I’m going to run through the final week and a half of the challenge and then talk about how well it has worked for me overall.

Day 22: Edit shoes

I used to be a shoe fiend. Shoes were my thing. The more unique, the better. At my peak I think I owned about 50 pairs of shoes. I still enjoy cute shoes, but my habits have changed a bit since becoming a mom and giving up my full-time job. I realized that I had a lot of shoes lingering in my closet that I never wore anymore. I used to wear heels as much as possible, but now I rarely do. Most of them were easy to toss–I hadn’t paid much for them, and they weren’t my style anymore. A pair of brown leather heels was a bit tougher to let go. I remember having searched for months for just the right pair of shoes for work, and I finally found them. But even if I had a place to wear them now, I’m quite sure I’d break my neck! So, into the shoe pile they went for somebody else to enjoy. Now I have plenty of room in my closet to stock up on cute ballet flats.

Day 23: Toss 5 items of clothing I haven’t worn in a year

It’s funny that even though I shop very little for myself, I always seem to have too many clothes. I have a terrible habit of  hanging on to things for purely sentimental reasons. I kept a favorite sweater from my junior year in high school for ten years! I also receive a lot of high quality hand-me-downs from a relative, which I am tremendously grateful for, but I have a difficult time letting go of nice clothing that I know I couldn’t afford to replace (whether it looks good on me, or not). Therefore, I found quite a large selection of clothes to give to charity…and I fear I have even more where these came from!

Day 24: Declutter and dust bedside tables

Since I embarked on a little room redesign recently, I didn’t actually have a bedside table at the time I was to complete this part of the challenge. Instead, I decluttered and cleaned the top of my dresser which now resides at the foot of my bed.

Day 25: Make a loose change jar

Buttoned Up had some cute ideas for creating custom change jars by applying chalkboard decals to clear jars. I may do that in the future, but for now I decided to repurpose a piece of my milk glass collection to catch loose change. I don’t expect it to fill up very quickly–since we use a credit card to manage our expenses, I don’t end up with very many coins, but perhaps that will change in the future. It’s still nice having a central location for our change. It brings up good memories from my childhood–one year we all saved up spare change to fund a trip to Disney World! My parents have some cute photos of us sorting through all the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters poured out on our kitchen table.

Day 26: Organize underwear drawer

My underwear drawer is something I tackled last year, and it has stayed pretty neat ever since. I got rid of anything that was ugly or holey and invested in some new skivvies for myself. One of my favorite housekeeping books, The Messies Manual, actually links nice underwear to feeling good about oneself and being more motivated to keep a clean house. If you let yourself go, your home will follow suit. I can’t believe I’m posting a photo of my “unmentionables” (however nonscandalous) on the world wide web, but here’s my neat drawer.

Day 27: Clean underneath the bed

Thanks to our room rearrangement project, under-the-bed was tackled a few days before I had to do it. After I gave birth to my son, I invested in some rolling bins that slide under the bed and hold all of my maternity clothes. I also have an extra that can hold seasonal clothing like heavy sweaters. The funny thing is, I lost a lot of weight after having my son, and I am now several sizes smaller than I was going into that pregnancy. Chances are my maternity clothing will be far too big when I need it again, but it cost a tremendous amount of money, so I’m hanging onto it for now “just in case”. The bins keep it conveniently out of the way, and they also prevent me from stuffing other random things under the bed. Dust bunnies and stray shoes are usually the worst of what I find under my bed these days.

Day 28: Toss outdated makeup

My makeup drawer was yet another organizational project that I had tackled previously, and it has worked pretty well since. I use plastic baskets to separate out my makeup products. One holds my brushes, tweezers and nail clippers, the next holds face products like foundation and blush, and the third contains lip products, eyeliner and mascara. The empty space to the right of the baskets perfectly accommodates hair accessories, my face cleaner and my electric shaver. I hope to minimalize my products further (I found The Minimalist Mom to have some great tips in that regard), but for now this works really well. I did find some older mascara and eyeliner that needed to be tossed.

