Day #17 - Organization Challenge - Computer Files Organization

Hi Organizing Buddies!!! Where have you been, Maria? Well, I've been busy. . .:) I recently bought a new computer. .. actually, my husband bought it for me. I've been busy reloading my programs and applications, transferring files, and basically, setting up the new computer. I've had my old computer for over 4 years and my husband has been wanting to get me a new computer for a while now. I've had an older version of Windows on my computer . . .I think 2003 or something like that. I don't like to mess with my computer because I hate having to figure out a new version of anything. It worked fine for me up until recently so I really didn't want a new computer.

Unfortunately, lately my old computer had been running really slow, had very little hard drive space left and I've been transferring all my files to a data drive just to have room for new stuff. For the past month or so, my old computer was beginning to flake out on me. . .primarily due to low memory and my CD/DVD drive stopped working. It was driving me crazy so I finally agreed to get a new computer! I'm now on Windows 7! Yay! I LOVE IT!!!! And I now have a 500 GB memory as well as a 500 GB data drive. Holy Cow! That's a 1000 GB of memory! Can you imagine how many photos I can upload on both drives!!!! That's NUTZ! LOL!

Anyway. . .because I'm on the subject of computers. . .I realized how messed up all my files are. I have at least 4 different "My Picture" folders, 3 different "My Documents" folders and everything is just all over the place. I can't even remember what folder I filed a photo in because I have so many of them! It's ridiculous! It's because this is my 3rd computer in about 8 years and each time, I've had to transfer all my files from one computer to another and rather than cleaning them up when I switched computers, I just transferred ALL of them. . .junk files and all!

Now that I'm on a new computer, I am totally confused. Seriously! I don't know what folder I filed a particular picture or document and I have to sort through all these files to figure it out! Do you have a problem with your computer files? Do you have photos that you should have deleted because they're duplicate photos of one subject? LOL! Are your files disorganized? Well, today is the day you will organize your computer files!!!

Today's challenge is to delete photos that are duplicates or just plain ole' junk photos, delete old documents that you either downloaded or created and no longer need, organize all of your photos in appropriate folders, and delete old unwanted files.

This may take a few days so. . .do the best you can! When you're done, your computer will have more memory, run smoother, and you will be less confused and frustrated. . .:)

Before I go, I wanted to let you know that I am COMPLETELY done with organizing my linen closet. I washed ALL of the towels, blankets, sheets, comforters . ..everything, folded all of them nicely, and organized them by categories and colors. My linen closet now looks fabulous! How are you doing with your linen closet?

I washed all of the comforter sets and put them back in their packages. They really didn't need to be washed but they have been sitting on the shelves for some time now and was exposed to dust and lint so I decided to wash them and put them in plastic bags to keep them free of dust so I don't have to do this again! LOL!


My laundry room is now free of clothes. They are all hung up in the bedroom closets. Hey, did you know. .. my laundry room is upstairs next to my craft room. It is so convenient to have a laundry room upstairs but at the same time, it can be bad because there's a tendency to treat the laundry room as a closet because it is located upstairs. But, nonetheless, I love having it upstairs. . .it's easier to transfer the laundry from the laundry room to the bedroom closets.

Look. . .no clothes hanging on the rods or folded on the shelf. I can actually fold down the shelf now. LOL! Previously there were clothes hanging on the rod and sitting on the shelf. Now, it's all clean! I am so happy about it!

If you want to send in a photo of your organized linen closet or what ever else you organized, feel free to email it to me at cardinspired@gmail.com and I'll post it on this blog. I haven't had much response but I'm figuring you are still organizing your stuff. . .:) Come on, play along!! Share your photos. . .it's fun to see other people's organization!!

Hope you all have a wonderful organizing day!!

Day #12 Organization Challenge - Linen Closet - Blankets and Comforters

Hello Organizing Buddies! Ugggh! I'm sorry I didn't post anything for the past two days! I've been feeling a little sick. It started on Monday. I initially thought that I was going through my typical allergy attacks but as the day progressed, I started to feel that it may not be my allergies. I've been too tired to organize anything. I do feel a little better today so I'll try to finish up my linen closet.

I have a little story to share before I discuss today's challenge. Growing up, although we weren't "poor", my grandparents (who adopted me) were very "frugal" and I kid you not!!! Our blankets were handmade and we've never had fitted sheets or pretty beddings. That's just the way life was. Although I appreciate the sewn blankets today and I wish I had a few of them now that my grandmother had passed away, growing up I always wanted a pretty made bed! I guess that's the reason why, now that I'm older and can basically afford them, I love buying them and dressing up my bed. LOL! But. . .how many comforter sets do one need?

