34 Weeks of Clean - Week 11: Hall Closet

Last week we cleaned the entryway and since I've been wanting to get the closet under our stairs cleaned out for a while I worked on that the next day.  I know I was supposed to work on the bathrooms, but I'll get to that, maybe the week we are supposed to work on the Hall Closet.

Giveaway

Katy was my delegated helper and of course Clark helped too.  He likes to be involved in whatever is going on.

     We pulled everything out from the closet floor and I went through a couple of boxes of kitchen stuff that had been opened and dug through a few times to find things since we moved a few years ago.  The other things I just didn't use on a regular basis and hadn't ever found a good home for them in my kitchen.  I decided since they had been there for so long without being used that they probably didn't need to stay in our home anymore.  I found a few things that I moved to my kitchen, but the rest went in the giveaway pile.  I contacted a couple people I knew and asked them if they wanted any of the items I wanted to re-home.  They each took a few items and the rest is going in the donate box.  After throwing out the trash from the closet, Katy vacuumed it and then we put the items we wanted to keep in there back where they belonged. 

     The winter clothes all gets washed and placed in a plastic tub in the back of the closet for the next year.  We're not quite ready to put everything up yet, so I will do that in a few weeks when I am sure we are done with them.

Before

After

  Click the button on the left to find out the details for week 12.

34 Weeks of Clean - Week 10: Entryway

Entry Before

This week was cleaning the entryway.  After having a little snow on a couple occasions the entry had gotten pretty dirty from the snow and grass that had been tracked in from the front yard.  We had used towels as rugs and they helped to keep the mess to a minimum. 

Entry Before

Kent and Clark helped me in the entryway.  They started to put things that didn't belong away, Kent hung up coats and put the dirty laundry where it could be washed.  I put the rest of the activity boxes from upstairs inside the buffet cabinets.  The red basket in the picture above still held the books to donate to our library.  I put the books into a box and we took them to the library later that day.  The youngest three have backpacks that we keep ready to take with us to church or on outings when they need to take something with them.  The backpacks used to be the only thing that went in the cabinets, but they didn't fit there with the activity boxes, so I put them in the blue basket on top of the buffet.  Then I found a crate and repurposed it to go where we keep our library books.  We don't have many checked out right now.  I'm not sure that crate is the best for keeping books in, but it will work until I come up with something else.  Kent and I swept the dirt from the tile and then he and Clark washed the baseboards and tile, while I dusted the picture frames.

When we were finished, Kent also vaccumed the carpet in the dining room and around the entryway.

Entryway after

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CSB Shape 'n' Race

This past weekend was Kent's Christian Service shape and race event. 

Kent did almost all of the work and assembly on his car, waiting until the last minute and putting it all together and painting it the afternoon it was due.  He named it "The Green Toothy Monster."  Jeff helped the girls build a race car for the Powder Puff run.  Katy worked on the design and painting and Kaomi helped with the wheels.  Katy painted it red and blue with white stars.  Felicity didn't like it, so she didn't want to participate.  Jeff designed and built a Ford Bronco for Clark and Quinn to enter in the open class event.  He spray painted it yellow and I added the detail work with sharpie markers and Clark's input. 

They all worked hard.  Kent's race had many entries and his car struggled to make it down the track.  Jeff thought he had some glue on the wheels.  Katy's and Kaomi's car did well, she came home with 2 red ribbons.  Clark's and Quinn's had only three entries in their race and they got three blue ribbons and the trophy.  Clark was beaming with excitement.

I guess I only got a picture of Clark and his car and ribbons this year.

34 Weeks of Clean - Week 9: Books

This week I've looked forward to working on our books.  I didn't get the shelf in the living room tackled, so I plan to dust it soon. 

Yesterday, I finally had a chance to get some time upstairs and work on the shelves in the gameroom.

Before

We didn't have to work on homeschool books, so I left those alone.  This is what the gameroom shelves looked like.  The shelf on the left hold the children's books and school materials.  The bottom three shelves were what we worked on straightening.  Kent volunteered to help me and he even said he was having fun while we were working.  We took all the children's books off the shelf, sorted them out by size/type and then we weeded through them and pulled out any doubles and torn-up books/magazines that needed to go in the trash.  Then I looked through the stacks and pulled all the books I didn't want to keep and Kent helped me put them back on the shelf the way they belong.  The shelf on the right is "Mommy's Library".  It holds the chapter books for kids.  They don't have a free for all on this shelf and are supposed to "check" the books out with me.  They are only allowed one or two at a time and they have to be checked back in before they can have another.  This system has been working pretty well to keep the books fairly organized and not all in a jumbled mess or lost all over the house.  The top shelf held activity boxes, which I was able to move downstairs into a buffet cabinet that wasn't being used for much.  Jeff installed some baby resistant locks to the doors so that they are only accessible when I get them out.  That left a whole shelf for us to put "new" books on.  I haven't unpacked all the books from our move three and a half years ago, because I don't have shelving for them all.  I was able to look through some of the books still stored and pull out several that I thought the older kids would enjoy reading.  Kent was quite excited to see several new books that he had never read before.  He likes to read and has already read pretty much everything we have out at least one time and some of them several times.

After

While I was looking for books to add to the library shelf I found the one cookbook I have been looking for since we moved.  I was excited and felt a little silly that it was in a box labeled cookbooks.  I thought I'd looked in that box, but obviously I hadn't.  I'm guessing that I had two boxes with cookbook labels and only ever looked in the one.  I found a few cookbooks that I didn't even remember having so I figured I would add them to the donate pile, since I hadn't missed them.

Books to give away/get rid of

Found!

I call this mission a success.










Next week's goal is the entryway.  Click the button on the left to get the details. 

Reading Together

I caught Clark and Quinn "reading" airplane books together during school time.