Organization Friday: Art Corner

While it's been a while since I did an organizational post it doesn't mean it's been that long since I was organizing! Honestly, I feel like I do it every day - there's always clutter somewhere that could be tackled.

My first instinct is to get overwhelmed and walk away because the house will never be ***perfect***. You know what? That's true! In this life nothing is perfect. Our lives are full of chaos from the inside out not to mention the fact that I have 5 little ones who have ideas and goals of their own to clutter my house.

But rather than walk away completely and find myself one day at that show Hoarders: Buried Alive or any other number of reality shows with a similar day I take a deep breath and find a spot to dig in. I can't say ever really want to get moving on the project but I am always pleased with the result and thankful the Lord gives us our homes for a respite from the chaos of this world!

This week I tackled a corner of the dining room. I'm working on the whole room slowly (it's almost done) and I have to post about the living room redo. Baby steps. Right now we're knee deep in swapping kids rooms - talk about an organizational nightmare!!

That being said, this week I just worked on the corner. Why? Well, it looked like this:





For some reason this one corner had become the dumping ground for all things art and all things school. You know the little projects at school that you want to keep but aren't exactly sure where to store?

I'll insert here that I am not a hugely emotional person who needs to hang on to every little thing but some things I want to keep and remember and pull out to look at some day and to be honest a digital photo just won't do. I know a lot of people like this idea but I have pictures (tons of them!), I'd rather see and hold what they did not just look at another picture of it - no offense to those who do but this is how I "work". Mind you I don't keep everything - I DON'T need one million worksheets from Kindergarten but I do keep a few of the nicer things.

What to do with them?

The best solution I've found is to get the Priority Mail boxes from the post office (or some other similar box) - write the child's name on it and the year and start packing some things away. If it fits, it stays otherwise it goes and I'll always have a record of those handprints or famous drawings, stories or poems.



Once the papers were sorted it was a pretty easy to task to put the corner back together:



I did also remove school supplies from the original pile and place them in a basket all their own. Since I have a ton more to buy I had to find a good place to store them before it got out of control :)

I hope you had a chance to organize this week! And don't forget to visit OrgJunkie for more tips and trips to organizing.

Organization 2011: Anniversary Gift

Kirk's gift to me was to take me for 2 days to Hershey, PA - out to dinner, a movie and Hershey Park theme park - it was great! But the best part was that he planned all the money in advance so I didn't have to stress over what it cost or what we were spending - how awesome is he?

In "return" I decided to use what small amount of organizational talent I have to rearrange his office.

Here's the before - his desk doesn't seem so bad



But the other side of his office tells a different story - somehow it's become our dumping ground for way too many things!!



And the sweet,sweet after - new chair and all:



(sorry it's not a better picture we're having a few camera issues...)

I actually organized the office on our anniversary (which was Tuesday) but have had to work the rest of the week sorting all the papers. I just didn't have enough time on Tuesday to get it all together. But that's the thing about organizing/cleaning - it doesn't all HAVE to be done in one day - by putting like with like to clean his office I was able to move everything out that didn't belong there and sort it later.

So, if you're wondering where to begin organizing pick a place you can do quickly and when done just looks good. Moving unwanted items out of Kirk's office made the space feel bigger and the house feel cleaner AND got me motivated to keep going. Of course doing it as a gift and buying a piece of new furniture helped too :)

Happy 15th anniversary to me! Oh, I mean my awesome husband, Kirk...

Spring Break Organizing Day 4

This may looks like cheating but really it's not - really it's a visual of the end of a LOOOONG organizational project - my entire basement in fact. Before all the yard sales a few weeks ago I sorted bucket after bucket, toy after toy and this is what I had left:

This is the before though it's not like my family room normally looks like this (stop laughing...) - these are just the last of the buckets I had to sort and I've kept them in my family room to motivate myself to go through them.





Did it work?

Eventually...



But it's done. Save a few little follow-ups everything has been sorted and all small, annoying pieces have been thrown away!! I am praying that this means no more tedious toy sorting but I'm afraid as long as I have so many small children that just won't be the case.

I don't have plans to organize over Easter weekend as I will be spending lots of time with my family taking pictures and celebrating our risen Lord.

I hope you all have a very blessed holiday weekend.

Spring Break Organizing Day 3

So today wasn't exactly a closet but it was close :) I'm branching out! Today was Caleb's turn. I have to just say that he's a boy and having a neat and tidy room is VERY low on his priority list no matter how much I suggest that he pick things up - even if he just picks up enough so that firefighters would have a clear path to his bed in case of an emergency!

