How Not to Decorate for Fall

(This post is a follow up to this one, but it could also have been filed under "I'm Not Perfect".)

There are two simple tasks in my life that I hate:  (1) billable time entry for my job;  and (2) sorting and storing the children's clothing.

I don't mean doing laundry and putting it away.  I mean the constant need to purge the outgrown clothes, box them up to be stored for hand-me-downs, and then getting out the next box of (bigger) hand-me-downs to sift through and place items into the girls' dressers for wear.

We are so lucky to have hand-me-downs from nieces/cousins/etc., and I can only imagine that I would be even WORSE at this job if it included the added step of going to an actual store to purchase clothing.

I get it out of their rooms, and it lives in the hall for 3 weeks.  I get it out of the hall, and it lives in the family room for 3 months.  Eventually it lives neatly stored in the utility room.  But by that time, seasons have changed and children have grown, and it's time to start over.  Anyway, I probably started doing a weed and sort of the girls' clothing in late August, and um, there are still some bags and boxes waiting to be dealt with in our family room.  I don't even know why I'm showing you this stuff, other than to remind you that this is our "real" life, not the pretty portraits and such that I usually like to show off here.



Not sure which angle shows off the mess worse. To be fair, the mess here is due to my "helpers." One helper is pictured playing in her sister's crib; the other is un-doing my work and having a snack on the job.


I feel the need to add:  the girls' rooms are usually the absolute cleanest rooms in our house.  Close to immaculately organized, I dare say.  This is because they contain almost no toys (for now anyway).  Plus, the pick-up only takes a minute or two and I'm anal about it.  I wish I could extend that spirit to the rest of the house, but I have my limitations...

See below.  This doesn't look so bad, right? Except Joe's weights are currently in the middle of the hallway. As is the weight bench. Oy.  Have been tripping over these things for months. 


Up next...
This is worse than showing off dirty laundry. This is our back hall, where things go to pile up and die. In my defense, I wish I had taken an "after" picture, because I have actually since tackled this mess and gotten rid of it. Hey, guess what? Turns out we have a neglected deep freeze full of vittles back there! (I know. We are TERRIBLE. Just terrible.)


But wait! It gets worse. Check out this closeup:

We retired our lovely coffee maker when Joe started exclusively using his french press. Um, and then we discovered when cleaning up this mess a couple months later that the coffee maker was left in this pile with coffee grounds still in it!  No pictures because I'm nice.
P.S. Discerning eyes will also notice that the blue object sitting on the deep freeze is a borrowed diaper, lent to us by friends, in need of being returned. (Don't worry - it's totally clean.)
P.P.S.  Sideways chair is evidence of my habit of "rescuing" chairs from the alley that I think I'm going to reupholster.  (Professionally, that is - I'm not crazy, and have no time for such a big DIY project.)  It never happens.  The ugly, dirty chairs take up space in our home for months if not years before I eventually admit that I'm never going to get around to it.  The pictured chair has since been returned to the wild.  I guess if it loves me it will come back. 

Alright.  You may be at home doing Montessori inspired craft projects right now. Um, I'm sure we do that sometimes, too. But we also spend time playing "dentist" using the weight bench and a toy xylophone mallet. Despite evidence to the contrary, this was Georgia's idea, and she loves it.


Here's June, keepin' it real in pj's and shades.


Georgia insisting on riding around the house in the Hotsling, which I don't know if I even mastered for using with a newborn. It's definitely not intended for a 3 year old, but I told you she likes baby stuff.


There you have it. 

New Year's Resolution #3:  Unclutter.  Purge, organize, donate, sell, etc. 

(I've been tackling this since September, like a warm-up for really devoting ourselves to it in 2011.  It's gonna be awesome.) 

P.P.P.S.  Am I the only one here who sometimes likes to think about organizing and look at pretty pictures of it more than actually doing it?  I like the website unclutterer.com and recently ordered the book Organized Simplicity.  Again, it's gonna be awesome, I'm sure of it.