52 weeks of organizing

Last week I jumped into the 52 Weeks of Organizing challenge over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.  I had planned to go through my messy fabric stash and consolidate three bins of fabric and supplies into two.

I was mostly successful.  I sewed two items this week:  a purse and a skirt, both for my daughter.  I started a flannel nightshirt for her too.  And we are going through a huge pile of our favorite summer fabric, Tutti-Frutti, to decide what will become summer garments and what will be part of a patchwork picnic blanket.

Yes, we do have a lot of this fabric.

These are just scraps from garments already made. Every piece of this fabric holds a memory.

I also discarded a bunch of patterns and some ratty old quilt batting that had gotten dirty somehow.  We tried to rid ourselves of some fabric but we are pretty careful to buy only what we really like, so we couldn't part with any of it. 

So, I still have work to do but it's mostly pleasant work  now:  sewing!  Turning this fabric into something useful and lovely.  Tough job but someone's got to do it.

This week's theme is negative conversation.  I have negative conversations with myself all the time.  It's easy to do when there is fabric all over the floor in one room, camping equipment that needs to be put away in another room, and about 32 wet towels on the floor from the dog-washing adventure.  When I start the negative talk I stop and pray.  That usually fixes it for me. What about you? 

L:ink up or read more at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Can I get organized in 52 weeks?

Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie has started a new blog series:  52 Weeks of Organizing.  She's encouraging her readers to make a list of project to complete this year, and share their stories. As usual I am late to the party and am starting on week 5, wherein she asks:

Why do you want to get organized?

Last year I had started documenting my efforts to clean up the house, and keep it clean, but I got a little bored with that process - the documentation, not the trying to clean and organize.  But maybe I'll start again because the documenting does help with motivation. 

There are so many reasons to get organized.  I can't think of which one is most important.  Is it the time lost looking for things?  Is it the money spent unnecessarily re-buying something that I misplaced? Is it because we might move this summer after the seminarian graduates?  Or is it because I would like my kids not to live in chaos now and pass on the chaos-living to their own families?  

Well, all of them.  

This week I am going to concentrate on my sewing supplies.  I have three large bins full of fabric, patterns, notion and such.  Earlier this week I had to dump one out so I could use the bin for a more urgent purpose: storing birdseed. We had this big bag of birdseed in the laundry room and discovered a hole and other evidence of a critter.  Better storage was needed, quickly.

Rather than go out and buy a new bin I want to organize the fabric, get rid of stuff we're never going to use, and maybe do some sewing to reduce the stash.  Should be a nice project.

You can join in the 52 Weeks of Organizing at I'm an Organizing Junkie. Hurry, there's only 48 weeks left!

The messy family reforms: Containers!

I have a container problem.

My space isn't big enough to store all my plastic food containers. The cupboard ends up a jumbled mess of mismatched containers and lids. It's a huge hassle for me. It wastes my time and stresses me out.

So I pulled everything out of the cupboard and put it in this bin. As I use a container and lid, I attach them before putting them away.  It's an inefficient way to store, but it's the only way I can keep them together.

At some point I'll get to the containers with no lids, and lids with no containers, and I will throw them out. I used to keep them in yet another cupboard, awaiting the day the missing part would catch up. But it is futile. As futile as packing a duffle bag of unmatched socks into a moving van in Oregon in the hope that the socks were somehow waiting for me in Pennsylvania, like family members gone on ahead.

If you have a similar problem, check out Simple Organized Living's food storage giveaway. I'll be signing up for this one.

The messy family reforms: Food storage

I haven't given up on my messy family reform projects. I just haven't really worked on anything new lately. But tonight I hit the wall with my food storage. I have a small pantry cupboard in the kitchen and extra shelving in the laundry/mud/junkroom downstairs. I was trying to find something but was unsuccessful. Wonder why?

Is that awful or what?  I was just tossing things in there, cramming them onto the shelves.  

