Friday's Fix-up: games

This isn't much of a fix-up but at least it's something, I guess. This closet has always been a problem area. It is finally starting to shape up! This week I straightened up the two bottom shelves. They weren't terribly messy, but that tub really needed to be organized!

Nice and neat! (that blob of black stuff is just some black paint that some child thought should be there.)

I'm very happy to say that the next shelf up doesn't need any straightening! Last winter when I posted my very first Friday's Fix-up I decided to store our games all on their sides (except a select few that really couldn't be on their side) in the hopes that they would be easier to put away and would then become less of a mess. It worked! The games are still nicely stored on their sides and we even tend to get some of them out more often because they are easier to get out too!

Next week I'll do that last shelf and this closet will be done! Hooray!!! It feels so good to be making some progress!

If you have a fix-up to share please leave a comment telling about it or with a link to your own blog post about it. I will add your link to the bottom of this post.

Friday's Fix-up: I can see the floor!

This week I tackled the bottom of our hall closet.



I sorted out the puzzles and they are now stored in the top of the closet where little people cannot dump them out. I took everything else out and the only thing that got to go back was our bocce game. Don't you love that carpet? I think it must be the only place in the whole house that still has the original carpet.

Now if I can only keep it from turning into a dumping ground again, all will be well! Next week I'll move up a little higher in this closet and organize a shelf or two.

If you have a fix-up to share leave a comment telling about it or leave a link to your blog post about it. I will add the links to the bottom of this post.

Lynsey

Friday's Fix-up: clearing out the junk

I have too much stuff. I try to keep it spread around the house in different places so that it doesn't look so bad. But there is one place in my laundry room that is really just a pile of stuff. It is in boxes, but they are overflowing and it is not a nice thing to look at.


My goal was to get rid of at least one box.


I got two!!! It seemed like such a daunting task, but when I started out thinking that I didn't have to do it all at once it wasn't so scary. I actually had a hard time stopping at just the two boxes. But I really had to move on to other things.

For next week I'm going to do more clearing out. Maybe another box, or maybe stuff from some other part of the house.

If you have a fix-up to share, leave a comment telling about it and/or leave a link to your post. Sorry, but I still can't get Mr. Linky to work. If you leave a comment with a link I will come back and add your link to the bottom of this post.

Friday's Fix-up: my cheap idea almost worked

My bathroom has absolutely no decorations. None! It doesn't even have a nice shower curtain, just a very bland cream colored plastic one. The closest thing to any type of decoration is the light fixture. It has yellow roses. So I thought I'd go with that theme. I like yellow bathrooms.
Last week I found a flat sheet at a thrift store with yellow roses on it that match the light fixture almost exactly. It cost $1.27.

So I planned to make it into a nice shower curtain to cover up the bland plastic one. It was going to be so beautiful! And then I washed and dried it...........with a blue crayon!!!

Aaaagghhh!!! I have know idea how that silly crayon could have gotten into that particular load of laundry! I know, I know, I have five children. I should know by now that I need to check for crayons and other strange things in the laundry. But I didn't, and there went my beautiful shower curtain. So I moved on to the rest of my plan. The sheet was bigger than the shower curtain so I planned to use the extra on this empty wall space like Vanessa of V and Co. does.

That part turned out nice. It is in the bathroom with very crummy lighting, so you'll just have to trust me that the wall looks way better now.

Again, I found the hoops at a thrift store. Quite a while ago, though. The larger one cost 49 cents and the smaller ones cost 19 cents. Like I said, cheap! I think I'll have to keep checking for another sheet with yellow roses. I still would like to give my idea a try.

edited to add: I need to do some more clearing out of stuff. So for next week my goal is to get rid of one box of stuff from my laundry/sewing room.

If you have a fix-up to share, leave a comment telling about it or with a link to your own blog post. For some reason, I can't get Mr. Linky to work at the moment. As soon as I can I'll add it to this post.

