I too decided this was the year to "get it together". I've let it slide far too long :( When I had my second son almost 6 years ago, life seemed to turn upside down. He had a double hernia operation at 4 months old so not sure if it contributed but he was extremely miserable for the first 4 months of life and he grew into a toddler with a very difficult personality (he's SO much better now). My personality wasn't able to cope very well with it. At some point during the difficult toddler years, we finished our basement. Everything that was down there had to come upstairs very quickly. Some of them boxes that hadn't been opened since we moved here several years prior. I'm sure I fell into some kind of depression. What I learned from Hoarders is that I think we do develop a sort of "clutter blindness". It's how we can survive living with stuff everywhere. I'm certainly not a level "5" or anything but I had stuff piled up in places and I was able to just live around it (like it didn't exsist). I also came to realize I hadn't thrown anything away in my many years. I still had stuff from when I was a teenager. I used to work in the beauty business and had SO much stuff I had acquired for free that wasn't being used. We started a couple years ago with a huge garage sale (sold $1,000). I had another one last spring (sold $500) but I still had stuff everywhere in certain spots. I'm keeping only certain things from my kids for the future. Who even knows if they'll need them? I kept a few special books and some special toys (like Playmobil) and that's it. I've stored them properly away and we'll see what happens with them. We save artwork for a year and then we go through it and pick only a special few pieces which I then store in special boxes I created for them. Like this one: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2010/11/school-paperwork-storage.html My Mom and I made a pact that this year we were going to get organized and help each other achieve it. That's been the best decision ever! It's so much better doing these projects with help. An outside eye that can help you make decisions and move forward. We tackled my lower landing which had become a catch all for stuff and my basement laundry room. My laundry room was new as part of our basement refinish and it's very large. It has a huge table in the middle on castors (ala Martha Stewart) and the kids and I can do crafts here, I wrap gifts here and fold laundry. It too had "caught" stuff and wasn't being utilized as I had intended. Anywho ... two full days of purging and cleaning ... one car load of stuff taken away to charity ... and they both look wonderful! I still have a few items in the laundry room that have significant value so I'm taking them to consignment this week and I have some laundry to work through. When we built the room, I had it wired for a wall mount tv so I'm finally going to get that set up. I'm excited about the possibilities now! I lie in bed at night thinking of what the next project will be. I have hope that finally this house will get in order. I think I may take your advice and hire a cleaning lady to keep things clean while I focus on getting things in order. Even if I just do it for this year, I think it would help a lot. I'm excited for my kids. I want them to grow up in organization and know how to do it for themselves when the time comes. I really think for some (like me) it's a skill you need to learn. It doesn't come naturally. I'll keep checking in to see how you're doing as I keep forging forward myself. My next project is at my mom's house. We are tackling her kitchen. She's already been out and bought some Oxo containers for her pantry and some other handy organizing pieces. We're going to whip her kitchen into shape! Best of luck! Looking forward to hearing how you accomplish your goals.

Just finished Lucy Foley's The Guest List. I don't usually read or enjoy thrillers, so thriller fans might want to ignore my comments. I thought it seemed pretty unoriginal, and some of the scenes were a bit of a stretch. For example, when a male character is confronted by a female character outdoors on a dark, stormy night, he complains that she is shining her phone flashlight in his face so that she can see him, but he can't see her. Umm... we know from the previous paragraph that he also has his phone out with flashlight engaged, so what's the problem, really? Anyway, this is a book club selection and I don't know quite what we will discuss except details like these. I could be wrong....

Hi all. . . thought I'd stop and say hi--I'm hoping we can get to Webbers Falls this year. Gardening has come to nearly a full stop, though I'll grow some peppers and herbs and onions. Love the peppers! I saw in an earlier post that you wanted to grow Sugar Rush Peach peppers, Jennifer? I'm sure I'll have extra plants and should have plenty of seeds. The rest of my time this spring will be in trying to clean up the existing beds! And that could be a full-time job. Although I'm feeling pretty good physically now (after a few years with the bad hip, it's good as new), GDW is in bad shape with his knees. Geez, if it's not one thing, it's another. All around us--Tulsa, Wagoner, Tahlequa--were talking about the earthquake--we were both up--our critters weren't acting up, and we didn't feel a thing. Weird. My own guess, flawed as it may be, is that it's because our place is pretty much solid rock. . . (haha, you know, build your house upon a rock!)

GGal - we are at the age that we try to use the hand truck for as much as possible. We buy bagged mulch every year instead of leaving a pile of it in the driveway. We do have a van, so I don’t know if that makes it easier to get the bags out of the car, lower to the ground? My husband has gotten good at rolling the bags out onto the truck without breaking them. [g] We try to keep up with lifting things, you know, use it or lose it, but, we know our limits and we’ve had enough back problems in the family to be very careful. We would also have 3 steps to get up and instead of using the hand truck, we’d just opt for carrying something together if it were going in or out of the house. Another way to do it is to put the bag on something like a large towel and drag it. Once you get it up the stairs. Sometimes I’ll just buy in smaller bags. I would think that video would be pretty funny. [g] Stock tanks? Are we talking about the aluminum round ones that are used for watering cattle?