Most of the Midwest had a blizzard this past Thursday. In the picture above you can't even see our fire pit.
Central Iowa had around 11" of snow which turned into blowing, blizzard conditions, with travel not advised and schools cancelled throughout the area. The kids bundled up at 8:00 a.m. ready to sled and build snowman's, but it was still too windy.
I, on the other hand, didn't step foot outside. Which is very unlike me, I'm usually with the kids sledding and making forts. I had stuff to get done right before the Christmas season, cleaning the house. But, cleaning took second place when I saw this mess in the basement.
As you can see in the photo our basement isn't finished. Which basically means, out of site, out of mind. The kids play down here occasionally and obviously don't pick up after themselves. I don't mind, because I rarely see it. This was just a little out of control, the picture doesn't really do it justice because you can't see the popcorn crumbs all over the carpet, or the desk behind the sofa, which was piled with papers, crayons, markers, paper scraps, toys, broken toys and pretty much any crafty item a kid can get their hands on.
The organization of this room led to a whole home organization of kids DVDs, games, gaming devices and toys.
First I cleared out the storage under the TV. I made piles of DVD cases.
- Save
- Donate
- Throw away
Now that this area was cleaned and organized, all of the stuff I picked up or sorted had to find new "homes."
So you don't have to scroll up. Here is the before picture of the basement.
And after.
I started with the kids Nintendo DS games. I wanted to donate the DS's, since they never play with them, but as I took them out, they started playing with all the different games. Fine by me, I really didn't want to give them away since they were expensive. But they did need a new home. They were taking up too much space in our electronics corner.
Thankfully we have a nice organizer from Potterybarn. It conceals all the electronic cords. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!
Bye, bye cords!
A cute little drawer also hides all ear buds, phone covers and additional electronic accessories.
Even the cute little drawer needed a little organization.
Oh my gosh, I can see the counter! This makes me happy.
Next up, the rest of the junk on the counter. Some of it ended up on the stairs to go into other organized spaces.
Hmmm, where can I store all this? DS game cases went in our game cupboard.
Which is a glorified "organized mess."
The DS's went upstairs into the kids computer nook. Which also needed an organization overhaul.
First I took everything off the counter and cleaned the glass.
It sparkles!
Then we needed to have a better organization for crayons. The crayon boxes don't last long and every time Kennady (4) would take the crayons out they would fall all over the floor.
I put all the crayons into a gallon Ziploc baggie, which conveniently got a hole in it. Time for a new system. Enter the cute Potterybarn Kids caddy which we've had, but never used its functionality.
Why didn't I do this years ago? Josh informed me that this probably won't last very long. He may be right, but it looks so pretty for now.
I added the kids golf trophies, which helped with space on their bedroom dressers, uncluttered some of the shelves, added their DS charger by the phone and left some paper for projects.
Here is the before again.
And after...
Now I'm ready to start cleaning.
I recently read an organizational blog where you set an organizational/cleaning goal for each month. I think I am going to attempt this. Should be fun to see what I come up with.
Mission Organization is on the menu for the new year. Look for it here!
What have you been organizing lately?
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