Boys...

Here's the before - this is more of a shelving unit then a dresser but it serves to hold Caleb's clothes for now. He always wants to rearrange his room and this is the current situation - at some point he probably needs a big boy dresser :)



And the after - notice the imperfections - I could only get so far! But at least all the clothes that are too small for him are removed and the mound of clothes is OFF the floor.



This is Caleb's closet - I have to say I hate the kids rooms in our house - for whatever reason we can't seem to arrange them well and the closets are all basically worthless - dressers don't fit well with their beds, the windows and the closets - hard to explain but all the closets have become either makeshift dressers (like the triplets) or almost unusable like Caleb's. But I did manage to get some things hung up in his closet and it's working for that :) The chair was his idea...



The after - just a bit more cleaned up.



Tomorrow will be a non-closet day...

Spring Break Organizing Day 2

I wasn't trying for the closet theme and I DO have PLENTY of other areas to organize but having clothes in order is such a stress relief for me. And nothing is more stressful than 3 little girls standing around me begging to tell them what to wear - which is kind of a joke because they NEVER want what I pick out anyway. So, in order to keep my sanity today I tacked the triplet's closet.

The dreaded before shot (I think it's worse than mine was!):



And after:



The girl's room doesn't have the space for a dresser and I am NOT the hanging-up type so instead we have buckets - each one with it's own theme: PJ's - one for winter, one for summer; winter clothes non-matching, winter clothes matching; summer clothes non-matching, summer clothes matching; dresses - you get the idea. By matching I mean triplet matching outfits - sometimes they dress alike, sometimes they don't. So, there's a bucket for that.

That's as organized as their clothes get :) Mine can be neatly folded but for them, that's a waste of my time - remember the outfit searching?

The other side of the closet is now empty and we'll use those shelves for all the girl's Pet Shops houses and a few other toys - should make the room cleaner in general and that's always a good thing!

Spring Break Organizing Day 1

Yes, technically today is day 2 of Spring Break but yesterday I had to menu plan and you know how important that is!

My goal at the beginning of the year was to try and post weekly on organization. Since the organizational blog I like OrgJunkie was hosting her 52 weeks of organizing I figured I would participate. But life is never that simple and waaay too many Fridays have come and gone without my posts (specifically 15 Fridays!). So, I decided I would do a little organizing this week while the kids were home. Seems odd but somehow I seem more motivated to work while they're here plus I can't come and go as easily since any errand requires me to take all 5 kids with me so I find myself home more.

Anyway, here's what I did today:

Before - honestly I was surprised it had gotten to this point - it was organized then life happened and it wasn't anymore but a little bit of clothes shopping (with sales and coupons of course) got me in the mood to clean out all the stuff I no longer loved in my closet.



And after:



I have to say I found a LOT of stuff I didn't love - over 35 pieces of clothing! That's a lot of tops and bottoms that I just didn't feel I could wear any longer and I'm excited for them to find new homes :)

Interestingly enough week #15 in OrgJunkie's 52 weeks was closet organizing - I swear I had NO idea!

Looking forward to tackling another space tomorrow...

Organization 2011: Week Six

Although I didn't end up doing much organizing until this evening I still feel pretty good about my progress. I have been meaning to do the dining room buffet and I really need to get started on the kids toys and clothes before all the consignment sales next month but I seem to keep ending up in the kitchen!

Fortunately my kitchen cabinets need a ton of organizing :)

A few weeks ago I hosted a Pampered Chef party and got quite a good number of new kitchen utensils and pans free (a great way to stock your kitchen for cheap is to host a show - especially in January when you get extra things free :) My kitchen is full of great Pampered Chef tools that I have paid very little for and they are items I use every day!).

I started with a single cabinet:

Before:



After (it's dark I know but I did get rid of a number of glass pans that I haven't used in ages):



And ended up organizing all my drawers. Getting organized can be contagious :) I threw away a number of very old measuring cups and sorted all of my kitchen gadgets and utensils. While it wasn't what I intended to organize I'm very excited about the prospect of a cleaner and more organized kitchen!

Here's to hoping I get on an even better track next week :)

Organizing 2011: Week Two (er, Three)

I know I'm behind. Not only did I miss posting organizational pictures last week but I am also late on getting them up this week! What can I say? Fridays are usually hectic around here - read: date night or family night so blogging gets pushed aside. Maybe it counts that I did double organizing the first week :)

This week's project: The Hall Closet (yes, I had hoped for the dining room but right now I'll take what I can get)

I'd say it needed it!



