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The Dumping Zone – Part 2

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I’ve had some complaints about my blog.  After this post about prettying up my dumping ground, several of my co-workers told me they really wanted to see the “before” shot.  Debbie said she needed to see the before picture just to prove that I’m just as messy and cluttered as everyone else.  Kerry (whose children are grown) said this is what her desk area ALWAYS looks like!  She wanted to see my “before” mess anyway.
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Well, I didn’t actually take a before picture, but one week after prettying it up… here it is again.


You’ll notice that the plate stand is empty.  We managed to eat all of the cookies and Easter candy.  Now, let’s see.  I spy field trip papers, hubby’s Lowe’s bag, the goodie bag from the bouncy house party, Costco coupons, a hair brush, the label maker my son thought he needed to use, and an empty vase where the flowers once lived.  I guess I’ll need to get that cleaned up before the family comes over for Easter dinner tomorrow.

By the way, here is my new favorite product for the dumping ground.  My serge protector was just a jumbled mess.  I asked my hubby to keep his eye out for a good, mess free, solution for the kitchen desk area.  The other day he came home with this one from Lowe’s.  The outlets even turn, so if you have an awkward or oversized plug, it will still work.  So smart.  Wish I had thought of that. 

 
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Storing Books

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The new book slings are filled with books!


I’ve mentioned that I’m taking a class on creating playful spaces. Just as we were discussing reading nooks, my kids decided their rooms needed a change. They both decided to rearrange their furniture to create reading nooks. I swear, I did not even mention it to them. They came up with the idea all on their own.

After rearranging, my daughter decided she wanted to keep some books in her room. We have a central kids’ library, upstairs in a little corner of the master bedroom. I was happy that she wanted a space to keep some of her favorite books, but there was no room for a bookshelf.

In reading about playful spaces, I came across this idea for a book sling.

This book sling is from Family Fun.

LOVE IT! I knew I had leftover fabric, from recovering the dress-up box. My daughter and I went to work, creating her book slings. I did the cutting and she helped me with the sewing.

We started by cutting two rectangles for each sling.  I cut one from the pretty fabric and one from cheap muslin.  The Family Fun website suggests sizes for cutting, but I didn’t want to buy new fabric, so I used what I had.  We sewed right sides of the fabric together and then turned the fabric right sides out.  This made nice edges on the fabric.


We folded the edges over and sewed a little pocket for the dowels to slide through.

Then we took a trip to Lowe’s for the rest of the supplies. We bought double curtain rod brackets. (The cheapest we could find.) We also bought 5/8th inch wooden dowels, in 4 foot lengths.

This was one of the easiest projects we’ve done in a long time.

I think I’ll probably shorten the slings a little.  My daughter has short little books and they just fall to the bottom of the sling. 

Now my son wants a book sling too!  I don’t think we’ll be using the pink stripes in his room though.

Happy reading!

A Nice Post and Home and Family Friday

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My friend, Diane, wrote the nicest post about me the other day.  It really lifted my spirits and reminded me that I’m doing something right!  Click here to see her post at Perfectly Imperfect Life Blog. (By the way, she’s working her way through some beautiful changes in her home.  I’m sure you’d love to see them!)

It’s been snowy and cold in the Pacific Northwest and I’m feeling a little under the weather.  I’ve spent the week resting.  (Well, trying to rest.  It snowed about a half an inch, so school was closed. I rested as much as anyone can, with two kids running around.)  Anyway… I’m so excited about my next project.  This book sling is from Family Fun.  I’m hoping I have enough fabric on hand to pull this off. 

Let’s see what you are working on this week!  Link up those projects and show us your best work.  I’d love it if you’d grab my button and become a follower!

Creating a Home Writing Center

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My kids love to write, especially my daughter.  She’s always getting into my cupboards, looking for envelopes, sticky notes, or paper.  The kids have their own art cupboard, but for some reason, they like my things best.  Today we created a writing center, just for the kids. 

We started with some pegboard and a little trim from Lowe’s.  The pegboard was precut to 2’x4′.  The nice people at Lowe’s can cut the trim, but I just cut mine with a hand saw.


I made a frame to go around the edges.  In the interest in saving a few cents, I just used a small piece on the bottom.  No one will see the bottom and it just needs to be pushed out from the wall a little.


I drilled pilot holes in the pegboard and trim, to keep the wood from splitting.


I bought a few accessories in the pegboard department at Lowe’s.

The clear wall file holders came from Staples.  I used my Silhouette to cut the vinyl letters.


I painted the board the same color as the wall.  I wanted it to blend in.


Then came the fun part.  The kids helped me add the bins.  I hit the dollar store on the way home and bought envelopes, sticky notes, blank cards, notepads, and stickers I also made a few blank books and put those in a bin.  My daughter is in kindergarten and loves to make her own books.

The two wall file bins are for paper and projects.  Blank paper is always a must in the writing center.  The project bin is for all of the works-in-progress.  We always have cards we are working on, books in progress, and letters that need addresses and stamps.


As a final touch, we added a hanger for sight words.  My daughter’s teacher sends her sight word cards home as they learn them in class.  This will be a great tool to have close by!


The new writing center was used within the first 2 minutes of completion!

Happy writing!

Here are some linky parties I like to participate in.

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Time to Reogranize the Art Cubby

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It’s that time of year again.  Time to organize! The kids’ art cubby that I organized for back to school was a disaster again.  We had a snow day today. (Teachers love snow days in January, but aren’t too fond of the makeup days in June.)

