Cleaning up...

No Jacob, cleaning your room does NOT mean just shoving everything under your bed...

Caitlin came down today and we spent almost 12 hours cleaning and rearranging the downstairs. We had to clear out my sewing room to get ready for the girls' bunk beds which will be delivered tomorrow.

And before you look at this picture and gasp in horror... the sad truth is I didn't think to take a before picture. This is about half way through. 

Yes. I have too much stuff.

My yarn stash revolted and attacked me!

I actually purged my stash and got it down from five storage drawers and two large plastic totes to three storage drawers. One of them is my drawer of yarn penance. It contains three or four projects that Caitlin says I have to finish in order to redeem myself from having so many UFO tucked away, including a sweater that I kept holding up and saying, "What was I thinking?!" She says I have to finish it and wear it to an Ugly Sweater party. 

I filled two large boxes with yarn to donate to a girl in her ward who was looking for yarn for a charity project. It was very freeing to let go of so many half finished afghans, baby sweaters and 3/4 of what I think was supposed to be a shawl. Freeing and freaky at the same time, some of the things I honestly don't remember knitting! I have yarn amnesia! And that's a little scary if you start to think about how many hours of my life that means are unaccounted for...

I also cut my fabric stash down by two large boxes. One to Caitlin and one to the D.I. But the sad truth there is that I probably lost less than 10% of the overall fabric stash. I did get some great new shelving for my fabric which I think will help me to a) stay inspired and b) not buy any more fabric until there is actually a space for it. Caitlin estimates that I probably have enough flannel in the stash to make my kids 15 pairs of pajamas apiece. I said that's good because they don't have any in their drawers right now because of growth spurts. Guess I know what should be first on my sewing list. 

I will post pictures of my new sewing cubical once I get it all organized. I think that it work out okay, I will just have to be better about keeping my stuff cleaned up since you can see it from the top of the stairs now.

This is what happens when you spend all your time cleaning and organizing instead of paying attention to your two year old. She finds ways to keep herself entertained... like digging through your purse and trying on your lipstick. Another highlight of the day was when Jake came running downstairs in a panic to tell me that he'd spilled the can of paint he was carrying out to the garage in front of the door. Thankfully it was only a little and it was latex based, so it cleaned up pretty well. The stones in the entry way are a tinge blue if you look close, but I hate them and am looking forward to getting them replaced with wood flooring in the remodel. Jake also forgot to turn off the crock-pot when I asked him to, so two and a half hours later we ordered pizza. All in all, I feel good about all that was accomplished, but I am so glad today is over.