Some Perspective on Clutter

When I put Little A down for her nap this afternoon, her bed looked like this.

Inventory of bed before naptime:

(10) Stuffed Animals
(1) Pillow
(2) Blankets

When she awoke from her beauty rest, this is what I found.

Inventory of the bed after naptime:

(1) Little A

(10) Stuffed Animals

(1) Pillow

(2) Blankets

(1) Unopened package of 44 pull-ups

(27) Loose pull-ups

(6) unopened refills of baby wipes

(1) unopened container of baby wipes

(2) unopened bottles of baby lotion

(7) story books

(2) clean pajama dresses

???????????????????????

What is truly amazing to me is that I never heard her open the 3 drawers necessary to relocate all of this stuff into her bed. That, and the fact that she actually was able to sleep with all that in her bed. Here's my interrogation upon seeing this mess.

So far, this weekend is off to a great start!

Since many one of you was interested in how my hideous "to do" list was coming along, I decided to share my good news! Let's review the list and check to see what's been marked off so far.

1. Cleaning my whole house. And by cleaning I mean, picking up and vacuuming. Expecting to get anything else done is merely setting myself up for failure. (No progress yet, but expect an update tomorrow)
2. Finishing Little A's baby scrapbook. I made tremendous progress last night, thanks to my buddy Lisa!
3. Organize all of my scrapbooking supplies. This is going to be a huge job, but I know I can do it. And it will help me scrapbook more efficiently, which is so much fun! (in progress)
4. Fix an awesome dinner for my family on Sunday. (planning is underway)
5. Catch up on my google reader.
6. Upload the remainder of my photos to Shutterfly. (almost complete)
7. Clean out my inbox's on all 4 of my email accounts.
8. Hopefully put a stamp of approval on my new blog design. Oh yeah, I'm super excited about this! (i've approved the majority of it. woo hoo!!)
9. Get in 1 workout. (maybe tomorrow?)
10. Get stuff tagged for next week's consignment sale. (maybe tonight's project)
11. Get photos taken for my friend's eBay auctions.
12. Balance the checkbook.
13. Get some rest. (need to move this to next month's list)

And I almost forgot to share my great news with you. Remember when I told you here, about my little decluttering project? Yeah, I realize it was 3 months ago, but let's just pretend that we don't notice that. Well, my master bedroom is FINALLY CLEAN! Here are the after pics. It's not perfect, but it feels a whole lot more like a sanctuary now than it ever has before!



So, if I ever get the chance TO REST, at least I have a lovely place to do that in now. Yay for me.

Pay It Forward...Toddler Style

Much of the day has been spent decluttering my HORRENDOUSLY CLUTTERED living room. We're talking clutter so bad that I was entirely too embarrassed to even photograph it so my wonderful readers reader could be aghast with horror. It.was.that.bad.

Anyway, as I began on this huge endeavor, I enlisted the help of my oldest child. (She was trying very hard to get out of naptime today, so manual labor was her only out) When I explained to her that we were bagging up toys to give to children who didn't have toys, she seemed to really get it.

I beamed with pride as she brought me a ball and said, "Mommy, let's put this in the bag to give to children who don't have any balls to play with." Wow, what a great sense of giving I have instilled in my child!

Before I could break my arm patting myself on the back, she burst my bubble with this follow up comment. "That ball is Ailey's and she doesn't need it anymore." I see. Apparently, it's ok to donate her sister's toys, but she wasn't about to give up her own stuff. I guess I have instilled Robin Hood syndrome upon this child. Oh well, they say charity starts at home!

Wasted Time

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell

I came across this wonderful quote last night while flipping through a magazine and boy did it ever strike a chord with me. I am a MASTER at wasting time. If I could have majored in "time wasting" in college, I would have surely graduated Summa Cum Laude. I'm really that good.

The thing about it is that time wasting, for me, has always come with a generous side of GUILT. Guilt for not spending more time with my kids, or keeping my house immaculate, or one of at least a hundred other things that I probably "should" be doing. It's taken me years now to finally realize, that these things that I choose to do are not wasted time at all!

Just because I choose to sit and surf blogs for 2 hours instead of sorting through the mountains of toys cluttering my living room, doesn't make me a time waster. I actually read some great blog entries and have met several new people from all over the country. How great is that?! And I've probably helped make several other people really happy by commenting on their entries, which makes comment-needing co-dependent bloggers (like myself) rejoice! That definitely isn't wasted time!

So, the next time you're doing something fun or relaxing instead of something that you feel you "should" be doing, remember that you're not wasting time. You're simply replacing the task. Now, I'm off to tackle that toy pile. Wish me luck.

Weekend at Angie's

It's Sunday afternoon and my 2 little angels are having a delightful and healthy lunch, while I sit here and blog away. We just finished watching The Little Mermaid for the first time and boy, am I feeling nostalgic. That is just a great movie! Both of my girls are going through a princess phase right now, but my oldest is really taken with Ariel. So cute!

Speaking of great movies, hubby & I watched Charlie Wilson's War last night and LOVED IT! I knew nothing about the premise of the film prior to popping it in the DVD, but since I love the 3 main actors (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman), I knew it had to be at least a decent flick. It definitely exceeded all expectations and I highly recommend it!

Girls night out last Friday night was great! Gorge-fest lived up to it's name and I began my race for the gold yesterday morning. I can report that I was down 2 lbs this morning (since Friday a.m.) and I'm very hungry. Only 5 more days to go! Woo hoo.

Yesterday was consumed with kid activities, including a dinosaur themed birthday party. The venue was a good choice and the games were cute. My girls loved it! Of course, their favorite part was the cake. I think that was my favorite part too! (Yes, I had a piece of cake. I'm human, ok!?!)

