The Power of a candle

I never knew how powerful a candle could be.  Like so many weekends, the house had gotten a little messy this weekend.  I try not to waste precious family time on cleaning during the weekends.  Since I am a stay at home Mom, I do my best to keep the house up during the week.  The kitchen was getting pretty out of control this weekend.  And finding the motivation to clean it on a Sunday afternoon is tough!

Yesterday Katelin and I took some special time for the 2 of us.  We went to the mall and while we were there I returned some things to Bath and Body works.  I ended up exchanging some stuff for a couple candles (certain scents were 50% off).  I set one on the windowsill in the kitchen.

While Kevin was busy doing something outside, I lit the candle.  The wonderful creamy nutmeg scent started filling the house.  And before I knew it I was in the kitchen putting dishes away, wiping the counters, and decluttering the counter top.  And all because of a little candle.  I guess that would be proof that if you are happy in your space you are more likely to keep it looking nice!

Day #11 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (The FREEZER)

When I first read what today challenge was, my first reaction was ugh!  But it really wasn't too bad.  We didn't have too much in there to begin with.  I did end up throwing some stuff out, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected.  (I love when that happens!)

So here is the before picture:

 Here it is all emptied out and cleaned.

 And then the after.  Not too drastic but it is better.

Now....since I was in there (and the baby was sleeping) I decided to go ahead and do the refrigerator too.  Now that was G-R-O-S-S!!!  But I am going to save the pics in case that is coming up in the challenge.  (If it doesn't, I promise I will share them anyway...even though it's pretty embarrassing!  So...stay tuned!

My Other projects

Since I hadn't started my blog yet when  A Bowl Full of Lemons started her 21 day challenge, I thought I would kind of catch up today plus the extra projects I did.  I don't have before pics for most of these but I do have the afters.  So lets get started...

This is my normally horribly cluttered and chaotic counter top.  We don't have a lot of counter space so this was a problem.  Since this pic I switched out that pencil cup for 3 mason jars that separate out pens, pencils, markers, and scissors and put them on a cute white rectangle ceramic plate.   Much better!

 This is the pantry all nicely organized.  Before I did this...I could never find anything and it never seemed like I had enough room.  I have extra space now!

 Under the kitchen sink.  I am loving this containerize concept!  It truly makes such a difference!

 My desk.....it is VERY small.  I hope to someday have a "real" desk but this works for now.  Not really a lot of room for clutter.

 The bathroom linen pantry.   We are fortunate to have a big closet in here but I have had a hard time getting it organized and utilizing it in the best way.  I am def getting there.  I still have to work on the very back part (which also has a small door that leads to our attic).  But the shelves are looking MUCH better!

 And, finally, this is the kitchen sink area.  My husband has always complained about this part of the kitchen.  I had med bottles, vitamins for the kids, and soap all up on the windowsill.  Plus hand soap and misc other stuff all behind the faucet.  So today I cleaned it all off and put things where they should go.  I added that little plate to the left to hold the hand soap, dish soap, and sink stoppers.  Then the rectangle plate on the left for our sugar and spoon for coffee.  It looks so much nicer and organized!

What do you all think?  Looks pretty good right?  I also did my junk drawer but I am still very unhappy with how it looks.  I will have to work on it again at some point.  As I do more areas I will keep you all updated!  Thanks for looking.  And if any of you have any good ideas or tips on how I can make something better...please let me know.  Thanks.