Cathie

Friday's Fix-up: more pictures on my wall

I call my entryway the coat room. It is more of a room than a hallway and it is where we hang our coats and backpacks and stuff our hats and gloves and boots and helmets and whatever else happens to land there. It is usually a pretty chaotic place. And it's the first thing you see when you come into my home! This is a little mortifying to me. In a slight attempt to make the coat room a little nicer I hung up a few pictures on one wall, planning to fill the wall with pictures of people who are dear to us. As you can see, I didn't get very far.



I have now added 5 pictures, and it looks a little nicer. Fuller. More special people.



It's not done yet. I want to keep adding pictures. And someday I would like to get rid of that awful wood panelling!!! Or at least paint it. You just wait, eventually it will end up being a Friday Fix-up.

My fix-up for next week: super cheap bathroom decor for my very blah bathroom.

If you have a fix-up of any kind you'd like to share, write a post about it on your own blog and add your link to the Mr. Linky box below. Or leave a comment telling about something you have fixed-up.

♥Aimee

Friday's Fix-up: my purse

I'm so sorry for the lateness of this post!!! I'd planned to have it up early this morning, but of course today had to be one of the craziest mornings we've had in a while. Now I've learned that if I want it posted early I need to post it the night before.

I hadn't cleaned out my purse in years! Almost three. That's a guess based on what I pulled out of my purse. It was crammed full of junk, and was pretty useless to me that way.

Here is the pile of stuff sitting on my table. Doesn't look nice there either.

I threw most of that stuff away. Including that red planner. I haven't used my planner since 2006. I really don't know why I thought I should carry that around for so long. I threw my purse in the washer and dryer with a load of sheets and it looks and feels much better. Then I filled it up again, but hopefully in a much smarter way.

I included:

keys

wallet

glasses

chapstick

mints

1 diaper

ziplock bag of wipes

clean underwear and shorts for a certain 3 year old in a ziplock bag (just in case)

5 band-aids

3 safety pins

1 sanitary pad

tissues

immunization records (because I never know or remember when I'm going to need them)

pen

notebook

book (because I never no when I'm going to end up waiting)

Doesn't it look nice and organized now? I'm all excited to go somewhere and open my purse and not be embarressed by the junk. My goal is to put garbage in a garbage can and not in my purse!

To participate in Friday's Fix-up write a post on your own blog about something in your home you have improved this week. Anything that has made life a little nicer. Then add your link to the Mr. Linky box below. For next week's fix-up I'll be hanging up a few new pictures. Join me in hanging pictures or find your own fix-up to share next Friday.

♥ Aimee

Join Me For Friday's Fix-up

I live in a regular house. My five children and my husband also live in this regular house. It is not new, or huge, or beautifully decorated. And it tends to be quite messy at times. This regular house, however, is our home and I want it to be a heavenly home. I can't do it all at once, so I'm taking little bites. I choose one thing to work on every week. Something I can clean out, organize, redecorate, or basically improve. Anything that makes life at home a little nicer and a little more heavenly.

I would love to have you join me!

Choose something in your home and fix it up. Anything. It could be something small, like clearing out some old magazines. Or it could be a much bigger project like painting your kitchen cabinets. Rearrange some furniture, clean out a closet, hang something new on a wall, get rid of old toys or clothes. I always have to consider what's going on and how much time I will really have to finish my chosen task. Right now it isn't much so I've been sticking with smaller jobs. Choose something that works best for you.

Write a post about it on your blog. Include before and after pictures. It is always encouraging to yourself and to others to see what you have accomplished. Here is a button you can include in either your post or on your sidebar. Please link it back to this post if using it on your sidebar.

Every Friday I will post my fix-up with a Mr. Linky at the bottom where you can add a link to your post. We can all encourage each other in our fix-ups and we'll probably get some great ideas as well. The more the merrier. Hope to see you on Friday!

