Summer Projects

We are now operating under our summer schedule. We still have school to do since we go year round, but we finished our language arts program, so our load is cut down significantly. I’ve got some fun things for Boo and Pumpkin Girl to do, including art projects that tend to get forgotten during the busy school year.

Not that summer is any less busy. What’s up with that? We won’t actually do school every day this summer, with the exception of about 2 weeks. We’ve got swimming lessons in the morning starting tomorrow, Boo will be off at Cub Scout camp, then there’s Vacation Bible School, a visit from my parents and a 10 day trip to California.

So we will do school when we are able and enjoy the summer as best we can with the heat and humidity.

Several of our summer projects will include hitting some of the more cluttered areas of the house. We started this morning on the children’s bedroom.

Though they share this room, it has become Pumpkin Girl’s domain. Anytime we have to separate the two of them, Boo takes the playroom and Pumpkin takes the bedroom. That is also how the chores break down – Boo cleaning up the playroom, Pumpkin cleaning the bedroom. Don’t feel too bad for her, though. She has or had until today, plenty of toys in there to keep her happy. However, it was never my intent for the bedroom to have toys. If she wanted something from the playroom during enforced quiet time, she was free to get what she needed. Somehow that grew to quite a collection in there.

My goal was to rid the room of all toys and books, with the exception of stuffed animals. Using what I learned from my decluttering friend Jen, we completely emptied out Pumpkin’s headboard shelves and cubbies. We also cleared off the dresser and Boo’s headboard shelves. All the books- stacks and stacks of them – were returned to the playroom. We will have to reckon with them another time. Decorative items were dusted and returned, including framed pictures, piggy banks and special items. Stuffed animals are now the only thing in Pumpkin’s cubbies. They also live in a hanging mesh thing from IKEA.

Here’s the new and improved headboard.  Still a bit full, but better.

Here’s the hanging mesh thing from IKEA.  Can’t get the whole thing in one picture.

Another thing I learned from Jen was to containerize. All the little items that sit around collecting dust and looking cluttered will do better in containers. Pumpkin Girl has 2 matching baskets for her treasures.  (You can see them in the first picture. ) One holds little odds and ends, her notebooks and special things. Another holds her soft dolls which she is allowed to keep in that room. In our cleaning we emptied a whole container which was given to Boo for his little treasures. It sits on his shelves.

Here are Boo’s shelves.  His didn’t need as much work, just some dusting and putting that white plastic basket to use.

The dresser  (below) still looks a bit cluttered since it is a display area for all sorts of treasures. Nothing, and I mean nothing else is allowed to be on the dresser.

All papers and flat items are stored in document boxes. Each child has one and they can store anything that fits in there. When it’s too full, we sort through it and toss out anything they no longer want. They can keep all those paper things that seem so important at the time, but they are safe and out of sight. Over time, most of those things lose importance and are thrown out without tears or remorse.

We have a basket full of blankets in the bedroom. Boo dumped the whole thing out to refold the blankets and we found several little toys squirreled away in there.

The room looks a whole lot better now. “It’s nice and neat like my friends’ bedrooms,” said Pumpkin Girl. Hopefully with the removal of the toys and books, it’ll be easier to maintain. She’s going to need a lot of guidance here. A lot of guidance. We’ve been through this with her before, but this is the first time we’ve removed so many things.

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