Kitchen Sink

Underneath my kitchen sink...to be more specific. That space is a mess.

I keep all my cleaning supplies down there, plus a vase or two. There are plumbing pipes to get around and a garbage disposal but just look at it. I'm clearly not using the space as well as I could. From all the organizer blogs I've been reading lately I think the solution is a combination of lazy susans and undersink shelving. I'm thinking something like this  and maybe something like this too, to hold my most used cleaners.

If OrgJunkie, OMF or OTO or anyone else happen to see this post..I'd love ideas for products to help organize this space better. I'm going to tackle it some time this weekend I think.

I also need a solution for all our CDs and DVDs. They're taking up way too much space on a storage shelf in the storage room of the basement. We don't even use the CDs since we stored all the music on our media server. That shelf could be much better used..I'm going to tackle that this weekend too, now that the super hot is finally going away (right? it IS going away isn't it?) and I won't be obligated to swim with the kids every single day.

these need to move, i could better use that shelf

I should have taken before and after pictures, but I'm super lazy so I didn't, but I rearranged the sort of hallway at the bottom of the basement stairs. You come down the stairs and at the bottom, toward the right there's a mini fridge and wine fridge, shredder and trash can. We're going to move the minifridge over by the couch (no pictures of that) and the wine fridge somewhere into the storage room. I'll likely leave the trash can and move the shredder into my pretend new office area.

bottom of stairs

 The door (on the right wall) to the storage room is there, with a wall. Along that wall we had a deck box with all our swimwear and towels (we have A LOT of beach towels) and a bookshelf holding all our games and some random books we were keeping for whatever reason. Anyway, since I'm selling the hope chest there's room in the storage room, I pulled out the hope chest, and slid in the deck box - perfect fit.

hope chest going soon, used to be bookshelf and deckbox here

 Moved a few other things around and pulled the bookshelf of games in there too. Now that wall is empty (well, once the hope chest goes it will be). I love it. And now I've sort of started imagining turning it into a nice desk area. Putting the main family computer down there, as well as using it as a place to work when the kids go back to school in August.

is this wishful thinking?

 There's definitely enough space for a small desk and I'd put the main family tower on the floor with the monitor on the desk, and a lamp (which I already have) and move the shredder over to this wall. Then my new laptop that's coming from the office, I'd work at the desk here most days, but it'd still be portable of course for summertime or if it got too cold down here. This would also allow us to get rid of the desk that's too big that's in our living room. It works ok, but it'd be nice to just have a chair there and no bulky desk.

this is far right wall in storage room, opposite the DVD shelf

I'll likely put the wine fridge on top of the pool supply cabinet, I think it'll fit best there and I might switch places with these things depending on where my outlet is. I don't love that brown shelf - it's the husbands from living at home eons ago with his parents. We'll see where that ends up. To the right is the deck box - which replaced the hope chest.

deck box

See, it fit perfectly and I intend to store the bin with the pool cover on top of it during the winter. And next to it is the bookshelf. There used to be a file cabinet there, but since I've gone all paperless and Fuji Scan Snap with our bills, we don't need it. Also, it had rusted leaving a giant pile of rust - which I thought were bugs or something. Gross. Anyway, that went to the dump. So this spot used to have the filecabinet and pool cabinet and I put the bookshelf here with all our games, arranged so the littlest one can reach her favorites. We don't need to talk about the golf clubs.

game bookshelf

On that bookshelf is a book called "Build your own x86". A book about how to build your own computer. From like 1995. But the husband insisted we keep it...for...nostalgia or something. I dunno. I'm on a roll though, I want to finish up this cleanup, see if a desk area really is possible here. I love purging and organizing like this.

Red Hair and IKEA

Wow I am an awful blogger. I've done a lot of organizing around the house, particularly the desk and office areas and I'm trying to be ambitious and organize the girls' closets and such. But after I take the pictures and what not I'm...tired...and lazy..and I haven't written anything about it. Maybe, one of these days when both girls are in school I'll sit down and write a real post. Anyway...I had my hair colored today, a coppery red. I love it.

