Toys live here

We have a lot of toys (and books and puzzles). We have a very generous family + I can't stop buying them = lethal. We give away a load every year, sometimes twice a year, so I don't feel that guilty...still, it's a lot of stuff.


This morning I cleaned up the closets and the toy room (or the "Toys Room" as my little one calls it). I am feeling pretty darn good right now! So much accomplished!


Next: Move truck photos and pretty up the office.

Underestimated: papers

When we planned the kitchen, I underestimated the volume of paper that comes into the room. Coupons, permission slips, birthday cards, reminders and mail hang around for months.

We have a drawer for mail and ipads and notepads as well as a drawer to file important things, but there is no space for work in progress. Like, I will completely forget to take the kids to the ROM if I don't pass these $5 off coupons once or twice or seventy two times a day.

At first I kept up by clipping things to the fridge, and, to be honest, I still do...but I started shoving them behind the light switch too. It's a mess, I'm a mess. I bought this gadet to help (from ebay)...it does the job in style. I am excited and mortified by how much more I can shove behind the switches.


ps. I have a blue plastic 8 1/2 x 11 envelop to store all of my son's papers. School, Sports, Bday party invitations are corralled together. I feel like his personal secretary. Right moms? 
pps. I should log dates into my calendar and toss the rest, but I never use my electronic calendar and I like to double check. What if I entered it wrong? 
ppps. The Light Switch Rack is Hot, but Papers Are Not
pppps. Have you read The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen? I am reading it now, and it just hit me that I am doing exactly what Enid does in the opening paragraphs of the novel - squirreling away mail and expired coupons into separate caches all over the house.

"The anxiety of coupons, in a drawer containing candles in designer autumn colors. The coupons were bundled in a rubber band, and Enid was realizing that their expiration dates (often jauntily circled in red by the manufacturer) lay months an even years in the past: that these hundred-odd coupons, whose total face value exceeded sixty dollars (potentially one hundred twenty dollars at the Chiltsville supermarket that doubled coupons), had all gone bad. Tilex, sixty cents off. Excedrin PM, a dollar off. The dates were not even close. The dates were historical." 

"Six days a week several pounds of mail came through the slot in the front door, and since nothing incidental was allowed to pile up downstairs - since the fiction of living in this house was that no one lived here- Enid faced a substantial tactical challenge."

Getting there!

The upstairs is clean!

Four closets, four dressers, four end tables, two medicine cabinets, a tall boy and bookshelves. Cleaned and organized.

If I can't keep the house organized, then stuff has to go. I have five boxes of stuff to go to goodwill. The jogging stroller, ergo baby carrier, and a bunch of (boring colour) pyrex has been ear marked for Craigslist. The crib has been taken apart and is going to family.  
 
Why am I doing all this cleaning?

It's good luck to clean before Chinese New Year (coming up next weekend)...I think the idea is to remove the old (whatever is stagnating in corners) to make room for the new (right?)...So I do my spring cleaning a bit early to get a clean house AND good fortune! Nothing wrong with that!

Besides, I like cleaning. It feels good to handle everything and make sure it belongs where it is. When I find odds and ends that are out of place, I stuff them into my cardigan pocket and later put them where they belong.


ps. we have light fixtures in both closets...the one in the office closet was supposed to be used in the nursery, now toy room, but the electrical box was too shallow to install it. The brass and frosted glass beauty was picked up for $125, listed for $2000 on first dibs. How could I resist?

Storage room

 

 

Today I tackled the storage room. Wiped down the shelves, counter and floors. What a job! I moved the pyrex collection and gave it more space. The bowls are too heavy to overload the shelves. I would consider selling (at cost) some of these items, email me if you are interested! In fact, I day dream* about dumping the entire contents of the shelves on the curb...Wouldn't that be liberating? (Don't even get me started on the grey bins...)

ps. Toys have taken over! These clear plastic bins are almost useless. Too small....but hey, they look good!
pps. we moved the elliptical into the corner of the basement...

