Holiday Plan of attack

Tidy is not a word you would use to describe my house. I'm an artist. I like to spread out and look at stuff. However with the holidays creeping up fast (and guests, and projects, and, and...and), I had roughly a week to get myself organized and get all those extra little clutter piles hidden away.

Obstacle 1: Cake making supplies EVERYWHERE.

An overflowing box shoved next to my tv, doesn't count as organized. Especially when half my utensils and tools are also strewn about my kitchen in various places. Some drawers won't close creating a hazardous walkway.

Solution! I got one of those slide under the bed rubber maid bins and amazingly, everything fits in there with room to spare. I even managed to get rid of several extra utensils and now all my drawers CLOSE! Happy day!

Obstacle 2: Extra art supplies with nowhere to go!

I keep my art supplies relatively neat and organized in my lower dresser drawers. However, they're stuffed to the brim and I bought more...cause i needed them!

Solution! Another of the slide under the bed bins proved to be the solution, which again gave me room to spare after cleaning out two drawers. Now i just have to clean up all the spilled glitter.

Obstacle 3: That wonderful task of Folding clothes has reared it's ugly head again. Remember how much I hate that chore? Aka, most useless task ever that must be done! Well, part of the cleaning involved laundry which is followed by folding.

Solution: I'm using the time to go through my clothing to find items I've never worn, and never intend to so i can get them out of my apartment and off to good will. Somehow there's immense satisfaction in stuffing a bunch of ill-fitting or misshapen clothing into garbage bags.

Obstacle 4: Finish Christmas Shopping

I really only have three people left on my list but they're the difficult ones to shop for. My brother, who recently has been giving me cookies, My mom, the techi geek for whom anything i want to buy is crazy expensive and My dad, who tells me every year "I don't want anything"

Solution:......Pending. But there is still time.

Obstacle 5: Getting my house super clean for guests

This one's pretty self explanatory. Not that my apartment is Dirty per se, but you can't operate on my counters like you can at my sister's place. But with so much to do, i found myself getting distracted and forgetting to finish cleaning areas.

Solution: Enlist Super Mom. Yes, the person who spent decades teaching me how to clean properly after her training in the military, has agreed to be roped in as a final sweep after I've done all the hard work. And she works for food :) Thank you mom.

Lock and load!