Friday's Fix-up: Magazine basket and an Invitation

edited to add: skip to the middle of this post for the invitation to and explanation of Friday's Fix-up.

My kids started school this week so I chose a fix-up that wouldn't take too long. I think it took all of 15 minutes, but I had been putting it off for so long that it had become a dreaded task. Does that ever happen to you? I put some little thing off, once or twice or 50 times, and after all that putting off my perception of the task changes. It is no longer a little task. It is a huge ordeal! And then I really don't want to do it. So...I put if off again. UGHHH!!!

So anyway, today I tackled my overflowing magazine basket.

Before:

We don't subscribe to tons of magazines, but even a few magazines will pile up horribly if given enough time.

After:

So much nicer to look at!!!

HERE

I mentioned an invitation. I've been thinking about this for quite a while, and I think I'm finally brave enough to do it. Here it is: Would anyone care to join me in my Friday's Fix-ups? Next week I'm going to clean out my purse. It has been collecting junk for a very long time, and now that school has started our schedules are getting busier and I really need a cleaner purse. I may even wash it.

So clean out your purses, or choose some other thing in your home that needs a little attention and fix it up. Choose a drawer and reorganize it, clean out one shelf of a closet, get rid of old clothing, rearrange some furniture, or hang up a new picture. It can be something big or small. Whatever you feel like you can do this week. Then post about it on your blog and come back here next Friday and add your link to my post. We can all encourage each other in improving our homes. Sound good? If you don't want to post about it just leave a comment next week telling what you fixed-up. You can also use the Friday's Fix-up picture above to add to your post if you like. Just right click on the picture, then click Save Picture As and save it to your hard drive, then upload it to your post like any other picture. Maybe one of these day's I'll figure out how to make a button.

Friday's Fix-up: Thanks Mom!

I was gone most of this week enjoying a vacation with my wonderful husband. Before I left I had planned to quickly throw together a fix-up when I got home, but then I came home and faced reality. That was tougher than I thought it would be. Vacations are wonderful things. I was able to relax and completely enjoy having that time for just James and I. But as I was driving home I couldn't help but think about all the things there are to do and take care of and worry about at home. It was a little depressing!

I decided that a fix-up would have to wait until next week. After being home for a couple of hours my kids asked if I had been in the laundry room yet. I hadn't had a reason to go in there yet, and wasn't sure I wanted one because the laundry room is always the messiest room in the house. And it's mostly my mess because, aside from being a laundry room, it is also a food storage room and my sewing/crafting room. The kids pulled me in and turned on the light and I was amazed!!! Today's fix-up belongs to my Mom. She had taken piles and piles of too much stuff and organized it. No before pictures, but that is OK. You really didn't want to see that awful mess anyway. Here are a couple of after pictures, but they only show part of what she did.






It isn't done yet. I need to sort through all of this stuff and get rid of bunches of it. I've been needing to do that for a very long time now, but I was never able to because every time I went in there I was way to overwhelmed. I didn't know where to start, so I just didn't. But now! I can see where things are, and I have places to put things, and I can get to things, and I am thrilled beyond description! Thank you so much, Mom, for getting me past that huge first step. It was more like 1000 steps. I can't tell you what a great help it is!!! I love you, Mom!!!!!

Friday's Fix-up: my bedside table

This before picture is pretty bad. Just so that I won't be too embarrassed I'm going to pretend that no one is really going to see this before picture. I can't see you sitting at your computer so it's just like it isn't happening, right? Maybe not. Well here it is .... my bedside table in all it's piled up mess.

And here it is again all nice and straight!

I was quite surprised at the things I found in that big ol' pile. Some things I'd been looking for. Some I hadn't missed but will need in the next month and would not have known where to look for them. Let's hope I can keep it this way for a while. If I can keep it nice for a whole month then it will be a habit. Habits can be such beautiful things!

