Down the rabbit hole

#ditch 11 sounded like an easy challenge. Pick a room or an area and find 11 things to purge.

Only purging is never just that easy for me. It always ends up being a much bigger thing then it needs to be and while I love the end results I sometimes get overwhelmed with the middle of the process. You see, once I start purging one area I usually end up in a purging rabbit hole. It is the thing all purgers both love and hate about purging. It starts simply enough. You pick a room and start looking through things and making a keep and get rid of pile. Then suddenly you have a pile of things that you aren't getting rid of but that belong in another room or spot. So you move them to that spot only to look at that spot and think "since I am here I might as well move these and these". Then before you know it you have 4 rooms completely torn apart with piles of stuff that you honestly can't remember what is what!

I decided that the room I would pick for this challenge would be the kitchen. I picked this room for three reasons - A. With a fairly open main floor I could work in the kitchen while the daycare was open as I could still see and hear the kids. 2. Shayne and I talked about doing this room over the holidays but we never got around to it. It drives him crazy so I knew that I could get him to help me. 3. My hernia has been really bothersome the past few months and is getting worse which means I need to limit my lifting and lugging. With the way the cupboards were organized a lot of the stuff I used a lot was in a bad spot so was hoping with a little purge I might be able to move some things around. My plan was just to do this cupboard. As you can see it has a lot of stuff in it and in order to get to most things I need to take stuff out, get what I want and put everything back in.

Shayne took everything out and since it was cleared out, he took the time to clean all the shelves (bonus for me!). One of the first things I wanted to go was gather up all the medicine and put it in a basket. But then I remembered we had medicine in the bathroom too which drives me crazy because I never know what is where. So figured I should put it all in one spot which means getting everything out of the bathroom. Which means, you guessed it, cleaning the spot in the bathroom that had the medicine. See what I mean about how quickly it becomes purging and cleaning another spot? One item in and already I am in the bathroom cleaning it out when I should be IN THE KITCHEN!

This was what it looked like when I started.

And this is what it looked like when I was done. Now that it is done I am glad I did it but it just goes to show how quickly I can get off track. Back to the cupboard I was suppose to be doing. We had everything laid on the counter so I could easily see things i knew we needed to keep, throw away or put elsewhere so I started making piles. Then I started thinking about where I could move things so that I could get to the things I used more often. This lead to other cupboards being cleaned out, cleaned up and moved around. It took about an hour and a half in total but I think the results are so worth it!

This is the cupboard that started it all. Looks pretty good don't you think? Here are a few more pictures of other cupboards that got a small makeover.

And the challenge? I think it is fair to say that #ditch11 was a success. It looks more like #ditch111!

This has given me the spark I need to start purging different areas and rooms in the house. My challenge to myself is to spend an hour a week purging. Could be a room, a cupboard, photos, my computer, anything. But after a year that would be 52 hours of purging that I have done. Can you imagine how little extra stuff you would have laying around if you did that?

Since you are gearing up for what could be a crazy few months I want to leave you with an easy challenge for this week. #nakednecking is your weekend challenge. Okay, you don't really have to be naked but you do need to make out with your husband for 15 mins. And not total, in a row. Put the kids to bed, light a candle, turn off your phones and make out on that big ole sofa you have.