Project Room: Before and After

I think I'm almost done simplifying my house!  Yay!

Tuesday I worked on the kitchen.  At first, I didn't think it would take very long.  I had recently organized the pantry and I pretty much use everything in the kitchen.  Or so I thought.  I gave away all of our plastic plates and cups (I haven't been able to use them ever since reading the book Boys Adrift - I postponed reading it for a long time because I worried it would have this effect on me.  I was right).  I kept some plastic tupperware for freezing stuff in because I don't have enough glassware to use for freezing.  I went through every drawer and cupboard.  It took quite a bit longer than I thought and so I had Rock bring home some pizza because I was tired of the kitchen by the end of the day.

I didn't take before and after pictures since there's not much difference on the outside and I didn't want to take individual pictures of each drawer and cupboard, but they are looking nice :-)

Tuesday night and Wednesday, I worked in our project room.  Remember how when I started all of this I mentioned that the room I was in (the computer/baby room) was the worst room in the house?  Well, I lied.  Okay, I didn't exactly lie because at the time it was the worst room in the house, but after de-cluttering for 2 weeks (or is it 3?) and sticking everything I wasn't sure about into the Project room, it was looking really bad.

The project room is technically off-limits for the kids unless I'm with them, but with how busy I've been trying to work on the house, I let them go and do stuff in there.  That didn't help the mess situation.  Anyway, here's the before pictures of the Project Room:

This is where I store all of our school supplies.  I'm standing at the door to the room  You can't see them, but by my feet were 2 boxes of supplies as well
.

 This is the wall when you walk in and look to your left.  We store pictures, journals, cards, and other mementos in these boxes.

This is the closet - it has our sewing, crocheting, beadwork, scrapbooking, and more school storage. We don't usually store the baby in here.

Come to think of it, I maybe should include some before and after pictures of the rooms in which there is not such an apparent change so everyone doesn't think I'm a total slob.  Anyway, the project room looks much better now.

I got rid of bins of markers (half of them were without lids), bins of crayons (half were broken), all my "crafty stuff" (pipe cleaners, fluff balls, styrofoam balls, etc; a lot of "science experiment" type things, many half-empty glue bottles, crafty scissors, felt, and other such things)

Here it is the after pictures:

This is taken from the same angle the first picture was taken.  The table and chairs where folded up on the right side, but you couldn't see them in the first picture.

This is about the same angle as the second picture above.  I went through the boxes, but I didn't have time to go through all of the pictures and all of the cards.  I think I'll take one box at a time to my mom's house when I go visit her since I tend to waste a lot of time when I'm over there.  I did empty two boxes though (a lot of old school work by the kids - I did keep a little).

 What I kept:

In the boxes: 2 boxes hold pictures (from the pre-digital age), 1 box has little baby crocheted items, 1 box holds journals and 1 box holds cards.  1 box is empty.

The top right compartment on the wire shelf in the corner has charcoal and pencil drawing stuff, next to that is the acrylic paints, paper and supplies.

On the middle-right row there are office supplies (envelopes, paperclips, etc), next to that are science things (flash cards, microscope, measuring tools, rock collecting things).

The bottom-right row has their nature binders (for collecting leaves, etc) and next to that I have what's left of our curriculums (Life of Fred, Discover the Scriptures, music games). I did have The Phonics Road in here.  Then I took it out and decided to sell it.  Then I put it back.  Then I took it out.  Right now, it's in a box in our front room getting ready to be sold (I've been giving most stuff away, but that curriculum cost me $400 for 2 years worth!).  I might still put it back.  It's a good program... I just have to decide if I want to use it or just do something simpler.  I'm also selling a piano curriculum that I paid $100 for, the Story of the World Activity Book, and the Grammar Punk curriculum.  I'm really not very good at following others' curriculums.  A Thomas Jefferson Education teaches to get rid of them and just study the classics anyway right?

Here is the closet now:

I know it still looks pretty full, but I did my best.  This was a hard room for me.

What I kept:
Right tippity-top upper corner: Rock's baseball cards (not mine to give away, though I wouldn't mind)
Under that: Sewing machine, lamp, the top drawer has cross-stich patterns, bottom drawer has beading things. 

Middle shelves (top to bottom)
1) Small container of tempera paint (I had 5x as much) to be used only on special occasions and when I get it out, and a small container of play-dough toys (I had 4x as much) - same rules as paint.  I almost got rid of both of these, but in the end I decided I still wanted to give them a chance to play with play-dough and paints on special occasions.
2) Bin of good paintbrushes (I got rid of a lot)
3) Bin of hot glue w/gun, bin of beady eyes (almost got rid of these, but Spice wanted them for when she gets around to crocheting animals), and cards (come to think of it, I think I'll throw these out tomorrow, we've had these for 9 years and I never pull cards out of it to give people, I'll just keep the few "thank-you" cards).
4)Bin of book-binding supplies, bin of sewing supplies (thread, scissors, needles, pins).
5)Bin of patterns and 2 more bins with other sewing supples (buttons, elastics, weights)
6)Book of needlework, and a file folder of cardstock (I got rid of all my scrap-booking supplies.  I haven't scrap-booked since Bud was one).

Top right shelf:
Bin of extra pens, bin of extra scissors, bin of extra glue and a bin of extra pencils.  (I purposely put all of these in hard to reach places.  If my children loose their pen, pencil, scissors or glue - they'll have to do a small job to pay me for another one - I want them to learn to be careful with their school supplies and I get tired of finding them all over).

Across the bottom (left to right):
1)Wrapping Paper and gift bags
2)Frames
3)Fabric
4)Crocheting and Knitting things
5)Extra binders, notebooks, and folders

I'm not allowing loose paper and all sorts of notebooks about different things out anymore.  Here's what we have out (in our devotional or in our free-time boxes):

Spice has two drawing pads for her drawings (she asked for two - one for doodles and one for realistic things), a poetry notebook (to write the poems she's memorized and the ones she composes), a journal (for her daily thoughts), a math notebook, and a dictation/language lesson notebook (also to write her stories in), and a nature journal.

Bud and Little Miss both have one drawing pad, a journal, a poetry notebook and one more notebook for stories, notes, or whatever they choose and a nature journal.

I have a drawing pad, a journal, a book of centuries, a nature journal, a notebook for my book and lecture notes, and a poetry notebook.

I started the living room today.  I made it through the books shelves.  I really have a hard time getting rid of books.  I think I might have to go through and do one more round just to pick a few more out.  Here are the books I got rid of:

I got rid of even more 6 months ago, but I still have quite a bit.  I really only want the best, but I have such a hard time parting with books.  On a side note, I had a few books that I purchased at D.I. because they were "Newbery Award" winners.  I planned to read them before recommending them to the kids, but since I hadn't had time I looked their reviews up on Amazon.  I was shocked by some of the content in the books!  No more buying books just because they are award winners  (I have found some good ones in the past) - I'm sticking to the lists of trustworthy sources that I have.

I did also make it through the front room closet, but I have no pictures.  I got rid of several shoes in there though.

So, that's all for now.  I do want to have this wrapped up soon.  We're not going anywhere this weekend so hopefully I can finish it all up on Saturday.  It'll be nice to get back to a normal routine again!  I trust that next 6-month purge won't be nearly as difficult!