Before and Afters

Yes yes, I said I was going to post before and afters during spring break. Life tackled us again unexpectedly and then we went out of town. You think I would have learned by now that whenever I plan to catch up on things, we will all get sick.

Anyway, the first round of before and afters are not that amazing, I admit. But I chose to post them anyway to show that you can make little changes that will make things slightly easier and a little more attractive. Sometimes the very small things make all the difference.

A small area that had been bothering me was the top of the fridge. I had been setting all of my routinely used cleaning supplies on top of the fridge for easy accessibility, but it was making it look cluttered. And my minimalist mentality was losing it. So, I thought, I'll just move the cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink. The only issue? Under the kitchen sink looked like this:

I was unaware that I had become a plastic grocery bag hoarder, but there must have been 300-400 plastic bags under there. It would take me a LONG time to use up all of those in our little trashcans, so I took most of them out and recycled them at the grocery store. Something to look into if you're overrun with plastic bags: Check if your grocery store as a plastic bag recycling depository (ours is at the entrance of the store with the shopping carts). Of course, we're lucky enough to live in super recycling land (aka Portlandia), so I realize not all states have widespread recycling availability.

So, I was going to have to tackle under the sink if I wanted to fix this:

Yuck. I hate clutter. Lucky for me, it takes less than a minute to clear off the top of fridge, so I had immediate satisfaction when I saw my minimalist decor.

Ah, no more cleaning supplies up there! And yes, the front of my fridge is a tad OCD, but I like having pictures of family and friends up there and they needed to be organized by size. I also have my weekly menu and my housecleaning list separated by daily, weekly, monthly, and annual lists. A tip: clear tape instead of magnets makes things look a lot cleaner and keeps them from moving all around.

So then I tackled under the sink. I got rid of 75% of the plastic bags. I left the ones in the plastic bag holder and one reusable bag full. The other three bags full of bags were recycled. I also took out some bulk supplies so we could keep our bulk items in one spot in the house (the laundry room) instead of some here and some there.

Again, this doesn't look super amazing, but it's better than it was. My reusable bags are finally easy to get to (I was having to dig around for them before, which is probably how we ended up with so many plastic bags - I didn't want to bother attempting to find them!). All the supplies are within immediate reach and there is nothing that I have to reach far back into the cabinet to get.

While it is better than it was, this is one area that is going to need a few more attempts before I'm totally happy with it. There's some suggestions floating around Pinterest suggesting tension rods for hanging cleaning supplies or small wire shelving. I was planning on doing that, but I found that due to how our piping is set up under the sink, there's no way to get shelving or tension rods to fit properly. So I'm still working on an alternative storage plan. Plus, as I finish using up our individual store bought cleaners, I'll be switching to using vinegar and baking soda for all my cleaning, which will drastically reduce the amount of space the cleaning supplies take up.

I am looking forward to figuring out a final solution and sharing it with you. Next up for before and afters, the linen closet!

Home Storage Solutions 101

I'm really throwing myself into this simplicity thing right now.  Maybe it's because I felt like I was lagging a bit during October, or maybe I just really want to get through the holidays and start a new year feeling like life is fantastic.  So, I'm now doing this along with everything else:

It's week two (or week 45, since she's looping the weeks through next year as well) and I feel awesome about my progress.  Seriously, I've spent maybe three hours total and my boys' bedroom is so much more organized.  I didn't even buy any new storage containers (although I plan to buy a new laundry hamper for their closet and a set of three Rubbermaid (or similar) drawers for my six year old's Legos).

Every little bit of new cleaning, organizing, or planning routine that I'm taking part in is saving me countless hours each week.  Yes, it's scheduled cleaning, etc, but I'm not having to spend a full day working on something like I was before.  I can spend an hour or two in the morning or late afternoon while the boys are otherwise engaged, make a big difference in our household, and then go about the rest of my business.  I'm getting in so much more playtime with my kids since I've started all this.  And to me, that makes it all worth it.

The Garage

Last night my husband mentioned that he really needs to start parking in the garage.  It's getting colder and we've had to scrape the windshield the past few mornings.  It takes between 10 and 15 minutes to get the car warm enough for all the windows to be clear.  And he feels that all this cuts into his work day.  (Of course, if he would wake up on time like a nearly 30 year old man should, this might not be such a big issue....)  But I agreed with him.  He does need to be able to park in the garage so the frost and ice isn't a problem for getting going in the morning.

But this meant something would have to happen that I'd been avoiding: We must clean the garage.  <insert horror movie scream here>

Since the rain had yet to start this afternoon, I took the kids outside and had them ride bikes around the driveway while I attempted to work on the garage.  I think I mostly just shuffled stuff around.  It's the thought that counts, right?

Obviously, in terms of organizing and simplifying, the garage is the biggest problem area.  It's better than it was at the beginning of the summer in terms of how much stuff is in there, but due to going through boxes and moving stuff around, it LOOKS worse.  And all the sawdust that covers every inch of the garage from when my husband made bunk beds for the boys isn't helping.

I did purchase a bunch of storage bins so I could move holiday decorations from various cardboard boxes.  I'm all for keeping the spiders out as much as possible, plus if I ever flood the garage again through our central air system (long story), our items will be better protected in the plastic containers than they would be in cardboard.  I didn't know how much would really fit into them, but I was able to fit all Halloween decorations into one medium sized bin and all Christmas decorations into one large bin.  All in all, I did away with five big cardboard boxes (clearing two whole shelves) just from using those two bins.  Unbelievable!  I was so excited and, I'll admit it, just a tad proud of myself for saving so much garage space.  I foresee my storage bin/system addiction getting worse....

There's still a TON to do, but after clearing away five boxes and finally taking some pictures of larger items that we've been wanting to sell, I felt like I made some progress today.  And the more progress I make in the garage, the more room it gives me to toss out more stuff from the house.  Hmm?  The car?  Better stock up on ice scrapers, honey.