Day 9 -Toy Organization

I'm scared. Trembling actually. The toy room. *Gulp*

There will be no before picture today. I, uh...forgot. Yea, that's it, I forgot!

Here's a glimpse at what it may have looked like:

Do you get where I'm going with this? It was a complete disaster area wee on the messy side.


I almost skipped this challenge due to the overwhelming task ahead.

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" -Name that movie!

After a small pep talk with myself a la Chris Farley Van Down by the River style, I donned the appropriate gear and got moving:

Quick -Name this movie!

 Okay, okay- you get the message!

We were snowed in yesterday so I couldn't leave to get containers. I used what I had on hand and didn't bother to label anything because I plan on replacing the shoe boxes with Dollar store boxes really soon.

You know the routine- Trash, Donate, Keep! Oh boy did I donate and trash today. My older kids don't have many toys, and Kiwi would honestly rather play with my measuring spoons or the dogs so I totally purged in this room!

My own personal Vanna- isn't she awesome?

Bottom shelf- favorite books and legos.

Middle shelf-trains set, blocks, cars, and misc fun stuff.

Books- This is scaled back! Books are very important and well loved in this house.

Then we vacuumed, and left these big toys that Kiwi does actually play with:

Vanna is so camera shy!

Loves that Harley! My 10 year old still uses the spin toy.

Previously filled to overflowing now practically empty!

While doing this challenge kind of stunk, writing it was way too much fun!

Day 7 - This is how it all started

It's a SNOW DAY! I'm loving not having to get kids up and ready. It was fun sneaking into their rooms to shut off the alarms. I felt like the Tooth Fairy! There's sledding, and hot cocoa and all sorts of fun snow stuff going on today!

I've been working on this pantry for a few weeks now. A Google search for "Closet turned pantry" led me all over the web and finally I landed on Toni's little slice of it . Little did I know I would then be sucked into an entire Organization Challenge. I am glad though. No, really I am.

So we have a kitchen that's a bit awkward. It's not exactly small, it's just laid out really strange. It's not very user friendly. This is the 3rd time in 7 months that I've rearranged it. The original pantry has lots of room but it's so deep that things keep getting pushed to the back and lost in there and I end up buying something at the store that I don't need.

That's when I decided to turn our hall coat closet into our new pantry. I'm so glad I did. It works really well.

Before held dog food...

...and coats and other misc stuff.

I put all the misc stuff where it belonged, and hung the coats in a different area of the house.

I didn't ever take a before picture of the original pantry. I did remember to take a picture of the spice drawer though.

Messy little guys all scattered about.

I'm almost finished with it. I hope to get all matching bins eventually, but this will definitely do for now. It's much more user friendly and I can easily see everything we have or what we are almost out of.

Spices, candles, tea, baking supplies.

 The wicker basket holds the spare blades to my food processor

.

Needs some shuffling around but works for now.

I love a stocked pantry.

I'm not kidding about the stocked pantry. I remember some very lean days in my past. We were lucky to have peanut butter and canned tuna. There were many days that I made sure my kids ate but there wasn't enough for me. Not a good feeling. Anywhoo...

Lunch boxes and rags. Hey hangers, you're not supposed to be there anymore!

More spices, snacks and misc stuff.

Have you tried these Roasted garlic and black bean Tostitos? yum!

The closet is at such an awkward angle it's hard for me to get a good picture of the entire thing. I have to back all the way to the wall just to get these shots. It looks fabulous and works so much better. I just pull out the spice baskets when I'm cooking and put them back afterward. The only downside I've noticed is that my 2 year old has easy access to snacks now. Oh well, not a big deal.

Thanks Toni for the inspiration for this!

Day 6 Challenge- Them dirty drawers!

You must say that with a southern accent! Think Brenda Lee in The Closer.

Lot's of pictures today. Lots accomplished today.

This before picture is a little embarrassing:

Squint real hard and you can make out the top of my dresser.

Commence the emptying and purging of Le Crap!  I cleaned off EVERYTHING, dusted, and started making piles. My entire bedroom floor was covered. In clothes, not dust, just to clarify.

