I found an idea for organizing seed packets in a mini album on One Hundred Dollars a Month. It was such a fantastic idea that I ran up to the store and bought one right away!
But I really didn’t like the blue glitter. I took out the front and back panels and made new ones out of totally adorable farm scrapbook paper. Much better!
After a super long hiatus on our home improvement projects, I am slowly trying to finish up my already started but not even close to being completed laundry room. It’s going to be a long project but making some progress helps a lot! And just not having a huge pile of junk that used to be on my pantry shelf in the middle of the floor made a big difference! :o)
I painted the shelf, put everything back on it, put up new floor trim and, most importantly, painted the first of the walls in their new green!
The first “extra” cleaning chore on my list for 2012 was cleaning out closets. After having a pretty productive purge less than 6 months ago, I really didn’t think it would be such a chore. I was wrong! It took two weeks and 3 more trips to Goodwill (I’ve taken 6 van loads since Christmas) to finish! But I am so glad to be done and have this happy and satisfied feeling every time I hang up my coat or get a box of cereal from the pantry… If only I could be assured that it would last! ;o)
Since I know it can’t last forever, I’m going to enjoy it while I can. So here’s a look at how they turned out. I would post before/after pictures for a more dramatic effect, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that candid and honest. LOL
The pantry
I love the shoe holder idea I found on Pinterest! (of course!)
I also love my dry-erase labels I made from removable dry-erase locker stickers and my label punch.
I turned the storage closet under the stairs into a photo studio for my youngest son. He does have to share it with all of the holiday decorations though.
All the stuff from under the stairs got relocated to the furnace closet along with all of my fabric…
Geez! We have a lot of games!!!
I have mixed feelings about the newly found space in my closet… I was able to get all my clothes for each season into one box each. How? I got rid of a whole lot of clothes that I outgrew… :o/
Please let it last… Please let it last… Please let it last…
I am cleaning out closets, and I mean really cleaning out closets. Organizing, sorting, tossing, giving away… The van is full of stuff for the thrift store!
Pretty much every closet in the house had at least one box of what I call keepsakes in it. You know, that stuff you just can’t let go of. The stuff that is tied up with all the memories and emotions of times gone by. We had 22 boxes of memories! Twenty-two!!!
Sometimes when I am in the closet and happen to catch a glimpse of one of these boxes, I am haunted by a quote I heard years ago on one of those organizing shows on TLC. “If it is that special to you, why is it shoved in a box instead of out where you can see it and enjoy it?”
Why did we keep all this stuff? It isn’t as if I ever look at it. In fact I wasn’t even sure what was in some of the boxes??? Was any of it that important???
I wouldn’t know unless I started to actually open the boxes and see what treasures I had stored away for all these years…
Some things I looked at and wondered what I was thinking when I kept it. Like 20 copies of our wedding invitations…Really??? 20 copies??? Some things I didn’t even remember where it came from, or who it belonged to. Those were easy to part with…
Other things were not so easy! I know I don’t have them out to admire but that doesn’t make them any less special. But how do you display a box full of old baby clothes or your letterman jacket from high school??? Just because I don’t want them hanging on the living room wall or sitting in a glass display case doesn’t mean they aren’t special and I don’t want to keep them…
The outfit we brought Andy home from the hospital in
A book Will wrote about me in Sunday School for Mother’s Day.
The dance contest trophy that Andy won because the judge liked his Colorado shirt (Andy didn’t dance at all but the judge was from Colorado)
Will’s favorite Winnie the Pooh hat!
A hand crank He-Man flashlight that my grandpa bought me when we went to the Toys R Us for the very first time! He told me I could buy whatever I wanted to in the store and I chose that??? I think my head was spinning from the sheer awesomeness of a store filled with only toys!!!
The snake Will picked out as a memento from our last Diamondback’s game.
Baby Scarecrow. Zack loved him to death! Obviously…
The elephant made by the sweet little old lady volunteers that they gave to Zack in the ER before he went in for x-rays. He had swallowed a quarter and they wouldn’t let me in the x-ray room with him because I was pregnant. They were so nice to him and spoiled him I don’t even think he noticed I wasn’t there… LOL
The Steiff bear I bought in a little toy shop in Melsungen, Germany when I was 15.
The stuffed tiger I bought Chris on our first Christmas while we were dating. He loves tigers!
Mr. Ugly was my brother’s baby toy and a favorite of all of my boys when they were babies!
With all that reminiscing, it probably took a whole lot longer than it needed to… but when all was said and done I had condensed it all into 12 bins, all neatly organized and labeled!
I don’t know how often I’ll break into the bins, but it’s nice to know that each one contains a lifetime worth of happy memories! :o)
