I'm ba-aaaack!

Well, it's been a very, very long time since I've worked on this, but I've recently been inspired by the 52-Week Organized Home Challenge hosted by Home Storage Solutions 101!  I have teamed up with a group of friends on Facebook to do the challenge, support each other, share before and after photos and just generally chat throughout the day as we work.  Here is what I accomplished today:

First up is my kitchen table.  This is what we use in lieu of counter tops in our kitchen because we just don't have any!  Things have been so hectic and crazy since Christmas and today was the day to get this area in order.  Food was put away, dishes to the sink, unused appliances stored and items were returned to the rooms they belong in.

Next up is the baker's rack we use for storage.  Not only are we lacking countertops, but also cabinet space!  While this isn't my ideal, it it functional if kept organized. 

Tomorrow's challenge includes kitchen utensil storage and silverware drawer organization!

Laundry Room/Family Closet

Yep, I'm still here...really, I am! I have been working hard on things but unfortunately, there's been so much to do before I can even get to the "decluttering" part, which is why you haven't heard from me in awhile.  For the past few weeks one of my projects has been getting our laundry room/family closet in order.  If you've never heard of a family closet, the premise is that ALL clothing is centrally located in one room or part of a room. 

The benefits of a family closet are many:

• no clothing all over the house, especially in children's already-cluttered bedrooms
• no toting laundry baskets up and down the stairs
• Mom can be sure everything is getting put away properly
• no more rummaging through dresser drawers to find something
• children's closets can be used for other things besides clothing
• eliminating dressers gives you SO much more space!

and the list goes on!  We have 4 children living at home, ages 2, 4, 6 and 8, and they share two bedrooms.  The bedrooms are small.  The laundry room is large in comparison.  These are the factors that made us to decide to implement the family closet a few years ago.  I don't have any "before" pictures but now that this area of our home is mostly decluttered and organized, I thought I'd share it!

Here is how it works for us.  Each child, plus Mom, had a basket on the shelf for clean items such as t-shirts, shorts, underwear, PJ's - basically anything that doesn't get hung on a hanger.  There is also a basket for clean socks, which we sort periodically.  All other clothing gets hung on the rods on either side of the room.  If you turn completely around, here is the view:

You can see our dog's cage here also, this is where he sleeps.  Today I put a small basket on top of his cage to put his flea & heartworm meds, leashes, treats, etc.  And here are pics of either side of the room:

Now I said the room was in order, not perfect!  Yes, there are hampers full of laundry waiting to be done.  There are plastic bins with out-of-season clothing, cloth diapers, and other items not currently in use.  And shhh...don't tell but 2 of those black plastic trash bags contain Christmas gifts for some of our children!  They would NEVER think to look there! 

As for the hanging clothes, they are divided by person.  Right now I have my clothes, as well as my youngest child and oldest child on one side and my daughter and middle son's clothes on the other side.  On the shelves above the clothing, I store bulk packages of diapers and wipes, other plastic bins with things like swimming gear and one with empty tote bags, etc.  I do hope to re-visit this room and organize and declutter it a bit more, but for now I am just so glad I can get in there and move around!!

Dining Room

The Dining Room.  Otherwise known in this house as The Place For Everything Without a Home.  I guess since it is the most-used room in the house at this point, it just becomes a dumping ground.  I knew the dining room would take me awhile - I figured on the better part of a day to get it all done.  HA!  I was wrong.  It actually took 2 days!  But I am soooooo glad it is finished.  Let's have a look, shall we?

I completely forgot to take "before" pictures until halfway into the first day.  By this time, I had cleared everything from one side of the room and part of the other side and piled everything onto the dining room table unless it was trash or laundry, which went in their respective bags.  Here are the pictures from halfway through the first day:

