someone will donate their old LP player soon?!

This is what I came home with....

A Roadmaster Tricycle for Ryder.  $8.99 and it was sold!  It looks brand new.  A couple of small scratches...but nothing noticeable and Nana was the hit of the day with this find.  He hasn't quite mastered the pedals...but he knows this is the coolest thing ever!   I couldn't wait to take it to him!  He woke up from his nap seeing Nana and hearing her say..."Nana has brought to you the BIGGEST toy EVAH"!  His feet hit the floor fast.  Can't you tell he's loving inspecting his new ride?

I couldn't pass up these finds for Ryder...since he is a car man!

3 trucks...one fire truck, one ambulance and one monster truck.  $1 each?  He needed them!!

He was clearly happy with my find!

So...I did break down and buy this.....

 I bought 2.  For $2.99 each...it was a deal and in perfect condition.  They are sitting nicely on my couch in my family room now.  The colors just blended so well with everything in the room. A very nice find!!

I have some projects at hand now...one is to do a rub over my pig.  I know..that sounds wickedly weird.  The color is just a bit to blah for me.

I did move my Paula Deen plate and I'm liking this setting better.  I need to get some wooden utensils...darken up those creases a bit and I think I'll be totally satisfied with this little piggy!!  My mom is so gonna hate this pig!  If she hates Roosters?  a pig certainly isn't going to win her over!!

My next project is this desk.....

 I keep putting this off.  It's needs to be repainted.  I want to replace the knobs on the drawers.  I'm thinking I'll paint this a cream color and the top black.  I've seen this done on some other blogs I've read and each piece has turned out looking really nice.   Hub is a great painter...I'm not so much.  I have no patience and he has a very steady hand.   I'll have to get him in the right frame of mind for this project.  I've been slowly "mentioning" it around him.  I also would like to have a different chair here.  I'm looking for something to put a spark in my eye...I would most likely paint it all black.  Something with a wooden back I think.

Hopefully, I can get these 2 projects done and show you the end result really soon.  The mood has to hit me...and right now....it's just crawling under my skin a bit.

I have a really close friend that has just remodeled her kitchen.   I talked to her over the weekend about coming for a visit and taking some pics to show on my blog.  I haven't seen the end result yet, but from the sound of it...I can't wait to see everything.  A total overhaul and I know I'm going to hate her when I see the kitchen!  I can't wait to share that with you!  She was able to find all of her decor from my favorite store, Hobby Lobby.  I can't wait to share with you her shopping trip that day!   She's promised me a trip to her local Goodwill if I came and that should be the icing on the cake for me!

September is just around the corner and that's when the Fall decorating at my house begins!  A total makeover throughout the house!  They are all gently stored in containers in our storage building outside.  Several Fall things caught my eye in the stores yesterday...I'll have to make hub bring the containers up soon and begin the Fall decorating.  I plan to take you along for the ride!!

This Little Pig Went To My House.....

Instead of a PJ day....plans changed quickly after my post today.  We had an all day event down in Tallahassee, FL at all of their Goodwill stores.  I know I promised to share with you what I did yesterday...but THIS just could not wait. I was in heaven.  I fainted.  I regained consciousness.  I love LOVE LOVE it.  It was $12.99.  It was perfect.  The Neely's from the Food Network show would bow before me....

Ready?  Hold on to your seats...

Here little piggy...okay...I'll show you all of her and stop teasing...

I mean seriously?  Does it get any better than THIS?  Her hands are empty at the moment...I'll be looking for some wooden spoons to place in her hands.  I'm thinking I may do a antique brownish rub over her...just to catch and enhance the creases.  When she's all done...I'll put up another pic of her.  But...you know...I...I...just love her.  The Paula Deen plate may get moved...I'll play around with all of that, but I think Miss Piggy has found her home in my kitchen!  We went to 4 Goodwills today.  It was fun.  It just always is!  I didn't buy hardly anything...Hannah dollared us to death...but she had some nice finds.

That's all I've got for now...I need to go stare at my pig now.  I can't wait to show you yesterday's finds at our local Goodwill!  That's tomorrow....

Sunday Morning Mumblings

AND a few treasures found yesterday!

