Out of the Closet.

I have serious issues when it comes to closet organization. I can't stand for my husband to put away laundry because he hangs everything facing the wrong way and just shoves stuff wherever there is empty bar space. Drives me nuts. Add to that my failure to ever catch up on laundry, and you get a closet that begs for a closed door at all times.

This weekend I tackled that closet, as well as the armoire in our bedroom, and did some serious organizing/washing/puging/crying. Ok, I didn't really cry, but I did really want to cry when I saw the sheer volume of clothing I can't fit into since having babies.

Here was my system:

~ I took all dirty items, whether we wear them regularly or not (so this includes the random clothes in the back corner behind my shoes which I've not worn for months and I can't be sure whether they ended up their because I wore them and dropped them on the floor, tried them on and they didn't fit, or they fell off a hanger) and put them out by the washer in piles to be washed.

~ I took the clothes that had been sitting in the dryer all week (yeah, I'm one of those people) and hung them.

~ As I went to hang the clean stuff in the closets, I pulled out empty hangers.With my husband's clothes (his is the only closet with NO organization whatsoever), I just threw the clean clothes on a bar for now, but with all others, the clean stuff went where it 'belongs'. In my closet, it's organized like this:
sweaters
tank tops
shirts (solids together, prints following)
skirts
pants
dresses

Everything is arranged in ROYGBV style. Rohan's closet is set up similar. In Luca's, it's the same set up, but in each category I have solids first in ROYGBV, then prints for her shirts and dresses.

~ The kids' stuff gets purged pretty regularly, as they try something on and I notice that it's either stained/damaged beyond saving or it doesn't fit anymore. In Luca's closet, most old dresses become shirts when they are too short to be worn alone.

~ In my closet, I then pulled everything off the racks that I was unsure of: Did it fit? Did I like it enough to keep it? I took those items into the bathroom for Operation Reality Check. I hung them all on the shower curtain rod and one-by-one tried them on.

From here, they were sorted further. Items I liked that fit went back into my closet to be put in rotation. Items I liked that were too small went back into a separate area of my closet (I know most people would argue I should toss them or give them away, but a lot of them WILL fit again once I reach my weight loss goals). Items that didn't fit and/or weren't flattering and that I saw no hope for went into the 'sell or donate' pile, which was later sorted further.

My bar in the closet, with only the clothes I know fit and were clean at the time.

Pile of clothes to try on.

Sorting items after trying them on.

My little helper.

Love this tank, don't love my arms and the armpit flap thing...so it went back in the closet to be worn with something over it for now.

Oh look. Another little helper.

~ Last, I went into my husband's closet and organized it much like mine it. He has two smaller bars opposite each other, so one side is casual and one side is work. I sorted them by season and color, and hung his jeans and shorts on a lower bar.

~ As I finished laundry everything was reviewed before it got a home in the closets, and if it was deemed no good, it went immediately into a pile (sell, trash, or give away).

~ At the end of all this, my closets are better organized and easier to nagivate and we have the following to add to the YAWYK challenge:

Donate:
- 5 pairs of dress pants
- 13 'unmentionables' in good condition (Goodwill takes 'em!)
- 4 PJ bottoms
- 13 of my shirts, 6 of the hubby's
- 4 pairs of men's shorts or casual pants
- 7 sweaters/sweatshirts/hoodies

Trash:
A full bag of stuff ruined beyond donation, including holey socks and stained shirts. Estimating it's about 50 items.

Sell:
- 12 of my shirts
- 3 of my dresses
- 4 of my sweaters

At the end of the weekend, I have empty laundry baskets, clean closets to start the week off right, and I even managed to clear some storage space in our closet and the downstairs coat closet as well. We dropped a bag of 52 items at the local Goodwill, and I'm working on reviewing the items I have to see what the gaps in my wardrobe are. Already I know I need/want:

- brown boots
- short sleeved cardigan in white or off-white as well as one in black and one in brown
- shirts in red, green, and brown
- 2 more pairs of jeans
- 2 more pairs of work pants

And, last but not least, here are some 'after' shots of the closet. I didn't take befores, but just imagine that big pile you saw above sitting on the bed, all hung in this little master bedroom closet.

