Lately, she has been watching a lot of You Tube tutorials for everything from nail art to duct tape projects. Last week, she came across a tutorial for using old magazines to make wallets and pouches. It didn’t take long before she was cutting up my stack of outdated catalogs.

Don’t you love this cute pouch she made for me! It is the perfect size for coupons. No more coupon clutter in my junk drawer! Yeah! I think it turned out great. She finished it off with some clear packing tape to keep it from getting caught and to protect it from getting wet.  Works for me!

If you are a fan of Works For Me Wednesday, you are going to want to get a copy of the new e-book “That Works For Me”. It’s a “best of” WFMW!!

• Anti-aging and acne treatments: Three months to a year.
• Body lotion: Two to three years, particularly if it’s in a pump container.
• Shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel: About three years.
• Bath oil: One year.
• Sunscreen: Check the package for an expiration date.
• Mascara and liquid eyeliner: Three to four months.
• Eye and lip pencils: Three to five years. Sharpen them before each use as a way to preserve them and keep them clean.
• Lipstick and lip gloss: Two to three years.
• Foundation: About two years.
• Perfume: About two years. To get more mileage out of a perfume, resist the temptation to display a pretty bottle on your vanity. Instead, stash it away in a cool, dark place.
• Nail polish: One year.
• Hairstyling products: Three to five years. Most are alcohol-based, which helps preserve the formula.
• Bar soap: Up to three years.
• Shaving cream: About two years.
• Deodorant: Up to two years.

Go ahead and use this chart when cleaning out your bathroom shelves and drawers. Tell me about the oldest product you found! I found some foundation that I think I remember wearing 3 houses ago!!

This week, I am working on the bathrooms. My bathroom surfaces are cleaned thoroughly each week,  but the insides of the cabinets are another story. It is time to clean out the shelves and drawers. I’m sure stuff has accumulated that I don’t even remember having and I’m positive there are some out-dated products that need to go!

As you are cleaning out your bathroom cabinets this week, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it outdated?
• Do I need it?
• Do I use it?
• Am I ever going to use those old towels on the top shelf?

Throughout the week, I’ll be emptying out, throwing away and re-organizing. I’m starting with the make-up drawer. Tomorrow, I’ll post some helpful tips on how long to keep your cosmetics. That is one area that you don’t want to forget!

When I read that line from the new ebook 3-2-1 Stop, I knew I was going to LOVE this book! The author, Lori Lippincott, was talking my language! Lori advocates and strives to live a simple life, free of the unnecessary distractions society is full of – a life free of busyness. She is after a life spent living, not organizing and rearranging stuff none of us even needs!

In 3-2-1 Stop, Lori walks us through the areas of our homes, our lives and our hearts to show where the clutter is and how to get rid of it. This is not a “how-to organize” or a “how-to-fit-it all-in-your-schedule” book. It is a “why do we need stuff” and a “we don’t need to do it all” book.  (If you are following the slow and steady spring cleaning series, there is a great section on decluttering your closets!)

I have had this ebook a couple weeks, and I already have it highlighted up. I have re-visited it often for tips on certain areas. This would be a great overcoming busy resource for you to get your hands on. In fact, 3 of you can get your hands on it this week!! Lori is making a 3-2-1 Stop ebook available to 3 blessed readers!! Just leave a comment and tell me why you want this book! I’ll choose 3 winners this Friday March 23rd.

Feel free to share this giveaway with friends on facebook and twitter! 

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image from GraceBrooke.com

Are you joining me in Slow and Steady Spring Cleaning? This week, I am working on the closets! Here are some links with closet decluttering/organization how-to’s and inspiration.

Closet organizing tips and inspiration from Operation Organization

20 Ways To Organize Your Bedroom Closet from Apartment Therapy

Organizing and Inventorying Children’s Clothing from Organizing Junkie

How to Organize Your Disorganized Closet from Grace Brooke

walnut & platinum elfa décor freestanding closet

Welcome to week two of Slow And Steady Spring Cleaning. This week, I am tackling the closets  - one each day. I’ll be working on our two entry closets (one by the front door and one by the door going into the garage) and our bedroom closets. And by cleaning them, I mean decluttering them – getting rid of everything that doesn’t belong!

Even though these closets all hold different things, I can use the same basic decluttering principles for each .

1) Evaluate each item - When cleaning out a space, don’t just eyeball the stuff on the shelves or hanging on the hangers. Touch each item and evaluate it (quickly). It should fall into a category.

