Conquer Clothing Clutter part 1

Over at IHeartOrganizing.com this week, I was challenged to tackle clothing closet(s). I am taking on the boys' shared closet. This'll give me the head start I need before school starts this fall. Luckily, for a small fee, the PTA will take care of school supplies for us, so my main job this summer is to go thru clothes & keep the kids super busy. Here is our before shot of the boys' closet.



Definitely not working out so well for us. Plus Drew's got a bigger dresser than Collin, who could sure use the extra space.

First order of business: take out the hanging shelf I had in Drew's side. I also took out the toy box, as we have tons of space in the living room in a 1x5 Expedit that we got from the "as-is" at Ikea in April. Next, I re-installed the bottom closet bar. I took it out a couple years ago, when I caught the boys trying to swing on it. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself. I'm going to keep the bulk of Drew's clothes(pants, shorts & tee's since it's summer) on the bottom bar, so he can get them himself. I may swap dressers between the boys, I'm not sure yet.



Then, I had to figure out the daunting task of how many of each type of clothing is appropriate for Drew's lifestyle. He starts up kindergarten this fall, but is unfortunately still at a stage where he is having a lot of accidents. I decided to keep 7 pants, including dressier pants for church, 5 shorts, and 10 t-shirts. Still have to go through other things(including excessive amounts of pj's), but will likely keep 5 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve dressy(for church) shirts, 3 long sleeve church shirts, and 3-4 pairs of pj's.

Finished up day 1, and Drew's side of the closet is mostly together. Can you believe this little guy had this full of a bag that were either too small or just in excess?



This is the dresser that once upon a time both boys shared, but the past at least year--maybe longer--has been holding only Drew's things. I have moved all his clothes to one side(3 drawers-one for undies, one for socks, and 1 for pj's) so Collin can have more space too. I'm going to be making some picture and word labels, since both boys can only read a little. The pictures will show what goes in the drawers, and the word will either say Drew or Collin so they know which drawers are theirs.



Day 2: Started with Collin's side by emptying his hanging shelf, and putting back in the bottom bar in his closet.

The pile on the bottom bar of the closet is just Collin's t-shirts. I'd say there were well over 25.

I'm also making sure all the hangers match--it doesn't cost a lot, and our budget on this organizing project is little to none. I only spent about $4-5 on 4 packs of hangers.

This morning, before school, I managed to go thru all the t-shirts. Quite a feat. I had Collin try on a handful and do the arm test(hands over head to see if the bottom of the shirt exposed his tummy), and chose 1 that fit and 1 that didn't to measure the rest against. It is very difficult to get him to stay there and go thru all the shirts like that. I imagine most boys are like that, autistic or not. So the break was a good idea. I had a small pile left that I couldn't figure out and had him try those on and he got reinforced with a couple spots on his token board(he gets x many tokens for good behavior and earns something that highly motivates him). Then it was time for school.

In any case, this is about as far as I got with Collin's side.

This is what's still left to go through.

I'm not even halfway done with Collin's clothes, and he's already filled a 13 gallon size trash bag of too small clothes and ones that were in excess. As often as we do laundry, 10 t-shirts should be more than plenty. There is also a second bag now filled, just of pants with holes in the knees.

Here is our before shot:



And here is the current progress(obviously, not finished yet. The small dresser will likely be moving out of the closet by one of the walls):

D & C 123:17

Seems May is almost over. These first few months of 2012 have really tested our faith. Well, I can't speak for Tom, but it has tested mine a lot. Two experiences have taught me that after we do all in our power, all we can really do is just put it in the Lord's hands and hope & pray things work out for the best. And if it seems it's not going the way we'd like immediately, to have the faith to keep moving forward anyway. Both experiences were about Collin. I have no idea what to think sometimes about him. We've prayed many years for him to improve. He has, albeit not as quickly or as much as we'd like. After I went to TOFW the beginning of this month, one of the speakers helped me to realize that while I'm "waiting" that I'm not enjoying the present like I should be.

