Musical Bedrooms pt. 3

Here are some "During" photos of the new man cave.....and yes, it needs to be painted, too.....my dh's idea of painting is painting "around" furniture, and I can only do a little at a time.

This is the bunkbeds & his chest of drawers, tv/sat/wii. The bottom bunk is awaiting his new mattress that he is on the way NOW to pick up. So, all the things just waiting there on the bed need to be moved & put away.



This is his closet/cubby area. Those are the "other" deer heads (YUCK), his cabinet, on the shelf for now is the pieces to my new desk to be put together and his bows, in the closet are his uniforms & casual clothes & jacob's clothes. The closet floor is full of bags of winter clothes (which eventually will be put in bins and moved to the shed). The closet shelf has to be cleared of my stuff. Prob most of it will be freecycled.



This is dh's lounging area. It's his nightstand (with lamp & wax burner & charging dock) and the couch....yes and the dreaded deer head above.



This is the bunk bed & my cookbook bookshelf, this bookshelf is going to be moved back into the living room shortly. I need to reorganize it once I move it.



The bedroom is much too small to get better photos, or pictures of the floor.

As you can see I bothered my children a whole bunch by taking pics. What they don't know is I now have blackmail, lol.....only Jacob is supposed to be in there....haha.

Living Room redo pt. 1

Ok, the Bedroom Switcheroo ended up involving the whole house.

I ended up freecycling my large entertainment armoire, my dh's bed, the kids' corner armoire (that was holding nothing but their tv), and a trundle bed that we no longer use. So far, the entertainment armoire and dh's bed have been picked up. If the other 2 are not picked up today, tomorrow they go to goodwill.

The armoire that was no longer being used in the kitchen has been moved to the living room as an entertainment center. My small buffet (pending new pantry parts arriving) will be moved into the living room as a sewing center (but is not in here yet). I made room for my new sewing/scrapbook center by moving the loveseat into the man cave :) A comfy tv lounging area for dh was really the reason for that move....honestly!!! Ok, so you aren't even buying it, lol. Oh well, I do love that I will have ME space now :)

Ok, I am going to post some pics of my Living Room now that it is in total disarray. Brace yourselves...a lot of stuff is in bins waiting to be put back up, and my desk, well, yeah, well, ummmm, there's just no excuse for that. The whole reason for having an armoire, was to keep the doors shut, so no one would use it as a dumping ground, but as you see, they (dh & kids) have broke one of the doors, and the stuff they dumped has bred and well, you get the idea.

Oh, and I do have to rescue my cookbook bookshelf from the man cave. It was moved in there temporarily just to be able to get a few pieces of furniture through the doorway. And, I do need to finally finish painting my living room, so the whole thing will finally be balsam beige, rather than pepto bismol pink. I just have to do it a little at a time, since I am allergic to latex, and it is hard for me to breathe when I am painting, and a few days later.

Ok, this is the back wall leading into the man cave. There is my "bed" (the couch), some clothes needing to be put away, and several bins of stuff to be put away, my hope chest buried in stuff to be put away...yes that is a pot on the hope chest. I used it to pour water in the dogs' bowl outside and have not put it back away yet. At least my floor is mainly clean. That trash bag is a bag of clothes, and my chair is in front of my desk. That white shelf is going on top of the homeschool cubbies.



This is the wall leading to the front yard. That is my desk and my homeschool cubby, and yes BOTH are in MAJOR need of decluttering/organizing. I have no excuses!

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This is the wall leading into the kitchen. It has the backpack station (white bin on top is the out the door bin for library books, dvd's to return, small freecycle items), then is my dvd/vcr and satellite, the red bin is supposed to be only for kids' school folders, but it has a little bit of overflow from the living room being torn apart and still in transition. the white laundry basket in the bottom is for shoes.....yes, I need to weed some out. It is only supposed to be for one pair for each of us, but the kids have taken advantage of my hospitality, lol. The armoire holds the tv & printer up top, the cabinet has hangers waiting to be used, the drawers hold the dvd collection.....hoping the drawers will prove tougher for Chey. She was opening the cabinets on the old entertainment armoire and dumping them, several times daily in the floor....much to Caity's frustration.



