Restoring Order and Organizing Round-up

On I'm an Organizing Junkie there is an organizational challenge each month. This month it was to clean a surface and throw out 50 things while in the process.
With that in mind this week, I continued working on clearing everyone's dressers. (I did mine and Stephen's dressers earlier this month.)While I was in the kid's room, I mentioned to Isabelle that we needed to clean her dresser off. The next day she told me she had something to show me. She had cleaned off her dresser all by herself! She was so proud and wanted to have her picture taken with her dresser. (I didn't get any before pictures.)

Caleb's dresser stays like this most of the time. The basket is for books, and he has two small piggy banks.

This is the before of Ian's dresser. It is a little out of focus, but you get the idea.

This is the after. The cloth box has all of his Nintendo game boxes and his Nintendo.

I also found lots of different things to throw away or give away while I was reorganizing.

On other note-- I was doing laundry this morning, and the washer moved about 8 inches forward. We share a washer and dryer with the other apartments in our building. This is the third one they have put in this year, and I'm afraid it may not last until we move. (They just use old washers and dryers that have been donated to the school. The quality is sometimes lacking, but at least we don't have to go to the laundromat!)

This week's Restoring Order Challenge can be found on The Homespun Heart.

For more Organizing Round-Up links and next month's challenge go here.

Restoring Order

This week I decided to clear off my dressers. Although, it is not a big job, it is one that never seems to get done. One problem is that there is just not enough space in our house. My dresser has become the spot to put things that don't really belong anywhere-- you know, just until I figure out where they should go.
(We actually have two dressers in our bedroom that Stephen and I share. They aren't really ours. We are living in a furnished apartment on campus while we are in school.)

And here are the after. You may have noticed that I have empty picture frames sitting on my dressers. I have been meaning to order other pictures to put in them since we moved! It's one of those things that is not really pressing, so it doesn't get done.

There are more posts on Restoring Order on Homespun Heart.

This month, I am also trying to "toss 50 things." I have a good start, and I have some other things in mind. :)

Restoring Order

Our week got a little crazy. Tuesday evening, Ian and Isabelle's school called with the news that school was canceled for the rest of the week. They had some type of mechanical problem, and needed the time to get if fixed. Unfortunately, the nice weather we had been having gave way to chilly, rainy days.
It was nice to have them home, but it definitely changed my plans for the week. I did want to tackle one more organizational project this week, but by Wednesday night, I still had nothing done.
Yesterday, things got even crazier. A couple who is in the morning class needed last minute child care for their two kids. I knew Ian and Isabelle would love that, because the kids are about the same ages.
Fortunately, I was able to work on organizing Isabelle's crafting supplies while keeping an eye on the kids. Her crafting supplies are stored in the bottom of a closet. I reorganized them with her after Christmas, but they didn't stay that way for long. Part of the problem was that we needed a system that she could keep organized mostly on her own. It was a little too hard for her to get things out and put them back in the same spot. She ended up just shoving things wherever they would fit, and then the next time she would have to dig through them to find what she wanted.
I had put off organizing this because I didn't know what would work with the limited space that we have.

I finally thought of a few things that would help, and Isabelle and her friend happily crafted away while I rearranged some of my stuff to make it work. I love the looks of concentration on their faces!
Once I was ready to start on her stuff, we dumped everything out and sorted it into different containers. I explained that we could only keep what would fit, and she was willing to get rid of quite a few things.

Now we have the same containers, but not as much stuff. The bottom drawer holds makers, crayons, pens, and pencils. Each is in a separate plastic bag to help keep things tidy. She can just take one bag out to use it and then replace that bag.
The next drawer has all of her paper and stickers. The box on top has the notebooks and school papers that she wants to keep. When it gets full, we will have to get rid of some.

We used the small container with drawers to keep all of her stamps, stamp pads, scissors, glue sticks, and glitter glue. This will stay out on the table with some crayons and construction paper. I'll have to see how that works.
The link for this week is not up yet, but I will add it later. I am happy to have some motivation for organizing.

