Category - Home Sweet Home

Thank you for your suggestions and support about our playroom!  I have used some of the suggestions, as well as ideas from I’m An Organizing Junkie and the book Organization From the Inside Out.  I think I’ve developed a plan.   I’ll be posting my progress so you can cheer me on!

Here’s the plan.

1. Sort and  Purge.  I will do a good portion of this myself.  However, I don’t want to scar my children forever by getting rid of some much loved toy, so I’m sticking mainly to the obvious trash and toys I know they’ve outgrown.  Then they’ll have the chance to help me purge.  As we go through process, items will be grouped with like items.

2.  Evaluate the needs of the room.  With what is left in the room, sit down with the children and get their ideas for what they want the room to be.   Divide the room into zones.

3.  Assign a home to every toy, based on the zones.

4.  Containerize.  I know we already need to get a second tall bookshelf in there and some wall shelves for display.  We have to figure out something to do with Pumpkin’s Polly Pocket-type Disney Princesses and their half a million pieces, too.  She’s also got a bunch of other small toys that need some sort of bag to live in.

So that’s my plan as today.  I may adjust it if I need to.  So on to step one…Purging the Toys!

 

Yesterday I made the children’s playroom off limits.  Yep,  closed the door and forbade them to enter without permission.  Threatened to give everything to Good Will if they disobeyed.  I’ll spare you the details because it doesn’t reflect too well on any of us.  Let’s just say that despite our best hopes and efforts, the playroom is Out of Control.  Rather than sweep it all into the trash, I just closed the door on it.  I really don’t know what to do next.  It’s clear that a Major Change is needed, but where to start?  We have too many toys and books,that’s for sure.  We need to get rid of stuff, but it’s not going to be easy at all.  Just the thought of it brings Pumpkin Girl to tears.  But we can’t continue like this. 

I’m really going to humble myself and share pictures of this mess.  Maybe it’ll help hold me accountable as I try to figure out where to go from here.  I’m open to suggestions, too, as long as they are helpful!  No laughing!!!

This is the room looking in from the door. There are even more toys in those stacked moving boxes.

Turning a little to the left, you can see the couch, train table and cradle.

To the left of the couch, next to the train table is this mess of a bookshelf.

Here’s the cradle, the little bookshelf behind it and the (white) box of dress up clothes.

Here’s what’s hidden in the first picture.  The white drawers have Playmobile pieces and crafts.

I spared you some of the stuff on the floor. 

It’s almost time to call in Clean Sweep.

Michelle, at Rosetta Stone (who, incidentally, linked to me today, too), recommended that in order to get past my writer’s block, I could post a daily picture that sums up my day.  I love that idea!  But since my dear husband has been hogging the computer all weekend, diligently making sure Boo’s Cub Scout den is all squared away, I’ll have to give you my whole weekend all at once.  We were highly productive and crossed many things off our list.

Brought a toy bin shelf downstairs for Bip’s toys.  I’ll make him new picture labels for the bins that need them.  He’s so happy to be able to see his toys and have easy access to them.   Makes it easier for us all to help him clean up, too.

Got enough moving boxes out of the playroom to finally set up the train table.  Boo and Pumpkin Girl even set up a train set on the floor for Bip.  Phil and the children salvaged this train table one day on the way home from Sunday school.  The owners had not been able to sell it at their garage sale and had stuck it out on the curb for trash pickup.  We have not been able to fit it into the house until now.

Got started making a rosary for Boo’s First Communion. Don’t tell him, it’s a surprise.

Bought Pumpkin Girl an Easter dress.

Bought a child-size guitar for Boo, who is finally ready to take lessons, instead of strumming away like a crazy man.

Bought storage containers for some of the children’s toys. (Don’t everyone get all green-eyed over my lovely linoleum floor!)

Finally, after over a year and a half, repaired this really cool Buzz Lightyear clock that we bought in Korea.  Pumpkin Girl dropped it the day after we bought it and one of the stars broke off.  We had less than a week left in Korea and could not get a replacement.  The stars tip back and forth like a pendulum and without both of them, it wouldn’t work properly.

Entered all the Wolf Cubs’ acheivements into a spread sheet.

