We've got a long way to go (especially if we ever plan on letting outsiders in the front door ever again), but every little bit helps....and I'm trying to do a thorough job as I go. I got into this mess because I would clean clean clean...and then "sweep whatever was left under the rug" (ie, in one continuous motion, toss it into my craft room/office and shut the door quickly before anything escaped). Thus, the craft room would be my audition material for "Clean House".
But we're getting there.
Over the last few days, I've set my timer (small children, indecisive thyroid, pregnancy, dogs, husband-who's-a-bigger-pack-rat-than-even-me....I run out of steam quickly) and gone into the office armed with industrial size (ok, maybe not, but the big, black ones) garbage bags and I've been ruthless! My inner crafter and tree hugger had to be bound and gagged a few times, but my love of repurposing is part of what got me into this mess....literally.
It's a little frustrating to spend time, effort and allergies (cleaning kicks up a looooooot of dust around here) and not feel like it even made a dent in the problem.....but then I just go out and look at the big, full garbage bags and I feel better.
And then there's the storage containers....I FINALLY got through some of the toys in the toy room. I have an awesome storage thingy from IKEA with little pull out tubs of different sizes. I had visions of the girls taking out one tub at a time and making the toy room a little more toddler friendly....they could choose what they wanted and be able to handle it all on their own. Great idea....
but what we ended up with was kiddie junk drawers. Not cool.
So far so good on the clear boxes. Maybe I made a bigger deal of it. Maybe (for now) it's more organized. I've always been a person who will put something away EVERY TIME if there's a clear place for it....it's all the extra "stuff" that I struggle with....and so now....all the extra "stuff" in the toy room is still strewn about waiting to be pitched, donated or settled...somewhere.
In the mean time, the girls have been so excited about the boxes and I've seen them play so well with the "new" toys in the boxes. We've had dinosaur trains, doll birthday parties, tool bench creations and much more. The big one never realized we actually had that many blocks....and the little one feels like such a "big girl" when she can "do self". She's sooo good at putting away!
Now on to the craft room. I don't have a *real* before picture of the closet....to ugly for capturing. But as you can see in the first picture above, there's a floor now (we (Ben) tore out the shoe ramp in the bottom so there'd be a flat space), but there are still a few hanging items left over from when it was the nursery....as well as some random luggage (see, I don't have a set place for the luggage to go, so I think there's a suitcase, back pack or brief case in just about every room of the house!). But...God-willing...at the end of the day, there'll be a beautiful craft room/kid craft/homeschool materials storage system for me to declutter the world! Well, at least the craft room.
More to come.....
2 comments:
I love this one, Sarah. We've been starting to use bins a lot more around here too. I like bins with lids better because I can put them away...and pull them out a few days later...and viola...new toys. I love the clear bins so they can see what is inside. I also like your description of the open bins as "kids junk drawers". We have some of those. oh...and I'm happy you are nesting too.
Thanks Mariah. I did use one of the lid-less bins for all of the Little People...so far it's stayed pretty organized...maybe they've just gotten the idea from the clear bins. Who knows. The challenge is that there's an Animal bin, but there are Little People animals. When I put things away, I segregate, but if they put the little people animals in the animal bin, I don't care :)
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