Since we saved up enough money to buy the Expedit shelves from Ikea, we decided to just keep on going and clean out the entire house.
Well.
That is a lot of work! Still on-going…I’m hoping we can have it all finished by Saturday, when we’re having Ada’s birthday party.
OMG did I just say that? Ada’s first birthday party!
Her actual birthday is this Thursday, the 21st of April. We’re having family over for doggy cake on Saturday. Can’t believe my squishy baby is going to be one year old. But, that’s another entry for another day.
Back to the house organizing.
I’ve titled it Operation Anti-Hoarder.
We got the Expedit shelves all set up yesterday. They were easy to put together, but since our entire house was destroyed when we moved the rooms around and had to make space for 12 feet of shelving it was a little challenging.
We still have to finish painting the room over the window and around to the other wall.
You’ll notice the effing couch is back in the middle of the room, no longer in the doorway.
If you’re nosy like I am (come on, you know you are!) then you’ll want to peek closer at the shelves. The books are organized by topic.
The baskets have toys in them, one has coloring books, and the basket up on the higher shelf has kid craft things in it.
(I LOVE Wendell Berry.)
These books are the ones for Charlotte Mason homeschooling, mainly from the Ambleside Online curriculum. They are all excellent books and you can find them very cheap used.
I absolutely love these shelves! Having my house organized is better than a new car, honestly. The rest of the house is currently in shambles, but already these shelves have made a huge difference. The girls can reach in the baskets and on the shelves and grab a few toys. (I plan to rotate what’s featured on the shelves.) They can easily read books then we can put things away without having to redistribute stuff back all over the house. I even have a cube of the shelf dedicated to library books they won’t be constantly lost!
The shelves have three smaller bookshelves worth of books, a shelf full of toys, my aquarium supplies, the wireless internet router things, homeschooling supplies, homeschooling books, my sewing machine and a bin of fabric for recent projects, and still some empty cubes left! The shelves are so deep that we could double layer the books if we need to at some point. Right now they just have one layer of books because I’m hesitant to clutter it up with too many.
Tyler anchored the shelves to the wall, so they are super sturdy. The wood the shelves are made of is very heavy, the shelves weigh more than 200 pounds each without anything on them.
The desk is great too! It was only $50. It’s extremely sturdy and huge enough that I can store a box of homeschooling/craft supplies under it with plenty of room to spare. The chair is also from Ikea.
Tomorrow I plan for Tyler to build two shelves in our back room closet so I can put my bins of craft supplies on them. (Yarn and fabric.) We also have a couple of other things to store on there. Anything that doesn’t fit neatly on shelves is leaving our house and not coming back.
Wednesday I am going to clean out Rosie’s room and make more space in there. We have to fit a bed in there for her. Right now she sleeps in a toddler bed crammed in our tiny bedroom, but she’s getting longer than the toddler bed.
At some point in the next few weeks we are going to get a real dresser. I AM SO EXCITED. Our 1980′s cheap kid dressers are too small. All of our clothes for the entire family are in one shallow closet and in these little kid dressers with multi-colored plastic knobs. I freaking hate these dressers. I know, I shouldn’t complain about free things but…ugh! They are quite terrible and impractical. I am sick of folding laundry only to wad it up and shove it in a tiny drawer, then have the bottom of the drawer fall right out.
Once we get a new dresser then hopefully I can fix our room, which is like a pit of disorganization. There is just enough room to squeeze a dresser on either side of our King sized bed, then you have to sit on the bed to open the drawers. There isn’t much you can do with a space like that, but at least I can organize our things into a more practical dresser so there aren’t piles of clean clothes everywhere. A girl can dream, can’t she?
When we moved in here we didn’t have any furniture. The only things we have now, aside from our wonderful new shelves, are old cast offs that other people gave us when they got new stuff. It’s not practical to organize your house with mismatched old furniture. On top of that our house doesn’t have a pantry, or large closets, or a basement. Basically we were screwed as far as organization goes. But I cannot stand it any longer. If we’re going to keep living here we are going to spend money (or charge it on credit cards) so that we can have actual furniture that is functional in this small house. I’m not opposed to used things, but Kentucky is not a mecca of reliable used goods believe me. In the trailer state you cannot find nice used furniture unless you just happen to get lucky one day.
One thing I’ve learned in the past four years of living in my own home is that you can’t expect it to automatically be clean and organized. It takes deliberate planning and action, and appropriate furniture for your specific home size and layout. I’m sick and tired of trying to make other people’s old furniture work in my unique space!
While I’m at it, I’m also making Tyler add one shelf to our laundry closet in the tiny open gap of space so we can use it as a pantry shelf. Can’t wait for that either! Maybe he can do that tomorrow when we get the wood for the closet shelves.
I guess this is sort of like spring cleaning…
Tags: Canon 16-35mm 2.8, daily ramble, photos, the house
shelves make all the difference in the world! definitely!
I’m so with you!
We also have other people’s castoffs when they bought newer things. We recently sold our 25 year old couch on craigslist. We’re ruthless – we’re selling everything. When we move (in 4 days!!!) we’ll be with my inlaws until they build their house (the plan is for them to build this summer … we’ll see …) so we’ll use their things. They are already trying to offer us stuff because they want “real wood” or a “nicer couch” when the get their new house. I’m like: N-O!!!! If you don’t want it, I don’t either!!!
Like you, I’m not anti-used – I just want to be able to choose!
We’ve also recently sold our dishes (Ames special that my mil bought and thought we’re beautiful – we didn’t). So we skimmed through some choices last night online – we don’t want dishes where the design fades or the dishes chip. I think we’re going to start collecting fiestaware! Excited about that decision.
Love your shelves. Lots and lots of wood shelves are in our future.
Have you discovered ana-white.com yet?
I love Fiesta Wear! I want some so bad!
ugh. And then Kate (who you know – kahdib) was over yesterday and when I told her my big fiestaware plans she said they have radiation in them. So I’m going to look into that …. and expect sadness.
Yikes! I’ve never heard that. I didn’t even know that was a concern with dishes.