One of the things in life that brings me great satisfaction is to organize something. I love it. I really love it.
One of the things I firmly believe is that instead of continually buying bigger houses and more shelves, dressers, and storage bins we should just accumulate less stuff. Now, before anyone gets all defensive, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to have a big house or lots of stuff. I just think most people say they "need" more space when they actually just have too much stuff. I like keeping things simple. I try to keep a policy of "something in, something out". We purge toys and clothes a lot!
Anyway, the boys have two shelves in their room that house all our school stuff, books, and other random things. They also have a toy bin in their closet. And we have a shelf and bins for shoes in the living room. All the shelves were full. Then the shoe shelf broke. Then we got another box of curriculum. Then the boys had a birthday party. I thought we were going to need a new shelf. We definitely could have filled one. Instead, we purged toys - some in a freebie box at the curb, some packed away for Naomi to have down the road. Then we moved some of the things from the shelves into the toy bins. Then we tossed garbage and broken toys. Then we bought a new shelf for shoes and moved the old bins into the boys' room.
The end result was an organization!! How I wish I had taken "before" pics!! Oh well. The shoe closet is orderly. The toy bin is orderly, with bins to spare. The big shelves are orderly. I even got all the bins labeled after I took the pictures. The small bookshelf now has one shelf for each boy to keep the school books he's using each week. And we didn't buy a new shelf. Woo hoo!!
Does anyone else get all excited about this kind of stuff?
5 comments:
Love it Bethany! Funny that you would post this because I have been working on a similar project this week.....I actually have some before and after pictures. It is scary....too scary for me to post on my blog or so I think. I love that I able to find things and what is great to is how pleased Arthur was with my efforts!
oh yeah, I totally do! There's something so wonderful about shelves and bins & drawers and baskets that all have purpose, order, and function. I've been going to town around here and I'm not sure if it's nesting, or just my personality :)
Mary Lou -
Post the pics! Be proud of the ending, not embarrassed about the beginning. :)
Me too, Bethany! I love your "official policy" of something in something out! I think I'll institute that myself.
I am an organizer as well. When the whole house needs attention, I have been known to go immediately to the freezer and start organizing or to my closet and purging old clothes, etc. I almost can't help it! Then once I feel things are organized I will move on to the main stuff.
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