Showing posts with label Tackle it Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tackle it Tuesday. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday: The yard

The backyard is finally starting to look like a yard, and not a barren wasteland.

Before


After (this was right after we laid the sod down, the stuff up behind the retaining wall has all been planted now, most of it is no longer in pots)





Next up will probably be a new fence. Someone remind me again why we didn't just buy a new house???

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday: The blinds

So I know the topic of this Tackle is not very exciting. Really, who cares about vertical blinds? Well I do! Since we got our windows put in last June, the blinds over the sliding door have been broken. The window people broke them; they were also supposed to repair them but that didn't happen. The were still intact, but we couldn't open or close them. Jeff's friend Mike got rid of his blinds and happened to have the piece we needed for ours. The new piece (which is about 10 feet long) has been sitting on my porch for the last week. So today I decided I'd just fix it myself. Amelia offered to be my assistant and hold the drill for me. :-)

First, I had to take the old blinds down. Then I had to clean everything, the piece from my front porch was filthy and it had definitely been a while since I washed the blinds in the house too. Next I took the old blinds apart completely. Finally I was able to put it all back together again with the new pieces and rehang it all. I probably won't attempt taking the vertical blinds down again on my own, it's heavy and really awkward. But on the plus side, we can eat dinner without the sun in our faces. Woohoo.

What are you tackling this week? Leave me a comment and tell me about it.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday: The To Do List

Tackle It Tuesday Meme
Rather than tackling one thing this week, I am tackling my massive to do list. I'm just picking ten of the many things that need to be done. I will finish them today!
  1. Do laundry
  2. Put away laundry
  3. Go to the post office and mail our postcards*
  4. Finish making Jeff's Halloween costume
  5. Get craft project prepared for Amelia's preschool Halloween party
  6. Clean the kitchen
  7. Sweep and Mop
  8. Vacuum
  9. Clean up all the junk outside from Ant's party
  10. Organize my coupon mess
What are you tackling this week? Visit 5minutesformom.com if you want to see more Tackles. If you played, leave me a comment and I'll visit your site.

* I signed Amelia up for postcrossing.com You send postcards out to places all over the world, and then you get some back from other people. The kid loves getting mail, so I think she'll enjoy it.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday: The Clothes are taking over!

For this weeks project, I went through all of Amelia's clothes. Her dresser, the closet, the bins of too big and too small clothes, and even the items she hides under her bed were subjected to scrutiny. (Yes, my daughter hides clothes under her bed, usually for one of two reasons. One is she doesn't want to part with them, so she doesn't want me to wash them. The other is she's too lazy to walk five feet to the hamper and throw them in. God help me when she's a teenager!)

I'm also participating in Laura's monthly roundup at orgjunkie.com. The roundup for this month is to organize a drawer, so my task fit right in.


Here are the before pictures of her dresser. I didn't take pictures of the closet. Look at all those clothes on her dresser! That's how she puts clothes away. Yes, they are all clean.




I'm pretty sure my Mom would tell you that my drawers looked like this when I was little too. Although I didn't have a little brother that I needed to hide plastic screwdrivers from.






Here it is all empty. You can sort of see the containers I put in the top drawer to organize her bathing suits, tights, leotards, undies and socks. Once everything was out of the dresser, Amelia and I sorted all of it together. She played fashion show and tried things on. Too small stuff went in a plastic bag to be given away. She also had some stuff in there that was still too big, so those went in a plastic bin. Those go up in her closet and when she needs more clothes we check there before buying her new things. We also pared down the amount of clothes she has. I tried to keep it to 7 of each thing (tshirts, dresses, warm shirts etc. )






And we're done! The drawers are all organized and no longer overflowing. The bin went up in the closet and the bag of clothes have been passed on to a friend for her daughter.








This is a closeup of the top drawer. It seems like this drawer is usually the biggest mess, and Amelia can never find her tights for ballet, or a bathing suit when she needs one. So now everything has it's own area. Hopefully that helps when she is putting her clothes away and when we are getting ready to go somewhere.

