Making Room

Around this time every year I get the itch to purge everything we own and clean up.  Sometimes I just have that feeling, other times I actually act upon it.  There are things that I always say I'm going to do, but don't often, and then there are times when I am so focused it's scary.  This year appears to be one of those focused years.

So I've been to Target several times this week to buy containers and book shelves and then to Home Depot to buy more shelves for some of our cupboards that are huge but don't have a shelf in them.  Tomorrow I am going to sit down with the girls and go through their books to determine which ones they want to keep and which they want to find new homes for, and then also make space on the shelves for some of their toys.  I think I am also going to get a soft sided toy box thing for Amanda to put her dress up clothes in because asking her to actually put them back in the closet on a hanger has been a problem.  The girls think that everything should just be dumped on the floor, and this includes their princess dresses.

I know tomorrow's activities are going to cause stress for all of us.  They are going to hate it, I am going to hate it, Charlie is going to hate listening to all of us hate it - it's going to be a nightmare.  However, when it's over I hope to have created a little haven in each girl's room where they actually have a space to put their toys that they helped create and are proud of.  Likely story, but we'll see.

As for the purging, while they are at school I need to take a garbage bag to their rooms and start throwing out all the tiny little useless things they get at birthday parties and school that they thought were so amazing for the first five minutes they owned them and now haven't touched for months or years.  Sarah has so much stuff in bags on her dressers it is crazy.  Of course if I dumped out those bags in front of them they would immediately start playing with all that crap and never let me throw it away, hence why I am doing it while they are at school.  Bwahahaha!

As for the rest of the house I already started putting in the new shelves, but I ran out of nails today and the shelves were about a 1/4 inch too wide so tomorrow it's back to Home Depot.  I will be so happy when this is done because it will mean more things that can be put away instead of on the counter so we aren't embarrassed to have people over and we don't look like hoarders.  I am not kidding.

The last place we need to fix is the office, which hopefully will be partially solved with a trip to IKEA.  Charlie and I aren't huge IKEA fans, but they do have some great stuff when the time is right.  Hopefully in the near future I can post some before and after pictures of the office.

Here's hoping tomorrow's renovations are a huge success.  Or at least we don't kill each other!