I have a sinus infection.  I know...you can start feeling sorry for me now.  The nights are long with a lingering cough, but I've been stealing some leftover cough medicine from Hannah for the last 2 nights.  I don't know what I would do without the internet on nights like that. I check my facebook, the news and any deal sites.  It keeps me entertained.  I ended up spilling some half of the cough medicine all over my kitchen counter and my new mat in front of my sink last night.  There's just something about a spoon...it being 1 a.m. and a goof ball trying to take her meds that just didn't work out.  Anyway, it was nice not to have to toss kitchen rugs into the washer this morning.  A spray bottle with cleaner and a paper towel cleaned the mess up.  Another reason I'm happy with my new kitchen mats.  Thanks to hub for that one!

Yesterday, Hannah was on a mission to get her a featherlock.  Google it...it's all over the internet.  This has become very popular here this school year.  We called 3 places and only one was open to do a featherlock for her.  I wasn't quite certain what it was all about, but she was clearly dragging me downtown.  She had her own money and the story was....EVERYONE but HER had a featherlock at school.  I bet if you've had children, you've heard that one a few hundred times.  They charge $15 a feather, the school was allowing it and as long as she had the money for it....I got myself dressed and took her.   I've always been the mom that picks and chooses her battles...with teens you'll be battling constantly if you don't.  So...this was a pick and choose battle and how bad could one feather be?

Here's the end result...

There you have it...a featherlock.  We were told this was a REAL feather...there are the fake synthetic feathers out there, but hers was a real one.  Why would I even THINK she would consider getting one to match her hair?  Of course not.  Why would I think she would even consider getting one not so wide?  So there it is.  Me-Maw and Grand-daddy do not know about this yet...they've heard about it...I'm so not mentioning it to them.  They'll just have to see it for themselves.  So...it was weaved, snapped? whatever into her hair...it should last forever (great)  the store owner said...we'll just have to go to her store about every 6-8 weeks for adjustments as her hair grows.  The adjustments are free.  I'm sure they're hoping the next visit will warrant yet ANOTHER featherlock.  What's amazing about it is this...you can wash, blow dry, flat iron and brush your hair and it won't come out.   She'll be "in the featherlock club" tomorrow at school now.  I can now sleep peacefully.  *eye roll*

After the featherlock mission, we headed over to a local thrift store that benefits cats.  A group of local seniors have gotten together and have a thrift store that is operated with donations and these donations all go towards the Miss Kitty Feline Sanctuary here in our town.  Isn't that great?  The thrift store is called Miss Kitty's and there is always something in there that catches your eye.  It's not a very large place, but the items they have are quality items.  The seniors operating the business are just a pleasure to talk to.  They are only open a few hours 3 days a week, so you have to make arrangements to get there during those times.  Which is hard for me, since I work two of those days!  Saturday is my only chance to see what they have and I have to be up and at 'em to see it!

This is what I found....

2 nice containers.  I recently purchased the smaller 2 of these there and when I saw these were left and just $3 each, I snatched them up.  These are very pricey glass jars at World Market.    The black labels are for chalk and what's nice about that is you can continually change up what goes in there...just have some chalk on hand.  Which I don't...but I'll get some next Walmart trip. 

Hannah loves to thrift shop with me, but she has other things on her mind.  Clearly at her age, she's into "other" stuff and containers are not on the top of her list.  She loves old books....old letters.....LP's....anything along those lines...if she finds a bag full of buttons...she wants them...not just any kind of button...but decorative buttons.  That's my girl.   This is what she ended up at Miss Kitty's for $.25 and she was completely satisfied.

A couple of old letters to add to this collection.  She loves to sit and read what others have written.  She has some letters that date back to the early 1900's all the way from California.  To her...this was a great find. She has a special shelf in her room for these type items and I'll be sharing that shelf with you soon.

We headed to Goodwill next....and I found some really good stuff.  I can't wait to share them with you tomorrow!  If Ryder could talk to you right now...he'd say he has the bestest Nana ever!  Some great finds for him yesterday!!

Today, I'm going to rest...take my medicine and hope by tomorrow I'm feeling somewhat better.  This is feeling like a PJ day to me.  

