Organizing, snow days and Africa

I've got a random collection of stuff today.

Decluttering 

It's taken a year and a half, but apparently this is the year I am dealing with clutter and reorganizing my apartment. I told you last week I was dealing with the clutter on my cedar chest to make room for the floor pillows. But that whole area was clutter-central. I didn't take before pictures because I was too embarrassed, though I tend to think that there is some sort of shield around it when people come over, but that area was dumping ground for purses and bags and every piece of paper I've gotten in the last 18 months. The paperwork was the biggest issue, so I went to Target and bought a filing cabinet that actually fits in with my furniture:

That alone made a huge difference, but I also bought a hook rail to hold all of my purses and bags that I use on a regular basis. And now there's nothing on the floor over there, it's the first time since I moved in that it's looked like that. The goal now is to keep it that neat!

My next project is the kitchen. I ordered a couple of organizers/space savers that I will hopefully get to install this weekend. 

College snow days 

It's hard to miss but if you don't know the Midwest is getting slammed by a blizzard. I am quietly breathing a sigh of relief that it's not hitting us, but I do feel for my friends in the middle of it, I was in the same boat this time last year and it's not fun after a day or two. 
 
But what struck me is that Mizzou has canceled classes, which is what they should do in a storm like this, but I distinctly remember a tour guide telling my mom when we were touring campus that Mizzou had only canceled classes once in the last 30 years for snow. And I made it through three and a half years without classes ever being canceled for bad weather. Of course, the most snow I saw there was six inches. 

So I was starting to feel a little bitter about how I missed out on snow days in college. But then I checked out the web site for the newspaper run by the journalism school and realized I would have spent snow days walking the streets and interviewing anyone that would talk to me. So I guess I didn't miss much. They do have some great coverage, by the way, both serious and fun. 

Africa

And lastly, on Saturday I dropped off two of my closest friends at the airport for their trip to Kenya. They have made it and posted on the blog they are keeping. They get to visit another friend that is living over there and do some work with orphanages over there. They've been on my mind since they left, and I thought I'd share the link to their blog.