Weekend Touch-ups

I didn't have any plans for this past weekend, so I made big plans to clean and organize some spaces in the house that were getting a bit out of control and needed to be touched up.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good weekend plan with friends and family, but I also love when the schedule is clear and I can work on things around the house instead.  I am one of those people who can always see those messy areas in the back of my mind even when I should be focusing on other things.  Anyway, this weekend I made a list and I accomplished a lot and it felt great!  I will just take you on a quick tour of what I worked on.

The laundry room was getting a bit out of control and just needed some straightening up.  Also, that Ikea 9-drawer Alex unit needed an overhaul.  That is where I keep all of the kids' art supplies.  You can read how I originally set it up here.  I never planned for it to stay super neat and organized with four kids under the age of 8, but I need to do a better job of looking into it and straightening it up more often to keep from having to completely empty it like I did this weekend.  Some of the photos were taken with my phone, so please excuse their blurriness.

Everything came out and I wiped out the drawers.  I filled a whole garbage bag of broken crayons, old art projects, leaky glue, used coloring books, etc.

I checked all of the markers and threw out the duds.  I put the keepers into Crayola tins and pencil cases and put everything else away as well.  

I was keeping all of the kids' extra school supplies in a small white box (which you can see in my laundry room post), but when they brought their pencil cases back home at the end of the school year, everything didn't fit.  I had a plastic stacking bin lying around in the basement that works perfectly for storing the supplies.  

I have a cabinet in our laundry room that is dedicated to my candles, vases, etc.  It also needed a bit of cleanup.  I even filled a small diaper box with things to donate.  I added a few more baskets and now I don't fear things falling out when I open the door.  

Once the art supplies and candles were organized, I just swept the floor and wiped down the washing machine and dryer and the laundry room was looking much better!  

My desk was also starting to look unsightly, so I went through it and got rid of what didn't belong or things that I never use.  Seriously, what's with all of those scissors?!  These pictures are mid-organizing, but it typically does get messy like this with all sorts of stuff.  

The after picture never disappoints!

I also updated our medicine cabinet.  Got rid of anything that had expired and wiped off the shelves.  Just a few minutes later, it was much better.  You can read a full post about our medicine cabinet here.

I had frames and wall art stacked on our dining room table for weeks now with intentions of getting them up on our living room wall.  I dusted and vacuumed the living room and then hung everything up.  Can you tell that I am going for a coastal feel with this space?  Unfortunately, our hideous dark green microfiber sofas just keep sticking around and will until we can afford new ones.  Also, we have a 2, 3, 6 and 7 year old, so new sofas probably wouldn't be the best idea at the moment anyway.  But they are the farthest thing from coastal.  Bleh!  

Everything looks much better on the walls than they did on the dining room table.  Speaking of the dining room, I also updated our seasonal bucket list.  It's my favorite season to do!  You can read more about that chalkboard here and here.  

That's about all I have to show with photos.  I also touched up our master, linen and hall closets, my craft room, the game and puzzle cabinets, my makeup organizers and the pantry!  I also finished all of the laundry, though by now I am sure there is another load (or two!) ready to go!  I was a woman on a mission this weekend and would you believe I didn't even cross everything off of my list?  What can I say, my list is never ending, but what are you gonna do?!  I feel so accomplished and I woke up this morning feeling a lot better and refreshed knowing that all of those spaces were clean and organized back to where they should be.

My Daughter's Room - Clean & Organized

My oldest child, a 6 year old daughter, is the only one of our 4 children who has her own room.  The other 3 are supposed to share a room, but that is another story.  Anyway, her room was a disaster a few weeks ago.  Clothing, toys, books, shoes, paper, beads and gems galore.  All.  Over.  The.  Floor.  If I can remember correctly, her room was exactly like mine when I was 6.  Go figure!  Here are a few before pictures.

Previously, her closet had two sliding doors.  I just took them down before taking that last picture.  If she had the type that "fold" out, I would have left them up, but the sliding type are just horrible.  So I decided to just remove them.  It instantly opened up the space.  Hopefully it will also force us to keep it organized.  When we put everything back into her closet, I added a few things.  We put her Closetmaid cubbies in there, a bin with her stuffed animals, a new hamper and a few plastic bins.  Along the top are a few baskets and bins.  Up there we are keeping her nicer jewelry that is still in their original boxes and packaging and arts and crafts that are still in boxes as well.  The closet is looking much better since then and she has been excellent about putting her dirty clothing in her new hamper.  Yay!

She recently got a small desk, chair and wall cubbies from Ikea, but I could never figure out what to do with the space.  It was driving me nuts.  We hung up an Ikea Bygel rail and added some buckets to keep her crayons and pencils in.  I gave her a magazine file to keep completed artwork in.  I purchased Disney princess printable silhouettes from Etsy and had her favorite, Cinderella, printed out in no time.  It fit perfectly next to the Bygel rail.  She has a million collections, some of which ended up in the wall cubbies above her desk.

I found some adorable labels at Target and used them in combination with my label maker to give each of her wall bins a purpose.  She told me what goes in each of them and I printed out the labels on clear tape and voila!

She also wanted a place to put some of her artwork on the wall.  So I picked up some Martha Stewart corkboards that just stick to the wall.  They work perfectly!

Overall, everything turned out really well.  It's been like this for a few weeks now and while it has gotten messy again, it's been easier to put everything back where it belongs.  There are also a few more things we need to address (that horrible wire hanging down the wall from her ceiling lamp), but those will come with time.  So far, so good!  Here is the Grand Finale!

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