Do you see the shelving above. It's actually quite taller than shown in the picture. It's normally stocked with blankets and comforter sets but I did a CRAZY thing. Because they've been sitting in the closet probably collecting dust, I decided to wash them ALL! I have problems with allergies so I thought it was a great idea to wash them. What the heck was I thinking???? It has taken me hours to wash and dry them. I spent 4 days washing and drying them and I have a few more to wash. The huge thick comforters barely fit into our washing machine. Honestly, it would have been smarter if I had thrown them into the drier and filter any dust or lint rather than washing them but I'm happy that I washed them now that I'm almost done. . .:)



Some of the blankets and comforter sets didn't have their original packaging so I used "Space Bags". They are FANTASTIC!! I highly recommend buying a few of them to store your blankets. . .they really save on space by compressing them to a smaller size. Click Here to check them out.

Okay! Let us FINISH our linen closet! Now to today's challenge. . . .if your blankets or beddings have been sitting in the closet for the past year without being used, air them out or throw them into the dryer and filter the dust or lint that has collected on them. When you're done, re-organize them nicely in your linen closet. This challenge should complete the "Linen Closet Challenge".

Hey. . .if you're done organizing your linen closet, take a photo of it and email it to me at cardinspired@gmail.com and I'll post it on the blog. I'll post my organized linen closet when I'm done washing and drying my blankets!! Hope you have a wonderful organizing day!!

Day #10 Organization Challenge - Sheets Day

Hello Organizing Buddies! Did any of you complete yesterday's challenge? If you did, send a photo of your organized towels and I'll post it on the blog. I'd love to see it and I'm sure others would too!

Above is a photo of my empty linen closet. I think it's more like linen cabinets, huh? It's located at one of the hallways upstairs. It's nice because it's very accessible. We have another linen shelving in my closet but that's a whole other situation. . .it'll be our challenge tomorrow so I won't discuss it right now. As you can see, my linen closet is empty. I wanted to show you that I actually do the challenges.

Well, let's get down to business. Today's challenge is multi -step again; similar to the towels.

1. Remove all the contents from your linen closet if you haven't done so yet (this was part of yesterday"s challenge)

2. Gather all of your sheets including the fitted sheets, fold your sheets following the video tutorial.

3. Return the sheets back into the linen closet. Organize them by color and size.

Got it? Simple, huh? Well, let's get going! Before you know it, your linen closet will look spectacular!!!

Yesterday I worked on yesterday's challenge. I got rid of some of my ratty looking towels and donated them to our dogs. LOL! Yes, our dogs. Whenever we bath our dogs, I don't like to use the newer towels because ugggh, I just don't like the idea of sharing towels with our dogs.

Here are the doggy towels. I store them under the dryer. I don't want them mixed up with our towels. If you have any old towels, rather than throwing them away, there are several things you can do with them:

1. Donate them to your dogs.

2. Donate them to the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

3. Cut them into hand towel size and you can use them to wipe your counters or dishes.

4. Cut them in half and use them to wipe your car.

5. Sell them at a garage sale.

I'm sure there are other ways to recycle them, can you think of any other ideas? Share them with us.

Well, I hope you'll play along . . .comment this post if you are planning to do this challenge. I'd love to hear from you!!!

I'll see you all tomorrow! Happy organizing, folks!!

Day #9 Organization Challenge - Project Linen Closet

Hi Organizing Buddies! Yesterday the challenge was to wash and dry your towels. Did you have a chance to do it? Well if you did, today we will start the first day of organizing our linen closet. I'm going to cut to the chase today because I still need to work on this challenge myself. LOL! I started off late today so I can't show you my completed task. I'll upload a photo when I'm done.

Today's challenge will be a multi-step challenge. Organizing your linen closet may take a few days so we'll start off with the towels and work our way through the other linens.

Here is today's challenge:

1. Remove every towel and linen from your closet. (Yes, you read it right. . .we want to start off fresh)

2. Pick out all the towels from your linen.

3. Fold all your towel as shown in the video tutorial, including the towels that you washed yesterday.

4. When you've completed folding the towels, organize your towels by color, type, and size.

5. Place your towels on the shelves of your linen closet based on the color, type, and size.

Can you manage that? I have a LOT of towels so it may take me a while but I'll try to get it done today.

Tomorrow we'll work on the next step on organizing our linen closet. I'll cut the chit-chat short today. . .I need to get on the ball so I'll see ya' all tomorrow! Hope you'll play along. Comment this post if you want to join in the challenge!! Happy organizing!!!

Day #8 Organization Challenge - Darn, That's A Lot of Towels!

No kidding! That is a lot of towels. Blame it on the department store Marshalls. LOL! Really! When they were closing down, their towels were 50 to 75% off so I went nuts and bought a whole bunch of them. The problem is . . .knowing we have a lot of towels, I don't wash all of them on a regular basis. I'll wait until there's two basket full of towels before I wash them.

Well, I decided to gather all of our towels and wash all of them! Look at that pile! LOL! No, I'm not going to keep it that way. After the towels were dried, I folded them immediately but come back tomorrow and we'll re-haul our linen closet. We'll even fold them nicely.

The organization challenge today is to simply wash the towels and dry them. If you want to quickly fold them just to get them out of the dryer, you may do so. Tomorrow, we'll fold them nicely and we'll work on making our linen closet pretty, okay!

Hope you'll participate in today's challenge. Comment this post if you plan on playing along. Come on. . .let's get the towels out of the way! Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!