Right side of the room- BEFORE

Left side of the room - BEFORE

When cleaning/organizing/decluttering a room that is a total disaster, I always start at a doorway and work my way clockwise around the room.  The first thing I came to on the left side of the dining room was toy boxes and our hutch.  We had already decided to move the hutch to the opposite side of the room, and also get rid of the computer armoire and door-less shelf unit completely.  So I methodically worked my way through emptying out the hutch, clearing things out of the shelves, and picking things up off the floor.  There were probably about 10 cardboard boxes piled up in the corners full of stuff that had gotten picked up in the past but didn't have a home.  I completely went through each and every box, bag and bin that came across my path.  I sorted pens, pencils, crayons, markers, books, school stuff, stray silverware and cups, and tons of junk.  All toys went into bags to be dealt with at a later date.  The next day, I had to go grocery shopping, but when I got home, I got right back to it and worked well past bedtime.  There were some spots on the floor under the old computer armoire where something had spilled onto junk mail and it was now glued to the floor.  My 2-year-old and I spent some time on our hands and knees scrubbing with scrub brushed.  I should have gotten a picture of that!  By the end of the second day, here is some of my progress: 

 You can see the left side is pretty clear.  Lots of stuff still on the table but much less than when I started.  We had gotten the armoire and shelf unit out onto the front porch and the hutch moved to it's new position.  At this point I only had maybe 2 hours worth of organizing and picking up to do.  I was too tired to take a bunch of pictures.  So this morning I put the finishing touches on it.

Right side - AFTER

The hutch in place and organized.  ALL of the board games that had been shoved wherever they fit before are now stacked up waiting for the new shelves which will be built to hold them.  The pile on the right is school stuff that needs to be moved back down to the schoolroom.

Left side - AFTER

And my beautiful dining table!  Beyond the table, where the hutch used to be, there is now a bench (piled with empty baskets at the moment) which will be replaced by a storage/deacon's bench as soon as we find one.  The shelves will be built above it.  There are also 2 bins of toys there in the corner which will be moved to another location.  This room literally ECHOES now when you talk!  It is so big and empty-feeling.  What a feeling to be able to move around the table and to seat the whole family again.  And yes, the floor needs some attention, but that doesn't fall under decluttering, right?  =)

And here are the pictures side by side so you get the full effect.

Left side - Before and After

Right side - Before and After

Day 9, Kitchen - part 2 - Cabinets

The good thing about decluttering my kitchen cabinets is that there aren't that many of them!  I finished all of the upper cabinets today. 

My baking/spice/coffee mug cabinet - before and after

I already had some good organization going on in this cabinet, it just got a little cluttered.  This cabinet is over the kitchen sink, so it's hard to reach the top shelf.  I have all my spices, seasoning packets, extracts, sprinkles and cake decorating stuff in plastic Gladware type containers so I can easily pull out a container to find what I need. The large white bin on the upper right has all my baking supplies (electric mixer, cocoa powder, baking powder, cupcake papers, powdered sugar) Now I have room for all my coffee mugs and big huge cups with lids!  I also purged a huge amount of duplicates spices, old baking soda, etc. 

My coffee/tea/sugar cabinet - before and after

We'll look at the after picture.  Top shelf holds kids lunch boxes, glass measuring cups and some serving dishes we only use for parties.  Second shelf holds tea bags, sugar, honey and coffee filters.  Third shelf has coffee, coffee and more coffee!  Whole beans, ground, instant, regular, decaf.  We are all about coffee around here.  From the pictures, it doesn't seem like a big difference but in reality it's a huge difference.  Everything is organized now and I did purge some stuff.

Dish cabinet - before and after

Again, looking at the after photo.  Top shelf now has a bin with medicines/vitamins and some empty Gladware containers.  Second shelf holds a bin of sippy cups, a bin of baby bottles, a bin of measuring spoons/cups, and a nifty Tupperware thing that holds bowls that press flat and their lids.  I also have some small plates in there.  Bottom shelf holds plates and bowls.  I purged some plates out of here as well as putting a lot of things that were in here into different places where they made more sense.  I love my wire shelving in this cabinet, which I purchased at Gabriel Brothers for $1.99 each!

Dry goods cabinet - before and after

This is the only cabinet we store food in.  As you can see, things like pasta, taco shells, popcorn, rice.  On the second shelf I have a cardboard box that I keep small items in so they don't get lost in the cabinet, like Jell-O and pudding mixes, bags of dried beans, and cornbread mix.  I keep my spaghetti and quick oats in Tupperware containers.  I am always trying to figure out how best to store bagged pasta.  Any ideas?

Stay tuned next time for the lower cabinets and the dreaded under-the-sink cabinet!

