The Cleaning Streak Continues

I'm still going strong on my 2012 Mission Organization, though there is always something coming up to throw me off.  I just forget about missed days and focus on what's next.  I've already been to meet up with the Goodwill truck twice this year.  I love the feeling of getting rid of unwanted and unneeded items.

A big area of trouble for me has been the closet under the stairs.  It is home to many things that are suppose to live there and many more things that are just hiding there hoping someone finds them again and uses them.  When I set out to tackle this area I focused on what was suppose to live in that closet.

We had two areas of shoes that were overflowing but some shoes needed to stay since they are more seasonal shoes and not something we wear every day. So I decided to test out moving the shoe cubby we had in the closet out on top of our other shoe cubby in the mud room and like magic I ended up cleaning and organizing two trouble areas with one new idea.  Now we have enough room for the shoes we wear all the time and we can easily put them on and take them off in the mud room.  We can keep them from gathering right inside the kitchen door which drives me crazy.  The remaining seasonal shoes fit nicely in bins under the shelving in the closet.

Next up we had kids games.  As the kids are getting more and more into games we needed a place for them to keep them where they can get them and put them back without help.  Matt and I also love games so we have two or maybe three other game storage areas in other closets but they were full so the kids needed their own place.  Once I put away or gave away all the abandoned / misplaced items that were filling up the shelves, I had more than enough room to stack the games, including some that my sister had passed on that were nicely stored in bins.  That also solved the program of storing the game bins in McKenzie's closet since the games were constantly being dumped out and left on the floor.

That left arts and crafts that needed a neat and tidy home and that fit easily on the top and bottom shelves depending on if the items could be used without an adult or if they required Mom or Dad to help.  Organized in a few bins to keep things under control and we are set!

It's so nice to not fear this closet and to be able to find things when we want them!  So many more areas to go but the progress has been motivational.  I've decided 'before' shots are too scary and so I am focusing on the 'after' when I have a big project like this complete.