Organizing the laundry/craft/homeschool resource room Update!

You may remember when I first started this blog, it was about decluttering. Remember the laundry room?

Remember the blanket over the bookshelves?

Want to see what's under it today?

TADA!

I love the plastic shoe boxes. I wrote on an index card what was in the box and voilà! instant organization.

I love how I can grab a box or two of what I need and go. Then when we're done, it goes right back into it's home and the blanket covers it back up again.

Now to keep my 3 year old artist out of it is another story...

With Love,

Emily

The Kids Rooms

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been SO LONG since I last blogged. I started an exercise regime and it's been about two weeks before I had enough strength/ stamina to declutter AND workout. 

Well, I worked on my kids rooms. WHAT A MESS! I enlisted the help of my mom, who very graciously came over to help me. There is nothing wrong to admit that a job is too big for you and you need help. Shoot, the cleaning got done faster and I don't feel fried from being so over whelmed. 

Kids rooms are far different than any other room, because you have to do the whole room instead of little project parts of it, since the kids like to play in there and will just undo everything. Hence the reason why it's a mess in the first place.

Now I forgot to take a picture of my daughters room before I got started,...

But rest assure it pretty well looked like my sons room, but with girly toys.

Dear me. No wonder he cries when I tell him to clean his room....

Well, just as we've been doing for all of the other rooms, we sort the room, throw away trash, and give away as much as we can. My son was at school at the time, so I made executive decisions, just as I did with my daughters room, but there are a few things like the stuffed animals that we will go through together and he'll choose what to keep and what to give away. It's good practice. 

Ta da! When my son came home from school his sister grabbed him by the hand, before he even had a chance to take off his shoes, and lead him to his room. "See! See! It's all clean now!" she cried. It's was so cute. My son said, "Wow mom! It's all clean! I love it!". I said, "New rule in the house is, 'keep it clean'. If you take a toy out, you put it away. All toys, books, and anything else on the floor must be put away before we leave the house or go to bed". He says he's going to keep it clean, so we'll see.

Oh, and here's just a few bags of give away's from his room. His sister had quite a few too. Ah freedom...

So far in my journey to declutter I have found that the less stuff you have the easier it is to clean. Such a simple idea, but yet in a world where everything is now, instant, always available, it's easy to get bombarded with stuff. One of the thoughts that I work against all the time is, "what if I need it later". Again, in this world of now, instant, always available, if for whatever reason I need it again, it will be out there somewhere for me. But obviously if I'm not using it now and don't have any plans on using it in the near future, then I probably don't need it to begin with. It's a challenge. It's tough. It's a totally new way of thinking. A rewiring of the brain perhaps. I think it will come with time.

Until next time!

With Love,
Emily

A Jewelry Idea

So where do you keep your jewelry? Drawer? Tackle box? Over stuffed jewelry box?

I kept mine in a dresser drawer. It was becoming a pain to find the piece that I wanted and trying to keep them all organized and untangled was getting more and more difficult as I added new pieces. I especially wanted to keep the jewelry I made exceptionally safe.

I looked around pinterest and saw several ideas, but I didn't have any one of those things to organize with. Rusty rake anyone? There's an eye poker for ya.

So I had a cork board that wasn't being used, so I hung it up, added my thumb tacks it a pleasing way and arranged my jewelry.

This hangs behind my bedroom door. It's nice to get dressed and then stand there in awe picking out the piece that will be honored by my wearing it.

Oh, and the pins up there are just stuck up there by themselves.

A couple more pieces and I'm going to need another cork board.

With Love,
Emily

No sew slip cover!

My couch. It's made of this easy to clean, looks like "leather", goes with everything, vinyl. With two kids and a husband hanging out on the couch, it was was starting to see it's day... and it's only 3 years old. Sheesh.

One day I was fed up and I was getting tired of vacuuming up those stupid vinyl flakes every day, so I said that there has to be some way to make it look better.

One day it hit me. How about a fitted sheet? 

So I tried it.... and...

No sew slip cover!

This is a queen size fitted bottom sheet from a set I got as a wedding present. It's super soft, and since we got a king size bed 3 years ago, it just sits in the closet waiting for the in laws to visit. Thankfully I also have another set to use when they visit!

Bonus- It prevents you from sticking to the couch in the summer and prevents the couch from feeling ice cold in the winter.

I love free.

With Love,

Emily

Soda Box Upgrade

The other day I was trying to find something in my pantry (the deep dark cave of cabinets) and I said to myself in frustration that there HAD to be a better way to organize the stuff I have in there. Well, I found a cheap (and FREE!) way of handling that problem... Soda Boxes!

There will be a nice long posting about how exactly I organized my pantry on a later posting, but today I wanted to share with you how I upgraded the ugly soda boxes for my craft bookcase in the laundry room. I figure those I'm going to see all the time, so I should make them look pretty.

