Where have I gone?

Wow, it's been a while... and my house can attest to that! With Zane gone for a week at a time eevry 3 weeks or so, still trying to figure out how to be the best mom I can be, organize an open house... I let the priority of getting my house done slip away.

I will say though, I have exercised 3 days in a row now (THAT'S A FIRST IN A LONG TIME!) and starting tonight, I have enlisted the help of my hubby- who will be full-time daddy when he gets home, so I can organize the places that need it!

So much for 21 days (in a row...) but a goal set is a goal set. Time to finish the house!

Pantry = Ugh!

This [the pantry] was the second biggest project on my list I have been dreading. The first being organizing the storage room down stairs (which has yet to be done). Would you like to see why?!

You're overwhelmed. Aren't you?

Family of 7 = too many hands in the melting pot when it comes to the pantry.

That's okay. Because I got 'er done. ...Quite honestly, Brandon looks at me with sincere loving eyes after accomplishing this not-so-small feat. (I think his love language is cleanliness.) You ready for this magic?! Sprinkle on your pixie dust, aim for the second star on the left and here we go!!!!!..........

I think I dreaded this mostly because I didn't want to empty out the entire pantry. But I did starting with the top.

 Here are a few shelves down to proove that I really did empty it all out...

Here's the proof of where it all ended up. ........ Sort of categorized. All lunch containers over here.

All food over here. And although it all blends together, the table is categorized as well. Cans. Baking supplies. Boxes to actually make meals (ie: Spaghetti, stovetop, mac-n-cheese, etc.). Snacks, and cereal boxes.
Over here I had all things that I thought I'd like to purge and/or go to another spot in the home and then the plethora of disposable ware. (We have a lot of large family gatherings in our home)

After everything was out of the pantry, I scrubbed and scrubbed to make my shelves nice and purty.

Then accomplished the dreaded task of putting everything back in. Thank goodness for sis-in-laws who are willing to share their leftover storage bins!!!! You ready to see the final product of my labor?!?

......................................................................................................

VOILA!

I'm posting another horrific BEFORE photo just so you can oooh and aaaah like we have all week since it's been done. :D

Where have I been?!

Under a pile of junk, not to mention busy-ness! Where has everyone else been?! Here is one of the many projects I have been doing. This is my toy area in our family room. It's small and perfect for keeping some of the toys on the main level while most of the toys live down stairs. (That one should be fun to tackle.)

I dove into this project without taking a BEFORE pic so I thought I'd get my inner kindergartner on the job and draw up the chaotic mess that it was so you can really appreciate the AFTER photo. Before taking a peek, (and not wanting to ruin the impact by words in between the photos) I'll just tell you how I did a few things.

First, was to figure out how to fix my cabinets so they didn't look like cheap $5 yard sale furniture, but more like the $150+ that I did pay for them. I purchased 2 nuts and bolts and drilled 2 holes into to connect the cabinets to one another. For added security, I also glued all the cabinets together using E-6000 and clamps. (I l-o-v-e E-6000!) I also used the glue-like stuff to attach the door back onto the hinge. Woot! Voila! A cabinet that looks like it cost more than $20. :)

The organizing is pretty self explanatory. I simply went through everything. Purged what my kids don't play with and found homes in our home for the toys that were either too big for the space or not used as much.

I'm pretty proud of these results. It's the simple changes that don't cost a lot that make me the happiest. Hope you enjoy my art work as much as I do. (Both the actual make-over and the fancy drawing. :D)

......

I wrote this in a comment to one of your posts Cam but I'll say it here....although it's a little irrelevent now. I have to pack and move my mom all weekend so I won't be able to do anything until next week.


...Now it's "next week" so I can get to work. I did however have time to organize my toy bins in the family room on Saturday and goodwilled some of the toys and also glued and screwed the cubbies together so they'd stop looking like a piece of junk set and start looking a bit more like the $120+ dollars I spent for them. ;) I'll post "after" pics since I didn't get "before" ones.

And yes, I'm still here plugging along. I'm still in this. There's no way I'm ditching you OR ME on this. I'll post more on this subject soon.

Hello?!?!? Is anybody out there?

I have noticed not a lot of posting has been done and was wondering if we all are still in this together.

Toy room and Hallway ... CHECK! Oh and Hayden's Bathroom....

I don't have before pictures of the hallway or bathroom, because well you couldn't get into them.  The hall was packed with crap, as Summer can attest, and Hayden's bathroom was so gross I wouldn't let him use it (David has taken it over so I left it for him to destroy).

But without further ado here are the toy room befores:

And here are the afters:

Kitchen / Family Room

 There are a few things that I am getting rid of....Summer is taking her shoe things back and the stuff stacked on my new show rack are going to the DI....I just don't want them to get broken in the mean time.

Might get rid of the eyesore on the couch too....LOL  kidding xoxo babe.