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Friday, February 14, 2014

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 13 - School-Agers Closet)

I figured, haven taken the giant leap of faith going head on with the school-ager's drawers that staying in his room and finishing up might be a good idea.  So, the next area in need of organization and cleaning...the closet!


You can see, it isn't pretty.  There's a good foundation, but somewhere around...ah, who am I kidding...it's a mess in there!!!  Another place that when the door gets shut, I instantly forget that it exists.

I placed the plastic containers with his books (which, were organized earlier in the challenge) in here as well as two with his stuffed animals.  Plastic containers are good wranglers and keep these items from slipping between the wire tines of the shelves.  

To get a handle on the closet's contents, I began by emptying it out.  It seemed that a clean/clear canvas was needed.  While doing that, I started to make piles...this time it was 3: keep, donate and trash.  Once that was done, the "keep" was then separated out further into like items.  School uniforms were put on the lower rack for easier access while other hang-able clothing, up top.  Baseball memorabilia got its own shelf and was neatly displayed while the books and stuffed animals took lower (again, easily accessible) shelves.




Every school year I open a new storage box for all the items collected throughout the year like art projects, etc.  I label the front of each box with the school year and teacher so that we can "look back through the years."  The boxes are alike; however, I realize that through the years their availability might become nil - so, next time I'm at the store, plastic storage containers (12) are on the list for purchase.  (I like clear containers because they are easy to see through, but realize others may dislike them for just that reason.)   
When I was done:

...the harps played.  This was a spot that for months, I wanted to tackle...so happy it's finally done.


28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 12 - School-Agers Drawers)


Leaving the condition of your child's drawers in their hands leads to this...

You would think having given him neatly folded piles, they'd magically appear in the bureau without worse for ware. Instead, in opening a few drawers, I found the state of his wardrobe to be less than desirable. Why have folded them in the first place??? I guess this exercise in futility taught me something, you can lead a horse to water, but can't ensure they'd do things the way you would. From now on, I'll leave dusting and making his bed to him while the laundry, (at least folding and putting it away) will remain on my list.

To get things into order, I removed everything and laid it out on his bed. This was a great opportunity to remove anything that has been torn/tattered, outgrown or could be donated aside. Then, I put all similar items together so that when they go back like will be with like. This is another place (like our linen closet) that the way I fold is directly related to how it will fit in the drawers.

Here is how I fold a shirt:

Short Sleeved
Step 1: After shaking out your
shirt, lay it face-down on a
flat surface.
Step 2: Begin by folding
shirt in towards the
middle.  Make crease at
collar opening.






Step 3: Fold back onto
itself the sleeve, lining
it up with the folded edge.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 2
& 3 on the right side.
Step 5: Take bottom
hem and fold up.
























Step 6: Flip shirt over.

Do the same for a long sleeved shirt except:

Additional Step: Fold
sleeve down with a mitre.


When I filled the drawers back up there was one for: ankle socks, full socks, underwear/pajamas/white TShirts, shirts (both long and short sleeve), pants and then sports gear.







Thursday, February 13, 2014

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 11 - Master Closet)

His Side
Her Side
 If you see into another person's closet...does it reflect their soul???  Hopefully, in my case - not.

So, it's gotten a little out of hand in there.  Ordinarily, I'm pretty tidy behind these doors. For me, all my clothes are in here (I don't have a bureau).  However, this isn't his whole wardrobe.  Probably because the size of his items are larger, he also needs 6 drawers of furniture (which, you'll see at a later date).  I'm not bitter...nooooo.  Honestly, having minimal clothing makes my life easier.  I don't like choices, they cloud my judgment.  I digress...

Anyway, as you can see the closet is divided up into quadrants:

     HER SIDE:
          Containers:
               Socks, Handbags/Belts, Lingerie/Bathing Suits,
               Underwear/Bras, Sleeveless TShirts, and Shorts
          Shelves:
               Long Sleeve, Short Sleeve and Sleeveless TShirts,
               Sweats/Yoga Pants and Jeans
          Hanging:
               Sportswear, Capris, Pants and Skirts
               Dresses, Button-Up Sweaters, Pullover Sweaters,
               Button-Down Shirts and Sleeveless Camis
          Shoes
  HIS SIDE:
       Containers:
             Ankle Socks, Socks, and Ties
       Shelves:
             Sweats, Thermals, Jeans, Long Sleeved Shirts and 
             Sweaters
       Hanging:
             Sportswear, Long Sleeved Dress Shirts, and 
             Golf Shirts
             Work - Pullovers, Sweaters, Button Down Shirts, 
             Golf Shirts and Pants
       Shoes


Here are the finished products:

His Side
Her Side

When organizing, I place items on the shelves by color.  The end result looks fabulous!!!
(There were items that were removed and will be donated.  Sadly, a few pairs of shoes wound up in the bag.  Sniff, sniff.)