Supplies

Soda box (refrigerator kind) with the top cut off

Scissors

2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper (don't get the thick fancy kind, just the cheap thin kind)

Mod Podge (or make your own like I did with a bottle of white glue and water)

Step 1: Start with folding your paper in half

 Step 2: Cut the fold

 Step 3: Measure

I eyeballed it and pinched the corners so it would line up again without remeasuring.

 Step 4: Get the glue

Again, I make my own mod podge. It's just a bottle of while glue (I even use the cheap kind at that) and enough water to make it look like thick milk.

 Step 5: Glue the box and add paper.

I wasn't too exact, but I did make sure that the pinched corners lined up and the paper lined up with the bottom of the box. No one want to have a wiggly box!

Step 6: Cut the corners

Following the pinch, cut down to the box. Then glue both the box and the paper, and fold down! I also glued over the top of the paper once it was glued down to ensure that it stays down. 

Step 7: Repeat step 1 and 2 with the other piece of paper, and glue down to the side of the box. 

Fold over the top just as we did in Step 6.

Step 8: Glue over the entire box rubbing out any air bubbles. 

Leave to dry and your done! Later you can add a pretty tab labeling whats in the box

I hope you have fun making these pretty boxes!

Until next time!

With love,

Emily

Part one- Project #3- The Laundry Room Bench

Hi again everyone! This is only part one of the bench, because even though I had high hopes of completing it all today, it didn't happen. And that is life, and if it happens to you, don't let it get you down. There really is a tomorrow, and if tomorrow isn't coming, then it doesn't matter that we didn't finish the project. 

So here we go!

Step 1: Take everything off of the bench.

Step 2: Take the bench pad outside and beat the dust out of it.

And then have a seat and dangle your feet for a little bit. Feel like a kid again. :o)

Step 3: Take everything out of the cubbies. The charcoal will be making it's way to it's new home in the shed and the bag of rice there is actually a bag of a whole lot of homemade rice compresses. A project I should finish and sell at the market.

Step 4: Get the Windex. Or Pledge. Probably not the vinegar spray though.

This is faux wood and vinegar is pretty harsh to it, so be careful and do a test spot if you aren't sure.

These are the upper cubbies. I plan on putting the tempera paints up here. Daughter LOVES to paint, and once she figures out how to open one of those bottle, Heeeoooweee! There'll be paint from this side to the other side of town.

My next step is to declutter all of the stuff I took out of the laundry room. I wasn't able to get to it in a timely manner, and I burned my poor little pointer (and mouse clicker) finger frying up french fries for dinner (that oil is HOT) So I'm going to rest it for the night and finish the job in the morning.

I can't wait to show you how beautiful the bench will look once I'm done! 

Until tomorrow!

With Love,

Emily

Project #2: The Kitchen Island

Welcome back to Project #2: The dreaded Kitchen Island. 

Now everyone has a place in their home where stuff collects everyday. For most people it's the dining room table, for me it's the kitchen island. It drives me freaking nuts, because I love to cook from scratch and I need all the room I can get. Shoot, the whole reason why we bought this house is because I fell in love with the kitchen and that HUGE island! So why do I let it get more and more cluttered? Million dollar question.

So here's what I did!

 Step one: Put any clean dishes and all foods away

I got out my blue plastic bowls and put the tomatoes, apples, and lemons in them. I put them there because one, I don't have enough room in the fridge for them. Two, tomatoes should be left out of the fridge anyway. And three, It looks pretty! And I'm more likely to use them if they are there where I can see them.

Step 2: Find a place for the mail to go

This is one of those mesh desktop organizing thingies. I nailed mine to the wall, because hey! why take up space on the counter? Now I won't lose that bill I need, or be searching for a pen anymore. It's also a good spot for the sunglasses too. Bonus!

Step 3: Wipe off the crumbs and admire how much room you've got again. Talk about counter space!

Step 4: Break out the spray!

Now I make my own, and have been for several months. I was using the "green" all purpose cleaner, but it was getting expensive, so I looked for an alternative. Turns out Vinegar and Water is all you really need!  Vinegar is a natural disinfectant.

 Now I got real tired of the smell of vinegar really quick, so I looked for other things I can do to make it smell better. Well, you can add a few drops of Lavender essential oil (which would be lovely, but I don't have any, nor the money to buy some) but I found two things that are really nice! Here at the Little Brick Ranch blog, she shows you how to infuse your vinegar with orange peels. 

You can use any kind of citrus peel. 

I, on the other hand, didn't have any citrus peels at the time, but I learned that Thyme is also a natural disinfectant. So I put some vinegar in a mason jar, added about a tablespoon or two of dried time and let it sit for about 2 weeks, stirring it once a day. You know it's done when the vinegar doesn't smell like vinegar anymore!

I then added half the jar, which I guess is about a cup full, to my spray bottle and filled the rest with tap water. MMMMmmmmm, smells so herby! Like I was just cooking!

Edit: I've gotten a huge response about my Thyme infused vinegar spray, and I just wanted to add this in...
Don't forget to strain the herbs out before you add it to your bottle!
But I'm sure you knew that already.
You're welcome. :o)

Step 5: Spray spray spray!!

