Organizing 101

Why is it that one simple idea of organizing ONE area can turn into five or six different projects? Well, that is the story of my past 7 days. It started a little like this . . . . back on our cruise in March, we won 500 square feet of carpet. Now, we just bought our house last July and the only areas with carpet are the girls' rooms and David's man cave, none of which REALLY needed the carpet replaced. But it was FREE. So, I had to. Anyway, we decided to do the girls' bedrooms. All I was told by the salesman needed to be moved prior to the installers getting here was just the knick-knacks! He said this so carefree as if "not a big deal." Now . . . those of you who know my children and have seen their rooms (especially Madison who has sooooooo much of my Granny Latimer in her) know that I would have rather he told me that it was all my responsibility to move the furniture and that they would deal with the knick knacks! Madison will not get rid of ANYTHING for fear the sky will fall. But, as you all know, guess who wasn't here for the week?

So it all started in the girls' rooms (just taking out all the "knick-knacks") which rained upon my dining room table. I cleaned and organized for a solid four hours. And, I was proud that I didn't throw away anything that either of them would miss. Friday came, carpet was installed (which was a whole other drama but I promised the manager of the company I would not bash their name!!!) so I'll keep my word.

Dining room is now a total mess. Time to put it all back. . . .but, "no" because their rooms looked too pretty. They looked like the bedrooms from pictures in a magazine. You know, bed made, lamp on the nightstand with one book laying beside it, jewelry box on the dresser, and that's it. That's how bedrooms are supposed to look. Right? In my fantasy mom world it does anyway. I was determined to not let the four trophies, eight picture frames, every pottery piece ever made at a birthday party, lava lamp, lamp shade (no I have not bought the lamp YET; we've only had the shade for two years), and lots of other "knick-knacks" go BACK onto Madison's dresser! So, Saturday I set off to Lowe's because David was gone for the whole day. Here's where all the other projects developed.

I was there to get some hanging wall shelves to nicely display all these prized possessions. Found 'em. On the same aisle were the garage organizers. I know some of you are giggling (or hysterically laughing) now because you are picturing our garage and the enormous undertaking I must be getting myself into. At first, I thought maybe I'll just buy a simple sports equipment organizer. Nah! Let's go for the gusto. . . . shelves, bins, the works. So, I did it. I assembled them myself, got everything up off of the garage floor (I'm working one garage bay at the time), swept, and in the midst of it all, had UNPACKED four boxes. Sadly, it didn't look like I had put a dent in it. But I had it all done before David got home and I could hear him mumble to himself as he was about to open the door, "What in the world happened here?" Why do men do that? Wouldn't it be nice to hear a "Honey, you are so awesome. Thank you!"???

Next, I was on to the "play room." I'll make this one short. . . . I tackled three jobs at once with this one. Problem areas: way too much crafty stuff, more unpacked boxes in the garage FULL of more craft stuff, and Morgan's old dresser in the garage taking up too much space! Soooooo, move dresser into playroom, get rid of other bins sitting on the floor in the playroom, get rid of piles of craft boxes, label them all nicely (you all know I LOVE my label maker *secret tip* It makes you look very organized), and voila, another three projects down.

Now, if I could just make our closets magically triple in size, I would be all set!