And lastly, my parents were able to buy and ship us this Thomas Kinkade painting from Disneyland.  We almost bought it while we were there in November, and pretty much as soon as we got home regretted not buying it. 

Doesn’t this snowman on my porch say it all? As I write this at 2:30 in the afternoon, our temperature is well below freezing. What a change from the beginning of December, or even around Christmas time when I was griping about how warm it is. I like it cold, but this is a bit much. We don’t even have any snow on the ground to make it look pretty. Just cold. Brrrrr!

Last night on the way home from Pumpkin’s dance class we noticed that the Potomac River had frozen. So today we bundled up the children to take a closer look. Even with scarves, mittens and hoods up we were freezing. Phil stayed in the car with the baby.

This is about 3 blocks from our house. It’s the dock that my dad and Boo went fishing from last summer.

Here’s looking down the river towards the Washington Monument (center of picture) the Capitol is just out of view on the right.

Looking straight down from where I was standing.

Looking over at Reagan National Airport. See the plane landing?

It’s finally snowing!  We’re not going to get much, but it’s something!  I love the cold winter weather, especially the snow.  In all our years in the Army, we’ve always lived right on the edge of snow country – we get some, but not alot.  The last couple of years have been sparse, barely enough to go sledding in.  We were hoping for some substantial snow this season, but it’s been unseasonably warm until now.  My children are outside of course, attempting to make snow angels in the whole quarter of an inch that we’ve gotten.  The temperature is dropping and I admire their enthusiasm.  I might be out there with them if I knew where my snow boots were!

Philip’s love language is acts of service.  Which means that instead of saying “I love you” with loving caresses or decorating me with jewelry, he expresses love by taking out the trash, washing dishes and driving me wherever I want to go because I hate to drive.  Because of recent events, we found ourselves with an opportunity to get a fresh start with organizing our pantry.  This is what it looked like before.

Yes, folks, this is supposed to be a food pantry.  Granted, this picture was taken to show the flood damage to that room, but it pretty much looked like that all the time.  Not so wet, of course.  Our new house is identical to the old one, again, not so wet, except that this pantry is actually slightly smaller.  Well, with the contents of the pantry dried off and packed up, we took our happy selves down to Home Depot and bought a very nice shelving system.

My wonderful, loving husband spent the day putting it together.  He’s not really the handy-man type, though he does own several tools and a new tool belt (thanks, Dad!).  So this was no small undertaking, especially since it involved math.  When he was finished, Philip presented me my new pantry.  He was beaming.  This was no ordinary, everyday taking-out-the-trash-folding-laundry-washing-dishes brand of love offerings.  This was a veritable Monument to Love.  A Pantry Taj Mahal.   I danced a little jig when I saw it.  I walked in and out of it, just because I could. Then I loaded it up with formally soggy food stuffs.  Would you like to see it?

All the shelves are adjustable and there are four drawers.  If you walk in and turn to the left, there’s a place for recycling.  We may add a shelf or two later on.  Looks good, doesn’t it? It’s good to be loved.

As you can see, I’m back. We moved into our new house on Thanksgiving Day and spent the day unpacking. We lost our internet connection when we moved around the computer and finally got it fixed on Tuesday. I know you’re all dying to see the pictures of the our damaged house, so here they are.

The water leak started in the upstairs master bathroom. Our entire carpet was soaked, as was much of the room next to ours. Most of the damage was done to the ceiling directly under the flooded rooms. So I present to you…our kitchen.

 

 

And the “office” area/junk depository:

Everything on, under and near the little roll top desk was completely soaked.

The hooks on the wall were holding portraits of our children, which our neighbors rescued. The bookshelf held mostly school books. Out of thousands of dollars worth of curriculum, I only lost about 8 Explode the Code Workbooks. That wet wall is a common wall, but fortunately, the neighbors on that side have not seen any damage.

Believe it or not, I had cleaned up this area ALOT before we left.

Just for the record, Longaberger baskets dry out beautifully. They will also grow mold if thrown into a box while wet and left there for 3 weeks. Luckily, the mold washes off and if caught in time, doesn’t even leave a trace.