Junk Wars

I am not sure if everyone has this problem - little items of stationery, missing toy parts, Lego bits, candles and rocks (yes rocks!) - that seem to just keep finding their way to the kitchen bench. It's a daily problem for me with 3 children.

I went to look for something but got overwhelmed by the sheer number of junk that had overtaken my bench and the 3 boxes I store thing into. So I declared war!

I took everything out and put it on the bench. More overwhelming, but necessary, to see everything.

One pile to discard and another pile for donation.

Then I started sorting things according to which room they needed to be returned to - garage/car, bathroom, my room, foyer, and a pile for each child. I was able to cut down the number of trips to return the items by doing a few along the way.

Then I tackled each box by labeling each - Stationery, Bits and Pieces and Paper - and put things away according to their kind. Nice and tidy back in the cupboard.

Next I tackled the 'Nuts, Bolts and Screws' box to help me find missing shelf tabs. Everything on the bench.

Sort into - allen keys, screws, brackets, shelf holders, nut and bolts, wheels, childproof gate pieces, fuse wire - this time I used some mini storage containers and snap lock bags. This was a much quicker job.

All sorted and packed away. Made me feel great to get these boxes sorted....and I never did remember what I went looking for in the first place!

How do you go when you tackle a box or drawer full of 'junk'? Do you have a sorting system?

Sorting at the Beginning

Our Academic school year began today. Tristan and Duncan moved up into Year 1 and 3 respectively. It was also the last day of Family Day Care for my daughter Frances. She re-starts Pre-School next week and also begins Pre-Kindy 2 days a week at the same school as her brothers. So it felt strange to drop all three kids off this morning and then drive home without them. It's a little taste of freedom I could not even glimpse at when this journey began nearly 8 years ago with a newborn baby's cry.

Anyway...enough reflecting. Here's what I wanted to share. The art of sorting things out BEFORE they begin. The volume of school notes, awards and newsletters can get the best of me each year. So this year I was determined to put some structures in place to help me sort through as things come home rather than at the end of the term, or heaven forbid, year.

This is my favourite IKEA piece. You may also be familiar with the Expedit. In fact some ladies on Pinterest have boards dedicated to this particularly aesthetic and versatile free-standing shelf unit. So here is the one that stands adjacent to my kitchen and gets the most use.

Top left - Each child has a magazine holder for me to store any information regarding their school year.
Top middle - Address book, Order Book (Stripey Brain 2011), Bible and Bible Study.
Top right - large square boxes for card stock and paper craft.
Bottom left - Colour coded A4 folders and suspension files for craft/notes etc. (Not sure if this will work...but willing to try something new).
Bottom right - Envelopes and writing paper (stored in Ikea DVD boxes)

Bottom middle - A clear folder for all of their school awards and stickers in 2012.
The next 3 contain information and awards prior to formal schooling. The next 2 contain Academic Reports and the last 2 contain programing and planning for ASD support and therapies. (Both my boys lie on the Autism spectrum).

On the shelf above stands 4 jars of coins. Actually 5, if you count the half full jar of foreign coins at the opposite end (not shown). Duncan and I cleaned out our money dish next to the front door and sorted the coins into the jars.


50c coins - give
$1 coins - spend
$2 coins - save


Then we bagged up the rest of the 5c, 10c and 20c and totalled $65! Just got to find time to get them to the bank and divide the proceeds into the kids' 3 accounts.

The trusty knife and chopping blocks area got a tidy.

Then I organised our DVD series into an under-used shelf unit. We have a few including, Railway Journeys,  the Thunderbirds and Indiana Jones (no Star Wars yet!). 


My stash

The West Wing - brilliant script and acting but watch with subtitles to follow along,
Wire in the Blood - BBC psychological crime thriller starring Robson Green,
McLeod's Daughters - 'sisters doing for themselves' on an Australian farm,
Life of Birds - I love birds but I could watch any 'Life' series by Sir David Attenborough,
Into the West - brilliant Historical Fiction Series about the clash of the white man's and the Native American Indian's worlds. 
Lord of the Rings - Still love the books more but these are exceptional films.
Battlelines - WW2 documentary following the personal accounts and battles of both sides.


What I would like to add to my stash:

The Wire - Possibly the BEST TV series I have ever seen by HBO. Follows the police and the  drug runners in Baltimore until the lines become so blurred you don't know who really are the criminals. 
How the West Was Lost - I bought the CDs in 1993 when I was in the US but I have never seen the documentary series. 
Downton Abbey - Missed this because it was aired on a commercial channel and I just can't do commercials.


So what's in your 'Series' stash?

'No Fun' Jobs to Do

Someone cute, grey and furry moved into our pantry while we were away.  It turned a Saturday bike-riding along the Ballina riverfront  into an emergency declutter and clean. I had scheduled a SPACE attack this month but this required total assault.

BEFORE - not taken yesterday - no one wants to see the real 

BEFORE shot with mouse droppings eh?

It probably took about 3 hours all up. I had my husband help out for some of the time (reaching back corners and the like) and he was great at reading the dates on food products and throwing things out. We binned 5 plastic grocery bags full of out-of-date and mouse spoiled food!

Thankfully I had put a lot of food items into containers late last year and so we really only lost our burritos, naan bread, muesli bars, popcorn and Weet-Bix to the mouse. Still each container and surface needed disinfecting...and that takes lots of time.  I kept saying out loud "I am not having fun".

I've had to ditch the 'snack station' located on the inside door of the pantry (inside the IKEA storage) because the mouse had found the stash as appealing as my daughter!

My eldest son, Duncan, used my Dymo and made some labels for the dry food containers. It was nice to get help...and great that he can spell so well at 7 years of age.

Now, if you can believe it, that night I was sewing and heard a rustle in the kitchen. When I opened the door, baby mouse hid herself behind the spice rack, pictured left, below. What????  #%$$@$ No way!

So I set the trap...found the peanut butter gone in the morning but the trap not sprung. Set it again...same thing. So then I set another one on the shelf above and my old 'trap but not kill' model one shelf below. 

Some time during the day, today,Miss Mouse was sprung and disposed of, by my husband, to the local magpies. There was some remorse on my part...I hate killing things.


School Supplies


Since our school stopped organising 'Book Packs' last year, parents have had to do the 'School Supply Buy' in January. I hate it. There is not much fun chasing down stationery items in discount stores and then finding that you need to visit at least 2 other Newsagents to find the remaining items. It took me the best part of 3 hours and $200 to kit out our two boys heading into Year 1 & 3 this year. "Bring back the $113 Book Pack", I say. I'd rather pay someone else and get back my 3 hours for something fun.







But that is just the start...then there's the labeling of each item and the covering of books. Here I lost about 6 hours over 2 days.

However it forced me to delve into the 2011 wicker basket of art and craft and sort, save or bin each item.

About half way through the pile

Before - the hamper on the right was full of paper rubbish by the end

The artwork came in handy to cover some 35 books though.

A practical canvas for artwork. I used pre-cut clear plastic sleeves to protect the books. Great invention - beats 'Contact' any day.

If you want more of a challenge then try the fabric book cover tutorial found at Hand Madens blog here.