Day 29: Organize hair accessories

I’m not big on hair accessories, so I really didn’t have much to organize or get rid of. Instead I focused on a chronic problem: my flat iron. I haven’t had a great place for it, so most of the time it sits out on the bathroom vanity, threatening to take another plunge into the toilet (do I never learn?). I had an entire drawer that was taken up with two old flat irons that didn’t work any more. Why was I hanging onto them? Because I didn’t want to toss them in the trash. Now my city has an electronics recycling/disposal program, so there is really no excuse. I took them out of the drawer and now have a place for the flat iron I actually use, along with the heat-proof pad it sits on.

Day 30: Get rid of old medications

I use a cookie jar to contain my medications out of reach of my son (bonus: the air-tight lid would be difficult for him to open). It’s also a prettier and neater way of storing them. Hopefully the Italian will detract him from exploring the contents when he’s older and knows how to read. Fortunately I didn’t have any prescriptions that needed to be tossed in a specific way, but I did find some outdated vitamins.

Day 31: Declutter one side of desk in five minutes

For the final day of the challenge, we came full circle to one of the first, and toughest, tasks: decluttering the desk. My desk looked to be in bad shape, as I lamented in Week 3, but I suspected it would be easier to clean up than last time, and I was right! It took me more than five minutes (partly because I cleaned the whole desk), but in less than half an hour my desk looked great again. I was so pleased!

What has worked, what hasn’t (yet)

My personal habits have been years in the making, so it would be impossible to expect a challenge like this to change things virtually overnight. Some of the tips have really “stuck”, and have taken little effort to keep up. My favorites:

1. The organized dish cupboard and baking sheet storage from Week 2

2. Sorting mail immediately (Week 1) –I have done a great job opening and sorting my mail as soon as it comes in.

3. My re-organized pantry cupboard from Week 3 has been easy to stick with

Some of the tasks will take a bit more practice and discipline on my part to become habit-forming:

1. Putting clothes away. As I mentioned in Week 3, my schedule is problematic. If I wait until I’m dead tired, I’ll never have the energy to be neat. My rearranged bedroom is helping, though.

2. Keeping my desk tidy. Being pulled in many different directions both mentally and physically means that things pile up on my desk. I have made strides, and it’s much easier to clean than it was in the past, but I can do better. I need to remember to set aside a little chunk of time each week to clean off my desk.

3. Keeping kitchen counters clear. Again, I need to be a little bit more focused and set aside time each week to clean up and make sure the clutter doesn’t get out of control. This long flat surface has been a catch-all, and it interferes with my productivity in the kitchen.

Overall I am so proud that I managed to see this project through! Like many people, I am a project-starter but not always a finisher. I credit the accountability aspect for helping me. Once I was a couple weeks in, I couldn’t bear to give up, no matter how tempting it was at times. I would like to thank Sarah from Buttoned Up for her hard work organizing this challenge and for her encouragement along the way. Congratulations to all the other ladies who successfully completed this, and thank you to all of my wonderful readers who commiserated and cheered me on!

If you’d like to review the whole challenge, use the links below to my past posts:

Week One
Week Two
Week Three 

I do like J.C. Penney and have enjoyed many quality purchases from their stores over the years, but I also know that the most amazing deals (which mean little or no profit for the company) are not sustainable on a year-round basis. If a store can offer 40% off all the time, their regular prices were too high to begin with. I envisioned J.C. Penney joining the ranks of other seedy retailers who advertise false “regular” prices in order to snag customers with supposed discounts off prices that were never a reality.

Thankfully, after looking into this further, it would seem that J.C. Penney’s new CEO (and former Apple executive) Ron Johnson is on the same page as customers who are tired of being duped. “Customers will not pay literally a penny more than the true value of the product,” he told the Associated Press. When you look at the math, the new approach makes a lot of sense. An article in The Wall Street Journal explains:

“At Penney, the regular price on an item that costs $10 to make rose 43 percent, from $28 in 2002 to $40 in 2011. But because of all of its sales and other promotions, what it actually ended up selling for rose only 15 cents, from $15.80 to $15.95 during that same period.”

