Organizing Mamas: Baby Nursery Inspiration

I am officially in the third trimester of my pregnancy, yay!!! I feel so incredibly blessed to have made it this far. I'm praying to stay pregnant as long as possible.

From previous experience I know it's in my family's best interest to go ahead and get prepared for baby as soon as possible. Little Mike came earlier than we expected and there were still some things that needed to be done once we were home from the hospital. Not fun.

I want to be ready this time. So this week for the Organizing Mamas Challenge I'll be trying to gather some ideas for a neutral baby nursery. I have been resting so much that I've actually ended up in a really time sensitive place. Thankfully, this challenge with Mimi from Unlikely Martha has been keeping me somewhat on task.

Living on a military base doesn't allow me to do as much as I would like to as far as decorating goes. Our home is over a hundred years old. The bedrooms are small but the house has a cozy charming feel to it. I plan to do a neutral 'nursery' so that the baby can share a room with either Sav or Little Mike. I just can't afford to give up our guest room right now. Our parents need a room when they come visit. 

I am very attracted to a room with a grey base. It can be easily transitioned to a boy or girl's room by adding different colors. 

That room is very similar to what I'll actually be working with. The walls in our house will remain white so I have to bring in color with furniture and decor. I found this crib on Amazon that I really love because it comes in different colors. I could easily choose a color that already matches the decor in Savannah or Little Mike's room.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to grey right now. It honestly doesn't go with either of the kid's rooms so I'd have to do a total room makeover for grey to work. I'm tossing around the idea. I like simple, easy and timeless design because moving is inevitable I want their rooms to work no matter where we're living.

For Mama's with multiples... Have you ever had kids share a room? How did that work? If giving up my guest room is worth it I'll consider it. Sleep means everything to me so I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep the sleep flowing around here.

Now go check out Mimi's post to see her mud room makeover update!

Organizing Mamas: Kid's Play and Homework Space (AFTER)

I may or may not be in a very early nesting phase. When I first started decluttering at the beginning of the Summer I had no idea we had this much crap. Cleaning off the desk in the kitchen was very enlightening. Let's just say that I found a pencil sharpener on the desk after clearing it off.

Mimi and I are revealing our spaces for the Organizing Mamas: Kid's Play and Homework Space Challenge.

This was our desk area before... This was definitely my "Devil Wears Prada" moment of everyday. I'd just slap stuff down on this desk and keep it moving.

The after... This clean desk was achieved by utilizing the empty file cabinet that has always been located directly next to the desk. Don't judge me. Everything that didn't deserve to get filed got thrown in the trash or shredded. I took all of the books upstairs to their new home along with the photo album. Who has a photo album in their kitchen? We did. The pencil sharpener was found behind the photo album. 

I can see our calendar again. There is also a place for my computer now. This makes me so excited!

I had been looking for a bookshelf for weeks. Every thrift store within a decent radius from my house met me and my kids. I didn't think I was going to have any luck finding a shelf. I was tempted to just hop on Amazon and order one but because we might be moving soon I didn't want to buy anything new.

I try not to buy any big ticket items before a move because things always get broken, scratched or "lost". My plan was to find a wooden bookshelf that I could give a face lift. Something that would serve it's purpose in this house before we find new roots somewhere else.

All of the books were located in Savannah's room. I thought it would be a better idea to bring the books out into this spot between the kid's rooms. My hope was that I could free up enough space to make room for a crib in Savannah's room. Savannah has decided that she no longer wants to share a room with her new sibling. I will cross that bridge again when I have to....

Here is the new bookshelf. I found it on Sunday afternoon. It was originally $29 and I got it for $19. If you could have seen me in that Goodwill celebrating... 

I thought I was going to paint this shelf but my husband had a hard time getting it upstairs. I don't think I'll make him take it back down and back up again. That might be overcooking his grits. So I gave the shelf a nice cleaning and filled it up with books.

It fits perfectly in the hall. While putting the books on the shelf it dawned on me that if I made the kids swap rooms that it would be more than enough space for Little Mike and the #grandfinalebaby to share a room, and I wouldn't have to lose my guest room. We'll see. That's another bridge for another day as well.

Our next Organizing Mamas Challenge will focus on a kitchen storage area. I'll be figuring out how to make our kitchen pantry function a bit better. Here is a before of the pantry...

I'll be taking some cues from Mimi on this one because her pantry makeover was amazing. Visit her blog to see how she transformed her kid's play and homework space. Then come back in two weeks to see how we pulled our kitchen storage areas together.

Join our challenge on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Share your before and after pics using the #OrganizingMamasChallenge hashtag. 

 What home projects are you working on right now?

Organizing Mamas: Kids Play and Homework Space Challenge

I think everyone has that place in their house that ends up collecting all the stuff that doesn't have a true home. Since I have been on a mission to declutter and reorganize our home to prepare for the new baby I thought it would be a great idea to start focusing my attention on our kitchen next.

One of my favorite bloggers recently did a kitchen pantry makeover that inspired me to start pulling my kitchen together. If you don't follow Mimi over at Lipgloss and Binky you should be. We will be decluttering and reorganizing our homes in an effort to make a big impact on the everyday lives of our families.

So far my little projects have done wonders for me. Next up on my list is the desk in our kitchen. It's where I'd like for Savannah to do her homework after school and during our home learning time.

This desk is a mess and it drives me crazy. No matter how clean my kitchen is it never looks all the way done because of this desk. Stay tuned for the makeover...

