Getting sidetracked
Whoa! Has it really almost been a month since my last project was completed! Well, I DID say the next project was a biggie. It’s the final stage of my desk organization, and really, it’s going quite well. Ostensibly, that’s what this post is supposed to be about. Alas, I got sidetracked organizing the school room. So really, this post is about the school room. Although, I could really say that it’s about mice. Yeah, you read that right, mice. Confused yet?
We have alot of little people in our family, and as such, hand-me-downs are a major player in the wardrobe game. In order to not lose my mind, I came up with a system about 3 years ago to organize all of the hand-me-downs. We have 4 dressers and each drawer is labeled. Now that fall is upon us, all I have to do is go to the appropriate drawer (i.e. 3T long-sleeved) and pull out the clothing. I got inspired a week ago to start figuring out what clothing the babes had and what would need to be purchased/sewn. The first thing I pulled out was a really nice Ralph Lauren sweater I had bought at a yard sale. Parts of the sweater looked shredded and I thought, “Oh no! Did this get messed up in the wash and I never noticed?” Then my next thought was, “Shoot! Did an animal eat the sweater?” The drawer was filled with other sweaters and I quickly checked them all. Most of them were fine. There was, however, one that was most certainly not. A hole the size of a large grapefruit had been chewed out. At that point, I knew it was the work of a mouse and I was NOT pleased. Then, panic set in. The next drawer over was filled with all of the recycled wool longies I had made. I opened the drawer and pulled out a pair of pants, and sure enough, a big clump of fluff fell out . . . the mouse had been scavenging materials to make a nest. That wasn’t the only thing I found. My nose was met with an unpleasant odor which caused me to be suspicious of what I would find, which in turn sent me in search of a pair of gloves. Long story short, after going through the drawer, I found that the damage to the pants was minimal and they were all still usable. I also found four, small, dried up and practically mummified baby mice. It was gross and sad all at once. The ruined clothing was all for naught. . . .none of the baby mice made it.
Anyway, so all of the clothing got washed, and then I needed a plan for storing the clothing as I didn’t want a repeat of this in the spring or next fall. Rubbermaid totes to the rescue! Anything that is knit or crocheted now lives happily in a sealed tote.
But what does this have to do with the school room? Right. I’m getting there. The totes are great, but they don’t fit inside the dressers, so I had to find another location for them. Enter, the school room closet. The problem here was that the closet space was a catch all for all of the school supplies. I went into the school room, which also doubles as DH’s office, and this is site that met my eyes.
I don’t know about you, but I find that I can ignore chaos for a time. Then, suddenly, I’ll see it as if for the first time and I get a bee in my bonnet that says, “Must. clean. this. NOW.” Well, that bee was buzzing overhead. My plan was to:
– find a place to DH’s running clothing
– have a central location for all of the school supplies/books/etc.
– get rid of the unused table in the office
– make space in the closet for the totes
– move the toy library out of the office
This was one of those projects where one project created another and another. But, in the end, I had a nicely organized school room/office, the CD/stereo area in the kitchen got reorganized, and the living room toys got moved around. Anyway, this really wasn’t a complicated project, it just took time moving everything around.
Here’s the after picture of the school room.
What’s that? Oh, yes, there WERE desks in there before, you just couldn’t see them behind all of the mayhem. This is a vastly improved learning environment, don’t you think?
Total cost: $39
Total time: 5 hours
Learning each and every day 
Wow lots of work!