Kid's Room Clean Up

I was so excited about getting organized I hopped right in with something I've been wanting to do for a while. I forgot to take a before picture so, just pretend that the huge brown bookcase is next to the dresser/changer combo you see in picture 3.

Over the summer my brother-in-law moved in with us to help take care of the kids so that I could work part-time. In order to do this we had to put both kids in one room. It's been driving me crazy to have all the clutter and stuff in that room! The big brown bookcase was full of stuff...

Ugh!

I originally thought the brown bookcase would be great because we use cloth diapers for our daughter and we needed a place to put them along with the disposables we're still using for C. But, it's just so massive it made the room feel smaller and blocked the window. Also, C really likes to rock in the rocking chair that is a family heirloom and he knocks it into the bookcase constantly damaging both.

Once I moved the monster bookcase out of the room, I brought in a shelf unit that we've been dragging around since college. It's sturdy and can take a beating.

I brought in a basket we were using for C's books in the living room cabinet to put all of the cloth diaper stuff in to keep it organized. I also put a lamp on top for our night time book reading. Then I put all of C's books on the shelf below that.

The last thing I did and the only thing I actually bought was to put some baskets on the bottom two shelves to hold toys and small board books.

I love it! It really opens up the room and I can see the window when I walk into the room(the window is to the right of the rocking chair). I love that C no longer climbs on the rocking chair to reach his books too.

Next week's project... figuring out what to do with the monster bookcase.

Organization is My New Middle Name

Browsing through blogs today I came across I'm an Organizing Junkie's 52 week organization challenge. I thought to myself, "this is awesome!"

When I got my part-time job in October it was at The Container Store, the guru of organization. I love The Container Store, I've shopped there since college. Unfortunately, I am not a guru of organization. I'm more of an organized mess. I feel like a hypocrite some days working there helping people organize their lives when I can't even organize my own. I will say though, that I have started to organize more of my stuff and look for more creative ways to do so since I started there. There are just so many cool ways to store and organize your things.

I've been trying to figure out how to organize myself and my family better. My husband is constantly trying to get me to put my things away and they just pile up on my dresser. I would love to buy a ton of elfa products from The Container Store but, until I've saved enough for that I'll be content to reorganize(or organize for the first time) what I have. This is where Org Junkie's 52 week challenge comes in. Each week you do something little so you don't feel overwhelmed by it all. I love that!

This is the first week and the topic is "Where will you start?" Each week Laura will post a few questions about the week's projects on Friday for everyone to discuss. I'm just so excited about it!! I found out about this at the end of the week but, I already have tons of ideas brewing. So, this week's questions are...

1. Do you have your list written? (if you missed it, you can find the pdf here)

I'm still working on my list but, among the things on it are...February do the kids closet, March the kitchen, April master bedroom closet, May master bathroom, I need to work on each individual week.

2. What is the first thing on it that you hope to accomplish this week?

I actually had a goal before I saw this challenge to clean out my glass and tupperware cabinet and I did it on Tuesday. I was so excited!

3. How are you going to make it happen?

I love to cross things off of a list that's a huge motivation but, I'm also counting on my husband and readers to hold me accountable.

This should be fun. I'll take pictures of each project I'm tackling and do a post each Friday. Are you in??