So did you watch it???
Did you see my completely humiliating video of my disastrous mess of a home?
Yes, I am doubting my sanity. No, I’m not sure why I let the entire Internet see my mess. Yes, they did send me a few greenbacks to ease the pain.
It’s funny, Janice and I regularly show photos of our localized homemaking disasters, but seeing it on video brings it up a notch in sensitivity. Ouch.
Ladies, tell me I’m not entirely alone. Tell me you have some piles of laundry taking over a spare room or that toys are sometimes scattered across your living room. I know that my mess is to the extreme, but homemaking misery like this needs company.
Thank you! That feels so much better. Okay, now on with the tackle…
Do you remember this photo?
I left you all hanging. Tackle It Tuesday #156 – Where is Mr Potato Head, was “To be Continued…”
Since I was waiting to hear Trish Suhr’s advice on my toy disorganization, I showed you my ‘Before’ photos, but there was no matching ‘After’.
Well, it turns out Trish had the same expert advice as many of you…
Photo labels on the bins so that my kids can find their toys, play, and put away!
Trish also encouraged me to involve my kids and my husband in the cleaning so that we tackle as a family. So we turned it into a weekend family tackle.
As I explain in my recent post on the How I Clean Now site…
I got Julia really excited about the idea of the job. She told me, “I’m 4 now, so I’m old enough to help, but Sophia can’t because she’s still 1 and 1 year olds are still small babies.”
Julia even got on board with picking out some toys to send to charity… but the pile didn’t get too big.
Sophia as you can imagine wasn’t too much help. She kept dumping out the bins of toys that I sorted.
But we all dug deep into the mess together. (My husband was thrilled to have us donate two garbage bags full of extra toys.)
Watch us work…
It has to get worse before it can get better…
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Having the family tackle together was fun, but soon Julia wore out, so she and her Daddy went to the store for supplies. Then later that night when the house was quiet, I put on the TV and plowed through the rest of the job.
My favorite part of this tackle was making the fancy laminated photo labels. I followed a great tip from one of our long-time loyal readers Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie and bought some self-laminating sheets.
I took photos of the toys and used my awesome HP Photosmart Printer to add the name of the item to the photo. I printed, laminated, and tied the labels to the bins that had handles and taped the labels to the smaller plastic bins.
I felt like such an organizer! LOL
Yay!!! Take a look…
So if you haven’t watched it yet, click over and have a laugh at my video and then leave me a comment at How I Clean Now.
And then link up back here and show me your tackle.
Would you like to post as a guest tackler? Submit your guest tackles to be featured here at 5M4M. You can write Susan at tackleittuesday at gmail dot com. Remember, we are here to promote your site!
Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.
Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.
(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)
If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.
Happy tackling ladies…
Update: Mr. Linky appears to be down this morning. Please leave your link in the comments and check back later to see if Mr. Linky is up and running. So sorry for the inconvenience!
I think your babies have wayyy too many toys. No wonder you can’t keep up. You need to make things simpler for yourself.
This week we tackled the problem of the bathroom hand towel always ending up on the counter or the floor. Check out our quick, easy, & frugal way to have a Mess Free Hand Towel.
http://cheapomcfrugalpants.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-clearance-shop-much.html
Clearance Shop Much?
Happy Tackling!
http://ninemoremonths.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-made-something.html
I made a shirt that I have been wanting to do. I had to wait until everyone was sleeping!
I did some cooking this weekend. I posted a favorite recipe:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/6254/tackle-it-tuesday-157/
Well done, I hope it lasts longer than mine does 🙂
No linking
http://jewelryatalifeuncommon.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday_26.html
Sold the 4 runner in one day!
One more thing. I love that table in the middle of the room. Where did you get it? (I already checked your shop hoping that it came from there, but those styles don’t have the nice big drawers underneath.)
Wow – well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing toys all neat and clean.
