The Organised Housewife » Tips, ideas, inspiration and motivation to help keep you and your household clean and organised

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Sep 25 2012

20 Days to Organise & Clean your home Challenge – Day 18

Category: Organising

It’s not too late to start!!  Subscribe to the challenge here.  Share your photos on instagram or twitter using #TOH20daychallenge.  Follow along with the discussion on facebook.

<< View the previous task

Please share your progress of the challenge below  

Handbag - Despite your handbag looking clean it’s more than likely quite dirty and germy.  Imagine the times you may have placed it on the floor while going to a public loo (please don’t do this, use the hooks behind the door), or when you put it on the floor under the table while having coffee with a friend.  Each time it’s on the floor you are picking up germs.  Then you may come home and put your bag on the bed, or the kitchen bench.  Are you squirming at the thought of this?  Grab some disinfectant wipes and wipe over the outside of your handbag. 

Inside of your handbag - Handbags quite easily get filled with receipts, kids toys, drink bottles, snacks and more.  Do you store way too many extra ‘things’ in your handbag?  Go through your handbag and remove any rubbish and items you no longer need.  Find more details here of what I keep in my handbag.

 I use a handbag organiser from bragbags Australia  to keep everything tidy and easily accessible

Date Night - Organise a night out with your loved one.  Rekindle your relationship, take time to communicate, It’s important to stay connected as at times our lives become busy and feel much like groundhog day.  Arrange a night you are both free and if needed get a babysitter in.  Have a night out child-free or work-talk free.  

Date night ideas:

  • Dinner out
  • Movies
  • Romantic dinner at home
  • Watch a video together under the same blanket on the couch
  • Go out for drinks
  • Walk along the beach
  • Picnic in the park or on the beach
  • Make dinner together
  • Go for a swim
  • Visit a theme park
  • Go on a road trip
  • Place candles through the house, don’t turn on the lights

 

To-do list.  Don’t forget to tick items off your to-do list, making it easier to see what tasks need completing

Empty all indoor rubbish bins and put into your outdoor wheelie bin

Day 18 checklist (place in tasks divider)

 

   
 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/sherelyn.hallam Sherelyn Hallam

    My mum always told me not to hang your bag on the hook in the public toilet as people could easily reach over and steal it. I think I’d rather deal with the germs lol :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/sherelyn.hallam Sherelyn Hallam

    We find if we can’t get soemoen to look after the kids for a date night that going to the drive in is a great option as we stay for two movies, the first being a kids one and then the second an adults one. 99% of the time the kids are alseep by the end of the first movie so we all have a great time :)

  • Tammy

    ah, a date night… have the movie vouchers, hubby is on holidays next week, kids are asking to see the babysitter again (it’s been a few months since our regular Thursday evening coffee nights stopped). Anything good at the cinemas?
    Tomorrow is a quiet day after 2 days of playdates for the holidays, and an easy day in terms of our tasks. Maybe I can finally do some catching up!

    • Tammy

      oh, and Katrina, what a lovely write up about you and the blog from Howards Storage World. Picked up a catalogue and magazine in store on the weekend, what a lovely surprise to see your face smiling out at me as I flipped through!

  • http://twitter.com/DiLishLife Di Nolan

    Well I can tick the handbag organisation off my list already! I literally just did it 10mins ago before I sat down at the computer to check what Day 18′s task would be. Off to wipe the bottom of the bag right now though!

    Date nights…..what are they again? My partner is finishing his last term of his law course so we can’t wait to be normal again. It’s been five long years but worth the sacrifice. Love the drive in idea Tammy….there’s one not too far away from here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kirby.cotterill Kirby Cotterill Schofield

    i tipped mine up side down twice today to find something………lol so i really need to attack it its a nappy bag as well as a hand bag and anything else it shouldn’t be i might get to it tonight so i can do my girls wardrobes tomorrow so so not looking forward to that lol
    i really hope thursday is just as easy we are off on a road trip for the day:)

  • http://www.facebook.com/karen.fogo Karen Fogo

    I will actually get this one done on the day as I’m off for the rest of the week now. Pity I can’t organise date night. We have no kids this week, but hubby is off to his ordination retreat tomorrow!

  • Juanita

    AT LAST… An easy day for me. My “handbag” is my nappy bag so it is regularly cleaned, emptied, sorted & organised!!! Date night is a whole other “thing” tho. :-( The last time hubby & i had a couple of hours to ourselves was over two years ago and before that it was 3 years before that! Not having parents here it is SO hard for us to ask friends who have kids of their own to look after our 4!!! Maybe i can tick it off the list by PLANNING a date night with hubby on our anniversary in 2022! ;-)

  • Angela

    I’ve learnt that the easiest way to not accumulate unnecessary things in my handbag is to carry one as small as I can. It’s big enough to fit everything I need in it (purse, keys, phone, lipbalm, asthma inhaler and a half dozen tissues) as well as having a little room for a snack for Miss 3. If I put any other clutter in it, I can’t get anything out when I need to. Good reason to keep it cleaned out. It does need a clean on the outside though. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/amy.reinhardt Amy Reinhardt

    Are the emails playing up again? Didn’t receive one this afternoon :(

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      Hi Amy

      I’m terribly sorry you didn’t receive it. I was hoping it was all fixed, but it must not be. Unfortunately I’m unable to send emails through again. But you will be able to access all the challenges on the blog when you need.