Being A Nana

This little fellow has grown up so fast.  It seems like just yesterday that I was cuddling with him as a baby.  It's hard to get a kiss out of this 20 month old.  He's way to busy for all of that mush stuff.  These goo-goo eyes while I'm kissing him was such a treat when I saw the picture. I'll take what I can get out of this little fellow!   It's a good thing I've got Sophia now....I'll have her kisses for a while and she'll have no choice but to take them.

His entire world revolves around Dora, better known as DOR-WAH.  If you're not hearing this constantly, then something is wrong.  Since Dor-wah doesn't come on every station every minute (what were they thinking?), I finally realized that the computer can play Dor-wah as long as his heart desires.  He sits in Nana's big executive chair for the computer and doesn't move when Dor-wah is on.  I've threatened to buy him the Dora doll, but I know my son will never let him play with it.  He even said he'd feel better if he liked Dora's cousin, Diego.  MEN!   For now, Dor-wah is his LIFE.  There's only one other thing that can distract him from the love of his life, Dor-wah and that's matchbox cars.  If he has a car, truck or tractor in his hands....well, life is good.  I even made a container that has Ryder's Cars written on it.  When he comes, he's pointing towards the laundry room where I keep them for his  CARSSSSS.  He will say CARSSSSSS about a zillion times until you bring down the container...he'll entertain you with a little dance...a huge smile and then he silently goes to car heaven.  The cars go in the container...the cars come out of the container....the cars go on top of the back of the couch...the cars come down.  C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.L.Y.

With that said....guess what Ryder gets every single time we go to Walmart.  It's not a bad deal...$1.07 a car....he's a pretty cheap date and you would think you had just bought him the world.  When we went to Nashville, TN...my son in law knowing that my entire world revolves most of the time around thrifting...did his son in law duties and took me around to several stores in their area.  I'm not much on the clothes...but the home decor always is the first thing I look at, along with the furniture.  During my process of checking this stuff out, I notice hub and Hannah drawn to a huge table that looked like JUNK.  Right up their alley.  I finally made my way up to the table and discovered this clear plastic bag...I'd say elbow to wrist and you could fill it up with any item on the table for $2.99.  Hannah was having a field day.  There were some cool things that she had found...but clearly she has hoarding issues!  Everything is a collectible in her eyes!!  I finally got interested enough to begin moving things around and what did I find?

Was I not a hit that morning??  Cars, Trucks, and Semi's!!  He couldn't stop smiling when I opened up the container for the first time!  I got all of this for $6.  There was even those neat monster trucks...that took up more room in the bags, but well worth it.  Nana had scored big time!!  He knows now when he comes to Nana's there are 2 things I can provide...endless entertainment of Dor-wah and cars!  I also had found a Matchbox suitcase at our local Goodwill here.  It looked brand new...$2.99.  I snatched it up and all the cars he has at daddy's are stored in this neat container and it's a suitcase on wheels.

I can't wait to get into doll world with my Sophia.  I'm sure by Christmas, we'll come up with something she can play with. Ahem.  She'll almost be ready to crawl by then.  With big eyes like this...I think Grandpa is in big trouble when she gets old enough to go "shopping".

 Is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  All we can do now is dress her up, give her lots of kisses when she is here and miss her when she's gone.

Say what?  A bikini already?!  I think someone's daddy is in big trouble!!  In October they are headed to Disney World with this little one.  My head says no...my heart says yes.  So....we'll see how all of that goes.  I'm sure the Disney pictures are going to be priceless and where else is she going to wear this bikini?!  I hope one day she will catch my passion for thrifting and she can join Hannah and I for lots of adventures!

I think Ryder and Sophia are going to be my sidekicks at thrifting....then one day like Hannah...we'll have to call it "antiquing" to save face!

I hope this finds all of you in a safe place if you are located on the East Coast.  Irene seems to be a monster.  I'm saying prayers for my brother and his family to have a safe trip home from Myrtle Beach, SC.  First vacation they've had in years and a hurricane comes!!  I'll be calling them later.  They are not in the direct path, so they felt safe enough to hang around.  My mom is NOT happy with that decision!!

It's Saturday and I'm headed to Goodwill today.  It's been 2 weeks and I'm having some issues not going!  I've got so much more to share with you...I hope you'll hang around and come back and see me tomorrow!