Image courtesy of JCPenney

JCPenney is cutting to the chase, offering their products at the prices that most customers are willing to pay. Ron Johnson understands that advertising gimmicks cheapen the brand and inspire skepticism. What reputable company really wants to use the same tactics as cheesy infomercials that say tacky dollar-store quality gadgets are worth $19.99 (but wait, we’ll give you three!)?  J.C. Penney won’t nix sales altogether, though. Some items will be featured with even lower prices as “month-long values” and lagging inventory will be marked down for clearance on the first and third Fridays of every month (intended to coincide with payday). I can imagine how this new strategy will simplify store operations and perhaps even save money: fewer ads and mailers, less signage for employees to put up and take down, etc. It sounds like a win-win.

Image courtesy of JCPenney

I like the description of the new price tags, which feature even numbers like $15 instead of $14.99, and utilize different pricetag colors to communicate discounts rather than stacked stickers. I haven’t seen the new price tags, but I hope that the “regular price” labels show only the selling price, and not a mythical crossed-out “suggested price”. I also hope that they maintain the same level of quality despite the lower prices.

Will the new J.C.Penney change my shopping habits? Probably not much. I will still avoid spending money on things I don’t really need and will probably hold out for clearance bargains. However, it’s nice to know that if I do need a new outfit or a gift for someone, I won’t need to plan my shopping trip around specific sale dates, or feel like crying when I realize I’ve left a $10 off coupon at home in the frenzy of trying to pack my son into the car (as happened during last year’s Christmas shopping).

This is the kind of straightforward, honest advertising that I would like to see from all retailers. This encourages consumers to shop for good products, not just good discounts. Kudos to JCPenney for trying something new, and I hope it works for them.

UPDATE 2/4/2012:

Of course I had to check out the new JC Penney for myself as soon as I had the opportunity. Mr. Boy and I headed to the mall yesterday and I found lots of “Best Price” (clearance) racks to peruse. Some prices were outstanding, others were “meh”, but I was very happy to find that there was no scammy advertising to be found. The old retail prices of the items were either covered up with the new price sticker, or removed from the tag altogether. Some of the clearance items had lingering discount stickers, and in all cases the new “best price” was a big improvement over the former sale price. I picked up a St. John’s Bay marl sweater for just $9. An old sticker indicated that it had been $19.99 at 60% off the regular price. I felt that $9 was certainly a bargain for my nice sweater, but a $44 regular price? No way. I’m so glad they decided to change that ridiculous pricing.

I browsed some of the “everyday price” racks and found the new pricing scheme to be very reasonable. Since I’m accustomed to shopping clearance racks, some of the prices were still a bit on the high side for me, but like I said before, it’s nice to know I can find quality clothing that won’t break the bank if I do need to buy something specific.

What do you think of the “new” JCPenney?

When it comes to housekeeping, I am someone who really needs things to be convenient in order to maintain good habits. I like things to be where I will use them, and if it takes a great deal of effort just to start a task, it’s harder for me to get into gear and just do it. Of course I won’t always be able to have my way–I can’t change the fact that I need to walk up and down two flights of stairs to do my laundry, for example. In the case of my “master” bedroom, though, I found that a few tweaks could make it work a lot better for me.

Our bedroom has had the same furniture layout since we moved into our home in 2006. The bed and the large mirrored dresser (which I use) were placed in the only locations that they seemed able to fit. The bedroom has a tricky floorplan with three closet doors, a dormer, a wall with a window, and a wall with a nook. There is only one relatively uninterrupted wall. The overall dimensions are 12′-5″ x 8′-8″. My husband and I loved the smallness of it at first–it was ours, not a rented apartment, and it felt like a cozy little cocoon. But eventually the layout was just frustrating! The furniture felt less arranged than packed wherever it could fit. Take a look:

The pink dots represent the paths I would need to take to access my dresser and my closet. You can see from the door swing that one of my closet doors could only open a bit before bumping into the bed–there was only 16 inches of space between the wall and the foot of the bed. It wasn’t much easier accessing the dresser drawers with little space between the dresser and the bed. What a pain!

