Operation Organization

My attempt at doing a better job of "keeping house" has gone less than swimmingly.  I think one reason for this is the amount of STUFF we have around this place.  Usually each summer I do a major deep cleaning and purging session.  This summer it did NOT happen.  In fact, thinking back to last summer with all we had going on on the IVF front I think I only half a$$ed it last year too.  That means that in addition to a whole new person and a new home "business" and all of the stuff that comes with it, we also had two years of clutter that had been just kinda tidied and shuffled around to various nooks and corners of the house.

There are several what I will call bottlenecks which then slow down the whole getting the house straightened up process.  There are also some what FlyLady would call "hot spots".  The two biggest offenders on these fronts are the desk we moved from the office into the bedroom when we made the nursery and the garage.

Took care of the desk by once and for all cleaning it up and then getting rid of it.  I never worked at it, rather it was a place for me to pile stuff.  If it's not there I can't pile stuff on it!  Posted it and the chair on my neighborhood Facebook page and they both disappeared quickly.

Reinforcements had to be called in for the garage and I had talked to my dad about helping me.  He ended up doing the whole thing almost all by himself.  It looks awesome.  I wish I had taken a before picture because the after is just incredible.  Before we could pull both our cars in the garage AND could get in and out of them, but that was about it.  Now you can move around the whole garage and it feels so much better!

I also took a load to Goodwill and the recycling center and have another load ready to go sitting on the sunporch.

I also have uncovered a love for things that fold up and can be put away and things that serve more than one purpose.  Some of my favorites include:

Dog crate for travel that can be folded flat.

Laundry baskets that can be folded flat and stored under our armoire.

An ottoman that stores toys AND can be folded flat if needed!