Over spring break we went up to the Mall of America in Minneapolis and I cannot leave without going to IKEA. My family hates it, but I am nowhere near one, so I have to go when I can. I have been eyeing a new dining room lamp for about eight years now. Red shade, just simple, but nice. The husband bought it for me while we were there and it looks sooooo awesome. So much better than the standard builders light.

Before

 

 

 

After

 

I love it so very much. Here's a few more :) The room is long, kitchen runs into dining area, runs into "fireplace room" which I guess is a living room. We read in there, the TV is in the other living room.

Before...in the dark apparently

After...still in the dark

Before, from the other direction

After, from the other direction

Paper Hoarder

I am a paper hoarder. Generally I pride myself on not hoarding anything. We regularly purge the toys, and books, and computer paraphernalia. I collect the kids' art throughout the year, and then photograph it all for a photo book and throw it away. Yay for me. As it turns out, I hoard paper. Records, receipts, statements, you name it, if its on paper, I hoard it.

I've been converting us to being as paperless as possible lately. Particularly in our bills and household paperwork areas. The husband bought me a new laserjet printer which is awesome AND a Fuji ScanSnap iX500 which is even more awesome. So I've been bringing up our paper files from the basement file cabinet, up to the desk, sorting and scanning. Deciding to scan and keep only 2 years of past bills (water, gas,electric etc) meant I threw away PILES of paper. We bought a new car yesterday (traded in a less-new angry-making car) and when I was looking for the service papers on it, just in case they wanted it or found it helpful, I came across receipts I had kept for our old cars. Specifically a receipt (tires I think?) from 1999 for my 1988 Plymouth Horizon. As well as a receipt from the husbands 1989? Firebird (also tires I think). Those cars are...like three cars ago for us. Why would I still have these papers? So I am enjoying even more all the sorting and scanning and throwing away (shredding) of all this paper. It's super fun because I like the organizational aspects of it, and because its cleaning without using any real elbow grease.

I have some pictures of the file cabinet and my terrible bill organizer on the desk as well as the piles of paper I'm creating for shredding. I'll post about it again, with pictures, when I get through it all.

Hello. My name is Melissa and I WAS a paper hoarder.

5 Issues in this Election That Matter to Me

The Listable Life topic today at MomOf6 is....

5 Issues in this Election That Matter to Me

I'm just going to list them, I'm not going to elaborate because I'm not really interested in a big discussion, I just want to make the list, link up and move forward from the last post.  You know what, I'm not going to do that. I want to write more than I want to write, if that makes sense so I won't likely be able to stop myself. And I'm not very articulate when it comes to politics. I understand what I believe and what I want to see happen, but I'm terrible at backing myself up with facts and details. It's also so hard to know what the truths are, when politicians are known for lying, regularly, to everyone. Important topics to me are abortion, healthcare v. health insurance, the economy and jobs, immigration, and many other things.  So..how about another list...of..the things I plan to do this weekend! The oldest had pink eye last weekend, and was working on her now full blown cold...maybe this weekend will turn out just a bit better.

1. Go to the self-pottery place, start on some grandparent Christmas gifts. Use my groupon.
2. Get the husband to edit the family photos we took last Sunday, print a few for ourselves
3. Win the contest for $50 in shutterfly money so I can print the photobook I made last week
4. Look through and build/decide on Christmas cards with the new photos we've taken
5. Hit the dollar store and elsewhere to work on goody bags for the oldest's birthday party favors
6. Make some lists of gift ideas for Christmas for those we want to buy for
7. Organize the master closet - rearrange my clothes so when I'm hunting it makes more sense

I think that's it for this weekend...of course, laundry and dishes and general house cleaning is in the list as well..but those things are always in the list.

Stuck. Pitch Perfect.