Restoring Order

It was harder to get things cleaned and organized this week, because we started back to class. Stephen is now in the morning, and I am in the afternoon. (The opposite of the last two semesters.) This semester the focus is on conversation. It is hard, but it is very good practice. I have enjoyed the classes more than when we are just learning lots of new grammar.
The main thing that I wanted to get done this week was to organize the pantry. I usually rearrange things after each large shopping trip (every 2 weeks.) There wasn't much that needed to be done, but I did take things out, sweep the floor, and rearrange a little bit more. Now it looks much better. Of course, I forgot to take a before picture, but here is the after.
And what post would be complete without at least "kid" picture? Here is Caleb sound asleep after our walk yesterday. After Ian, Isabelle, and Stephen go to school, Caleb and I have been enjoying the lovely weather outdoors. (Except for today, it is raining outside.)
For more Restoring Order posts visit That's What It's All About.

Restoring Order

This week, I worked on some of the surfaces that tend to collect clutter in our house. The pictures are of a little set of shelves that sit in the kitchen. It has many of our things from around the world, or at least around the country. The horses and mugs are were parting gifts from people in Browning, and they remind us of the reservation and our friends there. The Japanese teapot and cups were some that my brother brought back from his trip to Japan. The little buffalo (that you can't really see) on the top shelf is one that we got on our move to Montana when we drove cross country. It is from the oldest recorded Indian Village. The drum is from our trip to Gabon, and the basket is from some missionaries who were in Papau New Giunie (I have no idea how to spell that.) The other things are things the kids made or that we just like. These things have a lot of meaning for us and add some color to our apartment.
The shelves tend to be a good spot to put things out of Caleb's reach, but eventually those things need to go somewhere else!

I finished packing up all of the coats, hats and mittens from last week. Now we have two big plastic containers full of winter gear, and a detailed list of what is in each container.
Yesterday, was our first day off school between semesters. Stephen and I tackled our papers and files. That is another thing that tends to pile up very quickly. We wanted to get rid of as much as we could. We shredded anything with personal information, and took the paper to recycling.
We had several interruptions along the way. We stopped to help our friends who were moving out upstairs with their window cleaning, and say good-bye to them. It was sad to see them go, and it will be weird to have the empty apartment upstairs.
We also took a trip to the store. A local store was having a 20% off everything sale, so of course I had to go. I only bought 2 small plastic boxes for organizing.
It took a long time to get our papers sorted and organized, but it is a nice feeling to have it done.
Here is Caleb supervising the window cleaning.

Kristy cleaning windows.

David cleaning windows.

Stephen cleaning windows.

Caleb shredding paper. Don't worry, he was very well supervised.

There are more participants in Restoring Order at The Homespun Heart.

It Must Be Spring

Clothes hanging outside to dry, kids playing with no jackets, deer in the backyard.... it must be spring! I'm so excited. I have been waiting for warmer weather, and it seemed like it would never come. But the last few days here have been beautiful.

Part of the reason that I wanted warm weather to come was so that I could pack away all of the coats, snow pants, boots, hats, mittens, scarfs, etc. I want to start getting things more organized for our move this summer. I was going to try to do it last weekend because we had a few days off school for Easter. However, since it kept SNOWING, I couldn't.

At the beginning of this week, I saw a series on Restoring Order. Two women Monica and Rebecca are hosting it on their blogs. I thought that would be a good way to have a system to tackle some of the projects I want to get done. Yesterday, after catching up on some of our laundry. I washed all of the winter things and hung them out (the first load was dry by that point.) Today, I just have to sort through them to decide which to get rid of and which to pack away for the future.

Of course, I had to take a picture of the clothes hanging up outside. For some reason I just really like the way they look. It has the advantage of saving money for us. Since we share a washer and dryer with our apartment building, we pay per load. Yesterday, I hung a total of four loads on the clothesline and our indoor drying racks. (For more frugal tips see Frugal Fridays.)