*as if, I am always saying this, but I would never dare

Garage Clean Up

Mice made a mess in the garage, so it was time for a major cleanup! We cleared everything out, and Dad cemented, caulked, and spray foamed all the seams and cracks. I haven't noticed a single dropping since then, so I hope we took care of the problem!
 
We decided to ditch a ton of junk: old doors, off cuts of 1x6's, 2x4's, 1x8's, drywall, MDF, plywood, you name it. All the stuff you save - just in case! What you might need it for, you got me. Five years and multiple reno's and DIY's later and this stuff hasn't been touched. Time to say goodbye to the pile! Everything is curbside for the city to pick up tomorrow (garbage day). 

I wanted to make the garage look good. Organized, functional, and tidy - and I didn't want to spend any money. I arranged things in straight lines, clusters, and zones. I shoved all the empty cardboard boxes* on top of the rafters, and moved odd sized items to the wire shelves. I put smaller items into the matchy matchy bins. I considered installing peg board, because peg board is pretty, but settled for driving giant nails in the wall instead.

Can you imagine how good it would look if the walls and ceiling and that back table were all painted white? (Crazy talk) 

OMG, can you image how good it would look if all we owned was a couple snow shovels, a rake, a broom and a lawn mower? Now I am talking crazy!

Before:

ps. We ripped out the work bench that was along the right wall.We didn't need it.
pps. We returned the tower of cabot stain - we stripped the deck and decided to leave it au natural...do you want to see pictures? It looks good, but I can't wait until it turns grey!
ppps. My bentwood chairs usually hang along the left side of the garage, near the roof, but they are on loan (at my sister in laws!)

 *man stuff

Where the 'stuff' is hiding

The two drawers in the tall boy in the office hold a bunch of miscellaneous things...ribbons, balloons, crayons, kid scissors, glow in the dark stars, rubber twine, beads, tissue paper, twist ties, envelopes, roll of tickets, pompoms, google eyes, stapler, pipe cleaners, pastels, tape, stickers, gift bags, smelly pencils, origami paper, a measuring tape (for impulse online shopping)...this is my hideaway for crafty or seldom used things...

I love organizing these drawers! I have done it so many times that I think I finally have the perfect configuration...I came up here just now to re-organize it...and I was like "nah...this is goood...reeeaal good...I should take a picture!"

I've used empty food containers (the three plastic crates were used to hold mandarins, I bought them at the kitchen table in First Canadian Place, ohhh...I'd say...at least 7 years ago), a wooden box from my grandmother and two old store bought storage boxes also help out!


ps...I am procrastinating because I know the closet in here needs to be stripped and cleaned


 

Coat hooks by the back door

I can't decide if this is a good idea. Will it help clean up a mess, or will it seem like a mess?

Only two holes (with anchors) in the wall...should I give it a whirl?

ps. rug from ebay

UPDATE: BETTER IDEA! In the cloak closet for the umbrellas! 

 

Primping and Preening

I have been switching things up, moving things around, freshening paint, you know, being a busy little bee. When the boys go down for bed I go into full on try-this-try-that-stand back-take-iphone-pic-switch-things-try-something-else-then-put-all-the-extra-stuff-back-away mode.

Here are a few changes:

1- Hung a second framed postcard in the bathroom - the higher one. Why didn't I do this sooner? We had the matching frame just sitting in the storage room - duh!

I also switched back to a white shower curtain and donated the busy print shower curtain to goodwill. I liked the wild yellow green and blue ikat print, but it really wasn't me...I was inspired by blogs. I say that's like it's a bad thing, but, I am happy I gave it a shot! Inevitably, I was going to switch back to something neutral.

2- Switched to the grey rug in the foyer. The cream one needs to be taken in to the dry cleaners after all the snow we had last winter. Maybe it's a little too early to speak about winter in the past tense, there is still snow on the ground, after all!