2) Categorize each item - Each item in your closet will fall into one of three main catagories – Keep, Toss, or Give. Find a box for each catagory and quickly sort your stuff. When you are done, take the “toss” box to the garbage and take the “give” box to your trunk. Then, you can take it to Goodwill or somewhere similar to bless someone else next time you are out. Or, if you do yard sales, you can close the box and mark it “yard sale” and store it with your other yard sale items.

3) Re-categorize the “keep” items - Now that you are down to just one box. Determine these things: Does it belong in this closet? How often do I use/wear this? Will I use/wear it again? Is it useful? Do I love it? Answering these questions might cause you to recatagorize the item or determine that this is really an item worth keeping.

4) Determine the best way to put the items back in your closet- Just because you have always kept the kids shoes in a box in the closet, doesn’t mean that is still the best way to store them. The hall closet might not be the best place to store your sporting goods anymore. Look for better solutions to your storage problems.

Apply these basic steps to spring cleaning your closets, and you will be amazed at the difference!

Look for more specific closet tips throughout the week on Overcoming Busy, on facebook and on twitter. On Wednesday, I’ll be giving away a fab resource to help with your decluttering and simplifying your life. And on Friday, I’ll post some before and after photos of spring cleaning my closets. You can link up yours if you like.

Have a great week of spring cleaning!

Since panic was my first thought, I decided I needed to ask the experts. I asked Overcoming Busy facebook fans what they would do. I thought it was interesting that the ideas where very similar. The common thread was to just take care of the main areas and do it quickly.

“pick up toys, wipe down kitchen, wipe down bathroom (just the main one), if time left, run the sweeper”

“Big huge plastic bag to clean up all the clutter. Hide the full bag. A quick wipe down of bathroom and spot vacuum where company will be.”

“Spray air freshner in living room area, by the front door & bathroom. Then, do a quick touch-up of the bathroom. Sink & Toilet.
And if you have boys, the floor and wall ALL Around the toilet. (Ask me how I know)”

“Vacuum,sweep, mop. I have a steam.mop it takes like ten minutes. Clean the toilet. If your nosey enough to look in the shower you’ll know we actually live here. Plug in the scentsy and call it even.”

“Potties, counter tops and my personal pet peeve: clean out the sink!!! The sink makes or breaks it–IMO!”

This comment had lot of wisdom -

“I try to keep my main living areas where 15-20 min is all I need”

And, this one just cracked me up because we’ve all thought of it at least once -

“Start coughing & pretend I’m sick…..wink”

 Would you do anything different?

In the mood to de-clutter and get organized for 2012?? Click on over to Today’s Housewife where I’m sharing some tips to make the task a little less stressful.

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We have a little tradition at our house. It is the Pre-Christmas Toy Purge. It’s really simple and quite effective. It’s decluttering. It all started a few years ago when my husband and I found ourselves cringing at the thought of the kids getting more toys for Christmas. We are a 3 gift family ourselves. (It was good enough for Jesus…) However, grandparents, aunts and uncles never seem to catch on to that. Each Christmas, our kids bring home a car load of junk Christmas joy and I have to try and find a place for it all! So, we started the toy purge.

This is how the toy purge works. We sit down with the kids and ask them how many toys they want for Christmas. The number is always quite high. We then explain to them that there is no room in our house for anymore toys. If they want more, they better make some room. For every new toys that they want to come in, a new toy must go out. The number of toys they want for Christmas always drops to a more reasonable level at this point. When we all agree on a number, they start purging. The toys that they purge have to be ok’d by my husband and I. Happy meal toys don’t count. They can be purged, just not counted toward their total number needed.

This week, we are cleaning the kids bed rooms and doing this year’s toy purge. I always look forward to it. Their closets looks so clean and uncluttered…until about December 25th.

How do you handle the toy madness at your house?

I recently decided that the time had come to find another system for organizing winter gloves and hats and scarves. I got tired of rooting through that crate looking for that one glove!! As I was reading through a great organizing blog series (31 Days to {cheaply} organize your home at Organizing Made Fun), I came across a great idea!

Use an over the door shoe organizer. Brilliant! It hangs on the inside of the basement door right beside the door to the garage that we use to go outside the majority of the time. Everyone can see their stuff. No more hunting and rooting! Love it! Thanks to Becky at Organizing Made Fun for the great inspiration!

Where do you store your winter accessories?