Let the Purging Begin!

So I am learning that the purging process is just that, a process.  A much longer than anticipated, quite exhausting, and challenging process.  I have one child that wants to "trash, sell, donate" everything because I secretly think she just wants the money to buy new stuff.  On the other hand the other child wants to "keep" everything and secretly steals stuff out of her sister's piles for her piles.  Then there is me, who would just like some help and a little more patience to help cope with the fact that the kids want to play with every small toy we find that they haven't played with in years but it's now their favorite.

This Saturday was:  Ann vs. The Playroom
I can honestly say I think the playroom won as I feel a little beat up and sore from the purging.  So it's with great embarrassment I show you the "Before" photos.

This little area is at the bottom of our stairs.  It was originally the land of "Little People" toys and accessories.  Then we got a free desk, then it became the place we shoved all the things from upstairs to put up the Christmas tree and it is what you see today.  I'm so proud.

This is the main playroom area.  We have 4 tubs of toys we thought were a good idea to be able to just throw toys in for quick clean up and mainly it's a kitchen play area.  Looks pretty sharp I know.

So now you have seen the before version and here are the fruits of my labor.

Yes that is the same area!  If it wasn't a Little People toy it is no longer in the area.  I had to trade out for a bigger tub from the other play area to house all of them except the garage that wouldn't fit.  The desk was cleaned up and we're offering it to friends or will be selling on Craig's List as it's something the girls just never used and takes up A LOT of space.  I believe a doll house will be replacing it from the other toy room as it's current location is a little unsafe next to a Bowflex.

You'll have to ignore the blonde head flying by and baby that rolled into the corner - but that is how my picture taking usually ends up.  So I eliminated 3 tubs!!!  Yeah for purging!  The one tub that is in there is basically empty also so there is room for more improvement.  Then I also reused the black and white shelves from the other room that were empty and not doing any good to organize shape sorters, musical instruments, etc.  Kitchen food is actually in the kitchen!  Crazy concept I know.  The kids are loving it and I love the fact that it's easy for them to pick up.  It's not spectacular, but it's getting us there.

Out of the toy room purge: 
2-1/2 bags to donate to Goodwill of toys
1 bag trash
1 box garage sale

Cost for the day:  6 pack of Diet Coke and a little bit of my sanity.
Another good thing is that we have gotten all the small pieces off the floor as we have a rolling, soon to be crawling baby that will put about anything in her mouth.  At one point and time during the day she took down a play ironing board and was chewing the leg.  Teething.....

A couple of projects I worked on during the week were junk drawers.  According to Jen at iheartorganizing a drawer should take about 15 minutes to organize.  Well, she hasn't seen our junk drawers that have 10 years of junk accumulated in them.  Honestly - does anyone really know what is in their junk drawers? 

Let me introduce Junk Drawer #2.  You might wonder where junk drawer #1 was, well I wasn't ready to tackle that one yet.  I thought I would start with the "easier" one first.  Found some interesting items, our engagement photo and announcement in the paper, along with a beer can opener that is Homer Simpson saying "MMMmmmmmmm, beer".  Our junk drawer is that cool.

So, this was my first drawer, not the most spectacular reveal but there was a tremendous amount that went into the trash and a good chunk that went to the garage sale box.  Who knew we had so many steak knives??  There is probably more efforts to be made here, but a lot of progress was made.  Our most commonly used items are in the green trays (found in a drawer of the nursery with 10 year old markers in them!).  Other odds and ends that make it our junk drawer are in the back for when we "might" need them next.

Somehow I misplaced the "before" photo of Junk Drawer #1 but here are the contents.  17 can koozies - seriously who needs that many?!?  We used them to sort batteries kind of, but they just really took up space.  Then you wrap it up with flash lights, envelopes, and random junk.

You'll have to excuse the clutter ( I know, the reason for doing all the work!) but I wanted to show our battery stash.  And Tim wanted to use his new food processor at the same time, the kitchen table is the big loser I think.  For most of our highly used kid toys we use rechargeable batteries but for all the other items that aren't used that much or are beyond a AAA or AA batter we buy in bulk from Sam's.  So this was taking up a lot of room in the drawer.

Introduce this nifty little snap and lock box I found at Hobby Lobby.  It was $7.99 and I got to use a 40% off coupon on it so the penny pinching continues.

Sadly I might love how this organized and reduced our battery storage a little too much.  I was a little giddy, I'll admit it.  All the least used batteries:  D, C, and 9V are in the bottom layer; AA in the second; AAA and rechargeables and chargers in the top portion.  You can unsnap the layer you need without messing with the others - the beauty of the box!  Plus if you don't know what size you need - bring the whole thing!

After the can koozie funeral we have minimized to a couple "keepers" that are stored in the back along with the not often used carving knife.  Envelopes, flashlight, and batteries are easily accessible and stored.  I might even label the box - LOOK OUT!

That rounded out the week of projects to get the house in better shape to sell.  I had a couple projects that are in process that did not really turned out as planned.  As I am new to this whole crafty organizing and still getting ideas there will be stumbles, just need to hit the drawing board again.  Or throw more things away when no one is looking......hehehehe