Ugh. I am stuck. In a rut. Or something. I can't seem to get anything done around here. I am determined this weekend to get some things done. Saturday is the oldest's last soccer game (assuming  it doesn't get rained out..even then we might just call it done) and Sunday I'm hoping to get us out to a park for some family pictures. We also want to get pumpkins for carving and watch some football and have a barbeque with my family at my Dad's on Sunday. So it's...kind of a lot to cram in a weekend. But I'm still hopeful.

1. get and send/deliver invitations for the 9yo's birthday
2. brainstorm some party favor ideas for the girls that will come
3. organize the game shelf that is moving to the basement
4. organize the cabinet I gain by moving the games
5. crop and organize the kid art I finally took photos of last weekend
6. build a photo book for the oldest's 1st-3rd grade art
7. do laundry
8. reorganize the basement junk/storage room, it's become a mess since we closed the pool and the rubbermaid bin I have to hold the summer cover doesn't actually hold the summer cover...
9. sell or donate or something my wedding dress
10. figure out what we're doing with the photo printer that we never use
11. figure out what I want to sell my hope chest for (craigslist...) and do something with the stuff inside it
12. pay bills and figure out what's left for the non-necessities on our list

However, the very FIRST thing I'm doing this weekend is going to see Pitch Perfect with my sister-in-law and my dad's fiance. I CANNOT WAIT! Woo!

Goodbye Guilty Clutter

After about a week or so, the living room is finally cleared. As a reminder, here's the before.

Before

Too many THINGS everywhere. Floating shelves full of photos, bookshelves full of books and knick knacks. Mantle that just wants attractive.

So. I took down the floating shelves (and that shelf in between) and all the photos on them. I donated the frames to Goodwill and put the photos in a bin under my bed. Now I can see them anytime I want, and I know where they are when occasions come around that I might want to display them. In fact, I already have a plan for graduation (she's in 4th grade...I'm an early planner) and how to display the school photos. It's a great spot to just dump photos, of my girls, of family members, etc. I still HAVE them, but they aren't strewn all over the house in frames and on shelves turning them into clutter. In my hall between the front door and back door I have two magnetic decorative frames where I intend to put important pictures that I want to display. Pictures of my new niece, nephew and family photos that I can swap out. They are black frames with a dull silver metal magnetboard. Sort of like these. It works really well. I slimmed down the built in book cases and donated a lot of books to Goodwill. I still need to go through and donate the girls books, but that can wait a few weeks since they aren't in this room.

The big desk is still a problem, but compared to the photo above, the computer has slimmed and we have a flat monitor now. I also work at that desk all day with my laptop so I'm not sure what the long term solution will be. For now, it's ok, the desk is clean and I'll keep it that way. I also intend to swap out the small table (with that Partylight Infinite Reflections on it) with a medium sized curio cabinet. It should give a little height to that wall and it'll be a place for me to put my dad's china (he's keeping it until I'm ready) and the items I have from grandparents that have passed.

We had to patch and texture the wall spots where the floating shelves were. It turned out really well, but when I painted with my saved yellow paint..it didn't match. So now I need to paint the rest of the wall so at least the full wall matches. So this Sunday I'll probably paint the rest so that at least the color isn't so obvious. I think the sun faded the color, the paint is still good. And so. Here it is.

After

I tried to take the photo from the same general spot as the one above. I think it looks pretty great. I love my furniture in here, but it might be about time for an upgrade and perhaps a slightly smaller scale.  I also think I might take down and sell my Partylight pillar holders (I think they're called Sonesta, does anyone know?) because I think they just look like extra unbalanced clutter on the mantle. If I were to put anything on the mantle again it'd be a single medium height pillar candle holder probably. But right now my plan is to put nothing. I even threw away the unity candle from our wedding and I'm donating the holders to Goodwill (shockingly no one wants to buy 1995 precious moments unity candle holders).

My next cleanup is in the bottom left of the picture. You can see the dog cage there, our dogs are still stupid and eat walls and toys and whatnot, so we have to be able to cage them as necessary. I'd love to put that somewhere else. Behind that cage, under the end table, I've got a file box full of the kids last couple years of art projects and paperwork. I need to setup a lightbox and take photos of those things and create a photo book so I can throw out all the actual art. I think I'm going to try to paint the yellow wall AND take those photos this Sunday.  We'll see...