Dust rag- yuck!

 

Fave pics of my husband. Isn't he cute doing crossing guard duty?

Candles are my friend! Lighting is everything in this room ;)

Gift from Santa. The dock, not the iPod.

 I bought the iPod myself. Cue Destiny's Child here- All the women who are independent, throw your hands up at me!

Some decor.

 I don't like my dresser too empty. It reminds me of when we were selling our first house and had to remove any personal effects. I like my house to look lived in.

Buh- bye!

 Those are all dollar store and homemade gifts from the kids that I get for Mother's Day and my birthday and Christmas, and, and, and. They are all over my house and I love them but I've decided to relocate them to my curio cabinet in in the living room.

Behold, a dresser!

 Now onto those drawers!

My br*ssiere drawer before.

 I wear the same 4 br*'s over and over again so this drawer is almost all going to donate! Wonder what that gray towel is doing in there?

My fancy schmancy jewelry roll up.

One day I'll get a real one, but for now the towel/rubber band system works for me! This is temporarily holding the jewelry I don't want in my jewelry box because my 2 year old really likes to dig around in there lately. I don't have much real jewelry but the few pieces I do have mean a lot to me!

Br*ssieres after!

My workout clothes drawer before.

Work out clothes after!

Hello, IKEA cubbies.

 I'm using the cubbies above for my socks and undi*s. I matched all my socks and trashed a lot of unders! I'm a big thrift store shopper but I draw the line at buying second hand unders so I just threw mine in the trash. I can neither confirm or deny if I just now got rid of maternity undi*s.

Pj's before.

 I'm finally giving away my maternity pj's. My husband will not be sad to see those leave. I, on the other hand will shed a small tear. They are so comfortable! They are so big on me though that they tend to fall down when I 'm walking around in them.

Bye lovelies!

Newly condensed albeit a little wrinkly pj drawer!

 

The fun drawer before :)

 I was holding onto much of my ling*rie because most of it I received as gifts at my bridal shower. That was almost 5 years ago! So got rid of what doesn't fit and kept only what does.

Ready to play name that tune? "Victoria's Secret, well their stuffs real nice. But I can buy the same damn thing on a Walmart shelf half price and still look sexy, just as sexy as those models on TV. No, I don't need no designer tag to make my man want me."

That was fun! Sorry, got a little sidetracked there, back to the challenge!

Gift hiding drawer. That box holds a Tim Tebow jersey for my son, shh...don't tell.

I feel an explanation is necessary for those disgusting Vienna Sausages. Those belong to my husband. I forgot they were even in there. I can't even stand the smell of them. I buy them once a year for his Christmas stocking and these are the extras. He eats them straight from the can- urp!

I found a different hiding place for gifts and found this in return:

Gasp! An entire empty drawer! Oh the possibilities.

But really I just moved my jeans from the closet to the empty drawer.

 Wow! That was a lot of hard work but also very therapeutic! I think it looks great too! I purged a TON of old stuff today. My donate pile is rapidly growing. I was going to make a trip to Goodwill later in the week but now I think I'll hold onto it until after the challenge is over and take one final group picture!

Thanks to Toni over at A Bowl Full of Lemons for hosting this challenge. It is so much fun and long overdue for my house!

Still trucking along

Day 5 for me, day 8 for others. I'm not giving up though. I thought we were out of the woods with the nasty head cold but my 12 year old stayed home from school today. I think it's time to double up on the green smoothies.

Headed under the kitchen sink today. No plumber crack in sight!

Even my two year old knows the routine by now, as soon as I got down on the floor and opened the cupboard he started to take everything out. Oh wait- first my before picture:

I {heart} Costco!

I wiped down the inside with some hot soapy water then put down some non-slip water resistant covering. Have a look see:

I even cut around the pipes.

Made a mistake while buying bins. I didn't account for the pipes. Is it just me or does my sink have more pipes than most? They were very hard to work around. I purchased a 3 drawer bin to hold my sponges and brushes but it didn't fit. I'm not gonna lie- I was bummed. Not too bummed though. I just used another bin I had.