I had often thought that “if only” that pesky window wasn’t on the shorter wall, I could put the bed over there instead. But then what would I do with the large mirrored dresser? It wouldn’t fit next to the bed. I supposed I could get rid of it if I really wanted to, but I hated to break up the bedroom set. I got out my measuring tape and decided that if the dimensions would otherwise work out, I would move the bed, then figure out later how to deal with the window and the dresser. Here’s what I came up with:

My husband was a bit doubtful at first, but after I explained the plan he was excited to give it a try and he helped me move everything last weekend. The mirror on my dresser was removable, so we took it out, and moved the dresser to the foot of the bed. I don’t miss the mirror. Though you would think a nice large mirror is just the thing to make a small room seem larger, I found that instead it highlighted all of the furniture packed into our little space, and made it seem doubly packed. With the new layout, there is a space of 16 inches between the wall and the left side of the bed, a bit tight, perhaps, but plenty of space for me to access my side. On the other side of the bed where the closet doors open up, I was able to snag a few more inches, making a total clearance of 24 inches compared to the 16 I had before! My closet door can open a lot wider, making it so much easier to access, and my husband’s closet door still opens up all the way.

You can see from the new path that all of my clothing is centrally located, making it a lot more convenient to pick out and put away. My husband still has a bit of a hike from his dresser to his closet, but he’s more naturally neat than I, so it isn’t a problem for him. Overall, the room feels much larger, because we can view the full length of the room from bed rather than a wall nearly at our feet.

Now what about that pesky window? An asymmetrical wall behind a bed is definitely not the ideal situation. I sketched up a couple possible solutions to deal with this.

1) Use a grouping of framed photographs to balance out the window

or

2) Install curtains over the majority of the wall, creating an illusion of symmetry

My husband and I have already decided on the solution we like best, and I have set to work doing some minor redecorating which I will share with you as soon as everything is in place. Which would you pick?

During Week 3 I completed two more tasks in the kitchen, then moved on to my bedroom to tackle some clothing issues.

Day 15: Organize pantry cupboard

I have one cupboard dedicated to pantry items like canned vegetables and soup, pasta, cereal and more. This is a project I first tackled several months ago, and my husband installed a sturdy wood shelf to replace the old sagging shelf like the one I mentioned last week. In general the pantry cupboard has worked quite well, but occasionally my son’s “helpfulness” or my being in a hurry have meant that things end up not exactly where they belong. After this task everything was back as it should be and I can easily see what I have in stock so I don’t waste money at the grocery store. Being organized saves!

Day 16: Rid freezer of old food

We are generally very good about keeping our freezer stocked only with items that we will use in their entirety, so we rarely have anything to throw out. I did find an empty box in there, though! With a side-by-side, we don’t have a lot of space to work with, so my freezer stash is usually limited to bread, meats, frozen vegetables and occasionally a treat like ice cream.

Day 17: Remove wire hangers from closet

I don’t have any of my clothing dry cleaned, so fortunately I didn’t have any pesky wire hangers cluttering up my closets. Hangers are something I was already very picky about–I will only use white hangers in my closet to bring a little uniformity to my mish-mash of colorful clothing.

Day 18: Toss plastic dry cleaning bags

Again, since I don’t dry clean, I didn’t have plastic bags to deal with in my closet. Buttoned Up mentioned that the plastic bags can trap harmful chemicals, and they’re hazardous for kids, so it’s definitely a good idea to toss them if you have any in your closet. Besides, it makes your closet look a lot less junky.

Day 19: Pick clothing up off the floor and put it away

Ugh. Yes, it’s pathetic, but this is one of the things I struggle with most. I have a beautiful bench in my hallway that is almost always under a pile of clean clothes, and often the things that I’ve worn end up on my bedroom floor or laid across my dresser instead of being put away where they belong. A big part of the problem is not having a good routine. I stay up late at night and by the time I can get to bed I just want to crash. The extra couple of minutes it would take to put my things away properly just seem like too much to bear. Changing into my jammies earlier in the evening and putting my clothes away while I still have some energy is probably a good idea. Another important factor that I realized had been hindering me was the layout of my bedroom. My closet is on one side and my dresser is on the other. It’s not a large room, but getting to the dresser meant walking around the bed, and then there was little space to access the drawers. I think just about anyone would feel less inclined to keep neat under those circumstances. This task prompted me to take a second look at my room to see if there was any way it could be rearranged to work better…and there was! I can’t wait to share more about that in the near future. But for now, here’s a picture of my nice clean floor and neat closet after completing this task–it felt so good!

