Decluttering & Organizing: Bedroom Closets

Here are some more before and after shots. I don't know about you, but I love before and after pictures of organization!! I could just look at them all day:) This one is the boy's closet. As you can see, Adam and I store our out of season, or *cough* clothes we don't fit into *cough* in the boy's closet. Take a close look at the shelves and floor. It's kinda hard to tell in this picture, but on the top shelf are a bunch of diapers! Diapers!! Nemion has been potty trained for almost 2 years! Oh, well...you'll notice later that they got moved to Naomi's closet:)


And, this is the after.


This is Naomi's closet, but it is shared with Rachel and Heidi until the basement bedrooms are done.


This is the after. Now, let me expain something...I have all the extra diapers stored on the shelf, but then you see a diaper box on the floor, why?, you ask. Well, you know how when your children are real small (I mean young, Naomi is not small) they are quickly growing out of their clothes. So, I keep the box in her closet and just toss clothes in it as she grows out of it, then when it's full I label it and put it into the storage room. For the record, we do not plan on having more...I'm saving them for my sister who hopefully will have a girl someday (she has 2 boy's).


Well, that's all for today. I need to get cleaning, there is so much dirt in the house from our neighbor discing his fields (yes, I was not smart enough to close my windows). Speaking of cleaning, last month I posted about our "cleaning book", it is working wonderfully! I no longer need to give instruction, that's how I can sit here and post about it:))

Declutter and Organize

Aww, two of my favorite words (I know it's weird). I am in the mood to clear out this entire house of clutter. Now, according to my husband...I'm always in the mood to do that. He says that's why he doesn't sit down for very long, he's afraid I'll box him up and toss him out:)

Yesterday, I started working on our bedroom closet. When I opened it I didn't think it looked all that bad, but I knew there was a bunch of stuff in there, hiding, that we didn't need anymore. This is a before shot.



I started on the top shelf, and pulled everything off and wiped the shelf off. Now, some time back I converted our "linen closet" in to a game closet. So, bed sheets are stored in our bedroom closets (makes sense, right?!) I keep our extra bed sheets on the top shelf, I got rid of some...why did I have so many different sets for one bed?? I hate folding sheets, so when I take them off and wash them, I put them back on. (That is not how my mother did it, we would put a completely different set on the bed each time we washed sheets) UGH! Anyway, I put each set into a gallon size ziploc bag, and labeled it. Then, put it into a box that is labeled (I also love labels if ya haven't noticed). I did this because I don't know how many times short, little me has tried to get something down from the top shelf just to have the whole pile of sheets fall on the floor. Then, I would have to refold them all (did I mention earlier how much I hate folding sheets).

I continued on doing the same for the other two shelves. I happened to have that cute green plastic tub, so I'm using it to store my flip-flops & sandals. Before, I would just toss them on the shelf then I would have to go digging underneath the clothes that are hanging down. Since, that shelf isn't cluttered with my flip-flops I now have a place for my purse (or suitcase as my husband calls it).









I hope to continue this until my entire house is done, and continue to post my progress.

Coupon organizer or Money organizer?

I was recently asked about this, and thought I would share with you what I use it for. As you can see, it's a coupon organizer, but I use it to keep my kids' money organized (not that they have a ton of money).

We teach are kids that any money you get, we first take tithe out, then divide the remaining between saving and spending. They each have a savings account (except Nemion & Naomi b/c I still have not gotten around to opening that up yet:)) that they keep their "savings" in. Their tithe money they give to the collections in Sunday School, and spending money for whatever. I like to keep their tithe money and spending money with me becuase I pass their tithe money out to them on Sunday morning and if we are out shopping and they want something (and I'm in the right mood) they can purchase it. I used to just carry around a bunch of different envelopes to keep it all seperated, but it wasn't as organized as I would have liked it to be.

So, that's when I started looking at my coupon organizer (which I wasn't using for my coupons b/c I didn't like the way it worked) and decided to try it out for their money. I LOVED IT!! As you can see in the photo...each child has a church and a spending category that I keep their money in. It's so handy, no more digging in my purse for 6-12 different envelopes!

Laundry

I just came across a post (can't remember which one) about how people do laundry. I was surprised...I had never considered that people do laundry differently. I guess that's because most of the people I know all do it the same way. So, I'll start by telling you how I do my laundry, and then the post I read.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the kids take the hampers downstairs and I sort out all the clothes, wash them, dry them, fold them, and put them into piles for them to put away when they get home. It takes all day!!

Okay, now for what I read...this woman said that's how she used to do it. NOW, she does one hamper a day. Just throws all of it in the machine, no sorting! DONE!

My mother stressed the importance of sorting! All the time I've wasted with the sorting! Is that okay...can it really be that simple?!

So, I'm very curious...how do you do laundry?