After dinner my girl and I set to work.  It didn't take very long to get it straightened up.  We started by clearing one shelf and putting like things together on it.   The work was pleasant and the results were good.

I tried to take the picture so the ramen wasn't so prominent, but there it is.

It is not perfect, but it's a lot better; I can find things now.  I still have a problem, though.  The shelves are pretty full but I still have some things I'd like to stock up on before bad weather comes.  More canned vegetables (I don't use a lot of canned veggies but I do like to keep a few things around), more dried and canned beans, and more oatmeal. (I also keep large buckets of flour but they just stand on the floor.)  I'll have to keep tweaking it and maybe not buy so much ramen all at once next time.  It'll be a while before we need to buy more.  

I also noticed that I am out of onions but have no space for them!  Better get those kids eating up that ramen!

It is hard for me to keep the food cupboard organized.  It seems that every time I get them just right, with like items together, I buy something new that doesn't fit in its space and it throws everything off.  How do you keep your pantry organized? 

The messy family works on Labor Day

The messy family is still trying to clean up our act.  Today we focused on the outdoors.  That can get messy too, just like the inside.  I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to focus on the work, not on getting the right shots. I can't multi-task that way.

We pulled weeds, cut down volunteer trees that were springing up (we have a lot of oak and maple trees around and there are always seedlings showing up), and chopped up some wood remaining from a tree that had come down in a storm. 

I spent most of my time on the front walkway and steps.  It's brick, and weeds are always popping up in the little spaces.  It had gotten really out of hand and looked terrible.  I remembered an old tip and boiled some water to pour over the weeds.  The idea as I originally saw it was to kill the weeds so they could be pulled out later, but the hot water softened up the dirt enough that they were easy to pull out.  My girl got out the leaf blower and blew everything down the steps.  Then we whisked it into the yard waste can.  It looks better than it had in a long time. 

So often these messes become invisible to us.  I have to really make an effort to see the areas that need work.  I don't enjoy this sort of work - I would have preferred to spend the time in the hammock reading and drinking iced coffee.  But it looked so good when we were done, and we still had time for a great dinner and watching half of The Two Towers.    Not a bad way to spend a holiday.

The messy family reforms: Backsliding

Hard to keep a house clean when I'm never home. There is a reason I am called a homemaker or a housewife.

But we're doing better. OK, it took a few days to get the camping equipment out of the living room after camp. And it's a bummer to return home to dirty dishes when we have to run out the door to youth group bowling right after dinner or soccer camp right after breakfast. Everyone's trying to help, pretty much, or at least not actively fighting my efforts.

On a related note, someone asked me how I find time to blog. Most of my composition goes on in my head while I am cleaning or walking the dog. And when I sit down at the computer I am one fast typist.

Bet you did not know that I took 2nd place in my school district's shorthand contest in my senior year in high school. (Bet most of you don't even know what shorthand is.) We had to take dictation and transcribe it. Mrs. Gunn had all her money on another girl but she choked and I took the trophy. Still have it in a box somewhere, I think.

The Messy Family Reforms: Project Five

Bookcases! We love bookcases because we love books. But bookcases can become messy too.

It's just another handy place to put stuff.

But it's pretty easy to straighten up the books and move the things that don't belong. A few photos are fine, but there's probably a better place for the tape dispenser. And that clown toy? A keepsake that we bring out when we babysit. We haven't babysat for about three months now. I think it's safe to put the toy away.

Much better!

There's even room for a few more books! Need to do something about that nest of cords under the piano though.

I love the way photographs show things that become invisible to us when we're in the room all the time. I should walk around with a camera more often. Or, maybe not.

The messy family reforms: Project Four

Keeping a house clean is hard work. It just is. Maybe that's why so many people feel like they are failures at it.

The desk. This was my Dad's desk and in our shared lifetime I don't think I ever saw it clean. It was always a cluttered mess, inside and out. And yet I think my Dad knew where everything was and managed quite well with the clutter.

