A Scattered Start

Last year, as I began an effort to organize my house, I wrote about having a good starting point. It doesn't have to be big. It's just something to get you going and feeling like you can actually accomplish something. I know it's been a year since that post but, believe it or not, that closet is still the one organized spot in our home. Hmm...I wonder if I can cause this phenomenon to spread?

I sort of postponed the "whole house organizing" thing because I felt like my kids were getting put off too often, which was the exact opposite of what I was going for. I have been making some baby steps forward in our organization but nothing like I had hoped. Amazingly, I have actually gotten to a place where I feel like I have sort of "caught up" to a normal amount of disorganization whereas before it just seemed so impossible.

So now we're at a place where I feel like we can begin...again. Only this time, I'm going to go a little slowly and make sure there's lots of play and involvement for the kids. So, once more, I face the question of "where do I start?"

The first thing I did this time was coupons. I'm sure you all have seen and heard enough about coupons and coupon binders, etc. that I don't need to do a whole post on that. Basically I have a binder with baseball card pages. I used stick on labels to mark the first page of each section (I group by aisle) and then I put the coupons in the slots chronologically. Of course, I am notorious for forgetting to bring it, or even check it, when I go shopping. I'm working on it. The good thing about already having had the binder set up was that all I had to do was go through the pages, pull out the expired coupons and then cut out & put in the new ones. The best thing about it? J is old enough now to help me. He pulled out the expired ones and took great joy in crumpling them up (and in being amazed at how many I didn't use). Score one for bonding while being useful!

As I looked around at the many other things that needed to be done, I realized that some of them really shouldn't wait until I have completed the other challenges to get to them. Some messes/problems might even get more out of hand if left unmanaged, especially after the addition of Christmas gifts.

The result is that we are beginning a bit... okay, a lot... scattered.

Current Projects:
1. Clear out, organize and inventory the kitchen pantry and cabinets so we are better about not wasting food and know what is on hand to cook/bake with. This has become important as I have become more concerned about our son's food allergy.

2. J's legos. He suddenly has a million and the pieces are so tiny. Tell me that doesn't scream lost & swallowed pieces. He also gets frustrated when he can't find the one he wants, so we are actually organizing them by size in containers that can then go in his room away from his little sister.

3. The bonus room- it contains my office & crafts, a tv area, exercise equipment (which I'd like to downsize) and a play area. It also currently has a computer desk for "when the kids are older" but it seems like that's a lot of wasted space for something there are other options for, so it is coming down. Clearly that is a lot of uses for one room and it is cramped. It also doesn't have a ton of storage for toys, etc. I'm working on some ideas to improve both problems. It may also eventually house J's new model train, but the only way that can happen is if we do something with the exercise equipment, so we'll have to see what The Hubs says about that.

4. The attic and the garage- clear out the stuff we don't need! I am not trying to do these completely right now, especially with all of the other projects, but I do need to clear them both out some so that I will have somewhere to store things we are working on. I just have to be careful not to fill them back up with stuff from the bonus room!

Not all of the steps of these projects will be post worthy, but I will do posts on the parts that I think may be interesting or helpful to those of you reading. As always I welcome any ideas or suggestions. I figure we can all help each other and make things a little easier.

Also note that all posts about home projects will be available at Time to be Mom in the Home