There's a counter under there?

The 6:ooam thing is working great! I have been getting up, getting some "me" time and it seems to have really energized me for the rest of the day. Our main living area has stayed clean, which is wonderful! Laundry is caught up and I have gotten myself back on a laundry schedule. Monday - kids laundry, Wednesday-adult laundry, Friday-towels and sheets. Just the fact that I have gotten back on this is a HUGE step to cleanliness bliss! Steve has stated several times how proud he is of me and us for keeping things up. We have a counter area in the kitchen that is where the phone is and I keep my "brain", our calendar. This counter has always been notoriously messy. It was a catchall for the kids papers, keys, cell phones, everything. We cleaned it up on December 18 in preparation for our holiday party and it is still clean! Almost one month!! Now, to many of you in blogville, me boasting about a counter being clean for a month might seem silly. But to me, who has always struggled with keeping this area clean and clutter free, this is a huge deal! I have really been trying to throw out what I don't need right away. When the kids come home from school, I go through their folders and throw out right away what is not needed. However, I still have not figured out where to put and what to do with those that I want to save or look at later. I want a place/area to keep everything, organized, not messy. Still working on that.