30 Days of De-Cluttering - Day 1

So we are living in an apartment right now and going through the forever process of purchasing a house and land.  I've decided that before we move and before I begin to seriously pack I would like to de-clutter  my problem areas around the apartment.  As you know there are certain spots in your home that seem to be magnets for stuff, especially when you need to do a stash and dash because company is coming over. I thought rather than have one big marathon de-cluttering day or even week, I'm going to break up my de-cluttering into thirty days.  Now these may not be 30 consecutive days, but 30 days non the less.
So the areas I have decided tackle are:

1.  Master bath medicine cabinet                    2.  Paper stack on paper
3.  My closet shelf                                          4.  Box on top of our amiore
5.  Babys' closet shelf                                     6.  My bathroom cabinet & drawer
7.  Box 1 on top of my dresser                       8.  The dining table and black bag
9.  Entertainment center drawers                    10.  My dresser drawers
11.Box 2 on top of my dresser                       12.  My nightstand drawers
13.Tupperware container in pantry                 14.  Wicker Chest
15.Spice basket                                             16.  Under kitchen sink
17.Above pantry cabinet                                18.  Dress-up box
19.Barbie box                                                20.  Top shelf in hall closet
21.Middle shelf in hall closet                           22.  Bottom shelf in hall closet
23.Extra closet in my bedroom                       24.  Girls' book shelves
25.Toy box 1 - Cayleen                                 26.  Toy box 2 - Cayleen
27.Under my bed                                           28.  Cull my clothes
29.Top of amoire                                           30.  Paperwork in closet

Because it is my goal to get rid of some stuff I'm going to have to make it my goal to donate stuff on a weekly basis so I don't have a bunch of stuff hanging around the house that will some how magically make it back into some spot I have already uncluttered.

Day 1

My catch all table and the black bag

 The first area to de-clutter was the table because having stuff piled up on it has put a kink in our nightly dinner plans.  It is easier to sit the girls around the mess and to sit in the living room to eat my food.  Terrible habit we have gotten into so it was the first to tackle.  On the table we have obviously laundry baskets (some things are really hard to find homes for in apartments with limited space), library books, school paperwork, ziploc baggies, and the dreaded black bag I brought home from school.  More paperwork, dishes, and other odds and ends are in this bag.

Reclaimed Table

Ta da!!!!! Now we have no excuse to not eat together at the table.  I put away everything in the dreaded black bag, which was a little challenging and then designated it our official library book bag for the summer.  Hopefully that will limit stray books all over the house when it is time to return them.  Isn't my table nice when you can see the whole thing?

Designated book bag