3- Shopping and putting together some bright spring outfits...(camera worthy bright spring outfits)
 
4- Herb garden on the kitchen window shelf! The herbs are from Loblaws ($2.99, or maybe $3.99, I should have paid more attention...they were $3.99 at metro, I noticed)...they are a little yellow so I better get cooking!!

5 - Ditched the tray of cooking oil, salt & pepper and other miscellaneous things that was sitting on the counter next to the stove. (For now, you can see it in the house tour) I remember when I set this up! I was so excited! It was something else that I saw on a blog. I even ordered the vintage tin tray from etsy specifically for this purpose! Except, when I took a good hard look at the kitchen the other night, I knew I had to tuck the clutter back away. I stashed everything the cupboard immediately above where the tray was. Everything is still very accessible.

I also bought some new wooden spoons. My little guy loves to play with spoons, whenever he sees me stirring something he begs at my legs to be up. He only knows a handful of words, 'HOT' is one of them!

6 - Using the covered dish from last year's Blogpodium Swag bag. The dish is from Chapter/Indigo and is a great size to secretly hold my Nespresso pods. My previous apple shaped dish was pretty cute, but didn't have a lid.

7 - Painted the stairwell in the basement as well as the desk/wall under the stairs. Fresh and white and clean! A few hours (no taping, no drop clothes) and it was done! Now I will want to repaint every time the walls get scuffed!

8 - Taped a bunch of new roads on the toy mat. At first I went all random, and then decided to try and make a pattern...I like it! It's graphic!

The IKEA slide has been downstairs since the fall, I am not sure I mentioned it? I haven't met a kid that doesn't love it! The IKEA circus tent comes out periodically, then gets folded up and put away when the boys start to ignore it.  Right now the game is to zoom hot wheels down the slide into the tent. Hours of fun! (ok, minutes of fun!)

9- Hung a small painting over the thermometer. I thought since it is almost time to turn the furnace off anyways (not really, I wish!)...ok, maybe this was only temporary but I love it!

Ask me what's up!  I'm begging to be asked!

Moving the Digital Cable Box under the Desk

Remember when I begged someone to come and make this mess disappear?  Since then, the number of wires multiplied, a subwoofer showed up and decided to stay, and the rogers box continued to take up serious counter space.

I finally came up with a solution. Cable box UNDER the counter. I bought a shelf from ebay -  not bad for $12.99 + shipping. I may have installed the bracket upside-down on my first go, but I flipped it over and the rest is history!

Now all the electronic bits fit neatly on the tile ledge behind the slate countertop, and I am a happy camper!


ps. I can swing by your house if you want me to make it go away for you!! Call me, maybe!
pps. you have to point the remote low to change the channel...we can live with that!

Cookbook Nook

We have small shelves carved out of the space behind the cupboards in the kitchen (next to the patio doors). Today I made them pretty.

I barely notice these shelves anymore...well, except when I grab a cookbook. I consult the two Bonnie Stern books most frequently. I would like to say I pull Martha off the shelf but that rarely happens. I've only made one recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (leek soup). The Essential New York Times Cookbook is still mint. Gywneth Paltrow introduced me to the best bolagnese ever. I want to try a few more of her recipes. My favorite oatmeal cookie recipe comes from the Robin Hood cookbook. Kylie Kwong's book is beautiful - we've tried several recipes but they never turn out as good as I hope. Hope is an essential ingredient in my kitchen.

I have no idea what to cook for dinner tonight. I was thinking lasagna, but I should be assembling it right now instead of tapping away on the keyboard. Maybe I will run out and pick up steaks....my husband mentioned steak over the weekend. Except, I'm not in the mood for meat, so maybe steak or hamburgers for the boys, and I can jump into a giant salad. The salad greens* have been sitting in the fridge since last weekend's trip to Metro (that's over a week)...so has the cucumber...and the mushrooms.  I really haven't been feeling salad. Oh! Mushrooms! I should pull out the fast fry porkchops! I think there is enough time to defrost them!

Good idea! Thanks guys!

*The Artisan lettuce packed in the field...it really does stay fresh longer!