Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

We’ll start with the couple of other things…

I’ve been out of the bloggy loop for a few days due to a change in our web-hosting service. If you notice anything wonky with the site please let me know. (Don’t you just love it when you have reason to use made-up words like “wonky”?)

I’m having a bit of trouble with WordPress and comment e-mails. If you are a first time commenter it may take a while before your comment is posted due to the fact that I’m not receiving e-mail telling me there is a comment in moderation. Also, if you leave a question in the comments I may or may not realize it is there and reply. I am trying to look at WordPress regularly to check comments, so I will get to it eventually (probably). Please bear with me as my web-guru and I attempt to solve the problem.

In other, and less technical, news…

Spring cleaning/nesting has officially begun. Today I’ve cleaned the laundry room from top to bottom (de-cobwebbed, decluttered, wiped down walls & appliances) and cleaned the exterior of all the lower kitchen cabinets and the fronts of the appliances. This is one of those things I’ve been putting off for quite some time, so it feels good to have made a start. We’ll see whether my energy holds up the next few weeks to get the entire house done.

And finally, in regards to my Fifteen on Friday list…

Crib bedding was purchased and a paint colors were decided upon. The big painting project should begin this weekend.

Little has her new mattress and box springs and is sleeping in her “big girl” bed (more on that in another post). The crib has been moved to Boo’s room, but the other furniture is still in Little’s so that she isn’t in an empty room with a mattress on the floor. And so that there is less furniture to maneuver around in the nursery while painting.

So, we’re making progress. It seems slow, but it is coming along. We’re down to approximately 10 weeks, but as I always say…we seem to work best under pressure.

Here is a portion of my pre-Boo to-do list; these are all things that will effect him directly (I’m currently omitting things like clean fridge, dust blinds…you know, the fun stuff). I’m sure there are other things that have and will come to mind, but right now I’ll share “Fifteen on Friday” because it makes for good alliteration in the title.

1. Find and purchase boy crib bedding that I actually like and can afford
2. Choose a paint color for Boo’s walls
3. Find new homes for various items remaining in Boo’s room
4. Prep and paint trim and walls
5. Hang closet doors
6. Buy mattress and box springs for Little’s big-girl bed
7. Move nursery furniture to Boo’s room
8. Find chair that I would like in Boo’s room (and hope it is in the budget)
9. Buy burp cloths that aren’t pink
10. Go through Little’s clothes to see what can be used for a boy
11. Create registries
12. Find a double stroller that I’m willing to push (and can maneuver)
13. Purchase sling(s), nursing pillow, and possibly some other “wants” for myself
14. Wash clothes, bedding, blankets, fabric parts of equipment, etc.
15. Set up tour of maternity floor at hospital since it is a different hospital than where Little was born

And there you have it. Now if I can just quit procrastinating and get some of these things crossed off…eleven weeks to go!

Last week I learned from my friend Diane that Wednesday is anti-procrastination day at FlyLady. Now FlyLady is not a site that I’ve frequented in the past; although, I have visited several times in the last few years with good intentions. But I digress; today is anti-procrastination day, so I thought I would not put off (again) until tomorrow what could be done today. I think you could all guess that I have not accomplished all of the things that I’ve been putting off (that would take more than one Wednesday and probably many of the days in between those Wednesdays), but I did make a start on the pre-Boo to-do list.

Today started with getting up a bit early to get a shower, dressed, etc before Little woke up. This is something that I’m finding makes the day flow a bit more smoothly; especially if we have somewhere to be (which we usually do). After eating breakfast and getting Little ready for the day we had about 20 minutes before we needed to leave for Bible Study Fellowship. But, because we’re not procrastinating today, we left early and stopped by Kroger to pick up the items that I didn’t get at the store on Monday. BSF ends around 11:15 and we headed straight to Target to pick up a few things, like laundry detergent, that weren’t urgent but would be soon. While Little ate lunch I mixed and kneaded this week’s batch of bread (we also sang and talked about the birds in the backyard while she ate her applesauce).

