February 16, 2009
Tackle It Tuesday – Organizing With Lolli

Hi! I’m Lolli from Life is Sweet, a 34-year-old mother of five, photographer, blogger, and keeper of the house. As you can imagine, my small townhouse often gets messy with so many people and their things. I keep up on the basics pretty well, but there always seems to be at least one area of the house that I avoid.
For me lately, I have been avoiding the little kids’ room. We have a wonderful IKEA shelf for books and special treasures, but things are rarely put back in the same place. The mess from the shelf, of course, has carried over to the rest of the room, and ultimately led to a complete disaster.
Lately, when I have sent the kids up to clean their room, they would put things up, but not necessarily away. I kept putting off tackling this spot of the house. It seemed overwhelming. I suppose that I figured that the kids bedroom could handle a little bit of messiness. After all, it’s hidden away upstairs and nobody sees it but us. Right?
You can imagine my horror when I realized that some of our adult guests at our Christmas Eve get-together had followed the kids upstairs and were in that messy room. If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.
I finally decided to sit down with my 9-year-old daughter and DO IT recently. We pulled everything off the shelf and sorted it all. We filled one bag with trash, one bag with giveaways, and organized everything else to put back on the shelf. But that wasn’t enough! It felt so good to organize the shelf that we continued on with the rest of the room, moving furniture and beds to vacuum (and find more treasures!).
It felt wonderful to tackle something that I’d been avoiding and putting off for so long. So far, the organization is helping immensely (how much easier is it to keep a clean room clean?) Let’s see how long this lasts now!
So what have you been avoiding lately? How much better would your house function (and how much better would you feel) if you tackled that spot this week?
Thanks, Lolli! After a big project like that, you need to have a party just to show it off. Tired of your winter wardrobe? I have a cool project on my blog about recycling sweaters! You can even go thrift-store shopping if you don’t have any that you want to part with. Check out the organizing mommy’s blog today.
If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.
Happy tackling ladies…
Written by 5 Minutes for Mom Featured Columnist: Jena
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Comments on Tackle It Tuesday – Organizing With Lolli »
Maddy @ 1:03 am
Well done you. Great motivation when guests come a calling. I feel for you in the ‘how long will it last’ question. I think that’s why I have doors on everything as there can be an evil mess behind and nobody is any the wiser.
Cheers
Colleen - Mommy Always Wins @ 1:12 am
Wow! That after shot is enough motivation for ANYONE! Great tackle!
Lisa @ 1:17 am
Great job on the bookshelf! There’s nothing like company to get one motivated to clean. I have lots of areas that could use some organizing. My post this week is on tackling a field trip.
PhoenixTheBloggingMama @ 2:08 am
That is an awesome tackle Lolli!
I am often overwhelmed by the kids toys and books. It always make me feel better after i have tackled it!
Heidi @ Blue Eyed Blessings @ 2:48 am
Fabulous tackle, Lolli! We have that same IKEA bookshelf. It’s great for holding lots of things, isn’t it? You should be very proud…this looks awesome!!
Deb - Mom of 3 Girls @ 3:24 am
That’s a great tackle! I’ve been putting off my kids’ rooms lately, maybe we’ll try to get to those today.
Mrs. D. Lightful @ 3:47 am
This is my first time participating! Thanks for having me!
One Mom, Five Kids @ 4:23 am
What a terrific improvment! Those shelves are great!
Lolli @ 8:51 am
Thanks for the encouragement, guys! It was fun to be guest tackler. If only I could be that on top of things all the time!
Tammie @ Are You For Real? @ 10:08 am
This bookshelf organizer looks great … and so does the room, now that you have everything in order. I’m encouraged to go buy a new bookshelf and work on my daughter’s room.
susieshomemade @ 10:18 am
Great tackle! The bookshelf looks great!!
The Happy Housewife @ 10:35 am
I love that IKEA unit. I am considering one for my boys room, they really need something to help them stay organized. Great tackle!
Toni
Tanya @ 10:50 am
Oh, I’ll bet you had a great big sigh of relief when that job was done. Good for you! It looks great, and I hope your kids appreciate your mad organization skillz!
Mrs. H @ 10:56 am
What a great tackle. It feels soooo good to see results like that
I *heart* organizing for that reason.
Rebecca @ 12:11 pm
Wow! The before and after is amazing. It makes me feel productive just looking at them
Felicia - I Complete Me @ 12:35 pm
I didn’t tackle anything today or this weekend. I’m in the process of moving so I need to tackle some packing. But I wanted to say you did a great job. I need to tackle my entire house and now since we have more space maybe I can do better.
Alisha @ 7:59 pm
Great Job. We have a room that we just close the door because toys are ALWAYS all over the place. However, we are in the process of painting it so now the toys have moved to the living room. I can’t wait till I can say I tackled that room.
Shannah @ 8:04 pm
Great job! I’m all for it. Who’s coming to my house?!
Jeanette @ 8:18 pm
great job!
Jenn @ 11:45 am
Super Nice- I love clean and simple!
Deanna @ 12:39 pm
Love your organized bookshelf.
My goal is to have more streamline in my home but it is hard to avoid clutter with a family of 8 living in a tri-level.
I need to tackle our bathroom closet and a hallway closet. Fun….
Mrs. D. Lightful @ 2:51 am
Wow, TONS better! You just don’t realize how cluttered an area is until it isn’t anymore!
grubmama @ 10:56 pm
Where did you get that bookshelf? I’ve been looking for something like that for our basement.
grubmama @ 10:58 pm
I just read IKEA.