Continuing With the Declutter

Yesterday was a success!  We pleaned all day!  (clean 30 minutes, play 30 minutes, repeat until the work is done).  Before suppertime we had taken down every single Christmas decoration and neatly stored them away.  Our live tree has now taken its traditional spot on our back patio.....it will be knocked down by the wind almost daily, and the children will stand it back up.  We usually leave the tree out there for a while for us to continue to enjoy looking at it.  Plus the younger children to not like the idea of our precious tree being disposed of each year.  We have to ease into getting rid of it.

I packed away all of the Christmas dishes, and we enjoyed our supper of leftovers on our regular blue dishes.  I also rearranged our den!  I think I am going to leave it this way.  It seems more open and roomier.

I had also planned to wash clothes all day since I had taken a break from laundry for two days.  Guess what?  My washer broke during the first load!  The appliance repair shop was closed yesterday for the holiday, but my repairman is coming this morning to check it out.  If he cannot fix it today, I will be making a trip to the laundromat this afternoon.  Olivia leaves for Winter Camp tomorrow, and she has to have her clothes washed before leaving.

I have another full day of cleaning out and organizing today--it may take me several days to do what I have planned.  My Christmas gift from Jimmy (and Clay, who helped him a good bit) was a fabulous crafting table.  It is the most wonderful thing!  They spent many hours constructing it in secret, and they presented it to me on December 22.  I love that new table!  It is a 6ft x 6ft square table, built at the perfect "counter height" for me.  No more bending over to cut out fabric, scrapbook, or wrap presents.  It is the most perfect gift!  And all the more special because it was made especially for me by the people I love the most!

I will share pictures at some point!

Today, I plan to begin the big move/reorganization project.  The new table is in my newly cleaned out storage room in our basement, right off of my schoolroom (now I know why Jimmy and I spent 2 days cleaning out the storage room last week!).  Currently, our sewing room is located in an upstairs bedroom--it is completely full of sewing materials, closet and all! I plan to relocate the sewing room into the storage room.  I have 2 chest of drawers and a large entertainment center in the storage room that I will clean out in order to store my sewing, crafting, and scrapbooking supplies.  

Next, after the former sewing room is completely cleaned out and cleaned, I am going to move Clay into this bedroom.  This will be a big job too!  Lastly, I will finish by cleaning out and reorganizing Sam's room after Clay has moved out and some additional furniture other stuff has been added to Sam's room.  Our sewing room also stored many games and puzzles, and I will move those to Sam's closet.  Thankfully, Sam has a huge closet, so storing some extra things will not be a problem, especially after Clay moves his things out.

Wow!  What a task in front of me!  But I am so looking forward to having it all done so I can enjoy my new table and creative area!

Pictures of the entire process will follow.  I hope.