Reorganizing

When you don't move for a few years, things start to pile up! It seems like relocating is a natural time to go through sheds, garages, closets, and storage nooks deciding what goes along to the new place, and what does not. With no moves on the horizon, and our spaces filling quickly (again), we decided to start the process of clearing out some stuff. You really have to think through the end result and work backwards to find a starting point. And then you have to consider the weather, which has been sweltering, and decide if your starting point could maybe be inside in the air conditioning vs. outside in the muggy sunshine.

We chose inside, ha! The boys helped me start by clearing out the kitchen . . . Graysen set out all our spices, looking for duplicates--there were not many! (except Alum which was for a school project, that clearly never got completed, lol!) Gabby arranged them back in the cupboard neatly. She also took a run at the wardrobe in the girls' room . . . viola!







Buck and I set out on a mission to replace the pooped on/puked on/peed on/chewed up area rug that has protected the "new" carpeting underneath from all of the above. We also added a matching runner for the hallway, since that is a very high traffic area. The pattern is "Venice" which is almost my middle name; made in Turkey which is a place I enjoyed visiting. So many reasons to buy new rugs, ha!



And also to find storage. My storage hunting date is cuter than your storage hunting date, hee hee :)


We found a decent option that ended up being $15 less than that sign on top says. Brennen and I went back the next day to get another. Into the first went ALL the collapsible lawn chairs we've somehow collected, plus the canopy, and the additional lawn chairs and table the company sent us because part of the canopy was broken. Baseball gear also went into this mini shed, so it really made a nice little space for us to start working in the garage.



Up on the hill we set the second storage container behind the chicken coop. The boys built a level base, and into this one goes all the chicken food, chicken supplies, buckets, etc. etc. which made a nice little space for us to start moving things around in the "barn."





Going through tubs and random bags of clothing that haven't really found a home, we did discover a few "treasures." Graysen was amazed that he was ever small enough to fit into the Espana shirt Grandma J and Mr. R brought back from their Spain trip. And I was amazed I was ever small enough to fit into the high school formal dance dress that Caelan said is back in fashion and she would add to her collection of dance dresses :)



I spent hours and hours cutting up bags of t-shirts I've saved over the past half dozen years to eventually make t-shirt quilts again (the last ones are pretty small compared to the kids' current and more permanent sizes :) We also tossed or decided to donate about six bags of clothes that would have gone in "the pit" (I think that's what they call the giant fireplace at the cabin). We just don't know when we're going to get there, and the kids are outgrowing all the clothes I saved anyway :) That created quite a bit of storage tub space in the barn. Shuffle, shuffle!





We added the shelf next to the treadmill to hold our impressive stock of suitcases. Some of these will be left in Africa (are still in fact packed for Africa), but needed some organization until then. We worked REALLY hard to clear the exercise space again, especially since Brennen got his Chuck Norris approved workout machine :) I would have taken a "before" picture of the garage, but it was not something I want to remember, lol!


Once we had that lovely cleared space in the garage, we filled it up with things that we'd pulled from other rooms in the house which were temporarily filling the living room. So, now all of that is awaiting "what's next?" I think we can donate a bunch to the foster care closet at our church plant. I'm going to try to talk our pastor's wife into doing a church parking lot garage sale; I just don't like strangers coming to my house. Ew!

Outside we had a pretty massive toss pile. Our neighbors were on vacation (Graysen was watching their pets) and I asked if we could use their extra trash and recycling space to kind of divvy up our big pile into piles the trash company might actually pick up. They said sure! As did our next door neighbor. We still have quite a bit, but waaaaaay less than before. Meanwhile, we had a burst of rain, so Buck felt it was safe to burn those 60 plus evergreen trees we'd cut off of our prairie hill--they were tinder waiting to happen! I was downstairs checking summer school work, so Gabby snapped these pictures of the burn . . .



Buck was sure the fire department would get a call--and funny enough, after the fire was out, an engine did scoop our neighborhood, perhaps "just checking." We threw a bunch of cardboard and other burnables on the pile, so we're making progress! We still have several rooms of the house to go through, and we need to move all the stuff we decided to rehome from the barn to the garage, but as the weather and our energy levels permit, we're making progress.