Out with the old...

If you went through the 34 weeks of Clean with us last year, inspired and hosted by my dear friend Michele over at Family, Faith and Fridays, you'll remember that the goal is to do one deep cleaning and purging task per week. By Fall of each year your home will have gone through a total overhaul. It really helped us get a handle on the mess that had accumulated in the corners.

Well, we went through and did almost every week's tasks last year, except there were a couple that got pushed aside ~ because life happens!

I've been going through the list and planning to clean and/or purge those 34 areas again this year. It is so much easier to live in your house when you feel like you own it, instead of it owning you! As I looked through the list, I was reminded of one task that got stalled along life's way that I wanted to revisit now, and not wait until later to complete.

If you look at the top left picture above, you'll see my old address book (week 31 of 34 in Michele's list.) You'll notice all of the envelopes hanging out the sides, and a page with no names. Yeah. I chose this page to protect our innocent friends and family, those who might still think I keep my desk organized (more on that in a later post!)

This is the address book I purchased the year Kurt and I got married. It's more than 20 years old. The only thing I think I did right with this one was to write in pencil instead of ink. For the other things I should have done, like update the addresses when the Christmas cards came each year, or remove family names when someone died...Let's just say I've been remiss in keeping it organized for the past 10 years or so ~ thus the plethora of loose envelopes!

I wanted to keep up with the 34 weeks of cleaning, but I needed to be frugal. Looking at the new address books at the big box stores last Fall, I found them rather pricey (for anything cute,) and I knew that while most people keep that information on their phone or computer, I still wanted a written copy for myself. The girls and I were at the local Christian bookstore browsing, and I noticed this cute address book on the clearance table. It was under $4 ~ right in my price range!

I wish I could tell you that everything has been transferred over and the book is getting regular use as I write notes to friends and family...but that wouldn't be true. So far, I've gathered all those loose envelopes, plus, I took a photo on my phone of all the return address labels on this year's Christmas cards. I'm hoping by the middle of February to have it all set up and ready to go. A girl can have a dream right? I just need a quiet hour or two, surely I can find that int he next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I need to make sure the girls remember that the focus for the next week needs to be the kitchen cabinets and doors ~ week 3 of the 34 weeks list! If you're needing some inspiration to take back your house, and your sense of calm, click on the  Label link below to read all of our 34 weeks of cleaning w/ friends posts from 2015, or pop over and see all the posts and links at Michele's blog.

Go clean something, you'll thank yourself for it later!