His side of the closet. In that back corner is stuff I want to hold onto for when I hit my goal weight.

It's really sick how much I love a color-coded closet. I predict his side will look like this until the next time he hangs laundry.

His dress shirts.

My tank tops.

The whole closet. The lower bar on the left is Darrick's jeans and shorts. To the right is his work clothes, and straight ahead is all my hanging clothes.

How I felt after two days of closet organization.

Playroom on the Cheap.

I'm not quite ready to debut the final changes we made to our former den now playroom/weight room, which I originally blogged about to show the embarassing before pictures. The room's not done, but I have a small update on our progress as well as a few pictures. It is, after all, still a work in progress, and progress is a bit slow since I don't have the endless bank account I'd really need to make it my dream come true. What would a dream come true involve?

- Wood floors
- Custom built-in shelving and cabinetry
- New paint
- New ceiling light (the room is...ready for this?...not wired for a ceiling light...)

- New weight bench that folds smaller so it doesn't have such a huge footprint

Since I'm living in reality and not in my dreams, here's what I have done:

- Cleaned and purged and organized (YAWYK update below)
- Cleaned carpet
- Sold 2 bookshelves on Craigslist
- Sorted and organized CDs and books
- Bought a large shelving unit at Goodwill on 50% off day ($30) to store books and toys
- Bought a cedar chest with seating cushion on top at St. Vincent de Paul store on 50% off day ($35), which is now used to store photos and albums
- Was gifted some $1 plastic bins for toys (Thanks, Mom!)
- Moved weight bench to make more space on the floor for the kids
- Created an 'art center' for Luca

Close up of chest. We want to get a new cover for the cushion made, but otherwise plan on bucking the 'refinish everything shabby chic' trend I see everywhere and leave it classic wood.

Cedar chest, which is living in our dining area for now (and, apparenlty, hiding a sippie cup and a scale).

Goodwill storage unit, loaded with toys and books we're still organizing.

Art center, complete with a line to showcase Luca's artwork (and someday Rohan's).

One of the more fun and creative projects we are completing involves finding a way to fit the little bins we got for toys into big openings with no shelving built-in. Sure, we could get bigger bins. We could also find a way to create our own shelves. Or, an idea I considered more than briefly, we could finish the unit off with cute patterened and solid curtains in each opening, thus hiding the mess so I can ignore it.

Instead of one of those options, I decided to try my hand at a little repurposing of something that would have otherwise ended up in the recycle bin:

Yep, diaper boxes. And even though we've only got one little bum in diapers, we sure do seem to tear through these boxes rather quickly. But as I prepared to toss them in the recycle bin this morning, I had an idea I had to try out.

Cut out one of the long sides, then attached the piece I'd cut to the bottom of the box for support, and flipped the box upside down, so that the bottom surface is now the 'shelf'.

After I covered the box in various colors of construction paper, I left Luca to decorate it as she pleased. She said the one on the left (yellow) is me and the one on the right (red) is Rohan. :)

Once complete, the 'shelf' can be put in one of the cubbies. A bin fits below and one above.

Luca was really proud to have a part in creating this, and while I don't expect it will hold up forever, it's a completely free and easy way to repurpose what would normally be 'trash' into something useful and personal.

As for YAWYK, so far for our new room, here is my count:

Sold:
- 2 bookselves

Given Away:
- Nothing at this time

Thrown Away:
- 2 large bags of trash (counting as 50 items each because they included pens, pencils, paper, broken CDs, and tons of random junk that was lining the bookshelves)
- 14 CDs with no case, which were scratched and which no one listened to
- stereo that was not functional and coulnd't be salvaged
- 18 old notebooks from college
- 12 broken toys
- 2 plastic grocery bags full of assorted 'orphan' toy parts: puzzles missing pieces, beads, gamepieces that are not complete, etc), which I am counting as 50 items because I didn't count

This little room project is not yet done, and I'll update more as we get more finished, but for now I am happy with our progress. Our main living area is much less cluttered with toys, the kids have a place to go play together, Luca has a craft zone that is safe from Rohan's grabby hands, and Darrick has floor space and a bench so he can work out at home.