Day 20: Declutter belts

I didn’t find any belts that I don’t use, but they were scattered around in various places. A hook on the back of my closet door is a convenient place for them. I just need to be more disciplined about putting them there.

Day 21: Edit sweaters and sweatshirts

Even though I’m in the freezing cold northeast, I realized that there is such a thing as too many sweaters. I found a few that just don’t look that great on me that I will donate for someone else to use. This freed up some much-needed space in my dresser, so there is now room to put everything away properly.

A reflection

As I’ve been working my way through this challenge, I’ve been thinking about whether or not it has really been helping. And I realized something about myself as I was sitting at my computer during the week taking note of the accumulating clutter on my desk. I thought, “Ugh. Look at this! You spent all that time organizing, you told everyone how great it was, and you were going to keep it that way this time. And you haven’t. You’ve failed. Soon it will look just like it did before. This was just another one of your cleaning spurts, and nothing really changed. People will laugh at you.“

Have I mentioned I’m my own worst enemy? My train of thought should have been something more like this: “Uh oh, I’ve been really busy and the clutter is starting to pile up again. It looks worse than it is, though, and I did such a great job organizing that I know it will only take a few minutes to clean up. I’ll make sure to take care of it today so it doesn’t get any worse.”

I can clean with the best of them when I set my mind to it, but somehow I have believed that if I didn’t maintain that spotless house, it was a personal failure. Yes, even as a full-time mommy with a three-year-old under foot and a mind that is in several different places at any given time. Being so ridiculously critical of myself has led to feelings of exhaustion, overwhelming and futility. What’s the use in trying if I will be forever going back and taking care of the same messes? Will I ever make progress? Why bother?

But it will get easier. I will form habits and routines and find shortcuts along the way. In fact, I already have thanks to this challenge. If I stay on top of things, cleaning won’t be the exhausting project it has always seemed to be. I’m not perfect, and my desk isn’t like the picture I posted in Week 1, but I have been doing great with some things, like sorting the mail as soon as it comes in the house and throwing junk mail away. There is no junk on my desk right now–it’s all tax stuff and an incorrect bill that I’m trying to get sorted out. It’s not that bad.

If you’re like me, be gentle with yourself! Celebrate your little victories, and eventually you will be able to handle more and more with ease.

If you’d like to review the whole challenge, use the links below to my other posts:

Week One
Week Two
Week Four

Day 8: Set up a donation box in the kitchen

I love being able to find items that I am clearly not using and then put them in a box or bag to donate to charity. It feels so good knowing I’m making my house just a bit emptier and that somebody else may be able to use the items I don’t need anymore. After two weeks of decluttering and cleaning, my donation box is overflowing–I’m going to need a bigger one! I’ve found unused Christmas decor, vintage casserole dishes that are cute but not useful to me, and more. I hope having the box in the kitchen rather than the garage or basement will make it more convenient to use, and also remind me to finally take the items to the thrift shop rather than letting them linger in a dark corner somewhere.

Day 9: Organize baking sheets

This was the task I was most eager to complete. My baking sheets, casserole dishes and mixing bowls were previously stacked in precarious piles in a large cabinet with a single, sagging shelf. It seemed that what I wanted to use was always at the bottom of a pile, and there was a cacophony every time I tried to remove something from the cupboard. I hated it, but I couldn’t imagine a better way. Buttoned Up suggested a neat solution that I had never thought of before: using tension rods to create separators for organizing baking pans. Unfortunately  the idea couldn’t work in my cheaply made cabinets, but I found some alternatives. First, a metal baking sheet organizer that I found at Lowe’s for about $12, which I decided to place in a previously cluttered corner on my counter to free up space in the cabinet. It works out very well!