The hall closet has been our place to throw shoes and obviously coats but then eventually stuff gets lost in there and we just end up jamming it in.

Now I'd say it looks better:



Time spent: maybe 45 minutes - really it was quite quick - I did it pretty fast this evening - what in the world was I waiting for?!

Cost: Zero though eventually a few dollars for a shoe rack at the bottom of the closet - for now I have to deal with stacking them...

Made: Right now zero but I did find a few things for an upcoming consignment sale - I also found my CVS "green tag" that has been missing for quite a while so that will earn me $1.00 for every 4 visits so that's something! I've hated shopping without out (now I just have to remember to bring it and the bag it's attached to with me!)

Cleaning out the closet meant about 6 jackets to donate (plus another 3 to give to a friend) plus at least 10 pairs of shoes to donate - also found the "mate" to some shoes that I had been missing so I guess that saves me the cost of buying more shoes. All kinds of good from organizing!

Again, I'm not fully participating in Org Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing but I still recommend you check out her site - I have ordered her book "Clutter Rehab" for my Nook and am enjoying that plus she has a great giveaway going on right now for a Monthly Menu Planning Board - awesome!

Organization 2011: Week One

I'm finally getting serious about organizing my house. I know I say it often that it needs to be done but usually life gets so busy I put it to the wayside. But not this year. Using the blog kept me honest about my grocery spending - I plan to do the same with my organizing.

My goal is to concentrate on a room a month but this week I did a few small projects just to help me feel better and get started!

One was my bedroom - got it all cleaned up and with new bed sheets (soo luxurious) and a new bed set - it's a room I now look forward to going into. GREAT place to start a home makeover! Though this isn't my decorating for the month :) Look at those three cuties - I think they like it too.





My real accomplishment for the week: my tupperware cupboard. Darn thing has been a mess forever.

Before:


During:


And after:


So much nicer :) Of course, my oldest is complaining that it's harder for her to put the clean tupperware away now because she can't just throw it in!

Time spent: less than 2 hours (hard to tell because I had a lot of interuptions)

Cost: Zero

Made: Zero

Unmatchables and just old stuff went in the trash - anything salvageable but unwanted went to donation.

I didn't really intend for this to go along with Organizing Junkie's 52-weeks of Organizing - I had made this goal before she posted it but hey, since it's there I'll play along :)

Next week: the dining room buffet/dining room even though the room I have to actually work on this month is the guest room in the basement but I'll leave that under my decorating goal instead of my organizing ones.

Organizing During The Snowstorm

Wow! We here in VA are covered in snow! Completely buried. I've lived here for more than a decade and I've never seen this much snow especially not two big snow storms in one season. To say we've spent a LOT of time indoors in the past few months would be an understatement.

In some ways it's good for the budget - we can't go out to eat or spend money at any stores - but it's often not great on the mind. For me this is probably a direct result of bed rest. I remember spending weeks on end doing nothing, being stuck inside. Before bed rest this might have seemed appealing - a great break - do nothing, be lazy. But now, now it's different - a few hours on the couch and I'm itching to move.

And what better way to get moving then to clean out the clutter! Especially in February when OrgJunkie is hosting a 28 day organizing challenge and Amy at the Finer Things is also hosting a decluttering challenge!


I will say that I have not counted what I've gotten rid of so I guess I will have to start with the items I sell/donate from here out. Of course, I may give myself a 50 piece buffer after the sheer amount of stuff I've already thrown away!

I do know this year I've gotten rid of:

- 13 books by swapping
- 20 books by donating
- 3 large Little People pieces
- 1 large bag of winter gear
- 3 pairs of my shoes
- 2 sweaters I never liked
- 5 bags of random pieces/trash - like I said I didn't break those out or count them

The fact that the multiples sale is the beginning of March is just another reason why I had to get started on ALL my clutter.

Want to see the before?



Oh yea, it's bad! The basement has begun it's transformation :) There are ALL the toys in my house. We have cleaned them out of every room and now we are sorting. If a toy has all its pieces and we want to keep it - great - we will find a place for it and store it well. If we don't need it and it's all together it will be sold at the upcoming sale - otherwise it will be thrown away or donated.

We have already thrown away bags of trash and my pile for sale items is growing every day. Not only will this bring in extra cash but it will clean out my basement and make enjoying the toys much easier for all the kids.

So in addition to building forts, watching movies, playing games and playing with toys we are organizing our home. This way come spring cleaning time the house will already be clean and I will be ready to get out rather than spend any more time inside!!