Project: Simplify 2012! The Counter of Stuff.

Well.  It has taken me 2 weeks to get this together and there is still more sorting and purging to do.  I wish my counter could stay like this forever.  Alas, we live here and it will be a mess again, though maybe not so bad.

Are you ready?  Deep breath.

BEFORE:

Kitchen counter that is the catch all of everything coming in the house.

Our calendaring area.  Yeah, not so much.

Okay, now that I have shared one of the messiest places in our house you, I hope we can still be friends. Actually, what I wanted to do this week is my sewing room.  Alas it was spring break and the kiddos wanted my attention, though I did get a start on that explosion of a space. One day it may be done enough to share.

Now onto why you are here and why I did this in the first place, other than sanity.  I need to share and feel like I accomplished something!

AFTER:

I know right!? There is a huge counter here!

Oh, and look a desk and a bulletin board. and an Easter basket!

Yes there is still a junk box on the top shelf. All those little bits and pieces that I just might need at some point.  But the drawers that were holding the kids school  paper is now holding the batteries, tape and small tools that we use frequently. The green basket holds markers and other art supplies.

Now the details:  I am still left with this huge pile to sort!!!! Argh.  I am working through it today and tomorrow.  So far and have a smallish garbage bag and a 1/2 full banker box to recycle.  So many miscellaneous bits and pieces that have no particular home.  Sigh.

THE PILE of STUFF remaining!

But wait there is more I want to share.

I took all the kids files of school stuff and bought clear hanging file boxes. My goal is to have one box for each child for their whole 12/13 years of school.  A file for each year of school and then a Pre-K file for everything before Kindergarten.

This is my 11 yo daughter's box.  I am going to need to go through all of their papers again.  In my dream world I would have a large flatbed scanner to scan everything in and save a lot of it that way.

The blue bin is all of my Box Tops for Education papers.  It will be gone and handed off in May! The clear tote is all the current school year papers and the orange sliver on the left is the new birthday card file folder.  I have cards for each month and I am hoping this helps me get them sent on time!

Four kids school boxes filled and labeled! And now moved to the basement.

For some reason a few years back I stopped throwing used batteries in the trash.  Well they are overflowing their shoe box waiting for recycling at the battery store.  They are now in a bag in the car to drop off on Monday!

The writing drawer.  Semi organized chaos.

Much better.

This feels great to have all of this cleaned up.  Now to keep it this way for more than the weekend.  I have other areas that have to be cleaned and purged before some items can be put away.  I need the mantra: "A place for everything and everything in its place" posted somewhere prominently in the house!!

Thank you Tsh for hosting again and getting us all excited about simplifying our lives.

Project: Simplify Hot Spot #4: Pantry and Fridge

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.

Project: Simplify Begins Hot Spot #1

This is going to be a rough few weeks but Tsh at SimpleMom has picked the perfect starting place....

Our own wardrobe!

Behind this door lays a LOT of stuff and soon it will be a whole bunch cleaner.  Come back Friday to see my before and after pictures!  I may even be able to get Scott involved!!

Come and join the party of organizing and decluttering our lives at Project: Simplify.  

Here's to a simpler life!

Oh, and you will see these Project: Simplify on both blogs.

Eight years of scraps

Seriously. I have in these three bins (and a little on the table) scraps from all of the quilting over the past eight years. I thought I was doing well keeping it color sorted in plastic bags in the bins on a shelf. As it turns out these scraps have bred. Well not really but it sure feels like it. Now that I am sorting and organizing I really need to get a handle on all of these scraps. I try not to buy new fabric well at least less than I used to and only for a very specific purpose:0

Any ideas short of throwing them all away?

Help!

Reorganizing the Sewing Chaos

So.....

I don't really have anything to say for myself about the state of my sewing and crafting. I create huge piles and have multiple projects going on at the same time. The first 4 photos are of the sewing room pre removal of everything. You don't see that there is also the baby's crib and my daughters bed in this room too. The last 5 photos are of the mess pulled out into the entry way. I didn't think that the fabric looked that overwhelming. But as I have sorted and refolded all of the fabric 1/2 yard and larger I am left with the bits and pieces and all of the odds and ends that accumulate when one sews or crafts.

More photos to follow on the slightly more organized room and new desk (I love this monster).