And then during the first rise on the bread I conquered the task that gets marked off the to-do list: cleaned and organized the pantry. I still have some work to do in there, such as getting spice racks to go on the back of the door (so that I can actually find my spices when I need them instead of digging through the entire shelf only to find that I’m out of something), but the biggest part of the work is completed.

Now the bread is finishing it’s second rise, I’m finishing up this blog post, Little is still napping, and I think I’ll rest a bit. It feels good to have one thing off my list. Happy anti-procrastination day!

We just got a call for a second showing of the house this evening.

I have a friend coming over in about an hour.

My house is a wreck.

Hopefully I’ll be back later with more!

~ Little’s face is looking much better after 2 doses of antibiotic; I think we’re on the mend.
~I’ve walked 9 of the last 10 days.

No, I am not bulimic; fortunately, I have never struggled with eating disorders. Eating – why yes, that is something I engage in regularly; but the purging part, well, not so much. I really hate to vomit. But I digress; on to the point of the post.

Every year in late Spring or early Summer I go into purge mode. When I’m purging there is very little that is truly safe; pretty much anything that isn’t nailed down is fair game. Matt can sense purge mode coming and begins to nail things down. Things like the dishes, clothes, furniture. You know, the stuff that every sensible person cleans out once a year. I mean, do you really need to eat off of a plate? Are you really going to wear that shirt again (no matter that you wear it once a week)?

The last several weeks I’ve been cleaning out. It all started when my neighbor, Lindsey, and I decided to have a yard sale. I went through the house ruthlessly searching for anything that we no longer used or needed, then I enlisted Matt’s help in the hunt. We ended up with boxes of things that we toted to Lindsey’s driveway in hopes that our trash would be someone else’s treasure. What didn’t sell went immediately to Goodwill. A couple of hundred dollars and more space in cabinets and closets were ample reward.

This weekend I attacked our paperwork. “Important” papers had grown to take up a two-drawer filing cabinet and a couple of other file boxes; I could take no more. It took a good portion of two days to sort through and shred all of the papers we were holding onto that we didn’t really need. I filled four kitchen size trash bag with paper and got down to one file box containing the papers that really are important. I feel a hundred pounds lighter.

So, today I am thankful for a husband who puts up with (even encourages to an extent) this quirk of mine and I am thankful for our cross-cut shredder. I’m sure the shredder is thankful for a day of rest.

The 30 Day Organizational Challenge has come to an end, and I’m happy to report that I completed my work on Little’s closet with time to spare. I moved things, removed things, container-ized things, and better contained things. I’m quite pleased with the finished product, and there is plenty of room to grow.

Laura has asked that each participant answer a few questions about the process and experience:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? The hardest part for me was getting started. I overcame my hesitancy by taking everything from her closet and dumping it in the living room floor.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? I’m trying to be very conscientious of putting things back where they belong and putting her clothes into the baskets neatly.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? Most of what I purged was clothing or baby items that Little has outgrown. Because we hope to have more children, these items are now residing in the attic or her “outgrown clothing” storage box.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience? It really didn’t take long once I began the process; it’s all about getting started.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life? It will definitely make it easier to find and get to her clean clothes. The new storage for her “to grow into” clothing will also help me keep an eye on how much clothing I have for the next season.

And now the fun part; before and after photos:

I added containers to the shelves to hold onesies/tees, pants/skirts, fancy pants (what we call diaper covers), sleepers/pajamas, socks, etc. The clear bag container on the top shelf contains clothing of sizes she has yet to grow into (mostly 12-18 months for the fall and winter); the boxes on the bottom right contain clothing she has outgrown that we need to return to other people. The wicker basket on the floor will hold items she outgrows until I have a chance to sort them and get them into longer term storage.

The overall results: her closet is neater and more functional; thus, so is the rest of her room.

I cannot seem to get a post up on Monday or Tuesday. I haven’t figured out why; I have post ideas, but for whatever reason I just don’t find the time to sit down and write. Oh well, hopefully I’ll get over it eventually. Anyway, on to the real post…

Have you ever had one of those weeks where it seemed like you bit off more than you could chew? I’m in the midst of one of those weeks. It isn’t that I’ve over-committed myself, it’s all stuff going on around home.