Organizing Your Master Bedroom!

I lived in chaos for years.  I would clean out my closet, but never really toss things that clearly should be tossed.  The old saying of  "if you haven't worn it in a year, toss it", could not be truer.  I just couldn't let go of some of the clothing.  There were a lot of what if's involved in that decision.  My dresser drawers were the same.  Some worse than others, but clearly not organized.  I think hub had more junk drawers than actual clothes items in his side of the dresser.  We have a triple dresser, an armoire, and 2 side tables with drawers next to our bed.  Certainly enough room to take care of what we had.  It was just unorganized.  A MESS.  I cleaned out his junk drawers and tossed and tossed and tossed...of course I did this while he was at work.  I'm smart like that.  I totally recommend that!

The closet was the first thing to tackle.  When my son moved out, I took over his closet with all of my clothes and left hub with our master closet.  What was I thinking?  Seriously?!  Even though my son's closet was long and seemed to hold more clothes...you couldn't see them!  The walk in was a much better choice.  I thought about making the move for years, literally.  Isn't cleaning out a closet a huge hassle?  It was keeping me awake at night and when that starts happening, it's a job that has to be done.  I took a Saturday and with hub thrilled beyond belief, I began totally emptying out 2 closets.  I knew I was in the mood to get rid of some clothes that were long out of style.  What were my expectations of this massive overhaul?

1.  To move MY clothes back into the master bedroom.
2.  All winter clothing would end up in the guest bedroom closet.
3.  Hubs T-shirts and my sleeveless tops would come off of hangers (this would clearly free up even more space) and be folded.

I wish I had some before pics.  I would probably be embarrassed to even allow you to see the mess, but the after pics would make up for it.  Here's what the inside of the closets look like today.

My summer shirts on my side of the closet.  Next to my shirts I hung one of those over the rack organizers for my sleeveless shirts.  It's not the best...but for now until I find something a bit more stronger, it'll have to do.

Here's hub side of the closet.  Nothing but shirts in this closet. We have a system that when you take a shirt off the hanger, you do not put the hanger BACK into the clothes. I have a place for them and it's so easy when I'm doing laundry to just do a "drive by" and collect the hangers all at once.  I hate going through clothes looking for hangers!!  I'm also trying to get rid of all my wire hangers.  No wire hangers in this closet.  Winter clothes closet is another thing.  Goodwill has plastic hangers all the time!!

This is the top of the armoire in the bedroom.  It used to be crammed full.  Hubs jeans and tee shirts ended up here.  I still have to go behind him and straighten this up, but it's not nearly as overwhelming as it once was.  We tossed out so many pairs of jeans...he is down to the bare minimum now.  There are several drawers in the armoire that I rarely even opened.  Why?  Because of my jeans, shorts, capri's and whatever else I could fit in there.  I totally cleaned this out by season with my jeans and was even able to sort by color.  A bit extreme, but I had the room to do it.  It's so easy now to know what I have and exactly where it all is.

The top of our closet space was a whole different story.  DISASTER.  Even though I had containers, they were overflowing with stuff.  I headed to Big Lots to get larger containers to hold the "stuff" that was dear to me.  I have always saved cards, notes and anything special from my parents and children.  I've saved Hannah's stuff as well.  There were 3 small containers overflowing with these type items, so larger containers were necessary.  This is my hoarding treat.  I can't let go.  I know that one day I'll enjoy looking over some of the memories.  Hannah will take her container down every now and then and enjoys it so much.  She looks through every card and letter.  One day when she leaves home, I will give her the container and hopefully she will carry on this tradition.  You'll be surprised what little note to "mom" on a scratch piece of paper means in 10 years to you.  Yeah...I'm sentimental like that.  *sniff*   There was also a need for other containers.  I was able to find these green baskets at Goodwill.  I've labeled them and they contain books for one and the other were items like camera cases and such.  I don't even have to pull them down to see what is in them.  It's labeled for me!

 This decorative box holds all of Hannah's art work and special things over the years from school. 

I put a couple of these up inside the closet.  This one is for the purse's that I'm using now and for hub's belts.  I also have one on the other side of the closet that use to hold my jewelry.  It's there empty now and it's sort of a catch all now to keep items off the floor of the closet.