UPDATE:  I did paint the yellow wall, but I didn't take the kid art photos. I'm saving that for next weekend, we have a wedding this weekend and I just won't be up to it. Plus we're storing the in-laws appliances so my normal lightbox spot is taken. It will happen though!

5 Projects I Need to Tackle Around the House

5 Projects I Need to Tackle Around the House ( Momof6 )

1. Sort through the girls books. They have soooo many and I know some of them are baby books and the preschooler has outgrown them. It's time to sort and purge and donate (or save for my brand new niece) and clean up those shelves and drawers. We're big readers so I want to make them accessible and organized.
2. The desk. This desk is too big and really sort of cramps the style of this living room. I think ideally I'd like to move this desk and computer down to the basement, setup a sort of office there, but I'm not sure how well that will work out. It would be nice to at least slim it down to a smaller desk maybe if moving it isn't an option. 
3. In line with #1 - sort through the kids toys again. Some things we could save for my new niece, but the rest we've outgrown and should be donated. It'll clean up the toy room some and leave room for any new birthday and Christmas gifts that are bound to come along soon.
4. I need to throw out or give away my wedding dress. It's taking up some good space in my closet, I never look at it, I don't care to keep it..it was 2nd hand to begin with. There might be some usable material there, so I think I may offer it for free on craigslist if anyone has a use for it. I feel like I should be sentimental about it, but I'm just not. I paid $250 at a local 'repeat' store, so it's not like I got a brand new 'THE DRESS' experience anyway. 
5. I need to sell my hope chest. It was a Christmas present when I was 16 and I'm pretty sure it was my mother's idea but really, what sort of gift is that. Here's a wood box that won't fit anywhere for you to store things you don't even think are that important. Right now it is storing my wedding veil and bouquet and some stuffed bears I used to collect. It's also serving as the photo printer stand in our storage room. I could really use that space soooo much better.  

After all this wedding hullabaloo (my brother gets marred 9/15) I'm going to work on #4 and #5 first I think.

The alternative topic was 5 Things I Never Thought I’d Hear Myself Say As a Parent

I have to mention the one thing I never thought I'd have to say and the one thing that completely shocked me when I found myself saying it. 

Stop licking the cart.

The family room

I stumbled upon a new clutter/organizational blog last week. Clutterbug.me I found myself watching this video about guilty clutter. And as I was sitting and listening and watching her describe the guilt over her red sweaters...I felt a pang. Something clicked with me. I was sitting in a room full of guilty clutter.



I looked around and found that the room I spend all day in, the room we call the family room or the fireplace room, was full of things. Things. Books and photos and frames and candles and holders and even shelving that made the room seem full and small and super cluttered. Awhile back, when I was trying to decide what to put above the fireplace, I showed a picture to a friend and she suggested NOT doing anything busy because there was a lot going on in the room already. That was her nice way of saying 'HOLY CRAP you have a lot of junk in there'. She was being nice. I totally didn't see all the stuff. Until I watched that video. I went with a large clock above the mantle, not too busy but nice. However, the rest of the room was still full of junk. The picture below gives a good idea of what a mess it was. The stripes are no longer there, I painted the room yellow a few years ago, but wow, those stripes do NOT help the room at all. So imagine this, with yellow walls.

The baby is about 3 months old there (she's now almost 5y) the other is 5yo (almost 10 now) and obviously this was at Christmas time so there's a little bit extra Christmas decor involved. We've swapped out that blue couch for a red one, and the christmas tree spot holds a yellow chair now. Look at all that stuff. Floating shelves filled with frames, bookshelves full of books and avon steins and candles and clocks and wedding photos. So, when I moved the red and yellow furniture in here (we gave away the blue stuff) and painted the room yellow I took down the blue decor pieces. I still can't get over how much STUFF is in there.

