Operation Wake Up

So I've started working on a new project, which I call Operation Wake Up. The goal is to make it easier for me to get up in the mornings so that I can have some quiet time to myself to study and such before the kids wake up.

I've currently been trying to create a better environment to wake up in, that way I will want to wake up more. I'm also in the process of making different ringtones on my phone to wake up to. For weekdays, I have the beginning of the song "Breathless" by The Corrs. This is a song that I've loved for many years and that has always helped me "get up and go." I'm trying to get a song for Saturday and for Sunday now, but my Saturday song is stuck on Mitchell's old computer and my Sunday song is on a CD that's lost at my mom's house, so it will be awhile before I finish those.

I've been organizing things near my bed. I'm planning on eventually getting a diffuser to diffuse an essential oil to help me wake up. So I'm creating a space to make that possible. We don't have nightstands or anything, so we've never had a place to put things. Yesterday, I moved my bookshelf next to my side of the bed so that I can use it as a sort of nightstand. I dusted it and cleaned off fingerprints, and then reorganized my books. I think it looks so nice, and I love to have a safe spot to put my glasses at night.

Now I'm working on that lamp as a mini-project. You can't tell from the picture, but the shade is really just balancing directly on the bulb because it's missing a part, so we have to take the shade off when we actually turn the lamp on.

Kids' Clothing Organization - Part 4

On Saturday, I went to Kid-to-Kid again. I bought a lot of stuff for just over $175, including a snowsuit for each kid, a pair of snow boots for Joseph, and 2 brand-new costumes, Boba Fett and Sleeping Beauty. I should have taken pictures of the bags or the clothes, but they've already been scattered around the house and worn. I got Charlie a shirt, sweater, and pair of pants to wear to church, as well as 3 long-sleeve shirts and 2 jackets. Annabelle got a dress and a couple shirts. I think that might be everything we got...

Annabelle enjoys wearing her snowsuit around the house, which is pretty funny to see. It's a puffy, magenta, one-piece snowsuit, and you can hear her swishing when she wears it. I need to get a picture of her in it one of these days.

I've gotten almost everything on my shopping list for the kids. Annabelle and Charlie will need snow boots eventually and Charlie really needs some pajamas, but I'll probably complete that shopping a little slower.

Toy Organization - Part 2

Last week, I pulled all the boxes with toys down from the attic. Then I sorted through all those toys. That was an interesting process because the kids were so excited to see all these new toys, so they didn't want me to put any away. I had to sneak away all the ones I wanted to get rid of or store again.

Their room has been really messy since then because I didn't have containers for all the toys that were brought down. I think it's been a bit of a miracle that Joseph has been so good about cleaning his room, but when his motivation is video games, he does really well.

Yesterday, we finally went to IKEA to get the rest of the bins we needed for the toy sorter. We also got a couple other bins of a different type for keeping toys that will be kept in the closet. And we got a fun rug for them to play on. I'm excited that all of their stuff is going to be more neatly organized. I know that they are going to have more fun playing in their room, plus it's so cute!

I'm trying to decide if I want to make labels for the bins or just paint right on them. Any suggestions?

Kids' Clothing Organization - Part 3

I finished doing the inventory for Annabelle's clothes, and I have a shopping list all made up. Charlie needs the most clothes, but Annabelle needs almost as much; it's probably because they actually grow, haha!

I also sorted through the huge pile of stuff to get rid of. I came up with a box of clothes to take to Kid-to-Kid to sell. Their inventory was full, though, so they only bought one thing! I got less than $5... I was really hoping for, and expecting, more than I got, so I was really disappointed when I left. I was able to buy one pair of pajamas for Joseph with the store credit. They are a bigger size of his current favorite pajamas, so that worked out really well. Everything else was taken to DI, so now the living room is back to it's normal state of chaos, which is way better than it was.

I don't know if I want to drive all the way out to Kid-to-Kid to shop again, or if we'll just get the rest of their clothes at stores in our area. But that's all that's left! Shopping! Next week when we get the rest of our school loans, winter clothes shopping is on our to-do list.

Kid's Clothing Organization - Part 2

It took a few days, but I got ALL of the kids' clothes clean. Then I went through and inventoried the clothes Joseph and Charlie have for the winter. I'm using an Excel-type program to make the inventories in. I have each type of clothing (shirts, pants, etc.) and how much they need of each item in the rows, while the columns are the sizes. I would put it on here if I knew how to, but I don't know how and I don't really want to try figuring it out right now. I also finished going through the rest of the baby and girl clothes.

Annabelle's grow-into bin.

 Baby items that are used for either gender, which I'll gather as Charlie grows out of them.

 All the girl bins, ready to go into the attic.

I'm already part of the way through inventorying Annabelle's clothes. I'm getting so close to being done with this project!

Kid's Clothing Organization - Part 1

When I was first cleaning and organizing the kids' room, I pulled several disorganized boxes and bins full of clothes out of their closet. The pile of clothes sat in the living room for a couple weeks, but last week, I decided to start tackling it.

In the middle of the sorting process.

I've been sorting through the boxes and organizing them. I sorted out stuff I didn't want to keep and then sorted everything by size.

My growing pile of giveaways.

I've been concentrating mostly on the boys clothes first. After a few days of sorting and organizing, I think I've taken care of most their stuff.

These are the bins that will be going up to the attic until their needed.

And these are the ones for putting the clothes they are currently growing out of and into, which are kept in our storage closet.

As part of the project I'm also inventorying their clothes for the upcoming season, so that I know they have everything they need for the winter. This means A LOT of laundry because I haven't washed clothes in forever. So that's what I've been working on the past week, along with being sick.

Toy Organization - Part 1

On Saturday, I wanted to find one of Annabelle's bracelets so she could wear it to church. I went in their room to check the toy box, but I couldn't find it. Their room looked like this:

We bought Joseph the loft bed the week before, but I never finished putting the room back together, so that made things even worse. I realized how much their toy mess has been driving me nuts. Even if we tried to have them clean their room, there wasn't enough room in the toy box for everything, so it could never really get clean.

I decided it was time to do something about it. First, I went to IKEA and bought this (but I got different buckets):

Putting it together on Saturday afternoon just about killed me! I'm just such a weakling! My muscles were so sore on Sunday. After it was together, I started sorting through the toys and organizing them. I have a bag of toys that are going to DI as well as a box of toys that will go up in the attic for a bit.

As I started getting toys put away, I realized that I didn't like the layout of the room very much; some things were hard to get to and some things just didn't have a place. I have had too many disastrous attempts at rearranging rooms only to find out the arrangement won't work, so I decided to make a plan. I measured everything and made a floor plan on graph paper with each square equal to 6 inches. It seemed like my idea for the room arrangement would work, but I wasn't sure, so I decided to take my floor plan idea one step further. I made a floor plan with each square on the graph paper equaling 1 inch. This floor plan did take me over an hour to put together, and now it's in the trash, but it confirmed that my arrangement would work, and that's what I wanted.

In my next post, I'll have pictures of the new arrangement, each of the toy areas I tried to set up, and, hopefully, a printable of the labels I made for the toy storage.