As Promised.... 5 Days Late

So last Friday I promised to blog the next day... and I didn't. It's a pretty unreliable process borrowing someone else's computer, so I'm afraid it's taken me 5 days to get back to the blog. But here I am, so here it is, as promised... A bunch more pictures!

My sister went to a seminar about getting organized with a woman who calls herself "The Lazy Organizer." She came home with TONS of awesome notes and amazing ideas! I've been using some of the ideas she gave me, and I want to show them off. :) Mine are the cheap versions of those great ideas - I can't afford the awesome Organizing Bags she uses, so I'm improvising with Ziploc for now! Someday, though... I will totally invest in this great idea for those of us who just aren't born with the organizational gene! Anyway, her website is full of her great ideas, including THIS - one of my favorite posts... I am totally implementing this next! You should definitely check out her blog after you see what I've done with my space! ;) (And after you praise me for it, of course.) A lot of these ideas are ridiculously simple concepts that I am embarrassed to say I never would have thought of on my own! Some of us just need a little (or big) extra push!

These "after" pictures aren't quite as impressive without "before" pictures, but I'm afraid I would probably lose your respect if you'd seen what my life was like before! So all you're gonna get is "after" shots. :D

BOYS' ROOM

My boys share a room in our apartment, and it's not exactly what you would call large. Space has been a major issue since we moved here, so I've struggled with all the toys and mess. I'm also not very good at folding and putting away laundry (as you learned in this post), so my boys are a little stunted in the learning to dress themselves department. They CAN dress themselves, but "go find your clothes" doesn't work very well when all the family's clothes are piled in baskets on the living room floor! So here are a few of my own personal solutions to that problem.

Kinda hard to see, but I've made labels (without a label-maker, btw) for all the drawers and buckets. These drawers are labeled "Cars," "Trains and Tracks," and "Fish." Each label has a picture of what is supposed to be inside so that even Asher can learn to clean his room himself!


We have struggled with books for ages! I can't stand how kids' books were always ending up in the toys, behind the bed, on the bed, under the bed, in the bathroom, wherever! It drove me crazy that the kids couldn't keep their books on a bookshelf nicely, etc. So finally I used these under-the-bed rubbermaid things, and it's finally working! Now when they want to read, they can open the "Books" bin (clearly labeled), and when they're finished they can just toss all the books back in the bin and push it back under the bed. I haven't found a single book out of place since!

We have a similar problem with Pokemon. My kids are obsessed with Pokemon these days (no matter how much I resisted), so we seem to be overrun with pokemon figures and cards. CARDS MAKE ME CRAZY!! I made a rule that every time I found a card on the floor I just threw it away. They didn't catch on. I just ended up throwing all their flash cards away, which I kinda feel bad about now. Now there's a tin for "Pokemon Cards" and all the rest of the "friends" go in the bin below their bed. It's been a little difficult to convince Asher that I wasn't hurting his friends by putting them in there, but he's gotten used to it, and the kids are happy to have their Pokemon in a specific place so they don't have to dig for them in the toy bins when they want to play that particular thing.

Under-the-Bed Box

I have done the same labeling for their clothes drawers. Now the kids know where to find their clothes when I send them in to get dressed, and (confession) I'm more likely to put their clothes away because it's even easier for me to put them in the right place! Since I'm unmedicated (whole other blog I have yet to write), I'm in need of some assistance!

KITCHEN

My sister gave me this little shelf thing, and I'm so happy! It's just a little shelf she doesn't need anymore, and I needed a place for cereal! I'm extremely limited on cabinet space in my tiny kitchen, so the cereal was going on top of the fridge. I HATE having to reach on top of the fridge for cereal, and I hate how it looks. Plus, now the kids can reach the cereal themselves and FEED THEMSELVES IN THE MORNING! It's amazing. It also gave me a place for keys and my purse, right next to the back door (where we enter and exit the house), which is really nice because we haven't lost the keys once!

MAKEUP

This is my makeup bag. I bought it for my birthday last year at Wal-Mart for $12. Its cute and washable, and since I usually have to do my makeup places other than my house, I get to grab it and go every time I need to go anywhere, just like a purse. After a while, though, I got frustrated with digging through the bag to find the things I needed. I'm pretty obsessed with makeup and I require a LOT of layers to make this face presentable, so the process gets complicated. After my sister told me about the bag system, I implemented this (which I LOVE):

Each layer has its own bag within my makeup bag. (Plus a hand mirror so I can do my makeup anywhere.)

• FACE includes: foundation, powder, bronzer, cover-up, and face brush.
• EYELINERS includes: brown eyeliner, black eyeliner, pencil eyeliner, liquid eyeliner, gel eyeliner, and a lighter (for the pencil).
• The UNLABELED bag includes tools: tweezers, clippers, tiny razor, bobby pins and an elastic for my hair.
• EYES - BROWNS: all my brown-toned eyeshadow.
• EYES - BLACKS: all my black-charcoal-toned eyeshadow.
• EYELASHES/LIPS includes: mascara, eyelash curler, about 6,000 different kinds of lipstick, and a pair of fake eyelashes - just in case. :)

This has seriously simplified my life a ton! I know it sounds ridiculous, but it works for me!

BATHROOM

The bathroom is the most important room in my house. That's probably ridiculous, but it's true. It's the place I get clean, it's the place I do my makeup (sometimes), it's central to just about everything. So when I moved in to this house I was way happy to see that it had a newly-remodeled bathroom with this awesome counter and huge mirror with vanity lighting! The rest of my house isn't my favorite, but the bathroom... *sigh* is perfect. I've found that sharing a bathroom with a boy is difficult! They shave tiny hairs off their face EVERY DAY into the sink and NEVER clean them up! They (well, my husband) have tons of stuff - deoderant, cologne, shaving cream, razors, etc., etc. I always figured I'd be the only one with all this stuff! So, prepare yourself for my pride and joy... my mirror/cabinet things. TA DA!

Cleaning the bathroom, however, is NOT my favorite thing! Especially because I'm lazy, and have spent weeks telling myself, "but the cleaning supplies are clear out in the hall" (literally 3 steps away from the bathroom). Not anymore they're not! I made myself a little clean-the-bathroom caddy, including: cleanser, bathroom cleaner stuff, windex, paper towels, toilet cleaner, a rag, and a scrubbing toothbrush. It sits under my sink where I have no excuses! The bathroom will stay clean, dangit!


Here is the famous supply closet, 3 steps from the bathroom. It's a hideous tiny thing with pipes running through it, but I organized it the best I could. If only you could see the kind of nonsense I had stuffed in there before!!


That's all folks! I know it was mind-numbingly boring, but if you made it this far, I appreciate you pretending to be interested! It's a struggle for me every day trying to keep things in order, so while this seems like it should be easy, it's a major accomplishment for me. :) Here are a couple of additional pictures of my kids, just for good measure!

Josh loves to play Sorry with my mom, and I hear he's getting very good at it!

I'm down one pound. 2 weeks of extreme diet change, and I've lost ONE POUND. :( It's a little dicouraging, but I guess it's just proof that dieting alone isn't going to cut it. EXERCISE IS NECESSARY! I WILL quit being lazy!

This is my sick Asher! He's been very sick this week and it's breaking my heart. :(