So last weekend after I'd watched the video above, and read the post that went with it, and looked around my rooms, I realized that this room needed a fix-up and that large parts of it were here because of my guilt. I kept the photos because OMG you can't NOT show all your cute babies all the time, and HOW DARE you take down family photos even though you aren't speaking to some of the people in them and there have been new additions to the family since. Keep this stuff passed on from deceased family (I am keeping it, just with a better plan for display) and display it even though it doesn't GO with anything and you know the deceased would rather you were happy and comfortable in your home.

I have taken steps so far to clean it up and declutter and it's so awesome. I've donated a bunch of books to the library and I have a pile of frames and candle holders to donate to Goodwill. I took down the floating shelves and all the photos on them. I didn't throw them out, stop panicking, I am storing them in a plastic bin under my bed. So I can still see them and look at them and love them, but without SEEING them everywhere. I pared down the built-in bookshelves to hold books I acutally like or need to read and one photo of each child, one wedding photo and one family photo. I will swap the photos in those frames probably yearly (except our wedding photo of course, that one stays). Once I read the books I want to, I'll probably donate them also, and just keep books that look nice and that I want to keep (Harry Potter, etc) on the shelves. I'm a big fan of the Kindle now and of reading library books.

The room has transformed. I'm not ready to show you yet, I need to patch the holes from the floating shelves and touch up the paint and get the donations where they belong.  I have loved every minute of all of it. From deciding there isn't really any guilt with taking these things down and with donating things other people can use. I gave away the floating shelves to someone on Craigslist yesterday. I love it. I think my second career calling might have been a professional organizer. I think I might love that.

Next time, I'll have pictures of the room all de-cluttered and fixed up. We still have this big desk in the room that we'd like to scale down, but that might take awhile to work out, so for now we're working around it. The rest of the room however is really coming together.

The Master: BEFORE

I'm getting antsy about the bedroom furniture. For several reasons. Is it going to come in the right finish? The catalog where the salesman got the codes had a photo that did NOT look like the furniture finish I expect. The wood sample in the store is what I want. That better be what shows up. Anyway, it's time to show you what the BEFORE room looks like. I've started taking down art, clearing out side tables and prepping things to photograph and try to craigslist. I sure hope these giant chests sell.

Here is a fancy drawing I've done of the current room layout. Hopefully this makes the photos to follow a bit more clear. So, you walk into the room, to the right the closet sort of sticks out, making a little corner there - we put the dog water bowl there. The left wall is blank until you get to the bathroom door, the far wall has a large window, and the right wall is blank.  The purple shapes are my homemade nightstand, which is purple (to match old decor) but has just a shelf and isn't very useful and a round 5-drawer stand I was putting polish into. I'm selling that on craigslist and I'll re-use the other shelf in the basement or something for storage of some sort I'm sure. Maybe :)

The wall paint color is called Pralines & Cream but I can't remember the maker right now. I do still have the swatch though. We started out with a cream and purple theme, but the purple comforter ripped and I haven't found anything I love enough or that I'm confident enough matching with curtains to stay in that theme. We remodeled the master bathroom, and I feel that the color schemes need to match in the two rooms. So since we went with a cream and brown theme..that's where we're headed with the bedroom. The comforter and curtains are taken care of. The rest of what you see..goes away.

view from the doorway

view from the se corner, looking to the doorway, bathroom door on right

view from window on far wall, to the door and closet wall

view from se corner toward master bath.

So, I've removed a lot since these photos. The photo above the laundry basket found a new home in the living room, I removed the candle sconces and the curvy ones above the bed. I LOVE the art, but I'm going to swap it for something that matches. The in-laws are moving to town and they have some of the same art, so if they have room in their new house for it, they can use these as well. Otherwise, I'll keep them and find new homes for it. I'm hoping to find some nice art that can go above the bed at least, the other walls I'm not sure of. The art in the first photo to the right of the window is only there because I wanted to use it and didn't have any other walls. We've also removed the 2nd shelf from the TV holder thing. So there is now more room between the jewelry armoire and the tv shelf. That's an XBOX on the shelf - we use it with Windows Media Center and an extender to watch TV in the bedroom.  I also LOVE my lamps, they're clear lucite(?) balls and I think I'll just update the shades when the room is done to something more creamy and maybe I'll add my own brown accent embellishment perhaps. If the candle sconces don't sell on CraigsList I may keep them and paint them brown and hand them on each side of the new dresser mirror if that looks good.