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 10 - Toy Chest)

When you turn the lights out...they multiply.  Toys, toys everywhere!!!

Well, if you are like me, you'd like to tame the beast.  The pictures above are really only a few piles that we have around the house.  My mission is to keep them in two places, separated per child (we have a schoolager and infant).  

Certain toys, need to be kept away from little hands.  To remedy this, I use containers with a locking mechanism.  Items are placed with like items; for example there are containers for: games (2), cars, super heroes/villains, action figures, mini action figures and LEGOS.



Toys that aren't going to get swallowed go in a basket for easy access. 




Monday, February 10, 2014

Valentines Day Idea (Schoolager/non-card)

In our already busy lives, its hard to keep up with the Jones. Personally, I've probably seen a hundred cute ideas of something unique to send in with our schoolager. But, who am I kidding??? With an infant in the house, I'm lucky my socks match - wait, if I have CLEAN socks - everyday. In an effort to avoid store bought (not that there is anything wrong with that), I came up with the following idea:
 

Start to finish it took me 20 minutes to put these together.  After finding cute clipart and printing out on mailing labels, all I had to do is peel and stick...I think they turned out really ed-ib...er uh, cute.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 9 - Laundry Room)

I'm not a big fan of where our laundry room is...in the basement.  Every time I go down there, a thought passes through my mind - dungeon.  Maybe that is why I don't really ever pay much attention to how it looks.  There are times when I feel like it should be cleaned up but it really takes a lot for me to get there.

This is what it looks like:

You'd think that having gotten beautiful new machines would spur me to keep things up, but it doesn't.  So having this on my To Do List was a good thing.

I straightened up the washing/drying products on the top and put down a towel so that they don't scratch the machine's finish.  In the 8 years we've lived here, I've never cleaned the utility sink so it was time to do that too.  Who knew that the reason the water flow from the spigot was at a drizzle because the screen needed to be cleaned of sediment???  When all was done, this is what it looks like:


A few plastic bins keep the dryer sheets, Oxy-Clean and sprays together.  What I think is my piece de la resistance is our laundry sorting area.  This is what it looks like:


 I separate clothes into darks, jeans, lights, whites, reds and linens...there are some who think this is crazy but I take washing like things together very seriously.

There have been a few things that I saw on Pinterest where people have built a laundry center where the baskets slide in/out and I would LOVE to have something like that...I can dream right???

Saturday, February 8, 2014

28 Day Cleaning/Organizing Challenge (Day 8 - Desk)

We don't have a desk, per say, in our house.  I do, however, keep most of the stationary and art supplies in a kitchen cabinet.  As you can see:

  
it is a distant cousin to our junk drawer!  They are on the catch-all side of the family...

When we decided to include this area in the challenge, I knew it'd take me some time to get through this one...the finished product, totally worth it:


and it looks so good!  In organizing, I put like items together (quadrants again) into Ziploc containers (which I had already been using to some degree).  I have to admit, there is less stuff in there...went through and got rid of a few things, put the extra bins under the kitchen sink with the others form earlier this week and then, I also did this:


it's kind of a display of the art supplies we use often, in some glass that I had in the china hutch and empty jars (reuse/recycle at its best).  I figure it will be better for our school-ager to have access when he is working on a project, without the need to pull over a chair and climb up for things.  I have some other glassware that display things around the kitchen like coffee, utensils, etc. so it matches nicely.

Here are two things I also do that are stationary related:

I keep a stock of school
supplies for any last
minute need for them.
Nothing worse than
needing to make a
midnight run for pencils!
Ever have a last minute
need for a birthday card
or the like?  Buy a few
cards for different
occasions and keep them
together for when you are
in a pinch!