In Plain Sight.

As part of the YAWYK Challenge I have been tapping into my inspiration to revamp some of our rooms to be less cluttered and more useful in our daily lives. A big one I'm in the midst of tackling? The den/weightroom/office/crap pile. This room is a serious eyesore, which is a shame because it was part of what appealed to us about this house and it's in plain sight.

When you come in the front door, to the right is The Room, and though I was charging my camera battery and didn't get a 'real' Before shot, I have some in-transition shots that pretty much sum it up.

Sigh. Ok. The box springs leaning against the wall to the left foreground was brought over by my mother in law. She just sort of....showed up with it? She thought it would fit in Rohan's crib when we covert it to a toddler bed. Which, given Rohan's personality, won't be happening for awhile. So....there it sits. We have nowhere to store it. You'll also note the weight bench, which was square in front of that big window on the main wall until I convinced Darrick to move it and open up the room more,  and TONS of stuff over to the left. Let us look closer, shall we?

On top of and in front of the desk is stuff that was on the shelves and in the compartments of the bookshelves to the right. Lest you ever doubt how obsessed I am with photos, please note that most of these things are pictures I've developed over the years, albums, and frames. I might have a bit of a problem.

These are the bookshelves everything was taken out of. They are nice and solid, but not the color we like and not really functional for what we want this room to be. They will be sold.

We haven't tackled this side yet...another bookshelf and a small table intended for an entertainment system. Both will be sold, as will the stereo set-up, which works but no longer plays CDs. Speaking of...I think it's well past time for a different CD storage solution.

So, I'll have some numbers to share for the YAWYK tally, as well as After pictures, hopefully by the end of this weekend. I have big plans in my head, but we're doing this on the cheap so they will only come to fruition if I have good luck at the local thrift/consignment stores.

While we were in a frenzy, I also moved the pink play tent that used to live in this room up into Luca's bedroom, and the train table that was in her room into Rohan's. She LOVES the tent in her room so much she is napping in there right now.

Baby Clothes.

I went through a basket of baby clothes that's been staring at me from by the coat closet for...um...weeks?...today. I divided things into a few piles:

1. Trash: stuff stained, torn, or too worn to even donate
2. Boy clothes: donating to our neighbor who is 19, living at home, and due any time now with her first baby, a son.
3. Girl clothes, sizes 2T+: for Luca's BFF Madison
4. Girl clothes for Vivienne (Luca's cousin, born in May)
5. Girl clothes for Jules (Luca's other cousin, born in February)
6. Donate: Stuff that just plain isn't cute enough to pass onto family or friends, but is still in good shape

All told, we ended up with:

6 items to trash
31 boy items to donate
8 2T+ girl items for Madison
70 girl items for the cousins
6 items to donate

I also found another small stash of maternity clothes to pass onto a friend hoping to get pregnant soon, so that was 12 more items.

Big weekend for YAWYK! Coincidentally, Tabitha has a post today on YAWYK's blog about deciding which items you should hold onto for the 'just in case' baby pile. I have to say I agree with her list, except that I think after baby #1 is a good time to weed out the things you found totally useless the first time around. I wish we'd done that sooner with our glider and ottoman, which ended up just taking up space for months on end. Lesson learned: if it's something baby #1 didn't like but baby #2 may like, go ahead and hang onto the big ticket items. But if it's something YOU didn't like the first time, chances are you won't like it the second time either. Same goes for clothes you didn't like on baby, maternity items you never wanted to wear because the fit was funny or they itched or whatever, etc.

Books and Butterflies.

We paid a visit to Bookman's tonight, a local resale store for books, movies, music, games, and some home decor items. I took in a bin of old books, including a few text books from college, as well as a few home decor 'trinkets'. In total, they bought:

2 text books
2 Jodi Picoult novels
1 children's book
1 vase
1 picture frame holder

The other books they didn't buy could have been left there for donation to a prison library, but if the library didn't take them, they would have just been recycled. So we decided to take them with us and donate them to our local library.