Now, here is a fancy drawing of the room layout AFTER the new furniture arrives.I'll have a matching nightstand and we'll be sharing a sort of oversized dresser. It's being built by Daniel's Amish out of Ohio and we purchased it at Homemakers in Des Moines, IA which is a subsidiary of Nebraska Furniture Mart. It was customizable so we could make it taller/shorter, more drawers, less.. here is a photo of the store display.

store display

We're getting a more brown finish, I don't like the red/cherry tones with my brown/cream theme. So it should be a whiteacre finish on brown maple. We are not buying a chest of drawers, just headboard/footboard, 2 nightstands and dresser. The dresser you see has a top row of a small drawer, long drawer, small drawer. We're changing that so there will be 2 long drawers on top. That way we don't have to share the middle one, we'll each have our own set of 4 drawers.

Hurry up furniture!

I'm on a kick.

I'm on this organizing purging cleaning rearranging kick. I've suddenly become obsessive about throwing out things we never use, donating things we never wear or use and organizing the things we do use and need. I think part of the reason is the new bedroom furniture that we have coming in a couple months. I need my clothes to be sorted out so that I can fit them into the new smaller dresser (that I'll share with the husband) and I also need to be able to photograph and try to sell the current chests we use. I want to make the whole process easier and smooth for everyone. Well, mostly for me.

So. The chests of drawers we have are giant. 4 deep drawers and then 2 smaller drawers. They sort of take over the room with the way we've placed them. The new dresser will replace both of these, with a really nice mirror on top. The new dresser is taller than standard and longer, so we aren't losing that much space really and it really is time for us to pare down our clothes. The husband and his t-shirts...wow.

The CHESTS - the piles at the bottom are donation and trash piles.

I cannot wait to see how awesome the dresser will look there - without overpowering the entire room and seeming to block the walk way. It doesn't really, but it does feel like it. These chest were a good deal at K's Merchandise, when it still existed and it was a huge upgrade from the furniture that we'd been using. It was my dresser/chest from when I was a kid, I brought it with me when we got married. When we switched to this..it was time to switch and these were a great, affordable choice. But now. They gots to go.

So, I cleaned out the girls' drawers first, taking out and sniffling over the 2T and 3T stuff that no longer fits the 4yo. And moving the stuff that's too small for the 9yo into bins for the 4yo to wear later. Then I got out the bins of 4/5T stuff I'd saved from the 9yo and put them into the little one's drawers. She could not be more pleased about all the dresses I found. I am not pleased at all. It can't be possible that she's old enough to wear these dresses that were so adorable on my...hey, when did the 9yo outgrow all these things, she can't possibly be this old. Gah. They love it. I do not. But we're all clothed, so that's what matters. Here are the piles.

The donation pile.

 I made a list and photographed everything I intended to donate. I like to have photos because we take the donations as a deduction on taxes and this time the piles were huge. So I also made a list of sizes/types/brands. I filled the front and back of a lined piece of paper plus a list of kid clothes that I grouped by type instead of noting all the various brands etc. That is quite a list. I might actually have to use It's Deductible this year to figure that out.

The trash pile. Stained, missing buttons/zip, things no one should wear again ever.