In any case, we got 2 small miracles of being able to switch therapy companies, and also having his anesthesia paid for(not by us--a BIG deal since we're talking $400+ not even including the work on his teeth) for dental work this week. The second was quite the challenge. The dental insurance was supposedly going to cover it starting this year, and then they negate that once they get all the proper documents. Medical offered to pay after a sweet pediatrician answering our fax to request authorization, but the dentist office proved to put up a fight until this past Monday. All this because we did what was in our power and trusted the Lord.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Ok, well not millions, but still a lot! Every year we deal with the same thing. Our tree likes to go peach crazy. This year I thought I'd try to outsmart it, and pluck blossoms(a little tricky since blossoms pop up during the rainy season, and then when it's dry again there are tons of bees around our tree). Didn't make any difference whatsoever. The tree has a mind of its own and its own agenda.

This year, they've decided to start falling earlier than I recall last year. And that peach song (Peaches by the Presidents of the United States) taunts me during the clean-up, picking and more clean-up process that lasts about a month to month and a half. I only can wish that song would get out of my head.



The tree so far. Note: this is actually an improvement over last week, when the front left was super low & drooping over the walkway up to the house.

How many we've picked(and not thrown away) today:

We're likely to be canning peaches & making peach jam for Memorial Day, but in the meantime, I've started "pinning" peach recipes. We've done smoothies, popsicles, and raw before so I was looking for some more variety.  Here's what I've found so far: http://pinterest.com/icab/recipes-for-peaches-from-our-tree/

If anyone has any other ideas before we start doing jam and canning, let me know.

No-sew diy charging station part 2

Fabric is now all attached with the adhesive spray. All that's left is to cut out 3 circles for cords. This is partly why I chose this particular fabric--circles are already there for me. ;) That and it's not to girly for Tom. The colors go well with the green on the walls in the kitchen too.

Total cost was ~$15, since I had to buy the adhesive spray($8) & buy a multi-outlet plug strip($7) for everything to go into.

A no-sew diy charging station

I've been inspired by today's IHeartOrganizing blog post on using what you have but re-purpose it, as well as another post she wrote on covering cardboard boxes in fabric so it looks nicer.

The idea hit me today when I found an empty shoe box.

Starting materials: Shoe box, 4 pieces of foam from a jewelry box,  2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbooking paper cut to size, 1 piece of fabric a little bigger than the bottom of the box(to cover foam), and outside fabric

Using double-sided tape, I taped down the 5 pieces of scrapbooking paper that I had measured

Added one layer of foam(2 pieces). The foam is to help it sit higher in the shoe box.

Added the other foam pieces, this time, upside down. I had contemplated putting the  phones & ipod just on the foam, but needed contrast, hence them upside down.

Ended up covering the foam with the fabric, just tucked the excess in & under the foam

Testing out width. This'll hold what it needs to: ipod & 2 cell phones

All that's left is cover the outside of the box(need to run & get spray adhesive from Home Depot) & cut 3 holes for the chargers to reach through.

Recent happenings

Family updates. Got a new/used car a couple weeks ago. Tom's 16 year old compact(we've had for 13 years) was needing about $1500 worth of repairs and the car was worth a lot less than that. After a couple weeks of looking, bargain shopping online(and awesome timing of federal tax return) we got a 2011 Hyundai Elantra and have already paid for over half the cost.

Tom wanted a farewell shot.

Here's the newer car:

The kids just had Spring Break--one of the longest weeks of my life! Collin also started up with his new therapy company this past week. Starting this next week through mid-June, I'm going to be taking a free class from the local community college once a week that's a Parent & Me style class for Brent. Obviously, Drew will be tagging along too.

What else? It's becoming more & more obvious Brent is quickly approaching the 2 yr mark. One minute he is so sweet, the next minute he's so beyond disagreeable that I'm not sure what to call it. He had/has the Ornery Ones, quickly approaching Terrible Twos. I sure hope we have the Terrific Threes instead of the Trying Threes.

I don't think I've sat in all of Relief Society at church in months(we switched times our ward meets after Christmas, and now naptime is supposed to be during sacrament meeting which usually isn't happening & someone's having MAJOR separation issues). Which means, I have got to put more effort in at home if I expect to have any semblance of spirituality left before the end of summer. Any tips from anyone who's able to squeeze it in with kids who need almost constant attention/redirection while they're awake?

Project update

So, haven't finished this latest project before starting up something new. Typical of me. I got tired of our incoming papers almost taking over the house, so right before the kids' Spring Break started, I made a mail sorter. After a couple weeks, the paper piles are almost gone--old habits die hard.

I give complete credit to this blog post on the 'A Bowl Full of Lemons' for the idea & set-up. Though, in my opinion, her mail sorter station looks better since it's not as stuffed as ours is at the moment: