A Banner for the Boys

We used to have a really cool cream colored castle-thingy hanging on the wall in my son's room just above his changing table.  I loved it - it was so unique and cool-looking.  It was actually from my room when I was in high school and it worked well in Josh's room too.  Until, that is, I was changing his diaper one day and it fell on us.  Well, it fell on me.  THANK GOODNESS!  It just came off the wall - and it was SO HEAVY.  Fell right smack on my back.  Thankfully Josh didn't get anything more than a good scare.  But then we knew it was time for that old castle to go bye-bye.

That was about 6 months ago.  Since then, there has been nothing but a big emptiness on that wall.  I have long debated about what to put there, but couldn't come up with anything.  And with another boy on the way, it has to be something lightweight that couldn't hurt anyone in case there was another, um, mishap.

Enter the pennant banner.  I got the idea from this blog I have been loving lately and it was SO simple and easy to make!  And cheap!  I used scrapbook paper that I already had (which happened to match the existing decor perfectly) and made this cute little banner to add some color and life to the wall.

Ta-da!  Seriously, it's just scrapbook paper attached to ribbon with double-sided tape.  And I love it!  And I know someone else who does too!

Josh kept staring at it and saying "Hanging on the wall! Hanging on the wall!"  He also assured me his baby brother will like it as much as he does.

So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.  Because seriously, I am the least crafty person I know.  And I did something that I actually like and actually turned out how I wanted it to!!

Organized Electronics

Above is what my dream electronics drawer would look like.  Hardly anything in it, organized, and everything is visible.  Neat-o!  Below is the actual nightmare of an electronics drawer that I have been living with (and choosing to do nothing about) for 3 years in our current house.

Folks, I'm embarrassed by it, but if you can't put an honest "before" picture on your blog, then where else can you put one!? 

Needless to say, something drastic needed to be done.  I enlisted the help of my husband and started by taking everything out of the drawer - which wasn't easy, because as you can see, there was one HEAPING HOT MESS OF CORDS IN THERE!  But, untangle them we did and ended up finding things that we seriously do not need and more importantly, DO NOT HAVE SPACE FOR!  Some fun examples include headphones from Continental Airlines (which I'm pretty sure date back to a trans-Atlantic flight to England circa 2007), a camera for our computer (2 computers ago, we did not have a built in camera!), and cell phone chargers for cell phones we haven't owned in 3 years.  EEEK!

After an hour of sorting and organizing, here is what we ended up with:

It's not perfect, but LOOK!!!  It's organized!  Those darn Wii-wheels were the only things that gave me real trouble because they don't fit easily in a storage bin.  But now, everything has a home within the home of the electronics drawer.  I used a couple tupperware bins for storing video game supplies and music devices/headphones, etc. I used a spare little basket for miscellaneous cords and chargers (only for those items we currently use).  Our video camera and camera are neatly in the corner.  Some spare red/white/yellow cords are tucked right up front.  WHEW!  A vast improvement!  And the best part?  Every bin is labeled so whenever anyone puts anything back (ahem, husband) there is no excuse to not put it back in the proper place!

Well I don't know about you, but I feel a lot better!  That's one small step for organizing my house...but it feels like one giant leap for organizing kind!  I have lots of other projects (bigger and even better!) swimming around in my brain, so hopefully these next few weeks will continue to be productive ones!

The Summer of Getting Stuff Done!

My husband and I (now that we are back from our WONDERFUL vacation to Disney World) have officially declared this:  "The Summer of Getting Stuff Done!"  We are trying to use the summer (when he's out of school) to do as much as we can around the house:  painting, repairs, organizing, cleaning so that we can be ready for when this baby comes!  And also...because this is the time of year when we can actually work collaboratively to get some bigger projects done.  It's just hard to dedicate much time to organizing and home improvements when you are pregnant and chasing a toddler all day.

Here are some of the projects I have in mind: 

1. Continuous, CONSTANT de-cluttering!  The logic is:  we are adding another family member to this tiny house in the fall and we simply need more room.  And we have too much stuff, as I have posted about before.  If it doesn't bring us joy or serve a purpose, it's going out the door!  We are still contemplating whether or not to have a garage sale or just donate everything - we'll see how truly ambitious we are feeling by the end of August before we make that decision!  I am paring down ALL my clothes, and even Josh's clothes (though I know there will be another boy who will need them at some point).  But for now, there is clothes overflow...we are going to SIMPLIFY life and keep just what we actually need.

2.  Find a place for EVERYTHING - I'm preparing for label-palooza!  So much of our problem with stuff is that we don't have a place (ONE PLACE) to put it all...it just gets thrown wherever and stays there until...whenever.  Which is sometimes a very, very long time.  So we're done living that way - I'm going label-crazy in the hopes that my hubby (and even Josh) will join me in putting things back WHERE THEY BELONG when they are finished with them.

3.  DEEP, DEEP cleaning - I am not the type of person who enjoys spring cleaning.  Or even regular cleaning.  Of course, I like the end result, but I am not a fan of the actual process.  I have requested my husband take our son to the lake or playground for a few hours a week so I can pump up the jams and get our house shining like the top of the Chystler Building - hopefully so clean, even Miss Hannigan would be proud. 

That's the main list for now - there are other little sub-projects that fall under the above categories, but for now, I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible.  Because, after all, isn't that what the decluttering and organizing is all about?