The other day I was looking around my disgusting mess of a bedroom, trying to figure out where the heck to start the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge (if you’re unfamiliar, it’s basically spring cleaning with community support). That’s when it hit me. For someone who has so many organization and cleaning posts on her blog, I’m a pretty big slob.

I mean, I try. I do. Even if my husband disagrees. I just tend to get overwhelmed with life and prioritizing. Cleaning is generally the first thing that gets removed from ye olde list of must dos. But I am trying. Mostly because I just can’t handle the clutter anymore. It’s making me even more crazy and flustered and disorganized.

So I took a deep breath and I did it. I got something done. Like a boss.

We’re officially through the first week of January and I already feel myself slipping into overwhelmed mode. I’ve rattled off plenty of things that I’d like to accomplish now that we’ve been gifted this magical, new, seemingly unexpected clean slate of a year, but I’m suddenly feeling so much pressure that I’m not doing anything fast enough.

I need to chill out.

Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I the only one who constantly feels like she’s on some mad dash to a finish line that doesn’t truly exist—because, let’s face it. There will always be tasks added to the list. And they will always seem dire.

I need to put less pressure on myself. The world will not collapse if my to-do list is not complete. The universe will not cease to exist if every single one of my goals isn’t immediately realized.

No. I need to stop, take a deep breath and focus on one thing at a time. Today, that thing is our playroom. The reason? It’s driving me insane.

Ah, back-to-school season.

My daughter starts school on Monday and I’m not going to lie, it can’t come fast enough. Don’t get me wrong, I love that girl to death but she needs structure. She needs to have a schedule and to know exactly what will be happening and to be busy and surrounded by other kids. She’s pretty much bored out of her mind at this point and driving me completely insane.

Also driving me completely insane is my inability to get anything done without being interrupted 97 times and then grumped at because I still haven’t completed task one. I’m hoping that with school starting up, I’ll be able to start a fresh, clean slate.

Am I the only one who gets all New Years Resolution-y in September? I suddenly want all of the organization. I want to clean and declutter and get my act together. I want to get back on track.

It just so happens that I noticed a bunch of posts across the blogosphere (and Pinterest) that centered around three of the things I want to work on the most.

So we finally moved. It seems like it’s been hanging over our heads forever, but we’re finally in. And instead of struggling with the whole act of moving, we’ve moved onto struggling with how to make a much smaller living space work for us.

Right now my biggest foe is the bathroom. We’re currently trying to squeeze the contents of two bathrooms and a linen closet into one (decent sized) bathroom. This, my friends, is no easy task. You don’t realize how much crap you really own until you’re forced to squeeze it into an area that’s much smaller than what you’re used to.

So, of course, I used this as another excuse to hit up my beloved Pinterest. I won’t lie. A lot of what I found there were big, beautiful, expensive bathrooms that are not even close to our (nonexistent) budget. But there were some little gems that are actually attainable mixed in. (Click the photos for the sources)

Let’s be real, people. If you’ve read a handful of my posts, you know this momma is cheap. I don’t mean it in a bad, two dollar hooker kind of way. I just mean if I can save a buck (or ten) you better believe I will.

Luckily this works nicely with my desire to be nice to the world we live in. I mean, the whole reduce, reuse, recycle mantra should tell you straight off the bat that thriftiness is an eco-friendly lady’s best weapon.

Since Earth Day is next Monday, I thought I’d let my inner granola-crunching, tree-hugging hippie run wild and show off a few of my favorite eco-friendly organization tips.