This weekend I really got after a couple of areas in our home that have really been driving me crazy. 

Area #1

Games

I don’t know about you, but we have alot of games in our home.  They floated around everywhere also.  We had a cupboard just outside our kitchen that held childrens games, we had some in the playroom, and some in the hall closet.  Why did we have them spread out everywhere?!  I felt like we were being overrun by cards and dice.  I emptied out our entire hall closet.  It housed many of the games, but also humidifiers, our large lock box of medicines, and a few other misc items.  I took every game and puzzle in our entire house and put them in this closet.  It filled it to the brink, but now they are all in one place.  If you need a game, go to the game closet!

Area #2

Pantry

Our pantry has to hold so many items.  Not only does it hold food, but it holds small appliances, pots and pans, lids, washer and dryer along with all the laundry paraphenalia, and a few of my specialty cake pans and cake decor items.  Since I recently took a cake decorating class I had aquired an entire bin full of extra cake decor supplies that I could not find a home for.  They have spent the past month on top of the dryer.  Grrrr.  Since I had just emptied a cupboard out side of the kitchen (remember it held some of our millions of games) I decided it was time to dedicate an entire area to cake decorating supplies and baking ware.  Halleluiah!  All together now!

Also I organized the canned good in our pantry.  I hate not being able to see what it is that you have, so you end up buying yet another can of diced tomatoes or green beans.  I took one 4×4 piece of wood that was 20 inches long and put it on the back wall of my shelf.  Then took a 2×4 piece of wood of the same length and put it up against that.  Seriously, this wood is not pretty, but you don’t see it.  I guess if I got really ambitious I could paint them pretty, and maybe I will someday.  For now it is just plain wood under those cans.  I stacked my cans up on it and now I can see everything.  Maybe next time I go to the store I won’t buy another can of green beans.  Yay!

Area #4

Sports ware

We have begun tackling the garage space.  This space will take time and will be a constant work in progress,  I guess all garages are like that from what I understand.  This weekend I decided to wrangle all of the sporting goods from all over the house and garage and put them in one place.  We put all balls in a bin.  Tennis balls, soccer balls, softballs, footballs, gotta love having little boys!  We installed 3 bike racks on the wall; two for our mountain bikes and one for my husbands cherished road bike.  We then took all other outdoor and sports gear and put it back there with it.  You can see my sons 4 wheeler, my husbands golf bag, scooters, skateboards.  Man, that kid never sits still!

Area #3

Paint storage

I have spent the past couple of months super annoyed every time I try to paint something.  There were paint cans here and there.  Paintbrushes?  Well, if you dig far enough in the pile of tools and rags you  might find one.  If you wanted to find something you really had to look.  I don’t know how many times I decided, forget it I’ll just go to Home Depot!  So I made it my chore to get it all together on one end of our workbench.  Now I can see every can of paint we have.  And we had some cans we didn’t even know we had???

We are far from being completely organized in the garage but it is a start!

Area #4

Ezra’s Clothes

Ezra has been using a dresser made for a baby since he was a baby.  But have you ever noticed that as your children get older it gets harder and harder to fit all of thier clothes in those tiny drawers made for infant sized clothing?  I was over it.  If all of his laundry was clean there was no way it would all fit. 

Remember the armoir from our living room that my grandfather had built?  Well, I bought a rod and mounting brackets for about $5 at Home Depot and installed them and Wala! we have an armoir style dresser big enough for all of his clothes but also for his laundry basket!  Yes!

So that is what I did this weekend.  Don’t I know how to have fun?  Although it was not a big party, it does feel good to have a place for everything. Plus you should have seen the boxes upon boxes of junk I threw away!  It feels so good.  I recommend it.