Cleaning the Top of My Desk - 21 Days Get Organized Challenge #2

I'm trying to kind of catch up with the others doing the 21 Days to Get Organized Challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons. Toni who runs that blog is so well organized and her house is so clean, it's inspiring.  I'm just plain sick and tired of living in a dirty cluttered house...

So, here's Challenge #2 Top of the Computer Desk:

My Before pic:

This is after I scrubbed down the top.

I have no idea what that surface is made out of, but I love my old library desk.  Since I had just cleared off my desk earlier this week when I was inspired to do Toni's Mobile Command Center project,...

my desk top wasn't terribly cluttered, but I did have a small basket I used for bills we really needed to get paid off soon (all that debt I keep saying we're going to get out of this year.) I keep these separate from the monthly expense bills like electric, water etc which go in the "Bills to Pay" folder in the bigger basket. It kind of helps me to physically sort them like I do mentally I guess. Anyway, I knew there were duplicate bills... some creditors can be very persistent, you know?  So, I went through that basket, tossed dupes and wrote the total amount owed on the front of the envelope and then sorted the envelopes in order of balance lowest to highest. I can't wait to get rid of at least half of them very soon!  YAY!

ANYWAY... my desk...  so it was cleaned off and bills culled down. So, I started putting stuff back on my desk, and as I went to put my Home Management Binder behind my monitor again, I realized it was way to inconvenient keeping it back there, and I had room to put it front and center since I use it constantly. So it moved to right next to my monitor.

I don't remember if I ever blogged about my Home Management Binder, but I've been using it for about 2 years now and it's changed a lot over that time.  Before I had it, I had a Flylady Control Journal.  This is based on a mixture of the FL Control Journal and a Home Management Binder that I saw on a woman's blog back when we first moved here. Her blog is not around anymore. Anyway, I guess it kind of fits into this post since it is where I organize a lot of stuff... maybe not paper clips and rubber bands, but my budget, routines, contacts, emergency information, cleaning tips, recipes, menus, etc.  I'll blog about just the binder some day soon.

So, here's the finished desk! I even redid the papers on the magnetic board above the desk, so they don't look so scraggly.

It's so nice to have a clean desktop. It even shines! Love it!

Will try to get to Challenge #3 when I get up later today.  Meanwhile y'all head over to A Bowl Full of Lemons and check out the challenges and the other people participating. It's a lot of fun!