Day 8, Kitchen - part 1

I guess you've figured out that these days are not consecutive.  I only count the days I work on the Project.  SO, I've had to switch gears.  I realized there was no way I could finish the bedroom until a lot of other areas are finished because I have so much stuff that needs to go to these other areas that are just in limbo in the bedroom right now.  So I decided to move on to the kitchen.  Organizing things in my kitchen is very difficult.  We barely have any space to put anything.  Here is the extent of our kitchen cabinets:

Charming, aren't they?  Pure 1940's something, I'm sure.  So yeah, it's tough.  We also have a very tiny pantry closet for canned goods, paper towels, etc. but here's where we keep a lot of our food:

It was feeling a bit disorganized so I decided to work on it today.  Here's how it turned out:

Top shelf holds my most-used cookbooks & recipes, a jar of candy, a basket full of empty mason jars, bottles of juice.  Second shelf: Breakfast items - oatmeal, cereal, pancake mix and pancake syrup and the candy basket.  Third shelf: I love these yellow/orange/red baskets.  I got them from AVON a long time ago.  They snap together or lay flat for storage.  There are 3 sizes.  The smallest one holds bread.  The next size holds snacks (microwave popcorn, granola bars, etc).  Also on this shelf is bags of potatoes, peanut butter, and a box of crackers.  Can you tell we need to go shopping?  Fourth shelf: Ramen noodles (I buy a case for my 20-year-old every grocery day), another basket with chips, the green basket holds all of the lids to my pots and pans.  Bottom shelf: A big cardboard box full of reusable grocery bags, and a large plastic tote full of everyone's hats, gloves and scarves.  These live here because the tiny closet you can barely see to the right has nowhere to store them.  (It barely stores the coats.) 

I am also working on decluttering the rest of the kitchen, mainly the cabinets, so stay tuned for more on those tomorrow. 



Day 7, Bedroom - Part 1

Ugh.  I feel like I got nothing done in here today!  Now I did get a WHOLE bunch of laundry done and put away, educated the children, fixed 3 meals, did next week's school prep, and a host of other things.  But not a lot got done on the Project.  So here's what I DID do.  A little background info - my desk sits next to my nightstand.  I have a fab desk chair that rocks and reclines and is super comfy, which is important because I spend a lot of time in it.  Unfortunately, it takes up a whole lot of space on my already-space-limited side of the bed.  Because of the chair arms, you can't push it under the desk.

So a while back I bought a new desk chair.  It's been cluttering up the hallway for quite some time.  Today I decided to put it together and try it out.  I opened the box and found all the parts to the chair (hallelujah) as well as an assortment of toys, jewelry and other junk that small people around here apparently have been tossing in there on their way down the hall!  Anyway, here's what it looked like with the new chair:

Lots more space!  The only problem is, I don't like it.  I sat in it for awhile and it's a nice chair, good back support and great for sitting at the desk writing or typing.  But it doesn't recline!  It's not comfy!  How can I kick back and watch Netflix on my computer if I can't kick back???  So, I decided to compromise.

That's right, I'm keeping them both.  Someday when this decluttering is done, I hope to switch to a smaller desk which will take up less space on my side of the room.  When that happens, I'll make a decision.  For now, this works because the kids love to sit at the desk with me or sit together when they have their computer time. 

I also turned this...

into 3 full bags of laundry to take to the laundry room.  Pictures of that area will come once it's completely decluttered.  Stay tuned!

Day 6, Storage Cart

After I finished putting the bed back together, I felt like doing something else, but it's getting late so I didn't want to tackle another big project.  Next to my desk I have a small rolling storage cart with drawers.  I use it to house the supplies for my AVON business.  So I decided to declutter it! 

There are 4 small drawers on the top and 3 large drawers on the bottom.  Here's the top 4 drawers.  Mostly they were filled with expired catalogs.  I filled half a trash bag with them!  After that, there wasn't much left.  Now it's organized.

Top drawer has samples & supplies like my name & phone # stamps.  Second drawer has items that I need to return.  Third drawer is now EMPTY and will be used for current catalogs, once I get them out of boxes in the dining room.  Fourth drawer has calendars and money collection envelopes.  The large drawers on the bottom didn't need decluttering.  One keeps all my bags, one is empty, and the other has miscellaneous products in it for gifting or personal use.  Woo hoo - two projects in one day!