Onto Day Five

Today was Hunter's room.  I know I'm moving really fast with this and I can't help it.  I happen to have the time right now and I'm making the most of it.  I've never really been good at working bit by bit.  What I have thought of though is a similarity for anyone who truly doesn't have this sort of time on their hands.  Number one, you do these rooms on a day off.  Part of the challenge is to keep the one room clean while you go through your normal routine so if you can only complete one at a time, the challenge is to keep it organized until you can get to the next one.  I'm also in a push here because my eldest two are away for the week and so I have less to keep up with as I move along.  FlyLady says it won't get organized in a week but I'm trying anyway because right now, that's what works for me. 

So onto Hunter's room.  I mentioned that Geoff had helped out by tidying the other day and that was great, but decluttering takes longer and involves more mess.  I had to empty out all the bins and remove garbage or broken toys,  so the room became a disaster again before it was tidy.  I was also organizing certain things.  Hunter plays with the cars, super heroes and tool bench most often, so I wanted to keep those in his room but get everything else out.  He also has a book shelf that is fairly full. 

Here's something you need to know: Hunter is three and after I had replaced everything on his bookshelf and left the room for something, I came back and he'd taken a bunch of stuffed toys out and they were on the floor.  It dawned on me at this moment that maybe he didn't want them in his room.  So I asked.  (Lightbulb moment!!)  He said, no, he didn't want them in his room.  So I asked if he could put everything he did not want into a bag as I held it and he said "Sure!!"  He wanted less things in there than I even realized and in asking him I was able to remove almost everything out of those shelves except one baby, his books and the Dora backpack.  Due to the fact that he may not need a bookshelf in his room now, I am keeping it in mind for a possible move to another room - reuse!

The closet was the hardest because some of that had been in there from the move.  Again, I sorted what was useful now and since there was already a bag of too small clothes in there, I added anything else that fit that description.  While I was doing this, I realized that I'm going to have to come back and regularly do this type of organization.  FlyLady has a calendar that I have not yet signed up for because I hadn't seen the necessity.  Once I get to the starting point, that is, when I'm all organized to begin with, I will have to download that app because I'm certain there are the monthly reminders to do something that needs to be done once in a while but if you forget you'll make more work for yourself.  One would be the children's clothing inventory. 

I have three boys, 10, 7 and 3.  My daughter is the oldest and the easiest to take clothing inventory on because a) she does it herself and b) when it's too small, it's gone.  The boys are harder because I will save some stuff and sometimes that stuff hangs in Hunter's closet.  Like a few shirts the ten year old never wanted so they were brand new.  The seven year old didn't want them either.  I'm saving them for Hunter.  Yeah, that's probably a waste of time, but they're in the closet, hung up, and brand new.  So long as I remember to check on these and see if they fit before they're too small, Hunter may get use out of them.

All told, this room took an hour and a half.  I used fifteen minute blocks for the three sets and crammed the last stage into a full forty-five minutes because I wanted to finish it.  I got rid of garbage and the toys have been moved to the play room, though not organized there.  That room is going to take some work and I will have to have help in there because the kids have to take part in deciding what to keep and what to "bless another family with" as FlyLady says. 

I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon and for the first time since I started this whole thing, I left the house without getting my sink emptied and I missed a couple of things that should have been picked up in the living room.  I was stressed about it when I left because I was reminded how living a busy life outside of the home made this happen on a regular basis.  I haven't always been at home, I was a student and I worked.  Things got left all the time and I didn't want that to start again already. 

With that in mind, it was the first thing I did when I got home.  Of course it only took a couple of minutes because there wasn't much work to be done, but had I left it again I would have been back on track to the disorganized mess.  Even though I didn't catch it before I left, it was done immediately when I got home and I averted impending disaster.  I like that it was so important and that it took only a few minutes to do.  Saved.  To me, this is the best accomplishment so far.