I have my usual chores (grocery shopping, cleaning house, cooking dinner), childcare, two different sets of company coming, and a brunch today for the last day of Bible study. I also decided that it was a good time to finally get started on Little’s closet makeover, I would like to make her some new hair clips (before her 9-month pictures on Friday), I made banana bread for her nursery workers last night, and I’m baking our bread today. Anyway, the last two evenings Matt has returned home to a tired wife!

Okay, so an update on Little’s closet…

The end of last week and over the weekend I searched out the storage containers that I wanted to use. We found some really cute pink and purple plastic bins and some vinyl storage bags at Target and some small pink and green bins at The Dollar Tree.

My plan was to work on purging and sorting while Little took her afternoon nap on Monday. I pulled everything out of the closet and into the living room so it would be ready when she went to sleep. She went down for her nap like usual and I set to work. I had no more than made a big mess in the living room floor when she woke up 30 minutes later and refused to go back down. I continued to work a bit but was limited in what I could do since she was “helping.”

When Matt came home it looked like all of our closets had exploded in the living room. There was clean laundry on the couch and the contents of Little’s closet spread about. By the end of the evening I had also added to the mess the load of Little’s laundry that had been in the wash.

By late yesterday afternoon I had all of her 6-9 month winter clothes cleared out of the closet and put aside for storage and all of her 6-9 month and 9-12 month summer clothes folded (or hung), organized, in baskets, and back in the closet. Overall it has been a pretty successful makeover so far. I still have some work to do on items that will be on the upper shelves and the floor of the closet, but it is coming along nicely. I will post pictures at the end of the 30 Day Organizational Challenge.

So, that is what we’ve been up to this week, and now I’m taking a short break.

it won’t be long until Little is on the move. For several weeks she has been pulling up on the hearth and on Matt and I; this week she has mastered the art. She can now pull up on anything and everything – her bed, the pack ‘n play, the couch, her Leap Frog table.

It is fun to watch her learning new things and discovering the world around her. It also means that we will be spending time this weekend putting locks on cabinets and drawers.

I’ve mentioned before that Little has a lot of clothes because I can’t stop buying she outgrows them so quickly at this age. Add to the clothes all of the other miscellaneous items required for being 8 months old and you have all the elements for an organizational nightmare. I tend to be a fairly well organized person and clutter usually drives me to the brink of insanity, but I just haven’t been able to get my arms around Little’s closet yet.

In an effort to be motivated and inspired toward getting this area under control, I’m going to join up with the 30 Day Organizational Challenge at I’m an Organizing Junkie. Thanks, Laura, for getting me up and going for a good Spring cleaning.

I will be focusing on the closet, but the organization will, by necessity, include other areas of her room. You can tell by the pictures below that clothes have kind of taken over the place and now must be contained.

There are a few issues in dealing with her space: her room is quite small (meaning no room for an additional piece of furniture), her closet is quite small, there is an existing “closet system” in place that I need to work around, I would like for the system I choose to grow with her to some extent.

There are also many things that must be organized into her closet and room. This includes: storage for dirty clothes, outgrown clothes, and not-yet-grown-into clothes; neat and accessible storage for the clothes, shoes, socks, etc that she is currently wearing; a place to contain clothes that will go to charity, consignment, or on eBay; items we are storing until we can give them back to the rightful owners (on loan hand-me-downs); a place for sheets, burpies, bibs, blankets, etc.; a place for bath stuff, safety stuff, medicine, and other items that need to be accessible but out of Little’s reach.

So, without further ado I present pictures of Little’s space (and no, her walls are not the gross color they appear to be in most of the pictures; they are actually a very pretty green):

If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below. I would love to hear some other ideas for the space. For more information on the challenge and to see what others are setting out to conquer in 30 days, click on the picture below.

I hear that Dyson vacuums are wonderful, and I have thought that it would be great to have such a hardworking vacuum. It does do all the work itself, right?

Anyway, Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving all of us a chance to win the new Dyson Slim model. If you are interested, head on over to their place and check out the contest rules.