The last wall is sort of empty for now. That is my scrapbook stuff to the left and it needs to be reorganized. But once everything is put away, and I am able to liberate my small buffet from the kitchen, this is going to be my craft wall (scrapbook & sewing center). Yes that curtain rod is bent. This is where the loveseat was, and despite my best efforts, the kids kept taking the curtain from behind the loveseat and sitting on it, thus pulling on the rod.

Musical Bedrooms pt. 2 (today)

It has been decided that the bottom bunk (at least) of the white bunk beds will stay in dh's/jacob's new room. If there is enough room in the girls' room, the top bunk will move in there. I moved the loveseat into the "man cave" for dh to sleep on if the other bed fits in the girls' room, if it doesn't, he has the bottom bunk & jacob has the top bunk, but knowing him, he will fall asleep every night on the loveseat watching tv anyways.

**Footnote** dh is happier about the move now that we have:
1. found the remote to that bedroom's satellite
2. moved the loveseat in there in front of the tv
3. moved all his dead animals in there (deer heads)
4. named the room the "man cave"

The cabinet was moved into "the man cave".

Still have left to move:

* red bunk beds into girls' room
* crib to girls' room
* bins to the shed

Musical Bedrooms (did this last night)

Sooooooooooo..........as soon as I hit send yesterday, I made the decision (drumroll please.................)

I moved dh into the girls' small bedroom, and them into the Master Bedroom.

So far, I have:
* moved dh's mattress (kids' broke his frame), nightstand, tv, wii & chest of drawers in dh's new room
* moved girls' dressers (the 9 cube organizers), mattresses in master bedroom
* hooked up dh's tv, satellite & wii
* hooked up girls' tv & satellite
* moved kitchen armoire (not being used in there anymore once i get the parts to my kitchen pantry) to the living room to be used as an entertainment center
* moved dvd's from entertainment armoire to the new armoire (chey was able to get them all out every day from the old cabinet, hoping the drawers prove harder for her)
* moved old entertainment armoire to front yard & listed on freecycle
* listed trundle bed on freecycle

Still have left to move:
* bunk beds into girls' room
* crib to girls' room
* cabinet into dh's room
* bins to the shed

PS...DH was not crazy about the move...especially since I could not find the remote to the satellite in that bedroom

My Kitchen......an interruption in service.........changing to my Girls' Bedroom

Ok, my husband went to put the pantry together and had the wrong pieces (pt. 2). Well, since then, we have just been waiting around for the new pieces to arrive. So, until that magic moment when they arrive, I am going to (cringe) start work on my daughters' bedroom instead.

Recently I took everything out of my girls' room (ages 8, 5 1/2, 3 1/2) except their beds. They were not putting anything away.....despite the numerous different setups I had tried in getting their rooms decluttered, rearranged & reorganized. Every single week (Thursdays usually), I would get so frustrated by the mess, I would do another purge. Their toys got banished to the playhouse outside, they lost their tv privledges, their art supplies got taken to my small, already overcrowded office space. Their clothes got moved to the living room (and yes it drove me bonkers).

I recently put their clothes back in their room, but am beginning to have the same problem of them just throwing the clothes in the floor....even after "I" put them away. So, to solve this problem, I have taken their 9drawer cubby system (target with the fabric drawers) out of their dark closet, and moved it out into the bedroom, where they can see it again. AND, I have made it Caity's responsibility to put the clothes away. I have tried everyone putting their own clothes away, but Brea & Rory just did not care. They would take their clothes and toss them in the floor. I think Caity will be better at enforcing keeping the clothes put away than me, since she is now responsible for putting them away. She likes to do as little work as possible, lol, so she's not gonna want to keep putting the same clothes away over & over.

