Sarah, my 15 year old is on a diet and decided that it would burn off calories to do housework so she cleaned the living room and the refrigerator. When she told me that she would clean out the refrigerator I told her that other moms complained about their teenagers but she was a blessing to me and gave her a kiss. My in-laws are coming tomorrow and I’ve been decluttering and the house is pretty messy, so any help I get is welcome!
BTW, I’m decluttering in preparation for the fall. I figured if I had less stuff, it would be easier to keep the place clean while I spend all my time on the road or studying. If we can just maintain order, I can cook and keep the kitchen clean, Sarah does the laundry and Samantha sweeps and unloads the dishes.
Along with decluttering I decided I was sick of the way my kitchen looked so I bought new hardware for the cabinets in the kitchen. I replaced them all myself! I’m quite proud of myself 🙂 I also bought new artwork for my bedroom. I’m not much of a decorator and I’m a little embarrassed to tell you what hung over my bead for the last 11 years. A picture my daughter painted when she was 4! That’s it for artwork (for the bedroom at least — I’m a little better in the rest of the house). I’ve been looking for years but haven’t found anything I liked until this week.
I also bought a cheap bookcase for the bedroom for the books I have to read in the fall for seminary and I got a 5 drawer organizer with canvas drawers and a set of drawers with a shelf for the closet. Now I actually have room for my clothes. I also took out all my clothes out of the closet and threw away everything I haven’t worn for awhile. So much easier to find stuff now! And now I can put my clothes away after Sarah does the laundry instead of live out of my laundry basket (I’ve always lived like a teenager).
My daughters also organized their rooms as well. I bought them shelves to put their stuffed animals on and a hanging organizer for their closets. We finally got rid of a lot of kid’s stuff. My 11 year old has wanted to get rid of her Beauty and the Beast bedroom set and replace it with something more teenagery and was really happy when we found her sister’s old bedroom set. With the shelves and a new mirror and a new lamp I was able to update her bedroom for less than $100. Now she loves her room and hangs out in it like her sister does.