I decided to tackle the linen closet and the bathroom drawers and cabinets. I could have picked anything on the list of suggestions as they all need to be done. This was an easy place to start.
So to begin: the linen closet. The in between of seasons is challenging. All winter we have pulled things out and shoved them back in. Too hot one night and cold the next. ugh.
Before:
All emptied out. So nice!
Stuff that may not belong:
After:
Next was trying to tackle the drawers and the medicine cabinets. Being able to find things in the mess is not the best way to organize. Now, they are organized and we can't lay our hands on the right thing!
Before in the hall (kids) bathroom:
After:
Notice one empty drawer! I wonder how long before daughter notices all the empty wrappers and garbage are gone :) This room didn't take too long but ours...
Master Bathroom drawers before:
Drawers after:
Medicine cabinet before:
The pink bucket usually has the cloth diapers but I spared you and just washed them! I didn't think it was too bad but there was SO much stuff in there. I tossed three grocery bags of junk (expired or never used or garbage) out between here and under the sink.
After:
Are you ready? Under the sink is scary. It was organized at one time but....
After:
I put a lot of the extra things (a whole shoe box full) down with the rest of the food storage.
On another note not bathroom related I did finally get some of the things put into the household binder. I have 11 categories. Is that too many? What did I forget? Goals, schedule/calendars, birthdays, Christmas, Food Inventory (including menus, grocery list etc), Home maintenance, Garden/Yard, Home ideas, and budget/finances.
And one final finish for this week, I recovered the umbrella stroller we have had for 10 years. I could have just bought a new one but I had everything to redo it at home. Besides, we love the height of this one. Tall enough for both of us to push. I may be brave and post more process pictures. Any tutorials I found said "simply take it apart (the cover) and use it as a pattern, then reuse the piping and belts" Voila! More or less true but I would have loved a tutorial. I'm a visual learner. I ended up with 4 extra screws. Hmm.
We had a double party to go to last month and it coincided with the ORBC of Ticker Tape quilts. We had another snow day so it was the perfect chance to play. I dragged out the scrap bins and gave the two oldest kids the chance to design their own quilts to give. They laid out the designs and I did the quilting. William made one two but I literally haven't made anything since we did these in February.
By Liz, age 9. She wanted it to be a scene. She she did the cutting and layout. I love the frog in the pond and a butterfly too.
Here is the back of the quilt.
The backing. He wanted something cheerful and fun.
Made by my 7 year old son. Love that he wanted every last inch filled up!
I had to start with this photo because it is a huge job finally done! So much unnecessary paper in boxes. There will be more to do but that was an 1 1/2 hours of shredding. Poor machine. Now on to the Hot Spot of the week.
Simple Mom is awesome and had us do the pantry and fridge this week. The challenge was working around the kids this week during spring break. It took longer than it should have but I wrote down everything we have that is food related. Not sure when I'll catalog it all but its a start and I found things that we need to re-stock. I made notes on most of the photos so click to read them if you wish.
Fridge Before.
After. Cleaned and re-organized. AH.
In the basement we have the beginnings of long term food storage. I love the space but it can get unruly too. Before.
After. Rounded up the vitamins to one box, the cleaning supplies to one area, and generally re-grouped all of the items we have. It's time to get some more cereal and a few other staples.
Noticed more food on my way back upstairs. The canning we did last year and the canning supplies.
I forgot the before picture here but it was a mess. Everything is nicely contained now and labeled in the spice cupboard.
The beast...The pantry before:
After!! I want a new shelf on the top right to house some more items.
My newly freed beans all beautifully labeled. I had all of the jars in another cupboard. Don't know why I was hoarding but they finally came in handy!!
Love how it all turned out. So much work! Now to just enter all of the food items and make a food inventory that will work for us will be the really challenging part! Maybe by this summer.