The trash pile is smaller, but there were a lot of things I had been hanging onto for sentimental reasons. Sentiment is no reason to clog a closet or drawer. So my 1994 high school colorguard sweatshirt went, along with my 1994 poms sweatshirt and a pile of other t-shirts neither of us is ever going to wear. Don't fret - I kept a few shirts that I will wear in a pinch or to paint :)

Tupperware cabinet - BEFORE

Next up - the KITCHEN! My tupperware cabinet was bugging me. The 4yo likes to cook with those from time to time and she puts things back, but its so clogged in there, it was really starting to get on my nerves. I had these tiny 1" x 1" rubbermaid containers that couldn't hold anything more than dressing...so I decided it was time to purge. Success! Even the 4yo is pleased that she can more easily cook with what's left behind.

Tupperware cabinet - AFTER

It's a little difficult to tell that it's cleaner, but I moved the water bottles to the top right, where they'll never get used, threw out a pile of unused containers, put the lids on the container it belongs with, and laid it out in a way that I think will allow us to get to the most used items first.  Next up - utensil drawers!

Main cooking utensil drawer - BEFORE

Extra utensil drawer - BEFORE

I KNEW we had too many, but I could never find a minute or motivation to go through it. Apparently I found it. We had duplicates of so many things, and some pieces were cracked or chipping - definitely something I want near my food. So I sat down with a towel, sorted out both drawers and then lined them with that rubbery mat stuff so things wouldn't just fly around in the drawers.

Main utensils - AFTER

Extra utensils - AFTER

I'm sure we still have a few too many things in both drawers but it's all much more visible now and easier to see, grab and use. You should have heard the husband sometimes, trying to get a utensil  out of the main drawer. Grumbling because it was stuck on some other utensil or hung up on the drawer itself. Funny for me, cranky for him :) That shouldn't be as much of a problem now.

Now..I still have one problem cabinet. Well, I'm sure all my cabinets could use some attention, but for the most part, we're cleaned and organized. This last one..I just don't know what to do. I feel like I should extend the shelf in it somehow..but I'm not sure how..and I think maybe there's a better way to organize pots and pans (and a few bowls I should probably move) and I just haven't discovered it yet.

Pot and Pan madness

See, it's just a disorganized pile. I don't even bother trying anymore. Sometimes I throw a pot in after its clean and close the door really fast so I don't have to see it and so nothing falls out. Ha. What should I do with this cabinet?

And now I'm off, to shower and get dressed and get up the 4yo. I'm not working today because it's the 9yo's last day of third grade so I'm taking her to lunch wherever she'd like to go (within reason of course). And then their summer begins. Not a great day for it - it's raining and cold today. Oh well.

I promise

There is a post coming. I just keep running out of time to do it. I have taken a ton of pictures of some of the things I've been cleaning and organizing around the house. I'm sure it's much more exciting for me than it might be for you but I intend to post about it soon. I had hoped to post my progress on the list I'd made of things to do around the house...but I got distracted by all kinds of things. 

A sort of partial list of what I got through:
- clean out drawers, mine, husbands and both girls
- photograph stuff to be donated (half done)
- touch up ceiling paint in whole house
- look for large red vase for front yard ( no purchase yet, i hope soon)
- power wash house (husband did this)
- swim (we swam on Sunday, super hot outside, pool a nice 83 degrees)
- shop for new sandals for girls (done)
- hang out with my dad, his girlfriend with her kids for Memorial Day
- new swimsuits for the girls
- kitchen drawer and cabinet organization (about half done)

Things still to do:
- figure out solution for pots/pans cabinet
- pick/buy/plant big red vase for front yard (go to Earl May)
- paint exterior front door trim (white)
- make chore charts
- spray yard for bugs (husband)
- finish photos of donation and take to Goodwill
- order piggy bank for friends adopting
- clean master bedroom headboard/footboard, prep for sale
- get new cfl lightbulbs for girls fans
- balance 9yo ceiling fan (it shimmies so much, and makes so much noise, she refuses to use it)
- clean/organize under sink
- take down master bedroom art
- fill holes in master BR walls from art
- get new desk rubber mat (this plastic thing is crap and lasts all of 2 seconds)
- dust the house (this might never get done)
- research new bedroom sheers
- research blackout curtains for girls rooms (can ivory/white curtains really be blackout?)
- get gate kit for pool deck (husband)

GAH. That's a lot more TO DO than I got done. That's a little discouraging. Oh well, some of the things I got done were pretty satisfying, and going shopping with the 9yo, just she and I, was pretty great on Sunday. Anyway...more to come.

