What's Living Under Your Stove?

I've been doing so much sewing lately on my new serger that I haven't made time for my daily organizing projects. Kate was down to her last swimming suit so I made her a new one. I can't believe how fast they fall apart from the chlorine. She goes through at least one every two months. The swimsuit turned out so cute I made her a couple dance outfits similar to it. I've also been sewing some new maternity clothes. The rubber band through the pants button wasn't working anymore! I'm 28 weeks along now. 12 more weeks to go!

I have gotten a couple organizing projects done this week though. Thursday I pulled out the stove, swept and scrubbed the floor under it. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. It was so gross! Next week I'll clean under the fridge.

Friday, I drug the family out to the garage and we spent a couple hours straightening up. Now was a good time to get this done, before the family arrives for Thanksgiving and before it gets too cold to work outside.

Phone Organizing

My sister saved me last night. I was on the verge of going to bed at eight o'clock with my kids when the phone rang. It was Dani and we ended up talking for quit a while. At least long enough for me to get my kitchen cleaned up. It was a complete disaster but I had been too tired to clean it. I made bread and cookies after Church so there were baking pans, dishes and flour everywhere. I plowed through it while talking and it was completely painless. It felt great to get up to a clean kitchen this morning!

I think it's time to do some laundry so that will be my project for today. Have an organized day!

Wondering If The Dishes Are Clean Or Dirty?

Here is my Husband's favorite tip: Every time I empty the dishwasher I fill the soap tray. When someone opens the door they know immediately if the dishes are clean or dirty. If there is soap they are dirty. If there isn't, they are clean.

The kids were at the In-Laws again today. Instead of organizing, I rented a pile of movies and worked on a baby quilt all day. It's all put together, bound and ready to quilt. When the kids got home we watched them practice their acrobatics and then we played games. It's so much more fun now that Kate will finish an entire game with us instead of quitting half way through. She won't sit through it but she will finish it. When her turn is over she has to run around the room until it's her turn again. Grey has always been a good game player, except for the fact that he is so competitive he sometimes cries when he loses. He started playing Candy Land when he was two and was mad that none of his friends would play it with him. Candy Land gets old fast for Moms!

The Everything Room

Here we are, waiting for the outcome of the election today. I'm sure I will be in bed asleep, long before everything is decided, if indeed it is decided tonight. Lets hope it will be!

I spent some time today going through another pile of papers. This is never-ending! Papers really are the enemy when it comes to organization in my home. School papers, receipts, mail, torn-out magazines pages, etc. My binders are a great solution and they help keep most of the papers organized but hey, I'm still lazy and they don't always get put in a binder. I usually have a small pile of papers lurking somewhere in the house. I admit I don't have the perfect system set up in my home for paper management either. I don't have an office where I need it and that's in my kitchen. I use the kitchen island for my office and I don't have any really good storage right there to keep things neat. I plan to in my new home but I'm going to have to make due here for another year, so I need to find a solution.

Basically we live in the kitchen/dining room. Besides being a kitchen, it's also a school room, an office, a game room, an art studio, a sewing room, a science lab and many other things. It's a very small room if you consider that it has to facilitate all these daily activities. This makes organization challenging, to say the least. I'm going to focus the next few days or weeks (whatever it takes) on getting this space a little more organized and user friendly. I started on it last week so here's what I have accomplished so far:

*I cleaned out the kid's school drawers.
The kids each have their own drawer to store their school papers and art projects. Once their drawers get full, I go through them with each child and we pick out the best projects to keep and put in page protectors in their portfolios. The rest gets thrown out. It leaves them with a wonderful collection that they can browse through and show to their friends and family.

*I bought organizers for each of their book shelves.
Every time they removed a book from their shelf the rest of the contents would slide down horizontally. Then they just dumped everything on top of that pile till it was a complete mess. I finally spent about $14 on two organizers that keep their books up-right and neat. The kids can find their school books easily now and I don't have to look at a mess!

Have fun with your organizing project for the day. Whatever it is you will feel great after getting it accomplished!