Look closely, my helper left his hammer in there.

I'm not totally satisfied with it but it'll do for now. ("That'll do Donkey, that'll do" Name that movie!) I also bought a set of racks for the doors to hold my cleaning supplies but once I got them home I had second thoughts about putting the screws into the doors. (We rent) So I'm waiting to find the perfect over-the-door rack but until then- tada! It does look better. I added the dish rack to the donate pile since the only time it gets used is when my mom visits. I also put our recycling container under the sink. It used sit under our breakfast bar, next to the trash can. I like it better here though, it makes the kitchen look more tidy.

I bought some Shaklee products from our Organizing Challenge host over at A Bowl full of Lemons but I've yet to try them. I'm excited to see if they live up to the hype. Until then, I'll use up what I already have.

I'm a little overwhelmed because I'm behind in the challenge but I'm excited at what's happening so I'm determined to finish!

Not quite grown.

There's a lot of Teenageritis going on in my house these days. She's almost 15, she rolls her eyes. Often. She is sure her younger siblings are here on earth just to annoy her. She spends a lot of time in her room. She texts. A lot. She thinks I don't understand or remember what it feels like to be almost 15. Her dad is worried that she she'll speak in mumbled one word answers for the rest of her life. 

She is also an honor student. She is a hard worker. She's excelling on the swim team. She started school this year in a new state, as a Freshman, not knowing one person and still received 10 votes towards becoming team captain.  She is dependable. She is responsible. She has moxie. I'm in awe of her bravery most days. 

Crazy girl

Sat in line with me to see Santa. She looks excited, yes?

Beautiful in every way.

She still likes to crawl into Mama's bed when she's sick.

 I had to resist the very strong temptation to crawl in next to her and snuggle.

Day 4* - Feeling Better

The rest of the folks doing the challenge are on day 7 but half of my household got hit hard by a head cold. Combine that with my 2 year old's first ear infection, first sick child visit and first round of antibiotics ever and we've been a bit overwhelmed here. Everybody is finally feeling better though so I'm trying to catch up with the organizing. I did escape one afternoon and put my time out of the house to good use. I hit the Dollar store and Walmart and loaded up on a ton of organizing bins and caddies.

Day 4 is the Linen closet. I technically didn't have a linen closet before today. I have the closet in the hallway near the main bathroom that holds towels and washcloths. All the spare bedding was housed in each individual bedroom. I have 2 sets each of sheets, pillow cases, and blankets for each bed in the house. I do that in hopes that my children would be inclined to change the sheets on their beds more often. It's simple really- when you strip the bed of dirties, just put the clean set on and throw the used set down in the laundry room. Just the other day though I asked my oldest daughter when the last time she had changed her sheets and couldn't believe the answer, so...I took full advantage of today's challenge to make a linen closet. With everything in one place, I will be better able to keep track of who is and who isn't changing sheets.

Now, where to put it? We have 3 closets in our master bedroom so I am going to use this one:

Pretend before picture.

Full disclosure time. This isn't the exact closet I'm going to use but my husband was excited to help and he cleared everything out of the other closet before I had a chance to take a before picture. It's identical to this one except it stored boxes (about 4!) of stuff from his childhood and parts to our toddler's crib. It was just as crowded as this one, so use your imagination.

Then I yelled at kindly asked my kids to bring me all their spare, clean bedding. Only my 12 year old could find hers. Hmm...

"Oh, since you're already here, help me fold these sheets please!" She was more than happy to :)

When the rest of the spare bedding comes back from the wash, it will now have a home here:

Hi Minnie!

Spare blankets, beach towels, pillow cases.

Twin sheets, king sheets and the basket has a heating pad and a travel pillow.

I also used the top shelf for an extra duffel bag and Kiwi's travel suitcase. It had been in his room but he keeps stuffing all his socks and underwear in it. Now it's way out of his reach.

I'm off to catch up on the rest of the Challenge!