We also tossed out two paper butterflies that have been hanging above our TV, which is now placed where the changing table used to be when we first moved in the house. Yup - they had been there for over 3 years! They had a thin film of dust on them but Luca was still sad to see them go.

We also threw out a bag of old balloons from some party long-over, an old plastic table cloth, and a pair of broken flip flops.

Last, we cancelled 3 of our paper bills and set them up for automatic payments, which will save paper that ends up sitting on our counter and then put in a pile somewhere. It also saves me from my bad memory for dates, since now I don't need to remember to pay those bills!

I feel like my YAWYK efforts are slow-going, but I'm happy to be making progress!

Kitchen Clean Up

I spent naptime yesterday cleaning our kitchen. A few weeks ago, I spent a few hours emptying, organizing, and cataloging the items in our pantry, fridge, and freezer. I even went so far as to make inventory lists of what was in each so that meal planning and grocery shopping would be easier. But I hadn't tackled the real cleaning that needed to be done because I didn't want to spend all day in there.

So yesterday it was. I started by clearing all the counters and running a load of dishes. Then I rearranged some of the countertop 'stuff', including the toaster oven, knife block, coffee maker, and microwave. Our kitchen suffers from lack of useable counter space, so my goal was to make 'work stations' that would make it more convenient to do things like prep veggies and keep sharp knives out of little hands that now know how to drag over a chair and grab at things in close range. I also wanted to get rid of some junk that was just taking up space, including cleaning out 3 (not 1...not 2...but THREE) bowls that should hold fruit and instead were holding...um...everything but fruit?

I'm happy with the results, but the long-term solution to our kitchen woes is a complete remodel of some sort. We have very little storage space, very little counter space, and hardly enough room for two adults and the two kids who seem to always want to tag along in our little kitchen. Among the changes high on my list:

- Get a microwave that goes above the oven, in stainless finish to match the fridge and dishwasher
- Get a new oven in stainless
- Paint the walls and/or put in backsplash for some color
- Refinish cupboards
- New countertops (I'm leaning toward wood, or finding a way to refinish our laminate)

In my dream world we would knock out our side wall and push it out about 10 feet, add a powder room, and rearrange the counters so that we had an island. But since we don't have a spare $40k sitting around waiting to be spent, that dream will have to be put on hold for the time being.

I also added some things to my YAWYK running tally:

- 3 pacifiers Rohan never liked
- 1 old candle
- 1 can Dermaplast (we keep meds on top of the fridge so the kids can't get them, and it was there)
- 3 empty medication bottles
- 1 old baby toothbrush
- 2 boxes of rice cereal
- 5 plastic storage containers with no matching lid
- 5 dried up tubes of kids' paint
- 6 chewed up crayons
- 1 big stack of junk mail
- 1/2 a package of breast milk storage bags
- 7 storage container lids with no match

Here are some after pictures of the kitchen. You can see how small and cramped it is, and if you look closely you'll even spot some warping and staining of the laminate counters.

The coffee maker was moved here, where the microwave used to sit. Next to it are the cappucino cups and saucers and a relly old stand mixer I adore, handed down from Darrick's Grandma.

Microwave in the corner. I am dying to replace this with an oven-hood microwave in stainless steel. This one stops working if you use it for more than 10 minutes continuously.

 

Toaster oven, which used to be where the microwave now sits. Note the lovely pinkish laminate with its stains, warping, and generally hideousness.

Wall by the window, which I'd love to knock out for the aforementioned powder room/kitchen remodel. Until then, I'm dreaming of a turqouise wall, and I have just the decor for it. Now to convince my husband....

See how cute?

Inside of the pantry, with our calendar and the inventory list hidden out of sight.

