Pleasant Side-Effects

One of my goals this new year is to get rid of some of our excess clutter. I try to keep the worst of it to a minimum and make recurring attempts at organization of it all. However, there's always room for improvements!

The first place I started was the kitchen. There's one corner where things tend to gather. All sorts of things had piled up; some needing to be tossed, some needing a real place to be put away. Things on the counter (around the organizer there) and some up in the cupboard all mixed in with the dishes. 

First thing was to find a home for the office supplies that were mixed in with the cups. As it happened, that black box was full of sippy cups - it's been a long time since we've needed those, which gave me an idea! creative juices flowed and away went the old sippy cups and the box was transformed into a new organizer for all the scissors, post-its, tape, pencils and other sundry. 

cardboard divider covered with contact paper, beauty and function!

Voila! Back into the cupboard it goes, but with a purpose! I moved a few other things around, putting like with like. I found new homes for all the important things and cleared away things that weren't and, in clearing up this one corner, I actually ended up clearing up all the counters in the kitchen. It's not a *huge* difference, but it's so much better.

After the kitchen project was done, I turned to my work space downstairs. I'm really good at collecting bits and pieces and half-started projects.. This year, my goal is to complete more of them! Clear out things that I really don't need.. and in so doing, already, I've cleared the top of and the space around my desk, which has lead to going through piles of things... which, again, lead to a burst of creativity and suddenly the piles of furry fabric and scraps became fuzzy monsters!

Pretty awesome side-effects.