Suzy Q Homemaker

I ran out of baskets.  Can you believe it?  There are a couple currently in use for the Great Toy Cleanup ’09, so I’ll have them back soon.  In the meantime, I bought a real pretty one at T.J. Maxx ($5, you guys) for my knitting.  It has a lid, too, so certain little alpaca-crazed creatures can’t get into it.

My cabinets are still getting a makeover.  The pantry is far from done, but I need some more baskets before I can declare it officially organized.  Here are some before & after shots:

I need a better solution for the spices, but I think this temporary fix will do.  There were many-a-curse-word coming from my lips whenever I had to find something and I was knocking down all the jars in my hunting.  The little shelf helps tremendously.  When I figure out the best way to organize a really deep pantry, I’ll let you know.  I’m also open to suggestions…especially if they involve BASKETS.

I can blame no one but myself.  And maybe Jamie.  This nesting thing is getting out of control.  Just for the record, I still don’t want to fold laundry.  Damn if I haven’t organized almost every drawer and cabinet in the house, though.  I stll have a few more cabinets to go before I’m done…

In this edition of “I Want…” Wednesdays, I will tell you what I want.  You better believe I will.  Here is the bold-faced truth:

Ok, so organization cannot be “had” in a matter of a weekend.  But remember when I posted about organizing this?  Not much has happened since then.  I throw away stuff every now and then, but I never really got down to the task of actually organizing it…until yesterday.

I took a cue from OrgJunkie.com and got me some baskets to put all our crap in.  Did I mention I got one of these bad boys recently (it was on clearance!!)?  Jamie laughed at me when he called on his way home last night to see what I was doing.  My reply:  “Labeling stuff!”

I’m not going to show you the desk part of this Disaster Area because it’s still unfinished.  And I’m still not sure how I want to organize it.  Baskets won’t touch the mess just yet because there is too much randomness going on.

This weekend, though, I want to finish it.  Seriously, I couldn’t sleep in this morning because this mess was the first thing that popped into my mind while the sun was still peeking over the horizon.

I must be nesting…(FINALLY, GOD!!)

I’m going to write a complaining entry, too! I’m so awesome!

No really. Everyone in the house has a cold and as I write this, Jamie is out at the store getting us some real decongestant. You know, the kind that you have to ask for at the pharmacy counter and they register your license? Yeah. My head is so full of snot and the only thing that we have in the house that helps is Benadryl. I can’t take that during the day because it makes me ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Corey is being the most awesome 7-year-old on the planet and he offered to clean the whole house since I’m sick. I have the best kids. Oh, and he’s currently OBSESSED with Pokemon. He’s been playing the Gameboy Advance whenever he earns video game time and then Jamie brought home a big box of Pokemon cards from work. One of the boys he works with didn’t want them anymore and was going to sell them at the neighborhood yard sale. So Jamie’s been teaching Corey how to play. It’s all I hear about and I have no idea what these Pokemans are called and what they’re supposed to do. I’m letting Jamie be in that world.

Simon copies almost everything Aiden says and it’s the cutest thing. He also likes to say, “Aw do it,” and climb into the van and his carseat all by himself. When I ask him if he wants help, he says, “NO!” I don’t remember Corey being this independent before they were 2.

I can’t remember when Aiden’s follow up appointment is. I think it’s this week but in all the chaos of cleaning out our cabinets for the pest control guy, reorganizing closets, and putting everything back in the cabinets, I can’t remember where the appointment sheet is.

OH THAT REMINDS ME!

We’ve been putting up shelves in our closets and I am in love with all the organization! Our master bedroom closet looks a billion times better, as does the one in the craft room. We still need more shelves along the side wall, but we at least got a head start and in putting things away, we decided not to hang onto all the baby clothes any longer. They just take up too much space and if we do have the hypothetical fourth baby, by then we’ll be able to just get clothes from consignment stores and stuff. Right now, we need the space.

And since we have ridiculously deep & wide closets, we need to take advantage of the area. Next we need to plan the boys’ closet since we need to fit three wardrobes in there and right now it’s not organized well at all. We’re going to get rid of the dresser in there (it was mine when I was little, so that’ll be hart), put up some ClosetMaid stuff and it’ll be awesome.

I hope Jamie comes home with drugs soon. I want to taste my coffee.

Tonight I am cooking up some St. Louis Style Ribs. This wasn’t something that just came to me. On second thought, the ribs came to us via Angel Food Ministries (I’m forever grateful for our anonymous donor). I’ve never made St. Louis Style Ribs before, so this is an adventure. I hope they are delicious!

The state of our house is this: I vacuumed the day before yesterday and it only took a day for the carpets to be covered in the crumbs of Spiderman Cheese Nips, Beech Nut Banana Cookies, and Butter Cookies. And that’s just the living room. Our bathroom is the eruption of Mount Laundry and the kitchen is half-clean, thanks to my speedy pre-dinner-making cleanup. I actually folded clothes straight out of the dryer a few minutes ago, so froing is my reward.

I’ve been helping my sister a little with getting her house unpacked. It’s going to take awhile because her MIL moved in with all of them (her + husband + 2 sets of twins + MIL = ????). They are going to have one hell of a yard sale when it’s all said and done. Just today I helped unpack two kitchen boxes and managed to cram a whole bunch of spices into one cabinet. My motto was “Unpack now, organize later.” I mention this because my sister’s MIL has been unpacking that box since Friday and she told us all at LEAST 10 times that she had a little carousel “somewhere” that we could use in the spice cabinets. I was tired of looking at the half-unpacked box, so I took the liberty of emptying it for her. I don’t envy the unpacking process of her moving AT ALL. I am glad, though, that they are finally living in a house that has enough space for all of them.

Speaking of organizing, Jamie got rid of one of the end tables in the living room because it was a hot spot for junk. Really, the only use it had was to put the ice cream bowls on it when we were done so that Lucy couldn’t get to them. We realized the other night, though, that Lucy still found a way to contort her fatness from the futon to the table and lick the melty drippings out. My poor, fat kitty.

Simon is really into containerizing these days. Right now he’s putting a pez dispenser in a cup and carrying it around. This is unrelated, but yesterday I held a Batman action figure in front of him and sang, “duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, BATMAN!” Then Simon took the Batman from me and sang, “DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH, etc.” He’s such a copycat. I love him so much.