Summer Clean-Up

As part of the YAWYK challenge, I've been working my way through all those tedious chores you avoid for as long as possible, like sorting through old clothes and cleaning up the random things in the far reaches of our backyard that we've managed to ignore until now. So into the trash pile this week went:

- 1 blue plastic kiddie pool (had been sitting in the 'utility' area of our side yard, a gated spot where tools and the lawnmower are kept, for over a year and was cracked to pieces)
- 5 foam floor mat pieces like this, which were strewn in various places in the yard and covered in dirt, leaves, and ewww-ness
- 3 plastic coat hangers that were broken

For the donate/give-away pile:

- 8 baby clothing items (just found out our neighbor's 19 year old is having a baby boy soon, so all boy stuff will go to her)
- 1 old phone with built-in answering machine
- 2 pairs of maternity pants
- 1 pair of maternity shorts

Of course, you might remember this post where I talked about making some more significant changes in our lives in order to simplify, streamline, and be more earth-friendly. So during yesterday's thrift store trip, I bought some glass jars which are replacing the plastic drinking cups, thus tossing 5 plastic cups but replacing them with 5 glass jars. My husband laughed at me a little, but they are durable, cute, functional, and I feel like they are safer than what we used before. We're not entirely plastic-free in terms of cups because we still have two toddlers in the home, but it's a move in the right direction:

*I forgot to mention, we only buy natural peanut butter these days, so we plan on saving those empty jars to use in the same manner.

Also in an effort to be more green, we totally thumbed our noses at the archaic HOA rules stating we couldn't have a clothesline and hung our own. The whole project cost us less than $10 and we think it will significantly reduce the costs of drying the many loads of clothes we wash each week. It's technically against 'the rules' but we figure as long as we follow the cardinal laws of clotheslinery (1. No UNDIES, and 2. Remove dry items promptly) the few neighbors who can see it shouldn't have much to complain about. We do have a neighbor behind us with a 2-story house and a clear view of the part of our yard where the line is hung who happens to be the HOA neighborhood President...but she's got two big yard umbrellas that also violate HOA rules so I'm hoping she doesn't complain.

It was kind of amusing, actually, because after hanging this today I went to get the load out of the wash to hang it. I noticed Darrick watching me, curious about my methods. His parents and mine both have clotheslines, but I wondered if maybe he had never been made to hang clothes.

Me: "Did you ever have to hang clothes when you were growing up?

Him: "Oh yeah. All the time. You?"

Me: "Yep. We didn't own a dryer until I was almost in high school. I hated hanging clothes when all my friends used the dryer!"

Him: "Yeah, I thought it was totally white trash growing up."

shared silence

Him: "Funny how things change when you're the one paying the bills."

Things seem to go sort of full circle, though. Whereas when we were kids and teens, the dryer was way less nerdy than the clothesline and the microwave was the hot household appliance to own (I still remember my mom talking for months on end about saving up for a microwave), now families like ours are moving back to grilling and eating fresh foods as well as using a clothesline. But we're happy to embrace simpler things in our lives.

Passing On the Optimism.

Rohan's room looks bigger now, thanks to the sale last night of the glider and ottoman we had in there since before Luca was born. That thing was the worst best purchase we ever made. Amazing quality at an amazing price, it was a Dutailier made in Canada and barely used. We got it for a song at a consignment store and carried it home where it lived in the front room of my ILs' house while we house-hunted. It was our first major baby purchase, and one we fretted over and researched and adored.

And then...we bought a two-story home. And said recliner sat untouched in the nursery as I nursed Luca everywhere but there: on the couch, on the recliner downstairs, at the kitchen table, on the floor, in our bed...but never, save for a few rare ocassions when company was over, in that glider. I did used it more than once to soothe a fussing baby to sleep, holding a precious infant body swathed in soft cottons close to me as I sang a song or hummed or shushed their tears. But as we looked at the things in our home, we decided that chair wasn't a necessity to keep around for the "In case we ever...." pile, and so it was time to sell.

It was with a little sadness on my part. I was actually resistant to selling, instead offering it to several expecting and new couples first (all of whom wanted to buy their own instead). But when I was at work one day Darrick listed it, and last night a man came to haul it away and leave me a pile of twenty-dollar bills in its place. I can confess here that I didn't want to let go, not of the chair, but of what it represented: our fresh-faced naiveity and the excitement we felt over this purchase for our future child. The joy with which we found the perfect place for it in her room. The professional pictures of her turning 1, sitting in the chair 'reading'. The feelings of excitement and expectation that all prgnant and first-time parents have. I was sad to say goodbye to that phase of our lives.