Friday's Fix-up: The Girls' Closet

I worked and worked on this all week! It actually involved more than the closet, but the closet is where you can really see the fruit of my labors. I wish I had taken a before picture, but I didn't. This closet is very much improved. I sorted and de-cluttered clothes and toys. And I finally moved some of Noah's things out of the girls' closet and into the boys' room. There is so much more space now! Sorry, I couldn't fit it all in one picture.

The toys are now all organized! The blue hanging thing is from IKEA, and it is super! (Thanks, Jocie!) Lots of the toys are up in the top of the closet so that I can have a little more control over how many toys are out at a time.

Friday's Fix-up: sock bags

It has been so long since I last posted a Friday's Fix-up! I am very excited to have one today, even if it is a little different than my normal fix-ups.

I struggle with laundry. Not the washing and drying part so much, but the folding and putting away part. Especially the socks! Having seven people in our family means that we go through about 49 pairs of socks a week. Minimum! Then I have to sort them and try to match them up and always have about 10 socks left over without mates. (Where could they possibly be going?!?) I dislike it so much that I put off the job as long as I can. But then one morning I always end up hearing, "MOOOooooom! I need socks!" I really don't like that either. Here is my solution. (I really, REALLY hope it helps.)

Each person in the family now has their own sock bag.

I bought these mesh bags 4/$1 at the dollar store. They were all the same color so I sewed a letter onto each bag, and now we can all tell quickly whose bag is whose. We put our dirty socks into the bag when we take them off our feet and I collect the bags when I'm doing the laundry. The socks will stay in the bags all through the washer and dryer, then I'll fold the socks for the younger kids, myself, and James. The older two have to fold their own socks. The clean socks will be put away and we will have a nice clean sock bag ready for more dirty socks.

I am SO excited!

Friday's Fix-up: a kitchen cupboard

For today's fix-up I just did one cupboard in the kitchen. It is right above my stove and you can see just a little bit of my lovely golden harvest oven vent that is still left over from the 70's. Maybe someday I'll paint it. Anyway, the cupboard just had a bunch of stuff in it that could really go other places. I was not using that space well, and in my small kitchen every bit of space counts.

Before:

After:

After I got it all cleaned out and had more space to work with I suddenly wasn't quite sure what to put in it. So I put in my measuring cups, which have never had a good home. Until today they were just sitting on top of my microwave. I'm not positive that they will stay there, but at least for now I can put them away and shut the cupboard door. It's better.

This was actually a pretty small and quick project. Next week I think I'll go for something bigger. I'm thinking my pantry closet would be good.

Friday's Fix-up: the kitchen counter....or part of it anyway

For today's fix-up I cleaned up a part of my kitchen counter that has been cluttered pretty much since the day we moved in.

There used to be a phone on the wall right above the counter here, and so we kept a phone book, and notepad there. Pretty soon all kinds of papers and other stuff were getting piled there too. The sad thing is that we haven't had a phone on that wall for almost two years now! And there were still two phone books sitting there! New phone books, I might add. I got rid of the old ones when the new ones came. How ridiculous is that? I guess old habits really do die hard. Well here is that space now.

I left the fruit basket because we go through fruit like crazy around here and I like to have it accessible to the kids. I also left the mug full of pens, pencils, etc., because the kids use them for homework and other things and I just haven't come up with any better place that would be just as handy. Sometimes getting them to do their homework is like pulling teeth (I was the same way, so I can't complain too much), and if I have to send them searching for a pencil it just makes it that much harder. So, the mug stays. But still, it is soooooo much nicer! Hooray!

My Pursuit of Order

I didn't post a Monday's Mess yesterday. Not because I'm quitting. I'm just going to combine the Monday and Friday posts into one post on Friday so I'll have a before and after in one post. I am really enjoying the small spaces of order I have created so far. I really don't want to quit!