WHAT?  Don't even say a word!!  I did toss some shoes out.  Somehow, this shoe thing has gotten out of hand and yes, hub got one shelf I think.  I've had the storage containers and it was nice to go through them and see what I had.  This shelf was bought at Walmart years ago and it has been great.  The shoes have a home!  The over the door  shoe hanger is necessary.  It just is.

Hannah's hair accessories were the next thing.  I  allowed her to go through and toss out the bows, head bands and everything else she felt she would never use again.  I had a corner shelf in the closet and placed baskets on each shelf to hold "her stuff".

All of these baskets were found at Goodwill.  There's still some purging that needs to be done, but for Hannah...this was round 1!  I was happy with what was left.  Round 2 we'll purge some more.  Sometimes you just have to take baby steps with this purging thing!

The guest bedroom closet was the next thing.  It holds a lot of stuff!  But...look!  You can't see half of it and this was my problem when my clothes were in here.  I tended to snatch out  what was on these front racks.  I ended up wearing the same thing all the time.  HATED IT!  It now holds all of hubs winter clothes along with mine. I don't need to see that stuff in the Spring and Summer!

I purchased these 2 shelves from Walmart some time ago.  All of my purses are here.  I know.  Not a word.

Apparently, the shelves were not enough to hold my purses.  What?  I DID so purge them!!  This blue container that I had, sits between the 2 shelves and holds purses that I rarely use.  This was my round one on purging the purses!!  Give me a break!

These 2 containers hold my Christmas items I have picked up all year from Goodwill, thrift stores and end of the season sales.  I found some real deals in Nashville while I was there and since my Christmas is packed up in an outside building, this just seemed to be the logical thing to do.  That way I know exactly where the overflow is inside the house and I don't have to look through closets finding all of this!  Yes, it's hard to read but it's labeled "Christmas".  Just in case I die...someone will find it, right?

So...the closets were a major all day long ordeal.  I feel so much better!  I've got a few drawers to share with you that were organized as well.  I found these organizing tools at Goodwill.  You knew that, right?

 Everything is nice and neatly organized.  The sock organizer can be found at Big Lots for just $5.  I found it at Goodwill brand new in the box for $2.  Cha-Ching!  I also found the other drawer containers at Goodwill.  I'm a happy camper with these drawers!

Last but not least is hubs JUNK DRAWER.  I really narrowed it down to this one drawer.  I tossed so much stuff out.  He hasn't missed anything, so it's all good.

I grabbed some containers I had in my plastic ware that I'll never use just because of the size of them.  Why do they do that anyway?  They fit nicely in this junk drawer and keep things from being randomly all over the place.  Every man needs a wooden stick and a couple of knives and a huge lighter  in "their" drawer right?  *eye roll*

Well there you have it!  An organized Master Bedroom Closet, Guest Bedroom Closet and all the drawers cleaned out nicely.  You just have to make up your mind to let go of the stuff.  You know what you haven't worn in forever...and if you ever do get back into those jeans...GIRL...they are OUT OF STYLE now!!  Give yourself a break and get rid of the clutter.

Hannah's closet is pretty organized...for her.  She is headed to Hoarder Land one day if she doesn't let go of some of that junk.  It's certainly a work in process, but I can deal with her closet now.  It's actually been updated since this pic.  That was Purge 2.  Slowly but surely we'll get there.

I hope you caught the bug!  You just have to take the time to keep things organized.  It's for sure not a pleasant task to take on, but get your family involved.  With Hannah...I have to take baby steps.  She can not let anything go.  I always do a sort pile for her....keep, toss and donate.  There's rarely anything in the toss pile, because her stuff is way to valuable (she thinks) to actually TOSS.  The donate pile...well that's another issue.  Why should she donate something she still wants?  We have a process that we do an initial clean out and then I begin to wear her down.  We go back over all the piles and eventually she is so exhausted she caves and we are tossing and donating.  She's teary...but in the I DON'T CARE ANYMORE mode.  That's a good thing for me!!

Happy organizing...and if you're lucky enough to have one of those container stores around you...I'm sure that I would have seizures just going in there.  Check it out for me!  Goodwill for now is doing it's job to keep me container happy!  Now get going!!


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