Ranch House Organization

June 1st will mark our 12 year anniversary of living at the ranch. We live in a older home that was built in 1940. Needless to say, there's not a lot of closet space or storage. As you can imagine, we've accumulated lots of stuff over the years. Throughout the years, I have painted, decorated, organized, and re-organized our humble abode. I've bought books such as, Organizing From the Inside Out, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life (I wasn't very fond of the title, but I thought if they could get an idiot to organize their home, maybe there was hope for me)! After years of organizing and re-organizing, organizing and re-organizing... I finally have come to the conclusion that we have way toooo much junk! Why put things in organized baskets, if you're never going to use those things? So, on Wednesday, I tackled Kater-Bug and Libby's room head-on! I knew it was going to get worse before it got better, and I was right! At one point, it looked like a bomb had gone off in their room. Every now and then frustration would try to creep up, but I kept thinking of the end result, a nice, clean, decluttered room! After 16 hours, 7 "big" trash bags, 4 stuffed animal bags, and 3 savers later, their room is decluttered!! It is so cleaned out, it echoes!! One of my girls even said, "Hey mom, it echoes in here." I love their clean room...clean room...clean room!

Have you ever noticed that when you put all your energy into one room of the house, (for several hours in a row) the other parts of the house start looking pretty bad. Well, I had a little remedy to that problem. My girls pitched in and helped me. Reluctantly, they folded and put away the loads of laundry I was washing. I told them this was going to be their permanent job if they kept putting clean clothes in the dirty clothes hamper! After hours of folding clothes, I think it might have made an impression! Kater-Bug also cleaned the kitchen. Wow! She knows how to detail a place. As I was walking through the kitchen, I thought it was funny when Libby wanted some food and Kater-Bug said, "Don't use a real plate, here's a paper plate. If you use a real one, you're going to have to wash it yourself!" Aaahhh...welcome to a mom's world. I'm hoping they had a "light-bulb" moment!

Why are we spending the first 2 weeks of summer vacation cleaning out and organizing? We are doing this so all 3 of the girls can have a room of their own. After 69 years, the huge room upstairs is finally going to be finished! Since Mana is the oldest, she gets the priviledge of living upstairs. Since her birthday is this summer, the room re-do is her 13th birthday present. Everyone is excited about it! Aaahhh...more space!

At the end of the summer, we will finally be able to lay Carmela to rest. I have 2 little words for Carmela, "Good riddance!" Who's Carmela? She's our 4th daughter, who came into our lives about 5 years ago. Her alias is "Sneaky Messy Chic!" She likes to go into rooms and make messes when no one is looking. I may ask, "Hey, who left the milk out?" And 3 voices will echoe, "I didn't...I didn't...I didn't..." I may ask, "Alright, who left all the toys out?" And I may get three responses like, "It wasn't me...I wasn't even playing in there...or I didn't do it!" Carmela strikes again! Over the years none of our children seemed to be responsible for the messes that were sometimes made. So, if it wasn't them, then who was it? We finally came to the conclusion that we must have a 4th daughter whose goal was to go to a room, make a mess, and then leave before anyone could see her. This girl was good at her job. At the end of the summer, when everyone has her own space, Carmela will be gone for good. Then, we'll be able to tell which girl had a little more Carmela in her than the others. F.Y.I. Carmela is a family joke and we all blame her for things from time to time! Well, I guess I have to go, another disorganized room is calling!