But the man who came to get it? There was some fate at work there. He and his wife are in their early 40s and parents to one son. "I'm too old for more babies," he shrugged, "but hell if that's going to stop us from trying for another!" Not evern expecting another yet, they optimistically and with that twinkle in their eyes purchased that same glider from us. And no doubt he took it home, unloaded it as his wife stood watching, imploring him to move it an inch or so more over there or closer to the window or maybe into that spot where a picture of our with her first baby will hang above it. Beckoning the energy of 'baby' into their home in the hopes of welcoming another sweet child into their family. And I was happy to pass that chair and the ottoman on. And I hope that sometime very soon, that nice man's sweet wife is shushing another newborn to sleep, holding it in her arms as she rests in that chair.

YAWYK

So this week I got rid of 2 major things:

A carseat and a base, both donated to a woman giving birth sometime this week and unable to afford them. Turns out, carseats cannot be donated via the usual routes (Goodwill, etc) nor can they be sold at resale shops. And since we're not planning on another baby anytime soon and if we DO have another the old seat would need to be replaced anyhow since it would be 'expired', I was thrilled to find someone in need to whom I could donate it.

You are What You Keep: Challenge!

My friend Tabitha started a new blog that has me inspired, so I'm joining her challenge. It's called 'You are What You Keep' and...um...it's true.

Here's the link to her blog, You are What You Keep.

We've been slowly working on purging the excess from our lives anyhow, as two kids will clutter up every corner of every room before you realize it's even happened. So while I cannot go back and track every little thing I've tossed, sold, or passed on in the past 6 months, I'm going to use the rules below to backtrack a bit.

In addition to purging, I am working on trying to get more order in our lives so 'simple' tasks like meal planning and grocery shopping, laundry, and putting away dishes don't end up complex and frustrating. I'll document some of that here too.

So, the rules (some taken directly from Tabi, som altered a bit):

1. I won't count individual pieces of garbage (gum wrappers, bottle caps, etc) but I will count stacks of junk mail, anything that requires an empty hand to grab that has been sitting around not being used and just taking up space.


2. Anything put into the "Sale" category might be moved into the "garage sale" or "consignment" piles.

3. This is going "Clean Sweep" style. So if it doesn't sale at the yard sale or consignment store, it goes off to friends, family, or charity.

4. The items that stay must be in clean usable shape. I will keep items that require some minor work and/or will be fixed up to help us with the 'organize and decorate' part of being homeowners. I won't keep things that require major work to fix.

5. If any item is moved to Sell and a sale doesn't happen within a reasonable time frame, they are moved to donate. Donate stuff is offered to friends and family first, then to charity.

6. I won't keep things 'just in case X Y Z happens in the future'. This means the maternity clothes, baby clothes and toys, etc. are gone. Should we ever have another baby, we can always borrow or buy new things anyhow.

7. I will count back as far as the garage sale we had last month, but anything I purged before then is not being included in the goal.

With those rules in mind, here's where I stand:

Sold: Bumbo chair, baby bath, snuggle nest, books (sold 5), clothes (sold several uncounted, so counting it as 15 items), 5' x 8' area rug, 4 barstools, umbrella stroller
Total: 29 items

Given Away: Bag of maternity clothes (didn't count items, but counting as 15), bag of baby clothes (didn't count, so counting as 5), baby shoes, computer monitor, wine glass holder and 4 glasses, rotating picture frame
Total: 24 items

Threw Away: broken toys (didn't count, but guessing low at 10 items), torn books (didn't count, but guessing at 5 items), torn/stained/very worn clothes (didn't count, but guessing at 10 items), several piles of trash (counting as 2 items)
Total: 27 items

My total for the past month, then, is 80/2010 items.

If you're interested in joining and purging your life of the stuff you don't need/want/use head on over to Tabi's blog for more details!