21 Days to Organization: And all the rest!

So remember how I took that challenge and then slacked off at the end?  Well, now you get to reap the benefits.  Get ready for my super-sized organization post!  This will be fun!  Maybe.

Day 16: The Fridge.
Sooo..I was kind of dreading this.  I always hated cleaning the fridge during cleaning checks at BYU.  SO MUCH ROTTEN FOOD.  Also, this one time, I babysat for this lady and she paid me ten bucks an hour to watch her kids and clean her house.  (P.S. Her house was kind of scary--like borderline candidate for Hoarders...)  Anyways, I was there for probably 8 hours...and all I got through was the fridge.  Not because I was really slow, but because her fridge was a mess.  Stuff was spilled all over, food was going bad/unrecognizable, it stunk--and she blamed it all on her kids.  Um, yeah.  Let's get real here.  I vowed to never, ever have a fridge like that, but for some reason I always fear I will open my fridge and the Frigidaire of my nightmares will resurface.  Fortunately, this wasn't nearly as bad as any BYU/babysitting for Hoarders experiences.

Before.

Before.

After.

After.

*Note: You may have noticed that the food/quantities changed from the before and after pictures.  Apparently after I cleaned the fridge, I forgot to take a picture to document my handy work...so this is what my fridge looked like today.  And it's stayed pretty dang organized, if I do say so myself.
Quick run-down if you're interested:
My top shelf is where the water pitcher and lemonade pitcher go, mainly because that's the only shelf they fit on...also stored here are fruits and veggies for snacking, and lettuce that I have pre-washed, shredded, and portioned for salads for dinner.  I also like to chop up my celery sticks and stuff and baggie them ahead of time, so they're always ready to go for lunch or a snack.  It's a great system.  I also put leftovers up here, front and center so that we remember to eat them.
That top drawer is home to deli and breakfast meats, as well as all my cheese!  I have a lot of cheese and lots of different kinds.  Yum.
Middle shelf is for condiments that we use a lot, like salsa, sour cream, butter, mayo, feta cheese...and also tortillas!
Bottom shelf...this always varies, right now it has some leftover banana pudding that I probably  need to throw out, as well as some Pillsbury crescent roll and biscuit dough (they were on sale this week!).  I also like to defrost meat on this shelf, and usually I have a stash of water bottles down there, but I keep forgetting to restock.
The two bottom shelves are for fruits and veggies.  
The door always has milk, eggs, and butter for baking.  Plus lots of other stuff that I keep there so it doesn't clutter the shelves.

Day 17: The Mail.
Normally, I check the mail and throw it on the counter.  And it could sit there for just a few minutes or a few days before I remember to go through it.

So I made this handy-dandy (but maybe not so pretty) mail organizer.  It used to be a Lucky Charms box.  It would probably be a lot prettier if I had used fancy scrapbook paper instead construction paper from the dollar store.  Oh well.  Found the tutorial via this pin.

Day 18: Keepsakes.
Oh my word, this took me forever.  I can be a little sentimental, and going through all these made me reminisce over all those good ol' days in college.

This is the other half of the baby's closet...where I store all my crafty supplies and memories from yesteryear.

Here are some fun things I found and maybe threw away because really, you have to draw the line somewhere.

I had a creepy obsession with Oliver James.  These were plastered on my wall in high school.

This is just fantastic.

I had an even creepier obsession with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.

Because who doesn't have a poster of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team??

A cute note my sister stuck in a book for me to find. (I kept this).

Some artwork by my friend Benjamin Wright.  The first is Captain Moroni, and the second drawing is of our Book of Mormon teacher in her true mummy form attacking me while Ben cowers behind a rock.  Also, those are the exact clothes we were wearing that day.  He was a talented, if irreverent kid, no?  (I kept these, too.)

This is a drawing my other talented friend, Lisa made for me and Dan when we were dating.  (I also kept this, my dearest Babooshka.  Don't you fret!)  I have several other lovely drawings by her fair hand as well.

After going through all these, I have decided to institute Flashback Fridays on this blog, because I have too many awesome stories, mementos, and pictures wasting away in boxes.  So stay tuned for next Friday's post.  It'll be great.
Oh yeah, and here's the product of all my hard work:

Day 19: Master Closet
This is basically me hiding all my pre-pregnancy clothes from my sight because it just makes me sad that I can't wear them anymore.

Before.

I don't know if you can really tell, but my closet extends really far behind the wall.  That's where I hid all the clothes I can't fit into at the moment.

Before, other side.  All the shirts folded on that top shelf...I don't fit into those.

And that's what fits me right now.

This is basically the same, except the shirts that don't fit are boxed up and hidden on the other side.

Day 20: Photos.
Here's the thing.  My photos are pretty well organized on my computer.  I'm actually slightly OCD about making sure all my photos have a home in a folder that will help me identify when and where the photo was taken.  Any photos I have printed up have a home in an album, scrapbook, or frame.  So instead I decided to tackle my stationary!  And yes, I do have enough stationary to make it worth my while to organize it.

With the exception of that white box, all of this has to do with snail mail.

This photo album contains some of my postcard collection.  I've been collecting these since I was a wee little lass.

Some of my stationary...not pictured is some sweet Lisa Frank stationary, that I've had since I was seven years old.

I managed to consolidate most of it in that big box.  I know, you're impressed.

So, who wants to be my pen pal so I can put all that goodness to use??

Day 21: You Pick!
I decided to go with our porch.  It was in a sad state of affairs.

It just needed a little lovin'.

 Those boxes contained my gardening supplies.  If you've been following me for awhile, you know that my attempts at gardening have been less than satisfactory.  I've been plagued by bunnies, gophers, lack of sun, and incompetence.  Well, I'm turning a new leaf! (Get it??????)  And I'm also hoping to get some basil out of this.

How sweet! It's a garden!  And not ugly boxes!  Also, I swept that dirty, nasty floor!

If you made it to the end of this post and read and admired every word and picture, then we must be true friends.  Maybe even kindred spirits.  And I like you.  If not, I still like you, and totally understand.  This post was ridiculous.