But I found what I was looking for!

Tonight I sorted through my choral music. I had to find the music I need now that we’re rehearsing for the holidays, so it was the perfect opportunity to reorganize.

I store my music in the gray file box seen above, and it’s safe to say I don’t always put things away promptly. Or ever. That pile to the left of the file box is also music; the red folder at the bottom is Christmas music. From last year. There was a lot of stuff just shoved in the back of the box behind the hanging folders. I found a rehearsal schedule from 2005!

I sorted through a large pile of papers, a lot that were duplicates or things I don’t think I’ll need again. That can go, freeing up a little more space. The rest is now sorted alphabetically in hanging folders. It had folders before, but I added a few more since it was a bit too stuffed before.

Then I shoved the file box under the corner table so it’s out of the way.

That large pile of papers next to the shredder is waiting to be shredded. It can only handle a few sheets at a time!

I was looking around for a portable project tonight. I’ve got a lot to watch on my DVR and I wanted to multitask!

I wasn’t really in the mood to sort through piles of paperwork, but I came across another issue in the office that would work.

Somehow these old storage bins back from the early apartment days wound up storing some of my running clothes (mostly socks) that I hadn’t gotten around to pairing up and putting away. Since there were also three pairs of gloves in there, this pile has been building up for a while!

I matched 24 pairs of socks and put them away. I also folded and put away the three tank tops, two running skirts, and pair of shorts that was in there.

And then I got out all of the stray socks from the laundry pile and tried to pair them up.

But I still have a lot of orphans.

I’m not giving up hope until we get to the bottom of Mt. Laundry. (But I did throw out several that were not worth saving!)

I had a busy day today. And actually, quite the busy weekend. I’ve still managed to post daily for NaBloCleanMo, but I’ve fallen behind.  I’m currently not working a day ahead on any of my cleanup projects.

When I got home around 6pm tonight after being out all day on a running-related field trip (more on that later), I wasn’t really sure what I was going to tackle tonight.

I went about showering and putting on my jammies (yes, before 7pm), and then went into the kitchen to fill up a water bottle. It’s hard to drink out of cups in this house! And I got a little sidetracked …

While I have plenty of clean water bottles, I decided I should wash out the three in queue next to the sink. And then I washed the colander that had been sitting beside the sink for a few weeks.

And then I cleaned out the empty cookie jar. Even though they were long gone, everything had been tasting minty since the last of the Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s (which should be back soon, if not already. Yay!).

I also have a canister that used to have whole wheat flour in it. I ran out long ago, yet hadn’t gotten around to washing it out. Until today.

I don’t have a before picture since I didn’t really intend this to be tonight’s clean-up project. It just happened.

Once everything was clean I wiped down the countertops. Sure it’s only part of my kitchen, but it makes a big difference!

I can’t take credit for most of today’s cleanup. My husband did most of the work while I napped on the couch, recovering from this morning’s 9-mile run. Since I had a chorale concert last night and another tonight, I needed the rest!

Onto the cleanup … Our laundry stack had gotten quite impressive!

I can’t believe it didn’t topple over.

After I got back from my run, I did wash a load of running clothes. This didn’t help the main problem … but my running-clothes hamper was also full. Yikes.

Once that was done, I pulled the darks/colors out of the mountain and my husband took over from there.

It’s still kinda full, but the lid closes!

Before my nap, I tried on all of the jeans and pants in my dresser. I’m less likely to put my clothes away if my drawers are too stuffed! I found a small stack that I didn’t wear much or didn’t fit well that’ll go to Goodwill. I didn’t get rid of that much … but it should help.

Now I just have to go through the rest of the drawers … and my closet …

I have too much stuff, and not enough places to put it.

Tonight I returned to cabinet in the powder room. This half bathroom truly is my powder room, since I use it to do my hair and makeup in the mornings while my husband is in the shower.

Aside from storing toilet paper and some cleaning supplies, I have a quite a collection of hair products, sunscreen, lotions and bath products in here.

I find it kind of amusing that the black box in the front was full of stuff I hadn’t yet organized the last time I cleaned out this cabinet. It’s referenced in the post I linked to above … from November 2007!

Anyway, that’s gone now. Also gone are a lot of half and mostly-empty sunscreen bottles that have expired, some empty boxes, and some products that I remember disliking.

I have the same problem as last time — a ton of nearly-empty hair products that I simply won’t toss until it’s all used up. I now have all of them consolidated in a large basket in the front. This time I really do have to finish off all the almost-empty ones, and figure out if I like the full ones. And then toss them if they don’t work!

Last time I didn’t have that large basket … and all of the extra hair products were in the back where I couldn’t access them as easily. Hopefully this works!

I still have some work to do with the small basket in the front. There are some lotions that can stay, but there’s also a rather large assortment of travel-size shower gel, shampoo and conditioner bottles that should probably be stored with the others I have in our master bathroom cabinet.

But that’s another project for another day!