How I really work

In the past, I have read blog posts that expose a person in their true form.  They always awe me as I'm the person who tries to do a quick tidy behind the child before I shoot the picture.  Of course, half the time I miss the shot.  Then there is another good percentage of the time that I would not even think about taking a picture no matter how cute my kid is being because there is just no way I could make the background look presentable in any amount of short time!  

On Wednesday morning, I walked around my house, and took note that nearly every single room was destroyed.  Many spaces just had their typical stuff scattered around.  I only make the kids tidy their rooms for vacuuming once a week on Friday's.  So, it's safe to say, their rooms are messy.   Naturally, my canning from Monday is all sitting on the counter still in all its red bejeweled glory. The hallway looked as if a book tornado make a few passes. (the little kids like to read books by pulling off the entire shelf, sitting in the pile, and then reading.) It also was the home of the spilt box of costumes. The front room had the remnants of a pillow fort and the toys that they were playing with inside of said fort. The dining room had the leftovers of a get well soon card that the family made together for my sis who just had surgery, and the toys that were brought in to keep Zander happy on the floor and not crawling over the masterpiece in the making.   The kids bathroom was host to a family reunion for the toothbrushes thanks to Abigail.  She set out beds for each one, and made sure they had snacks.  Toothpaste, of course.  Darling in its own disastrous way.   Am I painting a picture yet?

My problem is I don't know where to start.  I wanted to put away my jams and syrups so I could prepare the kitchen for Strawberry 2.0, but this is what I ran into when I went up the stairs to get to the food storage closet.  

 These are some of our costumes.  Let me explain.  I love all things pretend.  I love to sew and buy costumes.  In our last home, Khali had a gigantic closet and we hung up all of our costumes in there.  When we moved, there was no extra closet space to put them.  Since I didn't have a solution for this, I left the costumes packed in a box, stored in the back of food storage closet knowing that without a good place for them, they'd constantly be a mess.  However, I now have a 6 year old who is extremely curious and can ready very well.  So, of course when I asked her to retrieve some salsa one night, she stepped on top of this box to get it and read 'Costumes' written in fat sharpie.  My salsa never was brought to the kitchen, and when I went upstairs to see where my child had gotten lost, the costumes were being strewn about as Bell looked, excitedly, for a princess gown.  I had successfully avoided the problem of costume storage for 8 months.  That was 4 months ago.  Since then, whenever the kids wanted to play dress up, they dug through the box casting off the rejections in all directions.  Then someone (generally me) would go toss them all back into the box for the process to repeat another day.

So, with an entire house to put back in order, I went to the garage. I had seen a costume wardrobe on Ana White's website.  I figured if I fixed my costume problem, then I would be able to traverse the path from my kitchen to the storage area, and then, and only then, could I clean up the rest of my house.  This logic works for you,  doesn't it?  If it does, please come help me explain to my dearest.  He doesn't get it at all.

I didn't have any nice wood to work with, and my dearest darling has banned me from spending any more at Lowes or Home Depot this month, so I went with plywood leftover from my Chicken Coop project.  While not being ideal wood, this helps me solve the problem of what to do to with these piles that are taking over my garage.  (The wood on the left is slated for Potato Boxes. My next project!)

 The next problem comes from not having a table saw to rip down the boards, or a chop saw to make quick cuts.   I did have my trusty old Jig Saw.  Thanks Daddy for giving me your cast off tools!  I obviously was slightly determined or the lack of the ideal wood and tools would have sent me to choose a different starting point in cleaning the house. Maybe the costumes?  Nah.

I had the base built in about 2 hours in the afternoon, and even had enough time to make a proper dinner!  Because this was turning into a use-it-up project, I went to the paint closet and made my selection from there.  I went with 'Twig Basket', since I wanted a neutral color to work for all my littles.   I managed to paint it while the older kids cleaned up the dinner dishes.  After bedtime, I pulled out my Silhouette and cut out the freezer paper stencil I used on the base to jazz it up a little.

I didn't wait quite long enough to stencil,  I got a bit of paint (a whole lot of paint) on the sole of my iron.  But this isn't the first time a craft project has made a mess of my iron. A little salt will clean it up!  

I ran to the store this morning to buy castors to put on the bottom so that we could move it easily.  This addition puts the project at a grand total of $7.00 out of pocket.   I had it upstairs with a few costumes already hung up when the little girls woke up to surprise them.  

Ideally I'd finish up the project with 

• Baskets on the top shelf  to hold wings, crowns, hats and armor.
• Full body mirror on one side
• Hooks for bags on the other side
• Sword Storage
• Organize Shoes that are now tossed into the bottom.

Not too shabby for a day project eh?  

Meeting Organizational Needs - On the cheap

For the entire year, the kids have had their school books in a bookcase on one shelf next to the kitchen table. We have tried labeling areas for each child, separating each area with plastic pencil cases, and even bookend/dividers. Regardless of the method that was in place, the little two could not put their books away in the correct place. I was lucky in they would get their books and pencils put away off the table, period. While the piled shelf doesn't really bother me much, except for the morning that I cannot seem to find Child X's writing book, this was (one of) the biggest bains of my eldest child's existence. Other children's books were in her area, they were touching hers, they were breathing the air of her books!

So off I went again, on a late night search for another solution that I could enact to fix this massive disaster of a problem. I came across some very cute and chic magazine holders including the ones found here. Of course I didn't have any magazine holders laying around the house to just cover, so I had to do a search for a good substitute, preferably one I did had laying around the house already as

a.) It would be free

b.) I wouldn't have to run to a store

c.) I could start right away while I was still excited for this project!

While I know some people have used cereal boxes for such a purpose, I needed something a bit more heavy duty. I came across the idea of using a USPS Priority Mail box and thought, Perfect! I happened to have a small stack laying upstairs next to the computer waiting to be used for such a purpose!

I cut my angle with a steak knife after finding that my utility scissors where doing a poor job. I measured just under 12 inches high on the back side, and 6 inches high on the front and cut the boxes. You can cut them to any measurements that you think would work well for your situation, but I wanted to be able to use 12x12 scrap-booking paper on each side so that dictated my cuts. Originally I had wanted to use fabric like the Chic ones above, but realized I did not have adequate prints that the kids would like, so I resorted to what I had on hand. I used spray adhesive to put on the paper and then permanent marker with lettering stencils to write their names on the tall end for each child.

*warning* If you are tempted to write your children's name using fancy stencils, ask yourself if your child is going to think that their O is a Q, or their L is an I. Apparently I should have written in my clearest De'Nalien print and called it good.

Since I want these boxes to stand up to daily wear and tear of childrens use, I bought some contact paper and proceeded to cover each one. I even used a bit of packaging tape to hold the contact paper down on the inside of the box so that there is very little chance of the books getting caught and ruining my creation. Hopefully these will last and solve the messy bookshelf problem.