The desk now stands just inside my front door and is used less as a desk and more as a storage place. And sometimes dumping place. But it always gets cleaned up when company is coming. I don't have a before picture but here is the after. The cluttered table to the right holds kids' craft projects and my elephant teapot. That weird black swirly thing is the stair rail. Someday that's going to go!

Yes, this is the after picture. The contents of the desktop change every day but could include mail, craft stuff, keys, the dog's leash and (empty) disposal bags... it looks a lot nicer this way.

Someday I will put the drawer pulls back on, really I will.

Here is another poorly-composed photo. If the seminarian looks at these, he must cringe. (He is a real photographer.) That little curio cabinet was a $5 garage sale purchase. The back is a mirror so it's hard to photograph. Hard for me, anyway. The basket underneath holds library books. I'm sure pulling and pushing it back and forth to get at the books is great for the wood floor.

The messy family reforms: Project Three

The kitchen sink. Probably the worst place in the kitchen. It's crowded and always in use; there are always dishes around to deal with. And, to make it worse, it is in the direct sight line of my front door. Yes, this is what people see immediately upon entering my house:

How about a closer view of that sink area?

It's important that you know that this

picture was purposely taken on a very busy cooking day. But this is what happens when dishes stack up. (Note that there is a dishwasher in the picture; it is not working right now. Perhaps it is unfixable, a victim of our extremely hard water. My children are gaining valuable experience as they learn to wash dishes by hand!)

Also please note that my house does not tilt; I am just a poor photographer. But I learned how to fix that tonight!


I often laugh when a blogger posts before and after pictures of a really messy room. I'll look at the picture and think, "huh, that doesn't look so bad. What's the problem?" Then I'll see the after picture and not discern much, if any, difference. Close inspection reveals maybe 3 things out of place. Ha! Either these ladies are lying or they have much higher standards than I do.

My sink is stuck in a corner and though it's a double, it's very small. And shallow. That attractive white dish basin behind the water pitcher (which belongs on the coffee counter!) is used as a busing and soaking tray; the right sink is for washing, the the left sink holds a draining rack.


Here is the draining area in its usual state.

Note the orange thermos just in front of the paper towel roll. You can just barely see the nearly inaccessible fire extinguisher behind the towels. Handy! It's even better when there are large knives sticking up from the draining rack!

Now we have to fix this mess. If we wash all the dishes we can put the busing tray in the sink so it is somewhat out of sight.



Some may wonder why the Kitchen-Aid and food processor (behind the Kitchen-Aid) are taking up valuable counter space. There isn't cabinet space for them, and I use them too much to put them away in another room. It just works better for me to keep them close at hand. If I am having company and really need the space, I find a place for them elsewhere, sometimes even on my bedroom floor.

I'm OK with having a few clean dishes in the drainer; the kids are in training to put dishes away whenever they see any in there. If any are left over at night, I don't mind putting away clean, air-dried dishes in the morning. I've read it's more sanitary, too!

Note the accessibility of the fire extinguisher!

Now, even clean, this area does not look pretty. Another thing you should know is that I have no memory of the ugly green countertop and backsplash when we looked at this house. Or the cheap, worn-out cabinets. When I walked into the house the day we moved in I was stunned and thought "I would never have chosen a house with a kitchen this crummy!" And yet I did. We figure we were providentially blinded to the flaws.

A houseplant that tolerates low light and a nice valance would do a lot for this view. But that will come later. Right now we're focusing on keeping things clean and uncluttered.

This is another area that will demand constant attention, unless we start eating nothing but takeout on paper plates. Since that's not going to happen....

