My goal this month is to go through as much of the house as possible, get rid of things, sort them, reorganize them, and so forth. I feel like I haven’t really done this thoroughly for too long and am anxious to buzz through every room.
I’m also working at finding my stride during the school hours. Long as they are on paper, by the time I get some exercise, take care of the girls, clean up, do some laundry, and then feed the girls lunch, the day is almost over and I feel like I still have about 10 hours of work I need to do before the after school rush hits. Still, I’m making progress.
So far I’ve been through the toy room, one girls room (including closets and all clothing), the living room, dining room and yesterday I did the pantry. I wish I could say I was deep cleaning everything, but this sweep is just for organization and de-cluttering. I’ll go back through and do windows, etc. when all the junk is taken care of.
Today I’m trying something new.
These little monkeys (probably inspired by my projects) have been unusually effective at tearing things apart while I’m working. This morning we made a fort for them to play in, using the dining room table, chairs, and a bunch of tablecloths.
They seem happy with their hiding place and I’ll make them a picnic lunch to eat there in a few minutes. It will be much easier cleanup than yesterday’s mess!
And so I’m off and running with my head buzzing with ideas and possible solutions. One solution that worked well in the pantry was to take my stacks of pretty trays (many of them vintage) and put them sideways into a large basket which will slide under the shelves.
(Sorry about the pictures. It’s so hard to get good photos in a dark room with no windows!)
I liked having the trays on the shelf, but I’ve been wanting to clear off a shelf to just keep empty in there. When the children don’t know where exactly to put something in the pantry, they have a bad habit of putting things on the floor. I’ll walk around the corner and have to climb over things to get what I need! Moving these trays cleared off a six foot section on the bottom shelf for them to put things on. I’m hoping the pantry will stay tidy this way and I’ll be able to move things from that section to where they belong without trouble. The key word in that sentence is, of course, hoping . We’ll see how it goes! It did work well last night when we were unloading groceries from the car.
I found this awesome vintage step stool during the summer. We keep it in the pantry but use it in the kitchen all the time so the little children can help prepare dinner, do the dishes or just wash their hands. I particularly love it because it’s wide enough for my two youngest to stand on the top step together. I also love it when we have just one stool in the kitchen and not five different kitchen chairs: one at the counter, one by the microwave, one by the sink and one by the refrigerator, etc. Why they don’t use the chair next to them instead of going to the table for a new one, I’ll never know! This stool has been a great fix for that clutter.
There is something about a clean kitchen that really keeps me calm. A clean kitchen AND an organized pantry put a smile on my face!
Back to work! Hope your day is great!
Jennifer