If you're bored, while waiting for my next awesome post, read my friends as they travel in S.Korea and pick up their son. It's been a long road and I am so very excited that it's finally coming to a point where they have him with them. Read about it here.

Organize! Go!

I think I might be addicted to purging and organizing. I don't have a lot of time to do it right now, but I do love to sit and daydream about cleaning out closets and donating toys and throwing away all those mcdonalds toys. Pfft they're not toys, they're junk. And I just this second realized I could maybe use BASKETS in my linen closet to make it a less stupid place. Oh it's stupid. See.

Messy triangle shaped linen closet

Top of triangle closet

I saw some baskets when looking through OrgJunkie's 'spring into organization' week features. Delightful Order to be specific. My linen closet is triangular...TRIANGLE SHAPED! WHA?! I know, right? How does one fit large square/rectangle items into a triangular shelf. NOT WELL. Maybe baskets will help. I could roll up towels into the baskets, and use a lower basket on the bottom to hold the sheet sets. It doesn't have to be beautiful, but this makes me feel like I'm the worst housekeeper ever.

see. triangle shelf.

We moved into this house without choosing any of the finishes. We didn't build it ourselves, but it was brand new, so I probably shouldn't complain so much. But who wants weirdly shaped closets? The main floor coat closet is also triangular. It's not a big deal there, because it just holds coats and the vacuum. But still, little weird. I believe the missing corner is where a lot of venting occurs.

After that, I want to tackle the basement storage room. A lot of things in this room are things we need to keep, but it's probably close to 50% that we don't.

I'm trying to craigslist that comforter (Garden Nights King from BB&B) but we could really use a sort and purge in here. The freezer has to stay obviously, but the new bike for the 9yo can go in the garage, some of the toys can probably be donated also. We just don't need Littlest Pet Shop, Dollhouses, Polly Pockets, Barbies, Squinkies, ZhuZhu Pets...need I go on? Oy, so much junk. I need the husbands help to sort it all though, a large part of these things are his, from back when we ran our own servers and he regularly built and rebuilt computers. We don't do that so much anymore, so I'm betting that four drawer thing full of PC parts can just go directly in a dumpster. Shhhh I wouldn't do that without telling him.

Anyway, I'm hoping to make one of my spring goals this year "CLEAN OUT CRAP". It's been really easy to do it in other rooms, and I'm hoping my daily visits to orgjunkie and her organizationally spectacular friends will help inspire me and find new ways to organize and get the most out of our space.

We'll see how it goes :)

i suck.

I'm not exercising. Ignore that last post. Instead i've decided to try not to snack so much. If anyone would read this, maybe i'd feel some accountability for that promise. But no one does, so I won't. But i'll try I guess. Exercise class starts up in September again, so i'm looking forward to it. I just wish I had some side passion that I could devote myself to, but then again, if i did, i'd neglect other things like work and my family. I just keep telling myself that when the kids are older, then I'll do all those things, like join the gym and actually exercise and get fit, learn to run (like couch to 5k), write a book (about what? i have no idea), make appointments for the dentist and massages and whatnot - all the things i put off because its too difficult to work around kids and also work a regular work week. Working from home is catching up to me i think. I can do it, and I do it well, but it's starting to take a toll. Jeez I'm complainy.

Craigslist

Craigslist is awesome. It's a giant garage sale with so little overhead I've found myself wishing I could sell everything I own, just for the simplicity. Saturday night I posted an ad to sell some baby furniture that we no longer need. The toddler has outgrown her pack n play, highchair, and travel system, so Craigslist yeilded four interested parties, one of which took it all for a great deal for her coming grandchild and cleaned out my storage area, all before 11am on Sunday. LOVE IT. Now...what else can I sell.