Me: Just go look.

P: Ok fine…. (a minute later): Oh my gosh Mom! Where did you get all those!?

Me:  That’s over a year’s worth.

P: (Sees me with camera in hand) You’re going to blog about this, aren’t you?

Me: Yep!

P: Sigh. (shakes her head and walks away)

You may be asking yourself what in the world is she talking about?  THIS is what I’m talking about.

Yes, that’s about maybe 16 months’ worth of conditioner, which comes in each box of haircolor I purchase. And they were all in a VERY shallow drawer, mixed up with makeup, combs, a hairbrush, and various other toiletries.  There are 13 tubes of conditioner here.

OK now ya’ll know, I color my hair. I have for years. I do my roots every 5-6 weeks. The secret’s out.  And to the left of the tubes, you can see I have a Swiss Army style knife, and a little spray can of pepper spray. I have no idea where the knife came from or how long I have had it in my makeup drawer.  The pepper spray was provided to me by my husband about 15 years ago, because I was a life insurance examiner and I went to lots of people’s homes or workplaces, and some very out of the way locations, for exams. He thought it would be good if I had it on my keychain.  Still got it honey!  Still safe!  =)

If you follow me on Twitter you know I’ve been on a decluttering and purging spree like nothing I’ve EVER done before. I have been reading over at OrgJunkie quite a bit. I’ve basically read the whole Getting Started section of her blog!  I have gotten some good ideas from there, and also realized that there are some things she suggests which I already do, or I do to some extent at least, such as opening the mail with the trash can handy.

I have read lots of the comments too, and people posting about things they “found” while decluttering, and they really cracked me up until I found those conditioner tubes! I mean come on, it’s really good conditioner, but it’s so heavily perfumed it gives me a migraine after I use it!  Why in the world did I keep these?!?! In all honesty, I did keep ONE but the rest went into the trash.  I do use it once in a great while if my hair starts to get fried from my barrel dryer.

As of right now (12:23am Tuesday, yes I’m up late) I have decluttered and reorganized my pantry, my makeup drawer (and all the drawers in my bathroom, but that was the bad one), my kitchen cabinets, and my really bad, messy kitchen utensil drawer. I’ve done lots of other areas of the house too, but I’m not ready to tell you about them yet. I plan to post pictures…. very revealing pictures… when I’m done!

I picked up a two pack of shallow drawer organizers at Shopko for $5, for my bathroom. I moved some kitchen cabinet items to the pantry, and pantry items to the cabinets. I made things work a little better, made my glass bakeware much easier to get to, and made my bread machine accessible (because we do use it, about once a week) but not where it breaks my neck when I try to put it away. It used to reside in an UPPER cabinet.)  I replaced the drip pans on my stove, because the old ones were mostly black and/or rusty, too nasty to clean any more. A set of four new drip pans cost me $20.

I’ve cleaned and scrubbed almost every square inch of my kitchen. Thursday, D1 and I cleaned all of the kitchen & bathroom cabinets with oil soap. I washed walls and wiped ledges that hardly ever get attention.  As I tweeted either Thursday or Friday, I feel like I’m NESTING, but I’m not PREGNANT (and that would be impossible, so don’t ask if I’m sure! lol)  I am just drowning in clutter and I can’t stand it any more.

Oh, and the best part? The really, truly best part?  I took EIGHT kitchen sized trash bags full of stuff, plus a box, to the mission thrift store today! EIGHT BAGS!!!  I have two stacks of DVDs I’m going to put on Ebay, along with various other things I will also list there, and I plan on lots more to come.  We just have so much, too much. I can’t keep up with it all. I can’t keep up with picking up and cleaning up because of it. With Christmas comes the influx of MORE STUFF. This year I’m going to be ready!

I will try to make sure I post for the Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up, but I can’t PROMISE I will.  We’re headed out of town (a 12 hour drive each direction) for Thanksgiving, to see our 15yo J.  I’m jumping outta my skin EXCITED about this but it will be emotional too. It will be the first time she’s seen her brothers and sister since mid-May, although they have all talked on the phone many times.  E and I went down to see her the end of August. Our week will be busy, and we have many things to be thankful for this year. I will try to get a post off! Whether I do or not, I pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving, and enjoy the time you have with your family!