Sunday, April 19, 2009

Spring Cleaning

This weekend the spring cleaning bug has bit our household. We also decided to try and tackle the furniture arrangement. We've been unhappy at how our entire first floor has become over run with toddler paraphernalia so we attempted to rearrange our great room. After a lot of moving the sofas, tables, and the rug several times we ended up with...everything back in the same place.

My husband is a little annoyed, because he had to do most of the moving. I have to see things moved into place and can't picture how a new layout would look in my mind. So this meant he moved things a lot. Good thing he's got a soft spot for me☺

What I'd really like is for ER to have a spot tucked behind our love seat by the window so we can coral her baby strollers, rocking moose - yes I said moose, and toy box there. Then maybe the first thing you see when you enter our home wouldn't be pink and plastic. But there was no way to do this and still be able to see the TV. And we can't have that! What we really need is an extra room in the house so we can have a playroom as our secondary bedrooms are too small to put the overflow in them.

When we bought our home, it was with the condition we'd finish the basement but it'll be two years in September that we've been here and absolutely no progress has been made on that front. Well except for that now my husband has a new collection of largely unused tools. I'm sure he'd tell you otherwise!

It's frustrating, but we just couldn't come up with an arrangement that would hid some of the toys. We're limited by so many factors; now my husband is looking into moving our cable connection, but that entails coming up through the basement and punching a hole in the wall of the entryway closet. For now, I have to just deal with it.

We did make some headway in reorganizing our closets at least. We'd been keeping the two bookcases in the picture in our kitchen. Evidently, that was driving my husband nuts. So we moved them into our entryway closet. While he was the one who really wanted a solution to that, I am glad we did it. It's nice to not have to look at all that, and since she can open doors now, she can still get to everything. I even have more space to put some of our learning activities.

My next project is to sort through all her things and maybe move some more toys and books into storage for the next kiddo. It's hard because she remembers everything and will ask for it. Plus she doesn't want me to put away her baby toys ever.

The other big event was the grand opening of our back deck. Our car said it was 77 degrees today, and we couldn't wait to get out there and enjoy it, especially since more rain is expected tomorrow.

Brad was also hard at work this morning, cleaning up and wiping down things so that ER could get back out there and play with her play house, sand table, and Barbie bike. She had a blast outside even if she was being a little stinker and kept pouring sand out onto the deck on purpose!

Since I've got decorating on the brain, I really enjoyed taking this little quiz on Sproost. You look at all these pictures of different rooms and click on how much you like it. My style is a combination of mainly Frech Eclectic and Classic with some Nantucket.

Go over and take the quiz. It's fun and quick. Let me know what your decorating style is, if you do! Thank you to Tracy at Loving Pretty Things for telling me about it.

This post has been added to Tackle it Tuesday at Five Minutes for Mom.

22 Friends Said:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Katie! Good work! I want to Spring clean sooooo bad but I have to wait on this back of mine. I have to find a way to craft without messing up the whole house! That's what the craft room is supposed to be for.

I'll check out that quiz. ☺ ♥

♥ Noelle ♥ said...

the closet looks good though- very organized! my big spring "cleaning" involves throwing away junk and gathering items no longer used or needed to give to GW- which i will do in 2 weeks when my work is done. space is a big issue in our home; our closets are SMALL! thank goodness for our finished basement or i'd go crazy!!!

noelle ♥

p.s. i got your message friday but have been super busy with the birthday party and other things. maybe we can chat one evening this week???

one pink fish said...

Wow. I took the quiz at it fit me perfectly.

80% traditional country
20% arts and craft

Thanks for sharing the quiz with us.

Jennifer said...

Wasn't the weather just lovely? It's so nice for the kids to get our and enjoy some fresh air. =)

Happy Sunday!

Maridith said...

I SOOO need to orgainze my stuff. I just need time. Your closet looks so nice and neat and PRETTY, how is that possible??

The battle of baby/toddler toys & style is one I am always battling. Let me know if you have any good tricks besides throwing everything away!! haha!!

Glad you guys got some nice weather!! Enjoy!!

Kris said...

I LOVE spring cleaning time! It just feels like a fresh new start! ER looks so cute in that floppy hat!

Katie said...

Katie! The quiz was fun. I was 100% Nantucket...crazy! I think I will have to add this fun link to a post of my own. Thanks for sharing.

Mama King said...

Bravo on wanting to get organized! I am not motivated one bit. The closet looks great. So neat and colorful!

By the way, thanks for your well wishes! Friday went great. I always get so much out of participating on adoption panels. It was cool speaking to all adoptees.

Annie said...

I'm working very hard reorganizing the closets and rooms. We also plan to work in our backyard and frontyard (some gardening) and a fence. I hope we finish all this work soon.

I like that closet. Very organize.

Tanielle said...

That quiz is sooo fun! Thanks for sharing! What a nice warm day! It was 63 here today, and I wanted to run through the sprinklers!

Heather said...

Oh, that little "spring bug" bites me all the time - LOL It's always so hard to get motivated but man, when the work is done...WOW, it's so worth it!

Sheila said...

Hi Katie! Great job on the spring cleaning. The closet looks nice and organized. I came across Sproost a little over a month ago and took the quiz. I wrote about it on my blog where you can see my results. http://anoceanoflove.blogspot.com/2009/03/whats-your-decorating-style.html

ER is soooo cute playing with her sand table!

Rachel Holloway said...

LOOKING GREAT! I love all your organizing...and my hubby doesn't always understand my methods either...good thing he will go with the flo!

melinda said...

too funny! moving eerything, to end up back where it was! haha.
i so relate. i move, relocate, adjust the kids stuff all the time--trying so hard to keep their things in reach and trying to leave space to MOVE, too! haha
thanks for sharing:)

Missy said...

Lookin good! I so need to do a little spring cleaning myself. I've got to get over and take that quiz. Thanks for sharing.

Seener Beaner said...

How inspiring as always. Your back deck looks amazing. I hope you can get your basement done someday soon.

Seener Beaner said...

The quiz was a lot of fun! Thanks for the link. I got 43% Nantucket ( oohhh I do love the beach, we are trying to move to Nanaimo in the next few years ) and 43% classic.

Heidi Boos said...

Obviously, I don't have a style...they wanted me to retake the quiz. ;)

Love your energy for spring cleaning! I've done a few things here and there, but haven't really gotten done what I need to!

L2L said...

funny, the cleaning bug hit our home too. lol. must have taken an international flight, he-he.

Mrs Zeee said...

I have the bug too. Love the baskets your have in that closet.

Anonymous said...

Great tackle! I need to do a SC myself!

Susie said...

We have a cleaning bug too! Great tackle!

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