Good Morning, Cowboys and Cowgirls!

Hats off to you and your newly organized shoe collections, *|FNAME|*!

For those of you just joining us midway through our wild west themed 16-week scavenger hunt challenge, you can read more about it and catch up here.

I want to share with you some great ideas I received from readers about what they’re doing with items they’ve decided to get rid of. One of you had the great idea to donate your tap shoes to the local high school drama department–what a great way to give them new life!  Another brilliant repurposing idea that came in from the week when we conquered our bags was to give the excess plastic bags to a friend with pets so that the bags can be used for, shall we say, cleaning up after them?  Keep these great ideas coming!

Today we turn our attention to our hobbies. For today’s scavenger hunt, choose a hobby that has items that may be spread all over the home and could use some corralling.  What’s your hobby–exercise, knitting, scrapbooking, woodworking, cooking, painting, writing?

Saddle up, put 10 minutes on the clock, and Get Ready…Get set…GO!

1. Grab a bag or box and lasso all the hobby-related items in your home. 

2. Spread out the whole kit-and-caboodle. If your collection is large and has many components, like scrapbooking materials, or recipes for baking, sort into categories. 

3. Take a look at these piles and notice what’s accumulated.  What is unnecessarily building up?  Are all of these items serving a specific purpose, and actively contributing to your hobby?  Ask yourself which items you’ll realistically use and donate or toss anything that is broken, irrelevant, or you no longer have a use for.  

4. For the remaining items, make it easy on yourself to find what you need when you need it next.  Designate a station where your all the items for this hobby will be kept, one central location where they can be easily stored and accessed. Be sure that your system is intentional–put the items near the area where you’ll use them.  For example, I’ve for this exercise, I gathered all my running accessories, put them in a little box, which I’ve nestled in the dresser drawers with my workout clothing, seen below.       

Time’s Up!  Kick off your boots and congratulate yourself on completing your eleventh challenge!

Happy Trails and Happy Organizing!