40 Bags in 40 Days

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a shameless clutterbug. Shelves are filled to the max, piles of paper and books accumulate on the kitchen counter, and the dining room table has become a home for what my husband calls 'craft creep' -- craft supplies and half finished projects that have migrated from my overstuffed craft room in the basement to roost on the dining room table. And the sideboard. And possibly a little on the floor by the china cabinet.

Dreaded 'craft creep' on dining room table -- thankfully, most of the house is NOT like this! There are, however, some problem areas that need to be addressed.

So when I saw this White House, Black Shutters '40 Bags in 40 Days' Lenten challenge to declutter and simplify, it spoke to me. I have no idea if I can let go of 40 bags, but so far, I've sorted and bagged up some of the boys' outgrown clothes, tossed a giant (worn & torn) sofa slipcover, tossed broken toys, and recycled a bunch of paper. Paper is a toughie for me. The Canadian Diabetes Association is coming by on March 17th to collect my donations.

Next up on the bagging block is getting rid of a bunch of stuff that has collected in my car...single mittens, the boys' hats and sandals from last summer, and probably the equivalent of a whole bag of dropped goldfish crackers hiding under the toddler seats and on the floor...you know, under the sandals (=

Bags cleared to date: 5
Remaining: 35

Pantry reveal!

So a couple days back, I posted a photo of my oh-so-packed pantry. It was in shambles. Everything was everywhere, I had to waste time digging around for things that should have been in plain sight, and the shelves were so overloaded that they were breaking. Here's a little reminder shot.

Cue scary music!

Fast forward to today, and ta-da! My new and improved pantry!

That's an empty shelf on the bottom!

View behind the door -- appliances, cans, baggies, etc

Solid now

I intended to paint some sort of stencil on the back walls, but it's just not a priority right now. Until I have more free time, I'll settle for organized. I purchased the glass jars (two sizes, the little ones on sale) at Walmart and used them for dry goods. I had the cereal containers in the pantry before, but now they're on a lower shelf and accessible to the kids. We'll see if that lasts. The only other purchase I made was a set of four dollar store bins. I used one for infrequently used baking items (candied ginger, carob powder, and so on) , one for frequently used baking items (vanilla, baking powder, cupcake liners, toffee bits, etc), one for extra or half-full pasta/grain bags, and one for 'drinkables' (tea bags, instant coffee, Crystal Light, Koolaid). I thought four would be enough, but I really could have used another one or two, and may pick up more later.

This re-org came in the nick of time, as the shelves were on the verge of collapse. Seriously, the previous owner had the shelves attached to the supports by finishing nails, and the angled support at the bottom wasn't even attached to the wall. I had loaded the shelves assuming they were secure, but if these things had collapsed when one of my kids was in there rooting for crackers, it could have resulted in serious injuries. Hubby ripped out the angled supports and hand cut niches in 2x4s (I'll be painting these eventually) to create solid vertical supports. Thanks, Love!

Speaking of my dearest, he broke into my newly acquired stash of wine corks and, along with our boys, created these little guys:

Two corks down, only a bajillion to go!

I'm off to do my hour of sewing for the Kids Clothing Week Challenge!

Kids clothes week challenge -- the fall edition!

It's back! The Kids Clothes Week Challenge is on again at Elsie Marley. I semi-participated in the spring event, and it was a good kick in the pants, even if I didn't get much done.



The idea behind the challenge is to spend one hour a day sewing (or knitting/crocheting) kids clothing pieces. The challenge starts tomorrow, so I better get planning. Oh who am I kidding; my kids need pants or they'll be wearing floods all fall/winter.

Pantry update: I've removed about 1/3 of the items in my pantry. HUGE job. The challenge now is to keep my kids from pillaging/breaking the stuff that's now sitting in my dining room, waiting for its new home, while the rest of it comes out and the shelf repaired. The shelf break I mentioned is more serious that I thought, so this re-org project comes in the nick of time!

Spice drawer re-do

Blogland is full of amazing pantry projects lately. I drool over each make-over, but realistically, they're way out of my league, organization-wise. However, I am inspired and decided tonight to take the plunge and upgrade...my spice drawer. Baby steps!

So, three-and-a-half boxes of canning jars and a ridiculous number of sneezes later, my spice drawer has gone from this:

(for shame!)

to this:

(love!)

This was the easiest project ever. Buy several boxes of 250 ml jars, fill them with the mess of spices already in my drawer, and label them with marker on top. Oh, and I alphabetized them and added a drawer liner! How positively Martha Stewart of me! I may go all out and make cute printed labels, but for now, the marker works just fine.

Now that I'm feeling brave and victorious, here's the big disaster I call a pantry:

Notice the top shelf is breaking away from its supports under the tremendous weight of all the flour and other junk essentials I have stashed up there, and the odds and ends that have been squeezed off the shelves ad onto the floor. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to attack this, but now that I've posted this photo, I feel mortified enough honour-bound to make sure it happens.

The shelves are in!

My husband finally got around to installing shelves in my craft room, which means *I* finally got around to getting the place organized. Phew! I have more stuff that I thought! Anyway, I'm proud of my little slice of basement crafting heaven, so here are a few shots of the room. The wall colour is a lovely butter yellow -- not nearly as harsh as it looks in the photos.

This is the tool board behind the door.

View from rear of room

View looking inward

Hubby built the room for me pretty much single handedly, unless you count "help" from our oldest toddler. It took a while from when the room was done to when the shelves were installed, but I really love the extra storage. Hubby used some inexpensive pieces of plywood and some metal adjustable shelf tracks so I can customize how the shelves are arranged. The solid bit at centre bottom hides a bathroom plumbing rough-in. We have a powder room mid level between the basement and main level, so we didn't feel we needed another washroom. More crafty space for me!

I celebrated moving into my shelves by having some friends over to make more child-sized chef hats. We're all trying to get a jump on our homemade Christmas gifts, and now that I have a nice work space, I'm happy to share it.

In other news, I finished Grama's robe, aside from attaching the buttons. I thought I might not have time to take a photo after doing that, so you get the un-buttoned version here. It looks a little wonky because it's hanging off the edge of a round table, but you get the drift. I truly hated this synthetic monster of a fabric (it came as part of a larger bag I purchased second hand), but Grama thought it is soft and would make a great robe. Perfect solution, because I didn't want it.

I've started taking in mending and alterations work to bring in a little extra money, and it's been busy! A few people have also commissioned me to make garments and other things, including a flowergirl dress, slipcovers for chairs, and a slipcover for a walker. The dress is first on my list, so better get to it!