40 Bags in 40 Days {Lent 2012}: Update #3

It's time for another 40 bags in 40 days update.
My original plan was to do this the 40 days of Lent.... that didn't happen, seeing as Easter was 1 month ago & I am still working on my list, BUT I am determined to finish this list, but I think I should re-name it 40 Bags in 4 months. Ha!

I haven't updated my list since last month, so here are 6 more areas that I worked on.
First up was our Master Bathroom drawers & cabinets.
Drawer #1 Before:

After:

Drawer #2 Before:

After:

Cabinet #1 Before:

After:

Cabinet #2 Before:

After:

Medicine Cabinet Before:

After:

Under the sink Before:

After:

My nightstand was the next area.
Nightstand Drawer Before:

After:

Nightstand Cupboard Before:

After:

Next up, my kitchen pantry....otherwise known as a big freaking disaster area.
These before pictures are so embarrassing.....SO MUCH CRAP & UN-ORGANIZATION.
Before:
After:
Another Before:After:
Everything on the shelves is actually organized.
And, apparently, I hoard canned pumpkin. I mean, I only have 10 cans.
The floor of the pantry Before:
After:
The pantry took me over 6 hours to clean/organize. I took every single item out of the pantry, threw out all the expired stuff, etc and bought some organizers/drawers to give things a place. It is 1000 times better and I am SO glad to have gotten that area done. It has been hanging over my head.
Moving on....
TV Storage Drawer in Family Room Before:
(Why yes, that is a Billy Blanks Tae-Bo VHS that you see in there. Does anyone even own a VCR anymore? We don't! The other VHS tapes are some of my college soccer highlight videos & games, so those won't be thrown away, but this summer I am going to get them converted to DVD's.)
After:
Kitchen Junk Drawer Before:
After:
(Not pictured are the 2 Target gift cards, 2 Starbucks gift cards & $6 that I found at the bottom of this drawer. Score!)

Kitchen Cabinet Before:
After:
Another area on the list was our office area. This room is an extension of our Master Bedroom. We call it the office/loft but there is no office furniture. Basically, it is a dumping ground that I use for clothes that don't fit the girls anymore and clean laundry that needs to be folded. And, our dog sleeps in there. It is basically wasted space in our bedroom.
Here is are some Before shots:

Another Angle:

And, here is an After:
Well, I wouldn't really call it an After...more like "During" because we are in the middle of a remodel with this room right now. The piles of "stuff" are gone, but I had to do that area, because now it is a construction zone.

Basically, we are making it a 5th bedroom that will become our new Guest Room/Office (and our current Guest Room will become the bedroom for Baby #3).
This extra are that was part of our Master Bedroom was big (it is 11 feet by 13 feet, which is the exact size of all the other bedrooms....Kate's room, Claire's room & the current Guest Room) Our Master is still spacious even though we got rid of 1/3 of it. It just makes more sense to make it a 5th bedroom rather than wasted space.
We are still in the middle of construction, and hope to finish up this room in the next week or 2.
I will post more Before/During/Afters of this project when it is done!

So, as of today, here is my 40 Bags in 40 Days List (also known as 40 Bags in 4 months)

To see my other 40 bags in 40 days updates, click HERE.

So far, I have cleaned out 23 of 34 areas.
I have filled up a total of 28 bags that have either been donated or thrown away.
(And, all areas that I have done in the past 3 months are STILL cleaned/organized. Yay!)

This has been a really good experience so far.
Even though it has taken me longer than I originally planned, I am still learning a lot from this (which I will share more of when I finish the list) but basically, I have realized how much crap I have that I don't need. I thought I was pretty good about not overspending/buying too much, but cleaning out all these areas makes me realize how much excess I have and it totally grosses me out that we have so much "stuff". Ugh.
This has been a very humbling experience and I am so glad I am doing it even though it sucks sometimes and is time consuming.
If you haven't done a big purge like this, I highly, highly recommend it!

It's Garden Time!

It's May! Can you believe it?
Warmer Weather, Longer days & the countdown to Summer!
(And, it's Birthday month for me & Kevin!)
May also means it's Garden Time!
Last week I planted our 2012 Garden.
We had so much fun with our garden last year, I couldn't wait to plant one this year.

Last Spring, Kevin built me 3 Garden Boxes and they worked really well for growing our veggies.
Each box is 8 feet by 4 feet.
We had a great crop last year. I am planting the majority of the same things.
(There are a few things I skipped this year & I added a few new veggies to the mix)
Here is what we are growing this year:

Box #1:

Box #2:

I have 2 Yellow Pear plants. I loved growing these last year. For our afternoon snack last year, the girls & I would bring a container of humus out to the garden & just pluck tomatoes off the vine & eat them with the hummus. SO yummy!

Box #3:
This box is filled with 5 of my favorite type of tomato....Early Girl Tomatoes!
They are perfect for Caprese Salad & are such a deep red and full of flavor. YUM.
(This year I also invested $ and bought sturdy tomato cages. Last year, I just used the cheap flimsy wire ones and my tomatoes were too heavy for them and my tomato plants kept falling over and we had to prop them up with random stakes. I splurged this year, I hope they are sturdy enough to last through this summer and years to come!)

We also have some fruit trees in our garden area. We have had the orange for 1 year (no fruit yet) and the lime tree for about 7 years (it was in a planter & we moved it from house to house and planted it in the garden area last year.)

This year, I also bought some Apple Trees...one Red Fugi & one Honeycrisp!

So there you have it, our 2012 Garden!
I can't wait for it to grow & produce veggies.
That was one of my highlights of last summer..our inaugural garden.
I hope we have as much success this year as we did last year.
It was so empowering walking out to the garden & using things we grew for our meals!
I am most looking forward to the tomatoes!
There is nothing more delicious than a homegrown tomato.
I would love to hear... what is your favorite thing to grow (or eat) in a garden.
Do any of you have a garden in your backyard?
Share your gardening tips, I would love to hear them since this is only my 2nd year planting a garden!
Mine are simple...Get new soil, make sure your garden gets afternoon sun and don't forget to water!