The messy family reforms: Project updates

No, I haven't abandoned this project yet. We are still working on getting and keeping our place neat. The two areas we started are working well, and I've noticed a little overflow into other areas. We are slowly getting into the habit of clearing up. Our horizontal surfaces are not wonderfully clear all the time, because we live here and do things here. The kitchen table is difficult, there is no doubt about it. We have to be vigilant and clear it up frequently. But because we're doing that, the clutter is not building up. There is room to work: this morning I needed to go through some papers to copy and mail. There was room on the table to spread them out! It was so nice to have the space. When I finished I cleaned it up, the space was taken over almost immediatelyby a crochet book and project my girl is working on. When she's finished, she'll put it away.

I've already started the next project and it's a big one: the kitchen sink area. [Cue ominous music here.] I need some camera help before I can post that. Tonight, I hope!

How are your projects going?

The Messy Family Reforms: Project Two

The coffee counter.

This is a little counter (just 29 inches wide) where the coffee and tea things live. Unfortunately other things find their way there: a bottle of wine, a bottle of ketchup, a flashlight, hand cream (2 containers!), bags of bread and hot dog buns, a velcro cable tie, an empty souvenir Coke bottle, crumpled up cupcake papers retrieved from the pantry, a box of jello... and dried up spilled coffee!

When the kitchen is small, we have to make the most of our space. I have very little space in the form of kitchen countertop. I made the mistake of measuring it once after a binge of reading home improvement websites. I learned that something like 11 linear feet is the bare minimum for kitchen counter space. I have 8.5, in 4 separate, small chunks. Talk about setting myself up for discontent!

But the space seems even smaller when it is a big mess and covered in stuff that doesn't belong. So what really does belong on my coffee counter, besides the coffee and tea things? This counter is an appropriate place for the kids' cell phone to live (it sits nicely on a ledge), and a flashlight. The hand cream is, um, handy there. If the ketchup, wine, cupcake papers and other misplaced items were not there, the water pitcher we use all day every day would fit too, without crowding it.

With less stuff, it will be easier to clean up any spilled coffee.

This would look better if I had a nice tray to set the tea things on. (And if I was a better photographer.) They are mostly hidden behind the big water pitcher. But this is not about buying cute things to make the room prettier. I'm not fixing up; I'm getting organized and making things easier to take care of. Pretty can come later.

So the easy part is over. The project isn't cleaning the counter; I can do that quickly. And I do - over and over. The project is keeping it this way. Can I train everyone (including myself) not to drop their Velcro cable ties there?

The messy family reforms: Project One update

What a pleasure it was to get up this morning, walk into the kitchen and see a clean table. I could actually notice the flowers because they weren't part of a jumbled landscape.

But it was hard to keep it that way yesterday. After every meal and every project I was reminding myself and everyone else to clear the table. My little project girl had the hardest time. She has a place in her room for crafts. I don't expect her to isolate herself there whenever she wants to work on a project, but getting her to take her stuff back to her room is a challenge.

It shouldn't be this hard. I think it will get easier as we get used to doing it.

Project Two is also small and I'll start that later today.

What little project did you start?

The messy family reforms: Project One

The kitchen table. Note I did not say kitchen. Project One is just the table. I told you the projects would be small, and asked you not to laugh.

I am not sure I know anyone who doesn't complain about the kitchen table. It's always covered in stuff. Yesterday morning I hit the wall with it: there was no room to set breakfast plates down. I wish now that I'd taken a picture but some of the things on the table were: 6 or 7 books, 3 or 4 water glasses left from last night, 2 days' worth of mail, some crumpled-up napkins, a pair of nail clippers, a piece of sandpaper, some tupperware set on a rack to dry, numerous pens and pencils, the dog page-a-day calendar, a soil test kit, the salt and pepper shaker, an empty napkin holder, a half-roll of paper towels, and a lot of crumbs.

I'm just being honest here. And that doesn't include the stuff under the table (footwear related).

I wavered between crying and yelling at everyone. (Including myself because some of that stuff was mine. Not the nail clippers, I want you to know). The seminarian was particularly concerned about sandpaper on our nice wood table. Oh yeah.