They have a bunk bed and I put the 3rd mattress under the bunk bed & it is pulled out every night (I am going to buy a trundle box for her bed). So, right now, the room is fairly empty. But I want to get their toys & art stuff back in there just not sure how to go about it yet.

So, I have a very small 13'X8' room for these 3 girls.....emptied it out of everything except their clothes.........and now..........I want to do the unthinkable..........and add a fourth girl to this room.....In a crib!!!

And, I am debating making my dh trade rooms with the girls, since his room is bigger.

LOL....I never can make things easy, can I???

Ok, so no pictures to post yet, I am going to think over the possibilities in my head about what I want to do. If anyone has any ideas, PLEASE, feel free to share them with me!

My Kitchen......reorganize pt. 3

Ok, so as to not freak anyone out....I am only posting ONE picture today.....but be forewarned. It's not for the weak of heart. It is a doozy!!! It's the top of my large buffet.

Just to say in advance, in my defense, the contents of my armoire are also on here, as well as anything my dh & kids decide to just drop & run (as in they drop something and run like heck before mama catches them doing so). And, yes, that is a pair of my oldest dd's nikes....she needs them relaced, so what better spot than on the buffet in the kitchen???

There is a little something for everyone up here. You can most noticeably see all the linens on top of everything (they are from the armoire). Then there's Caity's shoes, some canisters that haven't been put away (at this point, what was the use), then there's bread that hadn't made it to the freezer yet (I'm happy to say it has now). Underneath all the clutter (junk), there is actually some pretty pottery crocks holding my (some of my) utensils. And, of course, the overflowing can cabinet (which can hopefully be retired after my new pantry gets put together). And if you look on top of that, is the white board paint I bought months ago, and still haven't painted.

Geez, this is even overwhelming me, lol....Well, here it is.....don't run away, please!!

My Kitchen......reorganize pt. 2

Ok, you know how when you have this great plan, this terribly well thought out plan, that is just perfect....nothing can go wrong. Wellllllllll, let me tell you it CAN. And usually, ok, sometimes due to no idiocy of your own.

I bought this pantry, you see, and I was gonna put it together myself. Well, my dh decided he wanted to put it together himself....BIG MISTAKE!!

First of all, he is not a WOOD man....he is a METAL man. You give that boy something to weld and you will love it when it's done. Welllll, he once built me a bookshelf.....I had this ingenious idea to use the wooden rails from a twin bed frame and the slats to make a bookshelf. Oh, it would have been a great little bookshelf....Well, he got to work, and about an hour brought it in to me.........The shelves were at a diagonal.....you'd put a book on, and it would fall right back off!

Ok, so it's been like 13 years, so I decided he had earned the right to try again (I mean I did put together all the cribs & baby furniture so my kids wouldn't just fall out).

So, he gets to work, and he's about 1/2way through with the pantry.....and calls me, b/c he can't figure out how in the world this board is supposed to fit on there....

Bless his heart, he didn't check the materials off on the little checklist before he started putting things together. Now he must have watched me put together at least 100 different pieces of furniture....and that is always my first step.

Hey, at least he did do the steps in the order they call for....lol, guess he was trying to do a good job, and not be banned another 13 years. WELL, they had given us two "A" boards, but no "B" board. And since A is the left side of the pantry, and B is the right side, there's just no dadgum way it's gonna work. Like having 2 left feet....no matter how hard ya try, all ya gonna do is dance in circles.

Soooooooooooooo, we had to take it back apart (because our house is too small to just have it standing somewhere in limbo without my destroyers (umm, i mean little creative people...sure, yeah, ok, that's not even convincing to me), doing what they do best......destroying. So, it is now unassembled (and glue spilt), and blocking my microwave cart (with the microwave & dishes). So, today, I get to call the company, and request a part B :) Now I just have to decide what my Plan B is...because I already took my armoire out the kitchen thinking my pantry was to be put together, and the contents are all over my large buffet.