If you cleaned out some toys you’re ready to part with, come visit my tackle:
The church-wide clothing and toy swap
http://runwatchplaywait.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-clothing-and-toy-swap.html
I love an organized play room! My daughter’s toys are mostly in the living room, and we struggle to keep them organized, too. Those little canvas baskets work nicely for us. We have one for balls, one for bowling stuff, two for books, one for puzzles, and one for misc other toys like her jack in the box and see ‘n’ say. Then there are six more in her kitchen. 🙂 I’m glad we don’t have more space. I’d just fill it up with more toys.
I wrote about homemade pizza crust today. We’ve been trying to get a recipe that we liked, and it’s taken a lot of trial and error. 🙂 Read about it here – http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2009/05/bread-machine-pizza-crust/.
Awesome job! I love the idea of the picture labels.
Maybe it’s because I’m trying to post my url in the comment. I’ve noticed my comment won’t submit if I paste my url in the comment? I guess I’m technically challenged today!@ lol!
Just click on my name and it will take you to what I tackled today…
Giving the dog a bath!
I’ve tried posting a comment 2x already. Why can’t I post?
I tackled kids toys as well!
My daughter’s room…
http://inquicksand.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-kids-room.html
Awesome! This week I conquered the soap scum!
Susan, your toy area looks fantastic! My house is worse than yours, full of clutter everywhere. No matter where I look, there’s STUFF. Most of it is not mine! Ugh. I tackle one area and the kids come along behind me and undo it all.
Hope’s 3rd birthday is coming up and I plan to go through all of her toys and donate the things too little for her, to make room for new things! Keeping organized is no easy task!
Great job. This was my tackle: http://sahmscookingadventures.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-24-giraffe-lovey.html
Next week it will be some cleaning.
Awesome tackle!!
Looks good!!
I’ve got part two on my mini kitchen makeover up – several tackles this week to get that done!
Tackling the Mini Kitchen Makeover Part 2
That provided me with a few GREAT ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Love the labels too.
No Mr. Linky I assume?
That’s an amazing organizing job! Mr. Linky is having issues again.
Painting Project
http://hoosierhomemade.com/?p=1486
Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
You did an awesome job!!!
My tackle can be found here.
Wow you did an amazing job! I love the idea of adding photos to the bins. We have two in my son’s room, and this would alleviate him just tossing whatever in there to get it done!
My post this week is on tackling a summer schedule!
http://ahighandnoblecalling.com/2009/05/26/the-summer-schedule-and-mits/
You room looks so good after the clean up.
Can’t say that about mine yet ..
That’s an awesome accomplishment! We’ve got most things in bins, but I love the idea of adding photos so little ones can tell exactly what belongs in what bin. I think I’ll have to try that for Becca! 🙂
That is amazing! What a huge tackle! I am impressed. We have rubbermaid tubs with lids that hold all my kids toys.
Yay!! Great job and I totally agree with Amy. The after wouldn’t mean quite as much if we hadn’t seen the before. You must be thrilled to have it done, way to go!! I’m proud of you 🙂
Laura
Wow!! That transformation is amazing!
You inspire me with that. My daughter has the messiest room all of the time.
I love that you shared the “before” video! Thank you for making us real moms feel like we are not alone!
The “after” pictures wouldn’t mean near as much if you weren’t brave enough to show the “before.” Incredible job. Love the labels!
Well that was an epic, but well worth the results. Well done you [all] Now if we can only maintain it like that……..
Cheers
Your toy room looks so good. Love the photo label idea. We have Lego bricks strewn across our living room floor, loads of baseball gear on our dining room floor, and boxes of shoes along our basement wall. You are definitely not alone. After we tackle our school year this Wednesday, we’ll focus on cleaning for a couple days. 🙂
Susan, as an organizer, I say, WOWEE!! It looks beautiful! Do NOT feel bad about the before pictures. Yes, we all have had disaster areas. The pictures look so bright and beautiful. You did a great job!! I can tackle next week if you need help. Throw me an email if you want something.