One thing I love about my spray is that it lifts up and shows dirty spots I didn't see before. This one looks like a milk spot, and it'll just wipe away beautifully.

Step 6: Stand in awe. 

Great job! Now I can easily make meals for my family and not worry about not having enough elbow room.

How did your Kitchen Island/ or dining room table turn out? Did you find a home for everything? Don't forget to go through that mail and find a place for those bills. The wall is your canvas! 

Until next time!

With Love,

Emily

Part 2 of Project #1- Declutter

Here we go! Declutter time!!

Step 1: Get ready with a couple of bags. 

One for trash and one for give away. You can do another one for items you want to sell, but in all honestly for me, I'll never find time to sell. It'll end up just sitting there cluttering my home. So I get rid of it, or find a home for it in the house.

Step 2: Categorize the contents

I found that tip from 

Top Five Organizing Mistakes - with Gayle Goddard, the Clutter Fairy

So that's what I did. And when you do that you suddenly have an easier way of seeing what you have and you can easily knock out a pile of like things, instead of switching tracks in you brain the whole time. 

So for me, I gave away all of the dolls except for two of them, because they are from my childhood and I want to give them to my kids. 

Out of this pile all I kept was the 2 dolls, the box of jewelry I made, the purple sketch pad and the green blanket.

Which I immediately found a use for! Looks better already, and we haven't even organized underneath yet!

Step 3: Repeat repeat repeat step 2 until you have got through all the boxes, bags and what not. 

Remember to not think too hard about what you are going through. It's just stuff. It feels good to have it, but keep in mind what you want your home to look like. When you put something in the keep pile, have an idea where it's home is going to be.  

So during this process of purging try really hard to give/throw away 2/3s or more than what you keep. Think of it as throwing away your past hurts and fear. When you give something away, think of it as putting a smile on someones face, making the world a little bit happier. 

******

You are becoming a stronger person with each discarded item. Can you just feel the light of healing beaming on you? It's like stepping out in the warm sunshine after sitting in a really cold building. Gives me warm fuzzies.

******

Oh, and since I took everything off of the laundry room floor, I went ahead and put the 4 bags of canned goods that I had on the floor away.

Looks pretty doesn't it?

There you have it! Now don't worry if you can't put away everything that's in your keep pile right away. We're going to go through the keep pile later when we are putting the stuff in their homes and we are going to try to pair down, give/throw away again. Trust me, you will thank me later. Just put what you want to keep in a box and set aside. 

Until the next project, take care!

With Love,

Emily

Project #1 The mud room floor.

Now I don't know about you, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE! seeing before and after pictures. As much as I hate for anyone to see my clutter, I'm sharing because I want you to see you are not alone! 

I also believe in doing projects and not whole rooms. I get overwhelmed! Seeing the whole room as a total and thinking "I have to clean the whole thing... By. My. Self." quickly sucks any motivation I had when I walked into the room. My hubby cleared that up for me one day by suggesting I do projects! (duh! Why didn't I think of that!?). 

So here is my first project. The laundry room. (I know, didn't she just say not the whole room?) Yes, I did, and I mean it. My laundry room actually has several projects to do.

The Floor

The shelves. Crafts and canned goods.

The washer and dryer.

And the bench. Yes, there is a bench there!

Today I'm starting with the laundry room floor. Can't do anything else until I can walk through the room! The stuff on the floor has been sitting there for about a year. Clutter always starts off small like a little bitty baby, and it grows and grows without you even realizing it, until one day it's a big fat elephant sitting there!

***************

Step 1: Remove large items. 

I removed all the big boxes and threw out the cardboard.

Step 2: Bag up loose items and take everything out off of the floor.

Step 3: Discover cubbie holes in bench!

Told you I had a bench! We're going to clear out the cubbies when we clear off the bench area. But that's a project for later.

I wanted to show you, I haven't actually decluttered a darn thing yet. All I've done thus far is move everything to the table and threw out cardboard and obvious garbage. We're gonna declutter this in a little bit. :o)

Step 4: Get the mop... and the broom.

I love my shark steamer. I try to use the least amount of chemicals in my house as far as cleaning goes. Mostly because my daughter has eczema from birth and we didn't know what was triggering it. So the chemicals went out first. AAAnnnd, I'm Fricken Frugal. The Shark uses just water and steams your floors clean!

(oh and if you have hard water like me, PLEASE use distilled water, not tap. The minerals in the tap water will ruin your equipment quicker than a flea jumping up to bite you in the knee.)

Step 5: Admire

Be in awe! You've done a great job! Get some socks on and slide across your floor. It looks beautiful!

My family is now safer because the exit to the outside world is free and clear. I can easily do laundry and I have all the access I need to the canned goods and the crafts. It took me about 30 minutes to remove and clean everything.

How have you done? Did you get your laundry room floor clean too? I would love to see your before and after pictures! Share your success! You are one step closer to being free.

And now, time to go through the boxes. Stay tuned!

With Love,

Emily