Aaaaaaargh....lol. You think stuff like this only happens in the movies....WRONG..............it happens to me, lol.

My Kitchen......reorganize pt. 1

Ok, I am having a BIG organization problem in my kitchen......I get it organized how it makes sense to me, and I am "technically" the only one who uses it.....well for it's intended purposes anyways. My kitchen is WAY TOO small to be using it as a catch-all, but that is the purpose my family uses it for. In order to NOT scare you away, I am not going to post all of my before pics at one time.

The first thing I am going to show you is my small buffet, which is the perfect height for me considering I have absolutely NO counter space....and by this I don't mean cluttered counter space or unutilized space, I mean NO space. I have 2 very small counters (1'x1') and one is in the corner between my front door and my stove....so I can't even get to it easily (it has my dish strainer on it, that's all I can put there...anything else I can't reach to use. The 2nd small counter is reachable, but still too small to really use (and with me being so short, it is too tall for me to use even if it were big enough).

HOWEVER....will all that being said.....I am taking this piece out of my kitchen :( It is not able to effectively do the job I want it to do in my kitchen. The problems are: 1. everytime I get the top cleared off, dh & kids clutter it back up (major hotspot), 2. the cabinet is too narrow, but too tall to hold really much of anything. it should have a shelf to utilize the height (so I don't have dead space at the top) and it should be wider to hold my extra appliances....oh, and the drawer really doesn't hold anything well (you have to open the cabinet to open the drawer).........

So, although it's the perfect height, it has these other problems. So......I am going to repurpose it as a sewing cabinet :) my sewing machine will fit on top, i am going to put a bin of fabric in the cabinet, a basket to hold patterns (if i keep any), and the drawer can hold some small baskets to hold things like bobbins, thread, etc.

Only problem....where to put the miscellaneous stuff that is thrown in it?? (it's a hodgepodge of stuff)

BEFORE pics (will be a while before I am able to post AFTER pics, because I have to find somewhere for all this stuff to go rather than just dump it in my already ON FIRE kitchen:
Top of buffet: (blender that hasn't been put away since being used over a month ago, my new mixer that i bought over 2 weeks ago and haven't put away, my crockpot that is actually being used...see my yummy dinner inside, coffee maker that doesn't get used during summer, top of trifle bowl that hasn't been used since mom's day, a casserole dish, the pledge, my brisket recipe cards from last week, and the sticks to the koolaid pops)


Inside buffet drawer (inside cabinet): (various pampered chef gadgets, popcorn, almond bark & bottle parts)


Inside buffet cabinet: (various other pc items, chillzanne, caddies, muffin stone, and for some reason a hamburger helper (free with coupon, lol) and a cake mix)

Tackle It Tuesday

5 Minutes for Mom hosts something called Tackle it Tuesday, which from what I get is to basically tackle something you have been putting off.

So, I decided to "tackle" the top of my desk. It is an absolute mess (things just piled on it randomly).

BEFORE:


AFTER:


I took everything down. I dusted & put back the things that did belong (with a little rearranging).

So sorry!

I am so sorry I have been MIA!! Things have been so crazy with the kids, decluttering, etc, that I have not had the time for blogging. I hope to be able to make time again, though.

I did get through my 31 days of babysteps, and could probably stand to do them again, but not going to bite off too much right now.....or I will get overwhelmed and quit.

I have been decluttering EVERY day. I got the shed finished!!! Over 100 boxes down to 8!!! I have been doing at least 15 minutes every day, just not posting my results :( I hope to get back to that, though!

I have also been reading Organizing Junkie's blog (from start to....well, I'm only about 1/2way through), and have been getting inspired :)

Hopefully I will post more often. With all 5 kids home for the summer, and Caity homeschooling, I will not promise a daily post, though.