One Room Down...

Unfortunately no, this mess has not been staged.

The kids toy room was completely out of hand, without proper storage areas it would quickly change from clean to disaster in less than a day.

After wanting to put shelves in the closet for months now, I finally got around to doing it.

{All by myself!}

The metal rack that is shown to the right of the closet used to serve as the toy storage area, but it was unstable and couldn't fit all of the toys on it.  So, it has been disassembled and most toys are now stored inside the closet.  The rest of the room has been rearranged.

I hung a really long shelf on the wall in front of the art table.

I have been searching my head for ideas on how to display the kids art work in a cool inexpensive way.

As I was purchasing supplies for hanging the shelf, it came to me.

I'll use the individual sides of the metal rack, hang them from the shelf, 

and make a display wall.

So, that's what I did.

Now it looks like a real art space instead of a random table shoved in the corner.

I also put a small shelf above the kids kitchen that I made a few years ago, and I'll eventually put some hooks underneath to hang the cooking utensils.

The space is nice and clean for now.

We got rid of 5 boxes worth of stuff{toys and trash.

It has survived for 2 whole days without disaster or mess.

Now that everything has a place, hopefully cleanup will be much easier.

We'll see :)

I still want to repaint the room.

I want to paint the entire room in chalkboard paint, but hubby says no.

I know I'll atleast have different sections of the wall designated for that purpose.

So, one room down, the rest of the house to go.

The past few weeks, I have been going through the house trying to organize, throwing things away, and simplifying.

Notice I didn't say cleaning...hah, yeah, I need to do that too.

Today begins the season...

Today begins the season for me.  "Season of what?" you say.  WELL, this morning as I try to pull my laundry from the washer I realize that it started...  The Season of Frozen Laundry! duh duh duuuhhh!

Every cold season since we moved in to this house I have a battle with my washer and dryer.  The washing machine line freezes, clothes freeze to the cold metal barrel, my dryer works way too hard and fries itself.  Every time, one machine or the other breaks and we have to look about replacing them.  Not very fun, not very cheap. Fortunately Nani gave us their old washer, that's the one that we have currently and last year we purchased a dryer off of craigslist.  So, this year, I am hoping that we will not need to replace either.  I plan to never leave clothes in the washer over night, and if the clothing is too frozen, I will hang them rather than forcing my dryer to do the job.  I really should invest in a real clothes line, generally I make-shift something unstable, generally involving bungee cords and a ladder, a tree, the corner of my house and the fence.  I've never used clothes pins and things fall, clothing ends up all over the yard, and now we have a destructive dog, so who knows what she would do to the already long line of disaster.  My kitchen is quite small, and that is where most hanging laundry ends up, line along the table, draped over chairs, hanging from the windows, the ceiling fan, whatever I can get my hands on.

I have plans for eventually adding on to this place.  I'd love to go out the side and build a game room, laundry room, bathroom, and then above have a loft master bedroom and master bath.  And of course the addition would have a lovely fireplace.  I've always wanted a fireplace!  I'd love to build towards the back and add a sun-room and perhaps a larger kitchen, or at least a pantry!  But these are all dreams, and sure, money doesn't buy happiness, but the things that it can buy would surely add a smile to my face ;)  And of course, I would need an art room, and a quest bedroom.  But really, that laundry room and the fireplace are high up on my wish list.  A laundry room with ample storage space, room for folding, a sink for hand washing, cabinets for storing, and place for ironing, ahhh, it would be lovely :)  It's the simple things that are taken for granted.

Those of you that have a nice laundry room, do me a favor and go hug it and thank it for being there and not freezing over every winter!