Over the weekend I had some insane thoughts about completely and deeply cleaning my whole house this week. While the results would be very nice, it just isn't a practical or even possible plan of action. Bringing order to my home is going to take a lot of organizing, de-cluttering, and changing of habits and that is NOT going to happen all in one week. So, I will keep going with my weekly projects and try to keep my past projects from becoming messes again. It feels like a long drawn out process at times, but I think it is the best process for me right now.

In my quest to establish a home of order I'm also trying out a little schedule. It sounds like such a big deal when I use the word schedule, but really it's not. I'm just trying to eliminate some of the chaos that gives me so much trouble and is so very overwhelming. Here's my weekday schedule (no schedule for weekends):

Wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 am. (pretty vague, but I'm always up before the kids.)
Kids up at 6:30
Leave for school 7:45
Get home and start clean up time 8:30
Pre-school/play time/whatever time starting sometime after 10:45 or so
Lunch sometime around 11:30 or 12
story time
quiet (nap) time, I get computer/sewing/reading time here
quick clean-up 3:00
kids home from school/snacks/homework 3:45
start supper 4:30
eat supper whenever it's ready
quick clean-up and baths
bedtime routine 7:30(our well established habit of jammies, sing some songs, family scripture reading, family prayer, brush teeth, then personal prayers)
kids into bed 8:00
free time for James and I (sewing for me/electronics for him, read together, watch a movie together, make cookies together, whatever!)
go to bed usually about 10 but this varies greatly.

I've only actually "followed" this schedule about three times now, but I do notice a difference when I do. Things just seem to go a little smoother.

Friday's Fix-up: now I can see the piano

The piano is much improved.

Ahhhh. If only the rest of my house could look so good. I think it will someday.

Friday's Fix-up: or not

I did not get my mess fixed up this week. Oh well, Heidi and I had a wonderful time together anyway and she still loves me! What would I do without my sisters? I'm sad she had to go today, but I'm so EXCITED that she only lives six hours away now! Hooray!

Friday's Fix-up: They're outta here!

All of my small plastic containers are out of the lazy susan! Hooray!

I cleaned out another cupboard that had a bunch of baby bottles and other things I don't use anymore, and put them up there.

I'm thinking they will stay neater just because they are out of reach of all the kids, especially the littlest one. Plus I threw away about half of them. I might even get rid of more now that I can really see what I have and will be better able to tell how much of it I really use.

Friday's Fix-up: Man! late again!

Well, here it is. My clean refrigerator top. It looks even better in person.

Why is it so hard, sometimes, to convince myself to get some work done? I do have lots of disruptions sometimes. And then there are those small helping hands that don't really help so much, but hopefully they learn something. But when I do get a chance to really get some good housecleaning done, I don't jump at it. I'm really good at finding other things to do. (My Mom can attest to that.) I wish I did jump at it a little, no a lot, quicker. I'm finding that I really enjoy work. Not the work itself so much, but I enjoy moving and exercising my body. I feel really good when I have accomplished something. I sleep better after physically working hard and I get to burn off plenty of calories. Work also brings a peaceful feeling to me and to my family. We are happier and less prone to contention in cleaner spaces. It is an all around good thing. So why is it so hard to convince myself to actually do it? I think that is one of those things I am here on earth to learn. "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." I am here to learn joy and work is one of many ways that I feel joy. I think I'm just beginning to catch on. I am only 30 though, so I've got a long while yet to keep learning. How grateful I am for this life!

Friday's Fix-up: white light

Whew! This project was not as easy as I was expecting it to be, but I'm so glad I did it! I was amazed at what a difference it made in my kitchen when I took down the ugly old shade. There was so much more light!

Yup, that's a dirty window too!

I made some new curtains. I love white curtains, especially in a kitchen. And I love gingham! I am so not a perfectionist, so these curtains could probably be a little nicer, but they are done and up and I like them.

Open

Closed

The gingham!

I don't know how to take a picture of a window! The outside light is always way to much and the inside light is not even close to enough unless I use the flash, and that just doesn't look as nice. Any suggestions?