Silly Silly

Purge & Declutter: Week 4

We got another room on our list done! Yay! I'm loving this plan.... slowly but surely... my house just might get organized! It's all leading up to the grand finale of our Junk (ie: guest) room. When we clean one room, and don't know what to do with the extra junk, that's where it goes. That room is gonna take several weeks! But we'll get there eventually!

So last night we cleaned and reorganized our BACK PORCH. It was piled with boxes, trashbags and a thick layer of pollen. Now it's cleaned, decluttered, and it's a play-space for Josiah! It only took us one hour to totally transform the space! I had gotten these foam letters at the thrift store for $7 and yesterday I found this great activity table on craigslist for $20. It was going to be a birthday present, but we had nowhere to store/hide it, so he gets it early! We'd love to close in the porch so he could use it year round, but for now, I think I'll just hang some waterproof curtains (ie: shower curtains) to deflect any rain and it'll be good for the summer. :)

I forgot to take a before picture... but here's the "after" (I do still have curtains to get and I want to hang some lantern light-strings I have too):

Purge & Declutter: Week 3

We did our bedroom & laundry room two weeks ago, so this past weekend, we tackled the kitchen.  We started by cleaning out the fridge, freezer and pantry, and that took long enough, so that's as far as we got.  For the last couple weeks, we've been trying to eat out of what's already in our freezer & pantry.  It's a great way to save some money on the monthly grocery budget, and it's good to eat up things before they expire.  So by cleaning things out, we were able to make a little inventory list of what's left, so I can plan meals around what we already have.... and that's quite a bit since I like to stock up during triple coupons and when things are on sale! Josiah enjoyed this week's cleaning day... there was all kinds of fun stuff in that pantry for him to play with!

Here is the before picture (the picture doesn't do justice to the mess that it was... things were falling out every time we opened the door):

During:

And the final, clean, organized, AFTER picture:

Getting so Grown-up!

It's hard to pick a favorite baby age/stage, but if I did.... I'd have to say this is it!  Josiah is so much fun right now.  I love watching him play and explore and he's learning so many new things.  This morning we met friends at the MacArthur mall play-area, and Josiah LOVED it!  It's been a couple months since we were last there... and that time, he sat and watched the "big kids" play.  Well, this time, he crawled right in and played his little heart out.  He climbed onto as much as he could, crawled through things, loved going down the slides (with mommy's help) and I suddenly realized that my little baby is so ready to be a toddler!  I can picture him running around with the rest of those crazy big kids in just a few months... and while it's bittersweet that he's growing up so quickly, it mostly just makes me smile because he is clearly so happy!  I haven't been great about grabbing the camera as often since he's on the move so much, but here's a quick shot of him taking a sippy-cup break this afternoon.  :) 

On the Move :)

Gone for Good!

So we're embarking on a 16-Week Purge & Clean mission!   I came up with this because I was feeling like our house was out of control.  We just have way too much stuff and nowhere to put it all.  It's ridiculous.  And it makes me feel like I'm living in constant chaos.   It makes me not even want to bother doing the routine cleaning.  Mike & I both have pack-rat tendencies... so we have so much junk we never use and it really needs to go.   But always being frustrated that the entire house is a mess is overwhelming, so I decided we needed to break it down into something manageable.  So we're taking one room or closet a week, and cleaning it from top to bottom.... and most importantly, GETTING RID OF STUFF!!! 

Some weeks will be more time-consuming than others, but that's okay.  We did our bedroom on Saturday and it feels soooo good to have it so clean.  We started with stuffed drawers that would hardly close, tangled jewelry, dust and a bunch of random stuff... and by the time we were done, now have 3 empty drawers, organized jewelry, and everything is super clean!   Then on Sunday, we cheated... and went ahead and did the laundry room (because we had to fix something with our dryer anyway), and I must say, it is so clean I {almost} enjoyed doing laundry today!  Maybe I should do before and after pictures from now on!

1. Master Bedroom
2. Laundry Room
3. Screened Porch
4. Kitchen
5. Master Closet
6. Master Bathroom
7. Living Room
8. Foyer
9. Coat Closet
10. Storage Shed
11. Stairway/Landing
12. Nursery
13. Nursery Closet
14. Downstairs Bathroom
15. Guest Room Closet
16. Guest Room (the Grand Finale)