  • http://www.facebook.com/DandanLiClark Dandan Li Clark

    love this as i can definitely pass this challenge! I de-clutter my handbag everyday, its a habit. Tomorrow is our 3rd wedding annerverary, so we are going away for a night, got my mother in law baby sit my son. Yay, :)

  • Meahd

    What a really lovely post to see Katrina :) Easy tasks and a date night!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/vickie.mahony Vickie Mahony

    Don’t have a handbag! But I’m starting to worry only two more days left… I’ve liked knowing what direction I’m heading in each day.

    • Claire Bailey

      I know how you feel Vickie. I have managed to get so much done but I am terrible at organising it myself. I am hoping that following the 20 day challenge Katrina might do a post about how to organise your housework into a routine that you can cycle through to keep on top of everything. I think if I had it all mapped out in my folder then it would be easier to keep up with it.

      My plan is to go through it all again and do a more thorough job of it all. I know I could do a better job of the kitchen, I don’t have a pantry and only got 1/3 of the food cupboards done. Once they are done I can go through saucepans etc.

    • http://www.facebook.com/trish.montgomery.7946 Trish Montgomery

      Totally agree! I haven’t quite completed everything but am thinking of how to incorporate these tasks into the regular routine along with the garden and pets chores. Maybe a 20 week challenge – one of these a week. That would get me through it twice in a year snd would get easier as the new habits kick in and the grime and clutter gets thinner:)

  • Alli

    Ok starting to hyperventilate now… 3 days left! What will I do without you? I was just saying to hubby I have become slightly OCD about the tasks. I look at them the night before and some I’m like, we’ll I don’t have to do that, I did it a couple of days ago… But then by the next afternoon I find myself having to do the task anyway, re-cleaning or re-organising, just because it is on the list!
    So that means I may actually end up going on date night- it IS on the list after-all!

  • Anna Nisbett

    Ummm about today’s challenge. In Feb this year moved house on a Sun, unpacked on Mon, turned 40 on Tues, had 3rd baby on Wed. In house move I lost handbag (somehow still had purse)….so 6wks after c-sec when could drive bought myself new handbag. Of course found old handbag very next day when unpacking more boxes. But continued with new bag….somehow this disappeared but still have purse as was switching b/w nappy bag. Further after trip to Officeworks to print baby photos got home and lost full set car and house keys….now sept still havent found either so I am still focussing on decluttering task!!!but love your challenges tips and ideas. Inspiring!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/trish.montgomery.7946 Trish Montgomery

    I try to declutter the handbag after shopping each week but clean….definately needs it! Date night will have to be on the weekend and as part of decluttering I removed the bins from the bedrooms and bathroom… my 16 & 18 yo sons can walk to the kitchen bins…so one less chore to do!

  • http://www.facebook.com/pauline.whyte.39 Pauline Whyte

    Hi Katrina
    Love the 20 day challenge – takes my OCD to a higher level.
    Must disagree with your hint about haning handbags on the hook on the door of toilets.
    makes it easier to snatch over the top of the door.
    Keep the hints coming – appreciate your efforts

  • http://www.facebook.com/sharon.young.5836 Sharon Young

    Handbag – I do mine regularly and I have a new bag so there wasn’t much to declutter or clean away. Also, I never put my bag on the floor. I didn’t spend that much money on a once off spree to have my soft leather bag ruined. You can by handbag hooks (I got mine from Howard’s Storage World, everything of mine is from there except Tupperware)

    Date night – Will have to wait for a couple of weeks (my 17 month old is in quarantine with chicken pox) but we will go out to dinner or the movies, depending on what is showing.

    Bins – Today is bin day for us, so all my rubbish had to be in the bin this morning anyway.

    Now back to my walk-in-robe. I am almost finished. My husband nearly died of shock when he came home to find that we had a floor in our walk-in-robe and that we didn’t have to reach over things to get to the clothes.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karen.fogo Karen Fogo

    Handbags (work and everyday) done. Bins emptied (garbage night tonight). To-do list being ticked off. Dinner booked for Saturday night – group booking, does that count???

  • Natalie A

    My hand bag is fairly tidy at the moment BUT I am going to tackle my little one’s stroller which is kept in our car boot. The pocket is full of CRAP and the basket underneath is full of rubbish too ie: empty drink bottles, catalogues and a few other bits n pieces.
    Tomorrow the kids are of to their nannas for a night so will use this time to spend with hubby, probably watching the grand final addition of the Footy Show (unfortunately lol).

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