Sticking to the bedroom, I decided my dresser would be the next clean-up project.

I had mainly accumulated a collection of tags and extra buttons from clothing, papers, receipts, jewelry gift boxes that I obsessively save to re-use, a pillow case for some reason, and random junk.

Ah, much better.

I still have to go through the baskets, but I’ll save that for another day!

Another trouble spot is the space beside my bed. I have a habit of stashing things I don’t feel like dealing with, usually when cleaning public spaces.

For example, see that box beneath the window? It was full of papers and objects that I “cleaned” off the top of the entertainment center when we had company. Judging by what was in there, our guests visited in or just after December 2008.

That black bag is full of goodies taken home from the Rock and Roll half marathon I ran Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach. And that pink bag behind it? Yeah, that’s also from a VA Beach Rock and Roll half marathon. In 2008.

I’ve finally got all that stuff sorted out. A lot of trash is gone, and everything else has found a better storage place.

I picked up a new trash can today that’s now tucked by the nightstand — hopefully some of these problems (like two empty tissue boxes!) can be avoided in the future!

Yesterday was a really long day.

We got let out of work yesterday for a mandatory meeting, which was held 40 miles from the office. Due to crazy traffic, it took an hour and a half to get there. I caught the end of the meeting, and then promptly had to drive back home for my choral rehearsal.

Of course that meeting was 40 miles away from home, and it took an hour and 40 minutes to get back. I didn’t have a chance to stop home first, but I made it on time!

By the end of the night, I was beat. So I’m really glad I decided to work on my clean-up projects a day in advance!

I planned on doing some simple cleaning last night, but decided that could wait until today. I’ve just doubled up on projects tonight!

Anyway … my make-up project isn’t anything that will improve the overall clutter of my home, but it had to be done.

I cleaned the bathroom.

The master bathroom is the one we used the most, but sometimes it doesn’t get cleaned as often as it should be. It was time. I only scrubbed the toilet and counter, but it made a big difference.

There are no pictures since that would have been gross, so you’ll just have to believe me.

Don’t worry, I’ll resume posting photo evidence tomorrow!

So you know I’m serious about cleaning up my home!

Whenever I get to the bottom of a bath product in a plastic bottle (shampoo, contact solution, etc.), I set it near the trash in the bathroom, intending to rinse it out and bring it to the recycle bin.

But it seems I have a problem with this concept.

How horrible. It must take a few months for me to go through a bottle of contact solution, and there are FOUR bottles visible in that photo. I think there were actually five there. Yikes!

It didn’t take long to fix that. Items have been rinsed out and are ready to recycle.

My bathroom is still ugly (uh, somebody put, and then partially peeled off, gold trim on the dark green molding) … but that’s a much bigger problem to solve!

I won’t have enough time for any big cleanup projects most weeknights. Last night was no exception.

Before:

After:

It may be just a small improvement … but that pile has been sitting next to my dresser since August. I’m glad it’s gone!