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May. 12, 2008 - Rollin' up my sleeves

The last few weeks have brought a very welcome change around here.  As much as slooww progress is difficult for me, I see now how truly getting organized takes time.  When we played musical bedrooms to make adjustments for the new addition in Sept., everything was pulled out of all closets and off shelves.  I sat looking at the mess thinking #1 - where did it all come from? and #2 what do I do with it?  We have storage issues, so I decided that it was time to seriously purge, de-clutter and then organize.  So with my Clutter Cutters book in hand I did just that.  It took me over THREE WEEKS!!! 

 

I thought I was reasonably organized.  I thought everything had a place - apparently I was very deceived.

 

So far I have accomplished the following:

**Cleaned out all household files - All warranties, product info., tax files and regular house files have been cleaned out, re-ordered, and appropriate files put in new durable boxes and put in a new closet. ( We had manuals for things we haven't owned in at least 10 years.  I found the first Dr. visit sheet from our son's pediatrician back in 1994.  The shredder at my husband's office was smoking.)

**Totally cleaned out toys.  If it was broken or unused, out it went.  Those for the baby are in the 'baby toy bin' in the attic to come out later. We put in a great closet organizer designed by hubby and I (he is sooo handy) and now the younger three boys closet is so perfect I walk in there just to look at the order of it all.  All the toys, seperated and in the right sized bins are in the closet , on shelves, and NOT in my Florida room/dining room - that is a glassed in porch or sunroom for those not from Fla.

**Went through all my currciulum, re-arranged the shelves, bought a new book shelf, found the 285 pencils that we have lost this year, and now have a nice box or two for the used curr. sale in June.

**Re-hung the pictures I had taken down in hopes of de-cluttering to sell the house.  It looks like for now we will hang on here and make it  work.  WIth all my cleaning out we may find we have more space than we thought.

**Cleaned out the shed which was busting with 'stuff'.  We sold alot, and chunked most of the other stuff. 

**Cleaned out the garage - big time.  My laundry area got a good cleaning and we have plans in the works to close in the back portion of the garage to make a laundry room/storage and pantry overflow area.  That in itself will be a HUGE help.  We seem to consume alot of everything around here and finding a place to store it all is difficult.  It's on top of the freezer, over the washer/dryer, in the hall closets, falling out of the current pantry.. you get the idea.

Still waiting to be attacked:

**The game closet and craft cabinet need cleaning out.  And re-stocking for next year.

**My dreaded "top-drawer".  I will post a picture because you will have to see it to believe it.

** Our DD and the baby's shared room.  When we find out next week, Lord willing, what sex the baby is, I will get started on fixing up their room.

Big summer projects beyond curriculum/lesson plans:

**Recipes - Too many loose ones!!  I am going for a consolidated 3-ring binder type set-up to corral all the floating recipes I have.

**Get caught up (at least one year!!) in each person's picture book - This may be very wishful thinking. 

 

It almost makes me feel lighter! :)   Twenty one weeks and counting...

 

~CIndy

your two cents

May. 14, 2008 - <em>Untitled Comment</em>

Posted by callmekate

Thanks for your birthday greeting!

I never made it back here, did I? Well, I'm here now and I am SO impressed with all you achieved! Nicely done! It is true that when you remove the clutter, you suddenly find room (I speak from experience!) I hope you get to finish all the things you want to before the baby arrives. You can always work on the picture books with one hand while you nurse the baby. Maybe. When my first child was born, I remember trying to get my Christmas cards done (he was 6 mos) and I finally just stayed up after his 4:00 a.m. feeding and did all my cards in the early morning. I was so proud of myself!

A Florida dining room sounds wonderful! And I understand the closet admiring - it would be wonderful to see ANY of our closets neatly arranged. My dh wants to redo our closets, too - someday. We just have that one stupid shelf above the clothes rod - such a poor design.

Take care and I hope you had a very nice Mother's Day. Looking forward to hearing if your baby is a he or a she! (That is, if you choose to let us know!)

God bless,
Kate

Edited by callmekate on May. 14, 2008 at 1:13 AM
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