I received some disturbing news from the world of scrapbooking yesterday. I am a devotee of Creative Memories and have been using their products for almost 12 years now. I use their albums and pages exclusively for my scrapbooks and was very angry to hear that they are discontinuing the size that I use! Now, this wouldn't be a big deal, if it weren't for the fact that (before the kids came along), I stockpiled about 13 albums for future use. So, now I'm in the unfortunate situation of having to obtain and stockpile pages and page protectors for these 13 albums and just hope that I have enough when I open up the last album in about 10 years. Oh, the things we do for our addictions hobbies.

Alas, the girls have finished their lunches and are now enjoying 5 minutes of free play until it's naptime. I am spending my afternoon with a little activity I call "The Great Toy Excavation". I'm sure there will be pictures to document this feat, later this evening. Have a great Sunday everyone!

The War Wages On

Happy Friday everyone! This week has been quite a challenge as the girls & I have been sick the whole time. My youngest is finally almost better, but my oldest & I still have raging runny noses and coughing spells. Yuck! But, I'm trying not to let all that gloom bring me down, so here's the positive spin.

Today was the Week 19 weigh in for my biggest loser competition and I gained a fraction of a pound, but I'm still in the lead overall. Less than .5% separates me from my 2 closest competitors, so this week is crucial. Tonight is girls night out at a friend's house and we are affectionately referring to it as "Gorge-Fest". This is because starting tomorrow, for the next 6 days, I will be living at the YMCA and enjoying all varieties of green leafy vegetables (and not much else). I'm in this to win it, so desperate times call for desperate measures! Stay tuned next Friday for the final results.

I was talking with a friend recently about my perspective on why I've been heavy for so long. I think a lot of it has to do with my house being a constant source of clutter. The clutter has gone on for years, and not surprisingly, my weight has gone up exponentially right along with it. So, in my ongoing battle with the clutter, I have some wonderful news to report.

First, here is a pic of the computer cabinet that I said I was going to clean the other day. See, I really did it! I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back.


The next series is of my oldest daughter's room, which we now are referring to as "Stuffed Animal Sanctuary". You see, all those plush animals that you pass at retail stores, well, they have all somehow made it into my daughter's room...to stay. We knew that the animal population was a little out of control, but last night gave us a new perspective on the madness. While I was resting, hubby and his friend, installed new shelves in my daughter's room, which was to house all of these animals. Or so we thought. Here's the before pic of the madness.

And here's the after. Amazing difference! Wow, I had forgotten that she had a rug! The sad end to this story is that there are still animals floating around this house, which hubby has already decreed "Need to go to other little girls who are starting their own zoo".

Just to give a little more perspective on the magnitude of the animal invasion, here are more pics of the full shelves. Now, keep in mind, that these shelves line all 4 walls around her room. Crazy!

And a last pic of Ashlyn being cute. She had just finished doing a forward roll and was doing her "ta-da". She's so adorable.

So, to finish up today's entry, I have to add that I attacked the laundry room also today. It's amazing to me that this week I have managed to declutter my kitchen (the biggest room in my house), my laundry room, and most of Ashlyn's room. Sadly, the master bedroom is still being neglected. I think I'm saving the best for last! Oh, and I need to send a huge shout out to Freecycle. If you aren't aware of this website, go there now. It's a wonderful place to give stuff away and feel good about decluttering! So, for today: Angie 1, Clutter 0.

To Blog or To Clean...That is the question

So, a good friend of mine dropped by my house yesterday morning and was welcomed by a horrible kitchen clutter. While she told me stories of her latest shopping excursion, I asked her the question that always seems to come up. "Why do you continue to spend money that you don't have?" Ok, not a nice question, but an honest one. However, her response to me this time was not one that I welcomed with open arms. "Probably the same reason that you can find time to blog but not time to clean your house." OUCH! That one hurt. Probably because it's true. So, friend, in honor of you, I found the time to do BOTH today.

Horrible kitchen clutter before

Beautiful kitchen after

Horrible clutter before (different angle)

Gorgeous clutter-free after

Ok, so I cheated a little by closing the computer cabinet doors, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. I'm tackling that cabinet this evening after the kids go to bed.

And for those of you who have been keeping up, no, the master bedroom is still not decluttered. One mess-free zone at a time. (Insert big grin here)

Decluttering Sunday (Updated)

As I've mentioned already, one of my big goals for this year is to declutter my house. I've attempted this project so many times and just can't quite seem to get the results that I so desire. So, I'm hoping that by providing some photographic evidence to the world, it will help to inspire me to get moving a little quicker, due to my embarrassment mostly. At the moment, I'm taking a quick break from doing the spring/summer kids clothes purge. I finished Ailey's on Friday and am almost done with Ashlyn's stuff. This is the tax-free shopping weekend in Tennessee, so I'm trying to get to the stores to take advantage of this sale for anything the girls might need for warmer weather ahead. I've quickly discovered that they don't need nearly as much as I anticipated. That's good and bad. Good that my wallet won't be quite as empty later today, but bad that I had no clue that we had so much stuff packed in those closets. Yikes. Anyway, during naptime today, I'm going to start tackling the master bedroom, otherwise known as the "catch-all zone". Here are some pics to see what the mess looks like before I start working on it. I'll update this entry later this evening to show the (hopefully) amazing progress that transpires!

My bedroom as you walk in from the hallway (Before)

Looking in from the master bathroom (Before)

Another shot from the master bathroom (Before)

**UPDATE**

Ok, so things didn't quite work out today as I had hoped. It's now 7:45pm and the kids are in bed and I'm beat. The clothing purge project took way longer than I anticipated and then I got sidetracked with other things, which is the story of my life. Anyway, I plan to pick this bedroom project back up tomorrow and hopefully have a "Marvelous Monday" post to show my fab results. Stay tuned!