Second, I had a brainwave and realized that I could pull out the sagging shelf from my cupboard and replace it with my own shelving. I chose a 24 inch wide by 14 inch deep by 30 inch tall wire shelf that cost about $18 at Lowes. With three levels, it would allow me more surface area to neatly stack items inside the cupboard, so there would be no more teetering piles. Thankfully the shelf supports came in separate pieces, so I did not require a saw to trim down the 30 inch height and make the shelf fit within my cabinet. The shelf accommodated all of the dishes (after editing out non-essential items) and still allowed some room for the slow cooker and blender that had previously taken up precious space on the counter. I was so excited to complete this, and only wish I had thought of it sooner.

This is my cabinet before. It was bad:

And after:

Did you notice the lid storage on the cabinet door? I bought a metal mesh magazine holder from the office section at Walmart and had my husband screw it to the door. Perfect!

Day 10: Discard unused utensils

My silverware drawer was in pretty good shape, but my three drawers that I use for cooking and baking utensils contained all manner of unused odd-and-ends. The highlights included a broken garlic press (I always smash garlic with a knife anyway), a canning kit that was used once in 2005, a turkey baster used for one sawdust-like turkey, and a cake decorating kit with missing pieces and icing bags that didn’t look like I would want to use them again. I have a lot more space in the drawers now, which of course makes it easier to find the things I really need.

Day 11: Declutter drinking glasses

I had actually tackled this job long before I knew I would be doing this challenge, and it made a big difference. Thankfully it has been easy to keep organized. I discarded some old sippy cups that my son no longer uses, and neatened up the shelves.

Day 12: Donate unused small appliances

I have never been a big fan of countertop appliances. For one thing, I know I have a small kitchen and the counter space is precious. I also enjoy doing a lot of cooking tasks by hand. Still, I did remember a couple items that I hadn’t touched in years: a hand mixer that hadn’t seen the light of day since it was replaced by a KitchenAid stand mixer courtesy of my sister in 2007, and a mini chopper that was a pain to dig out from the cupboard and then clean after the fact–chopping by hand isn’t that much trouble.

Day 13: Organize spice cabinet

It had been a while since I had given my spice cabinet a good cleaning and discarded old spices and condiments. I found stacks of recipe printouts that hadn’t made it to the new shelf in the dining room. I found mostly empty and very old bottles of vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. I didn’t find any ancient herbs that needed tossing, but I arranged them in a better order to make them easier to find quickly when I’m in the middle of cooking. The funniest find was a half-used bottle of brandy, which my husband had used one year when he made a traditional English Christmas cake. I’m certain he’ll tease me for a while when he finds the now empty bottle among the recyclables (but I assure you the brandy went down the sink). Now what will I do with all this extra space?

Day 14: Donate unused flower vases

Scads of flower vases left over from beautiful floral arrangements are a problem I almost wish I had! I did find a couple stragglers in the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink. I also got rid of some scented candles that I can no longer use since we have pet birds.

My progress in the kitchen was very satisfying. The new shelf in the cabinet is working particularly well and there are no more deafening crashes when I am just trying to cook or bake. I think in the future I will expand upon the ways I have made my less than ideal little kitchen work better for me. I’m happy to report that the work I did during week one is still doing the trick–my desk isn’t perfect, but the clutter is under control, and I have been cleaning it up before it gets too out of hand. Next week the Challenge spends two more days in the kitchen and then it’s upstairs to take care of my clothes. Oh dear.

If you’d like to review the whole challenge, use the links below to my other posts:

Week One
Week Three
Week Four

My mother-in-law sent over a nice little book for my husband this past Christmas called The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding. Though I had made Yorkshire Puddings many times in the past, I hadn’t found a recipe that I was truly pleased with. I was optimistic that the recipe and tips in this very thorough little book would help me finally make good puddings that rose properly and had the right consistency.

And I was not disappointed.

I served these for dinner tonight with some braised beef, gravy and peas. My husband was a happy man!

You can buy special “popover pans” here in the U.S., but there is really no need. As the book mentions, you can use a regular muffin tin, or larger pans depending on the size and shape you want to achieve. I used a muffin top pan, which worked well (I adjusted the cooking time and the amount of oil used).