There is also an area in their play space that drives me crazy. I have been able to find a solution for their toys but I'm still working on how to make their little library function better. I honestly feel like the library needs a new location because I may need to use that space for the new baby's crib. Savannah has agreed that if the baby is a girl she is more than welcome to share her room.

If it's a boy I guess that means I'll be losing a guest room...

Here is the space that needs the work...

That bookshelf is about two to five books away from collapsing. The bin next to it is full of books that need a place on a shelf. I'd love to find a good wooden bookshelf at a thrift store. I'll be hitting up several to see what I can find.

Anyone else have a play space or homework space that needs a small makeover? 

If so, share it with us on IG, FB or Twitter using the hashtag #OrganizingMamasChallenge. In two weeks we'll be sharing the results of our makeovers and we can't wait to see your's!

Now head over to Mimi's blog to see the space that she's working on. The play space and homework room in her house is super cute!

Easy Toy Storage for Kid's Room

So I said that I would keep you all up to date with how decluttering and simplifying things around here was going. It has truly been a team effort and I am happy to report that we are pretty much done with everything that was on my to-do list.

I don't know about you but toys being everywhere drives me crazy. There was a point where there was literally a toy every where I looked. I finally had to say enough was enough and figure out a plan to organize them. We started in Savannah's room.

At first I thought about getting one of those popular open shelf cubby hole bucket type storage systems. You've seen them before. In theory, I like what they represent but I knew that wouldn't be a good fit for us. I wanted something that would put the toys completely out of my sight when they aren't being played with. Messy open buckets on a shelf would drive me crazy.

After searching online for what seemed like forever I again decided to take it back to the old school way of doing things again. Once I found these I knew they were for us. Not only were they inexpensive but each drawer is so huge. There's a drawer for each kind of toy. Now Savannah always knows where her toys are and she's being taught to organize her own things. This has been so helpful with getting her to actually clean up after herself. Her room has been clean and there aren't random toys in my living room anymore. Mommy-win.

I also love the fact that these storage units can actually grow with her. When she outgrows toys, as long as these are still in great shape, we can always use them for something. Storage is always so limited in military housing and this is a great solution to one of our many storage problems. 

I should also mention that part of the decluttering process was getting rid of toys. We sat down together and filled a couple boxes with toys she was no longer playing with. I talked to her about giving to other little girls who may not have toys and she happily donated toys to them. She rode with me to Goodwill and helped me dropped them off. So, there was a purging process involved.

My next project for the kid's is finding a better bookshelf to hold their entire library. Any suggestions?

What do you think? Do you like the idea of opting for these drawers over the open shelving options? How do you control the clutter of toys at your house?

Cleaning House

Sorry the posts have been so spaced out. We have been so busy and when I do have free time I have been choosing to rest. Since I've been trying to focus on preparing us for the new baby I thought it would be good to finally cave and look for an actual cleaning schedule. *deep sigh* I am a self proclaimed clean freak. Things have to be clean or at least in place. I can not function when the house is messy. I literally shut things down until things get clean again. 

Normally I like to do what we call "Power Hours" of cleaning. Lately due to my lack of energy those power hours have turned into power days. I'll just pick a day during the week and go hard all day. Cleaning every thing from top to bottom. That's exhausting so I figured looking for a real schedule to use as a guide would be helpful. With a new baby coming there's no time like the present to get into a new way of keeping things tidy around here. From time to time I'll read something on social media or hear a woman say, "You know you're doing a good job as a Mom when your floors are dirty." Maybe that's not the exact quote but you know what phrase I'm talking about. I just can't get with that. 

This is the quote...

I'll be the Mom that's secretly going crazy and not totally present with my kids because things are out of order. Call me crazy. (It's ok you wouldn't be the first.) But I have always been this way. It's how I was raised. I would much rather give up something else to be labeled as a good Mom. A clean house does not make me a good Mom but it does make me a lot nicer to be around. I'm not saying things have to be perfectly spotless but I am saying that at least one of the two levels of clean have to be achieved. So here is the pin that I found that will be helping me. It's my new strategy to keep myself sane around here. 

Pinterest

Seems pretty reasonable. How do you all keep things tidy on a schedule? Share your tips in the comments! 

Baby Preparation: It Begins

First I want to sincerely thank everyone for all of their advice and motivation over these past couple weeks. It has really meant a lot to me. I finally cracked the lid on her bins this morning. I decided to take it one bin at a time. My plan for selling her things is to group like items, brands or sizes together. This will allow me to do "lot" listings as opposed to selling individual outfits. 

This was the first "lot" that I put together. It was a carter's sleepwear listing. I use eBay as a pricing reference. I listed this "lot" on the yard sale page for my neighborhood and it was sold within thirty minutes. Great, right? I still have a long way to go but at least the ball is rolling. 

I'm gathering all of her shoes before selling any of them. These are all of the shoes I've found so far and I still haven't gone through all of her bins yet. I'm not sure how I'm going to approach selling her shoes. I think I might do a mix of individual listings and "lot" sales.

I will be saving these along with her white "walking" shoes for our baby boy. I had completely forgotten that she even had these. I also found bibs and a couple other things that her brother will be able to use. Yay, for hand me downs!!! Her clothes are in such great condition that I really hate to see them go but I can't keep everything. Our military nomadic lifestyle doesn't really allow you to be a sentimental hoarder. I'll keep some of her things but the majority of it has to go. Tear.

Wish me luck! So far my collective sales total is twenty five dollars. I sold one of my dresses on the yard sale page too. "A dolla makes me holla honey boo boo chile!"