Catch All Cabinet~ Before & After

Project Simplify: Hot Spot #5~ Final one of this 5 week series with Simple Mom! Love this website! This weeks hot spot was a free-for-all! Choose your own cluttered area! Well, the one that has been bothering for quite some time was this catch all cabinet in our mudroom. It literally took me hours to clean this out! Above is the before picture (obviously!) I had papers in here that were dated back from 2005! Yikes!!

This is the cabinet after! Yay!! The top shelf has my vases and the bottom shelf has a bin of light bulbs and an organizer (to the right) for all the batteries- which we go through a lot!! There is still some room in here.

What valuable spaces are you wasting?

Pantry & Frig~ Before & After

Project Simplify: Hot Spot # 4~ Yay, I am actually posting this one on time!! Maybe I will have a chance at this weeks giveaway~ ebooks from Simple Mom that I would love to read!! Above is the frig. before~ a much needed trip to the grocery store! Here is the frig. after! Not too hard to clean. I do this pretty often. It's always a good idea to try to do this before your next shopping trip.

Pantry before. Like with the frig., not too many out-dated items, but the shelves needed a good washing.

And the pantry after. Much more organized and clean. The mason jars were pretty dusty. Hopefully I will get better at making time to can some jams and what not this year. Those got relocated to the top shelf, then there are baking goods, canned foods & rice & pastas, and snacks on the bottom shelf. The aprons are hung on the left. Everyone in the family has at least one! The boys love to help in the kitchen!

I love how this shelf turned out. I do love to label things!!

The week before this hot spot was revealed, I had cleaned above the frig.~ Boy, what a mess it was. I forgot to take a before pic., but this is after. All that is up there are bread & bagels.

This is how I have been storing my kitchen utensils for the last few years~ in a flower pot!

And we keep most of our fruit (and some pistachios) in a tray on the counter, just like Tsh from Simple Mom! It is a great way for the kids to just grab a snack, except in my house they all want their apples cut.

Kids Toys & Clothes~ Before & After

Wesley's before shot of his dresser and closet. These are out of order- see near the bottom for his after. Project Simplify: Hot Spot #3~ Kids Toys & Clothes! The picture above is my son's train table with a lot of stuff on it and bins under it and behind it under our bench.

Here is Riley playing (and helping Mom) during the sorting of the toys. He was such a good sport!

Here is the train table all clean and with no bins underneath and the baskets under the bench cleaned out and orgainized.

Here is another hot spot for toys-in the hall closet. This is the before picture-lots of baby toys, and since Riley is almost 4 years old we retired these to storage (for now).

Here is the hall closet after. Much more organized and with toys that he actually plays with.

Anthony's before picture of his dresser. I can't seem to find his after picture....oops!

Riley's before picture of his dresser.

And his after picture.

Well these are out of order! Wesley's after picture of his dresser.

Wesley's pile of clothes that don't fit. Some we will store for Riley!

I am posting this really late! I had the toys and two out of three dressers done by last Wednesday, and am barely posting them. Since I am also doing this with www.simplemom.net I should have already had them up. The next hot spot I am posting early.......maybe I'll actually have a chance to win the giveaway this week!!

Paper Clutter~ Before & After (sort of)

Hot Spot #2~ My dreaded office, BEFORE! I had already begun this HUGE project (before I had started to de-clutter with Simple Mom) and the table in front has all the arts & crafts stuff on it, taken down from the cabinet. I purged a lot of what the kids don't use and it's all organized now (forgot to take a picture!)

Scary, I know. This has always been my hardest area to keep clean and organized. Actually, my office has never been completely organized. I LOVE this de-cluttering with Project: Simplify at Simple Mom. I am always re-organizing and cleaning some certain hot spots in my home. I guess it's like home maintenance.

And my office, AFTER, not so dreadful, but I have yet to complete it! Still on the list is:

• to finish filing
• shredding papers (my shredder is so old & only shreds 1 paper at a time)
• organizing my photos
• going through the last couple boxes
• home videos to dvd
• create a system to control paper coming in
• hang up kids artwork
• and I'm sure there's more!

I can see a completely organized office in my future!! Yay!!

Doorposts Giveaway!

Doorposts of Your House is having 10 days of giveaways! It would be great to win!!

Closet Before & After!

Hot Spot #1~ The Closet


Ok, here are the before and after pictures of my closet. I know, it's a little late in the game, but with my three boys and I ALL getting the flu this week, it was a little tough! At least I got it done before the next hot spot! The above photo is before with my stuff on the left and Kevin's on the right. Here's a little background to our closet~ I share my side with my three year old, only some of his collared shirts. We also house our ironing board and vacuum here. It's the only place to fit them, plus all our jackets and sweatshirts.....ok there it is!

Here is the after picture, as you can see Kevin still has to go through his clothes (they are on the bed) and shoes. I would do it, but I don't know what he wants to toss! At least the above shelf is clean.

Here is a close up of my sweaters, scarves and hats.

I am so proud of myself! I have a huge bin overflowing with clothes to donate! Also, a couple purses and 7 pairs of shoes!! I have held onto soooo many of these clothes in hopes to fit in them again, and maybe I will be that size again, but too many years just hanging out in my closet when others could benefit from them! After reading Simple Moms- 12 Tips for Thrift Store Shopping, I know that Tsh likes Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Calvin Klein! I have those in my giveaway pile!! Just give me your sizes Tsh and they are yours ;)

Riley Time

Riley and I went to Swank Farms Grand Opening for 2010 and right here we are on the cow ride. It was quite dusty so I told him to close his eyes.
He played in the bounce house for a couple minutes. He was excited since nobody was in there!

They had face painting, petal carts, big bounce pillow, and free hot dogs!

Riley chose a spider on his hand and did not care to go on the other activities. I couldn't even get him to feed the goats!! Everyone should go check out Swank Farms!!

Ducks at Casa de Fruta. Riley just LOVES going there. This time we went to check out the party area since that's where we are having his 3rd birthday party.

Riley sitting in the caboose.

I need to get better at taking shots of us. I don't look great in this photo, but Riley is a cutie :)

He just LOVES hanging out in the caboose!!

And he LOVES trains!! Lots of fun could be had at Casa de Fruta!!

This day we went to the My Museum in Monterey. I love Monterey!! Riley is playing with the ball machine. It's so cool!!
Riley climbed up the pet playhouse.
They even have a little mini golf area! This one of his favorite spots in the museum.

Check it out: http://www.mymuseum.org/

I really cherish the time I get to spend with this lil' guy!

I love you Riley!!!