Here’s the recipe, adapted from The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding by Elaine Lemm

Yorkshire Puddings

This should yield at least a dozen in a regular muffin tin.

4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons cold water
Vegetable oil

Instructions:

Mix the eggs, milk and salt together until foamy (it is best to use an electric mixer). Allow the mixture to rest for about 10 minutes, until the bubbles dissolve. Slowly add the flour to the egg and milk mixture, mixing well until the consistency is smooth with no lumps. Allow to rest in a cool part of your kitchen (but not the refrigerator) for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil to the bottom of each muffin cup. Place the pan with oil in the oven and heat for about two minutes, until piping hot. Meanwhile, add two tablespoons of cold water to the pudding batter and mix well. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately fill each muffin cup 1/3 full with batter. Return to oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the puddings have risen to their full extent and have turned golden brown.

Note: The cooking time will vary with different types of pans (the ones I made tonight took only 10 minutes in the shallow muffin top pan I used). Also, feel free to experiment with flavoring the batter–though it’s probably not as authentic, I like to add pepper and herbs like sage or rosemary to mine.

It was nice that the book was so easy to adapt to American measurements and oven temperature, and it’s full of great serving ideas, like chili-filled puddings or caramel apple Yorkshire pudding (yum!). There’s even a gluten-free Yorkshire pudding recipe. It might be a bit difficult to procure this book in the States, but it’s definitely an interesting read if you want to learn more about traditional British cooking.

I was excited when I learned about an organizing challenge created by the wonderful ladies at Buttoned Up. They put together a calendar for January 2012 that assigns a specific task for each day. Participants committed to the challenge by opting in on the Buttoned Up Facebook page, which is where we also report on our progress daily. Most tasks require photographic evidence, which I have been posting on Twitter. There are prizes awarded weekly, but I think I speak for most participants when I say that the prizes aren’t the motivating factor. Instead, it’s the accountability and the camaraderie that is so helpful when working on issues that we struggle with.

Why participating in a “challenge” works for me

1. Motivation. Something about seeing these small tasks in writing laid out before me on a calendar makes them seem like something I can accomplish. At the end of October I suffered an awful arm injury that I am still recovering from. I was entirely out of commission for a few days, and it has been difficult getting back into the normal swing of things. Between my fear of the pain and mild depression due to finding myself suddenly unable to accomplish what I had been used to, nothing was getting done. These daily tasks have helped me jump back in to housework.

2. Pacing. Having a different goal for each day seemed like an overwhelming scenario at first, but I’m finding that it helps keep me on track in more ways than I expected. Rather than going out shopping for a lot of fancy organizational supplies (or, worse, giving up on my project when I can’t find what I need), I am learning to make do with what I already have as much as possible. I’m saving money and also de-cluttering my house by repurposing items that might not have had a function before. I have purchased a few new organizational items since starting the challenge, but I have decided that an equal number of things I already own will do the job even if they aren’t perfect. Speaking of perfect: trying to aspire to that word in all things has been debilitating for me. This challenge is helping me break away from that.

3. Accountability. Nobody is going to come knock my door down if I fail to stick with this challenge, but just knowing that there is someone, somewhere who cares that I am winning these little victories helps so much. It gives me a sense of satisfaction being able to report that I have accomplished my task for the day. Sarah from Buttoned Up has been working her tail off keeping up with participants and even checking in on us personally if she didn’t see an update. I also feel more compelled to keep things tidy once I have publicly posted a photo, essentially bragging about my work.

4. Accomplishment. I’ve printed out the calendar and each day after I’ve checked in with my progress, I cross off the day with a big, black marker. I am more relaxed and happy in the evening knowing that I’ve done something that day to work toward my goals and make my home nicer. I may not have completed one of my epic (and rare) cleaning endeavors that I was accustomed to, but I guess it’s the knowledge that even the relatively minor tasks will help me keep things tidy that helps me feel like I’ve tackled something much bigger.

