My weekend purge and organization challenge - the photos

[marie]

congrats! isn't it amazing what one can accomplish without the darling distractions around? (heehee, that's a new twist on DD - Darling Distraction!)

and what is that blue wall color? it's lovely!

[stinkyfeet]

Wow! That is great!!

I started purging this weekend too--I just need to get DH on board to help me out.

[SkyrMommy]

Wow!!! Great job... if only I could do something like that in my basement

[swrc00]

Awesome job and I am glad to see somebody else's train table in the middle of their living room.

[KrisM]

Thanks everyone! I was worried that I wouldn't get it all done because the bedroom took a lot longer than I thought it would. I still have stuff in my family room to finish up in the morning, but DH says they're staying most of the day tomorrow, so I have time. In any case, even if he leaves earlier, they won't be here until noon at the earliest.

Great job!!

Is that Butterscotch the pony I see in the kitchen photo? My DD got one for Christmas a few years ago and it currently resided in my dining room. Now that we have DS I feel like we should keep it for him well and even though DD is 7 I don't think she is ready to part with Butterscotch just yet.

It is Butterscotch. Although, DD calls her "Sparkles". It was my amazing deal last Christmas - brand new in the box from Salvation Army for $89.99. I stood in line on opening day for an hour before they opened to snag one! It gets a lot of play by all the kids.

congrats! isn't it amazing what one can accomplish without the darling distractions around? (heehee, that's a new twist on DD - Darling Distraction!)

and what is that blue wall color? it's lovely!

Yes, amazing how much can get done! The walls are Aleutian by Sherwin Williams. Number 6241. We have been very happy with it. It's in the neutral section and really is a neutral - we have no blue in any of our furniture and it all looks good!

Wow!!! Great job... if only I could do something like that in my basement

Like what? It's not finished, except the area at the bottom of the stairs. The floor is the foam puzzle squares from Sam's Club, cut to fit the floor. It really helped make it a nicer place to be. An the shelf is Ikea Expedit, which just helps a ton!

Awesome job and I am glad to see somebody else's train table in the middle of their living room.

Thanks! We are working on moving the train table. It's there because DS2 had been banned from the playroom. He's been recently allowed to play in there. But, we have another table in there that DS1 uses for marble runs and Legos and we need to move that to his room. But, having in the family room has worked just fine .

[citymama]

Wow, that's impressive! You're inspiring me to do something about all our piles of stuff, except ours are mostly paper and kiddie art. We've moved often enough that the level of clutter is reasonable but still could use more work.

Want to share some tips and tricks - lessons learned - to help the rest of us who are now inspired by you to declutter?

Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Globetrotter]

You were really productive! It makes me want to spend dh and the kids away for a week

[niccig]

That look so great. You can tell me, do you go into the rooms to just soak in the organized zen-ness of the rooms? I did that with our garage last week...it felt so good to easily find things...

[jamesmom]

You are amazing! That is really impressive!

[BeachBum]

Kudos!
Organizing is so hard! We just moved and I'm opening boxes and thinking "what? , why did I buy this--and why did I bother to move it!)

I too have issues with the kids' outgrown clothes. What has been working for me is to promptly hang the items to sell (ours must get hung and tagged anyway) in one section of the closet and one plastic bin below it for "donate". So I make the choice right away to sell or donate, and when the donate fills up I take it, regardless of the season just to get it out of my way. I can do a quick scan as I tag for stains...but I have to do less ironing and most of the items will make the cut.
With my oldest son's clothes, I keep a bin in the bottom of his closet for hand-me-downs. When something seems to be getting to small I put it in there. The bin gets labeled with the season and size (so maybe summer 5-6) and then goes onto a shelf in the garage.