I pulled everything out of the cupboard and threw away LOTS and LOTS of dried up markers and half finished art projects.


In September I stocked up on school supplies and then hid them away in my sewing cabinet. (Don’t tell my kids that’s where I hide the art supplies that I don’t want them to find.)  I replaced their art supplies and now we’re ready for creativity!


January is the season to organize!  Cleaning up the art cupboard was a great project for a snowy Wednesday.
Happy organizing!
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How I Clean My House

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When I’m cleaning for company, I have to focus…focus…focus.

I always thought my ability to multi-task was a good thing. Now, I’m beginning to think my multi-tasking is becoming more ADHDish. Like last week, when I was cleaning the craft room and got distracted by the pretty ribbon. Then it turned into present wrapping time. On the plus side, my craft room was clean at the end of the day AND I had several gifts wrapped.

When I want my house clean and organized, I start at the top. I gather all of my supplies before I start. I usually start in my bedroom and bathroom because the kid clutter in my daughter’s room just scares me. (I’m not really sure we’re related by blood… just kidding, Sweet Pea!)

 

Here’s my trick. I DON’T LEAVE THE ROOM until it is completely finished. If I leave the room to take the garbage from the bathroom downstairs, I will notice the dryer has finished the cycle. If I notice the dryer has finished the cycle, I will decide to fold the laundry. If I decide to fold the laundry, I will think that Nate Berkus really wants to spend some quality time with me and I’ll turn on the TV. You get the picture. So, back to my trick. DON’T LEAVE THE ROOM until it’s perfect and then move on to the next room.

 

Once the upstairs is done, I move on to the lower level of the house. Again, I stay in the room I’m cleaning until it’s done. Once every room is done, I hurry and grab my camera. Time to take pictures for the blog. It’s the only way I’ll be able to see my clean house again until the next time I’m in the mood to clean and organize.

 

Happy cleaning!

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The Mom Cave

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All over Bloggerville my crafty friends are sharing their Mom Caves. I don’t really have my very own Mom Cave in the house. I usually work on projects in the rooms where my kids are. Only when I need table space, my sewing machine, or my cutting mat, do I head to the den/craft room. The computer armoire now houses my sewing machine, fabric, and embroidery materials. Once we had a laptop, we didn’t need a big computer center anymore. This was the perfect way to hide my sewing supplies.

 

When my husband works from home, this is the room he works in. It has a big, mostly empty table, in a room where he can close the doors and get work done. The den is the first room you see when you walk into the house. The fact that it doubles as a craft room causes extra pressure to keep it clean.

 

My wrapping paper, ribbons, and crafting supplies live in this room too. The room didn’t look this clean when I started this organizing project. I was really feeling the need to declutter before the Holidays.

 

 

There are those bins that I love so much. If you read my blog, you know how much I love labeled bins. These bins are nicely organized, but still need the perfect labels. I’d like to make small chalkboard labels, but that’s a project for another day.

These drawers are sanity makers.

The happiest part of my cleaning was coming across the PERFECT ribbon. I forgot I had this and it’s exactly what I was looking for to go with my gold Christmas wrap. ADHD moment… ooooh, look at the pretty ribbon…. must wrap Christmas presents. Lucky me! When I was done, my craft room was organized AND I had ten Christmas presents wrapped.

Happy organizing… and wrapping.

Home and Family Friday

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Bins and labels. I guess that’s what I do. I was looking through some blog photos and noticed how many times I’ve posted about organizing with bins and labels.

 

 

 

 
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I guess I’m a little obsessed, but there are worse things to be obsessed with!

Check out these parties I like to link up to.

Reorganizing the Book Nook

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Well, hello there, little label maker… It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen each other! Are you ready to help me with a little project?

 

(I tried to put a halo-like-glow around it. Can you tell?)

 

My kids and I spent some quality time going through the bookshelf on Sunday evening. We weeded out many of the books that the kids have outgrown. Once we reduced the amount of books on the shelf, we were ready for a little reorganizing. As a kindergarten teacher, my classroom library is organized into thematic bins. I have about 50 little bins in my classroom.


classroom library

I don’t quite have that much space in our home library nook. The label maker was my best friend for this project.

 

I decided to divide the books the same way I do in the classroom. We sorted the books into piles and then made a section on each shelf. Since I don’t have enough room for the number of bins I’d like, I just used my label maker to label each section. I’d like to do little pictures, like I do in my classroom. That will have to be a project for another day.

 

We had a lot of Dora books, so they got their own bin. Arthur books were pretty popular so they got a bin too. I have bins for a few chapter book series, but the rest of the books are just on the shelves, sorted by category.

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Shall we take bets on how long this lasts?

Check out these parties I like to link up to.

I Love Not Camping

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This is the magnet on the side of my fridge.

 

I don’t come from a camping family. Growing up, our idea of roughing it was staying in a hotel without a pool. We didn’t rough it much.

So, why do I camp now, you ask? Well, I camp for my kids. I want them to know what it’s like to cook breakfast outdoors.


I want my kids to roast marshmallows over the fire and make s’mores.


I want them to pick wild blackberries.

 

And I camp because the campground has this.

I love to organize, so when I found this camping checklist, I added it to my household notebook. After the trip we added a few more items to the list. That way next year we’ll be sure to have everything we need. The camping checklist came from the Organized Home website.

 

Tent camping isn’t too bad, but I’m fortunate enough to camp with my mother-in-law, who rents a small cabin in the campground. She has a Thousand Trails membership. If I have to camp, she’s the one to camp with. (Thanks, again, for a fun trip Grandma!)

 

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