So after breakfast (mostly eaten standing up) the kids and I worked on the table. We took everything off and cleaned it well. We put away everything that didn't belong - not just on the nearest horizontal surface because there aren't any - but away. (Well, mostly. There was a pile of mail and other papers on the hearth so...) Then we put back the essentials. I refilled the napkin holder and set it, along with the salt and pepper shaker and the doggie calendar on a small tray at one end. A bowl of ripening avocados at the other end. Fresh placements at each place. The my girl went out and cut some hydrangea blooms for a vase in the middle. It looked nice. So much nicer!

The kitchen table is the place we spend most of our time. We eat there, and do schoolwork, and work on our projects. In our small house, it's not a table, it's the table for working. All the other tables are either small side tables, or permanent resting places for things like desktop computers. So the kitchen table is it. It is nearly impossible to keep it clear.

So Project One is the kitchen table. For as long as it takes - 21 days, isn't that way "they" say? - we are going to build the habit of clearing off the table whenever we are finished with what we are doing at it. We're not going to wait for company to come; we're doing to do it every day. Couple of times a day. At least.

I won't wait till we've mastered the table to start on Project Two. It's not like it takes all day to keep the table clear. Well, it might, if we have a lot of days like yesterday. My girl made confections by melting chocolate chips and spreading them over marshmallows, chex cereal, graham crackers... My boy worked on a model plane. I did some homeschool planning and messing about in my binder. All at that table. It will be a challenge.

What small project could you start today?

What area of your house really irritates you?

The messy family reforms

We are the messy family. We are the people who don't want you to knock on our door unexpectedly. We are the ones who rush around hiding piles of stuff when company is on the way. We are the people who walk around muttering, "where did I put the staplers? Why can I never find the stapler?!"

We are the people who don't give "house tours" to guests. Ever.

We would like to have a nice neat house, and not experience terror at the idea of guests. Indeed, we try to invite people over frequently, as that's the best way to get (portions) of our house straightened up. But we are not successful at keeping it neat.

Over the years I have read many books on home organization. Some are better than others, but none has provided the key to unlock and release my hidden neat, organized self and family. Mostly they repeat what I already know: keep a simple filing system, and use it so papers don't pile up. Get rid of clothing that doesn't fit or flatter. Create a place for everything and be sure to put everything back in its place. Yep, great ideas all. Got it!

I'd say that the majority of people I know say admit to being messy; most are unhappy about it. But some people seem proud of their messiness. They are so busy doing interesting things, they say, and are so creative with numerous projects going all the time, and are interested in so many things - Renaissance people, all! - that cleaning up is just so, so... mundane. Some people say they are unhappy with the mess but really don't want to bother cleaning up. I understand that; it's boring. There are better things to do, until we can't do something because we can't find the materials, or the tables are so covered in stuff there is no place to do it. Some people are just busy and overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. Those are the people who read organizing books but never seem to be able to actually organize. That would include me.

On the other hand, there are people who seem to do nothing but clean. I know people who won't allow their kids to have craft supplies because they make a mess. Imagine a life without glitter and paper and glue! Or imagine a life where Mom is too busy cleaning to read a book or have a tea party. Some say a messy house is sinful because God is a God of order, not chaos. I can see that point, though I don't think it justifies depriving kids of fun, useful activities - and our time.

This morning I had a brain flash, an inspiration, a crisis, a prompting by the Holy Spirit - something to make me realize I have been on the wrong track in my efforts. Ideas from a few books I've read started to coalesce in my mind. I am starting a series of projects - very, very small projects to get my house neat and organized. Projects so small that some people will laugh at me.

This is a program with multiple projects and a long timeline. I've tried the quick-and-dirty organizing surges; now I'm going for slow and steady. I think getting organized may be like losing weight: we might be able to do it quickly, but it's not likely to last.

Join me as I work on my organizing projects. Just don't laugh!