I now have Week One under my belt, so I thought I’d recap what I have done each day so far (I apologize for the poor image quality–it’s more convenient for me to take a photo with my iPad and post directly to Twitter, but with low light the images are grainy–again, letting go of perfectionism in favor of accomplishment!).

Day 1: Writing down goals

I sat down at my computer and typed out a list of things I hope to accomplish in 2012. Buttoned Up made a nice form that I could have used, but for me it was easier to do my own thing. I made a bulleted list so I could cross items off. I described in detail how I can accomplish each item, and also decided on a reward for when I accomplish each goal. Some examples: Declutter the house (then purchase a nice decor item), Develop a cleaning routine (then enjoy guilt-free “me” time in the evening), Sell some unneeded items on eBay (then use the extra money to buy something from my household needs wishlist, like a new vacuum cleaner), Pay off our car loan early (then use the equivalent of one car payment to do something fun as a family).

Day 2: Get rid of junk mail

This was the toughest task so far, and I know other participants felt the same. My desk has been a catch-all where papers and other miscellany are placed when I think I want to give them a closer look, but then get sidetracked. It was really atrocious:

Though it wouldn’t have taken long to “neaten up” my desk contents, properly sorting things and putting away took hours. I got to a plateau where I just felt like I was never going to finish. Helped along by other kindred spirits who had posted their daunting messes on Facebook, I knew I wasn’t alone, and I pushed through. Fortunately I already had a filing system in place, so after some sorting, shredding and throwing away, I found that there wasn’t anything left over which didn’t have a home. I am determined to keep my desk looking like this:

Day 3: Set up a mail and key drop station

I already had places to put my mail and keys, so this task was an easy one. Remembering to use them will be more of a challenge. A piece of my milk glass collection that sits on the end table near our door has been a convenient place for my husband and I to stash keys and wallets as soon as we come in the door. Occasionally this table ends up cluttered with mail, so we need to work on that.

My mail drop has been more of a challenge. It fills to overflowing and I’m not good about reviewing the contents on a regular basis. I may or may not have discovered coupons that expired in March 2011 when I was emptying the box for this challenge. Since I receive and pay the vast majority of my bills electronically, I decided that a more specific mail solution wasn’t required for our house, but I did place a note on my inbox reminding me to review the contents and empty it every Wednesday.

Day 4: Place a recycle bin near the mail drop

This is another item that I already had in place, but I’ve been terrible about emptying it. I use a bin under my desk next to the shredder. From now on I’ll empty the bin on Wednesdays after I’m done looking through my mail drop.

Day 5: Teach family members to use the mail and key drop

My husband is great about using the key drop. I check the mail 99% of the time, so I joked that I gave myself a stern talking to. I’m going to schedule mail sorting on my Google Calendar until it becomes a habit.

Day 6: Take down lingering Christmas ornaments and decor

Our family keeps our Christmas tree up until Epiphany, so we hadn’t started to pack anything away. We spent the evening undecorating our Christmas tree, which was beginning to look like the one Charlie Brown picked out, and packed everything away in our big plastic storage bin that holds it all. I had hoped to finally splurge on the plastic ornament boxes (with round compartments for each decoration), but they were all sold out in the stores nearby. I settled on using our cardboard version which functions perfectly well, even if it’s not as nice a solution. Another victory point in my battle with perfectionism!

Day 7: Clear kitchen counters of paperwork

Our kitchen is nowhere near our front door, but papers have a way of migrating there. The counter is one of my worst places for clutter, with recipe print-outs, prescription notes, bags and the occasional pieces of mail that I picked up while I was also dragging groceries in the door. Last month I moved a shelf into the dining room, which is the perfect place for my recipe prints. I will also try to go paperless as much as possible by using my iPad to view online recipes in the kitchen. Other than that, I just need to exercise a bit more self-discipline and get into a clutter-clearing routine so that misplaced items don’t pile up the way they have been.

So, that’s Week One! Week Two will bring some changes that I am even more excited to share with you (I took advantage of the weekend and skipped ahead a bit).

If you’d like to review the whole challenge, use the links below to my other posts:

Week Two
Week Three
Week Four