Dear Mother's 111

I inherited my clutterbugness.  As the Man says, I get it honest.  The Dad is a collector in the truest sense (every issue of National Geographic published between the 70's-90's sits proudly on his bookcase, right below his glass power line covers--or whatever they're called).  He loves anything unique or antique or really anything that has potential to end in a -que.  I believe that he could find a rarely made, mint condition car part just by looking in the general direction of a junkyard.  The Dad loves his bargains and I attribute my affinity for thrift stores and yardsales to him. We both get so excited talking about an awesome B1G1 at the grocery store and he's always got an eagle eye open to find me a good coupon.  There's just something so thrilling about "the hunt."

Sweet grandmother

My Sweet grandmother (not to compare to my Sassy Grandmother on my Mom's side) was so thrifty.  She would use every last bit of something, washing alumnium foil and reusing cling wrap until it couldn't cling anymore.  It's from her that I got my stockpiling nature.

Sassy Grandmother

From my Sassy Grandmother, I got my love of shopping.  She's also a thrifty one-- but nothing lures her in like a SALE!  I think she could spend all afternoon in a thrift store and the Dollar Tree if given the chance (and she felt up to it.) 

Aside from the shopping, sales and stockpiling-- one of my main issues is stacking and sorting.  I attribute my stacks of things and baskets of stuff and labeled bins for EVERYTHING to Dear Mother. 

She's a listmaker, like me and we both find solace in our lists, post-its and calendars, no matter how scattered they may be.  However, piles and baskets and bins-- if not tended to properly can quickly manifest into something much worse.  Organized chaos.

Part of the 111 in 1/11 challenge is to make room for organization.  What good is a basket or bin if you don't have room for it?  How helpful are those post-its and labels if you can't see them under that stack of papers?

During Dear Mother's surgery and recovery this past May, I kept myself busy with cleaning out her hall closet.  We made a ton of progress, but things have been at a bit of a stalemate since then.  Dear Mother is always so much happier with a clean house (just like me) and this is why I am so proud of her for accepting the challenge of purging 111 things this month. 

Check out her progress so far:

The starting point for the tupperware cabinet-- the hardest one for me to keep tidy too!

In her own words: "I got aggravated with the plastic containers tonight while putting away groceries and decided that tonight was the night to throw away lids that did not have containers and containers that didn’t have lids and some lidded containers that just needed to be thrown away."

This looks so good!  She's already hit 28 of her 111, but she had one more thing to tackle for this week. 

What is it about Southern women and keeping grocery bags?  If you ever come over to our house, I can't help to offer you a bag to carry your leftovers home in.  I swear, it's genetic!  I used to make fun of both Grandmothers doing it, and now I do it too!

Dear Mother is known for stockpiling grocery bags and simply stashing them in an awkward cabinet in the kitchen.  They're difficult to get to, and the last time I cleaned it out there were over 100 bags back there.  Thankfully she's counting this stash as just 1 item, so I don't have too much catching up to do.

I can't wait to see the rest of her after pics!  It's amazing how refreshing it can be to just tackle one small area in your home. 

Speaking of which, I should get back to work!