Go visit orgjunkie.com for more organization, and 5minutesformom.com for more Tackle it Tuesdays. Leave me a comment if you participated too!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday-Books part 2

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

So remember last week when I tackled the kids books shelves? Well this week it's not the kids' mess I'm cleaning up. It's the office. Unfortunately, Ant's favorite activity lately is throwing things on the floor. It could be books, toys, all the cushions from the couch, it really doesn't seem to matter. He's definitely helped with the mess going on in the office. I know the shelves are still a little cluttery, but we need about 3 more book shelves before we can take stuff off these shelves. Jeff and I are both readers, and while I tend to recycle stuff on Paperbackswap.com, there are ones I keep to reread. And Jeff likes to keep most of his books.

So without further ado, here's the before and after shots.



Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday-Books books everywhere!

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

My kids love their books. Sometimes, however, I wish they would read only one book at a time. Apparently in our house, you must pull every book off the shelf before you can read. And when you're done reading, and Mom makes you pick them up, you must throw them on the shelf in a heap.

So this week, we are tackling their shelves. Anthony's shelf didn't have any books on it, and Amelia's shelf had too many. So we took all of the board books and put them in Ant's room. I think it looks way better. What do you think? (And yes, more often than not, my son is only in a diaper. That boy hates wearing clothes and really hates wearing shoes. He runs off as fast as he can when I put a new diaper on him.)


The before pictures:




The after pictures:

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

So this is going to be a little different than most Tackle it Tuesdays. I'm sick, Anthony's sick and neither of us got much sleep last night. However, I've got a huge list of stuff to get done. We spent yesterday at the park, and outside a lot so I have to get stuff done today. I'm going to post my list here and check back in every so often as I cross stuff off. I probably won't get it all done, but I can start!

ETA: It's 930 and I'm feeling a lot worse. My head feels like it's about to explode. I can feel myself getting sicker. So I'm off to get as much of my list done as I can before I give in and take some tylenol cold. Wish me luck!

Clean the kitchen

Do laundry

Put laundry away

Change kids sheets

Change my sheets

Deep clean my bedroom

Vacuum living room

Clean bathrooms

Sweep and Mop

Take out Garbages

Ready, set, go!!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tackle It Tuesday!

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

It's been a while, but I'm trying to get back to doing this project weekly, I really like seeing the results when it's all done. :-) I don't have pictures this week, although I did finally upload some pictures from Anthony's birthday, come back tomorrow to see those!

My project this week is my floors. We only have carpet in the bedrooms, the rest of the house is mostly wood. I try and do a quick mop job once a week, but what it really needs is a good on hands and knees scrubbing. So, that's what Amelia and I are tackling today! You can go visit 5 minutes for mom to see more Tackle It Tuesdays.

Did you play? Leave me a comment if you did! :-)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

So my tackle this week isn't housework. It is definitely about cleaning up and getting rid of clutter though. For me, it's clutter from my body. I just signed up to join the gym. I've been procrastinating about this because I didn't want to spend the money, but there is a great deal right now and it's $29 a month for any 24 hour fitness club. SO anyway, it's something that needed to be done, and I've finally done it! Working out is probably the best way to lose weight, along with eating healthier. It's better than the best diet pills or any fad diet.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday #3

This week I am reorganizing my kitchen cabinets. My kitchen is a little challenging because I'm so short,and half of each cabinet is back in the corner. So really, I can only reach about 30 percent of each cabinet without a stool. (Did I mention these are my only two big cabinets? Everything else useable is unde the counter.) Even with the stool I can not reach the top shelves, which is why you will notice no progress there.

Cabinet to the left of the stove- I got rid of a lot of stuff, and moved other stuff into this area.

BEFORE


AFTER



This is the cabinet to the right of the stove. I moved a lot of stuff out of it , to the other cabinet. Now most of the cups and dishes and such are over there, which will make unloading the dishwasher and stuff much easier. It's still a work in progress, I'm going to move a lot of my baking stuff to this cabinet, but I need some more bins first.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Tackle It Tuesday #1

Tackle It Tuesday Meme


The laundry piles! This is not dirty laundry we are talking about. It's all clean stuff that has been getting piled all over. Jeff did about 37 loads of laundry last weekend, but it never got put away. So finally, once and for all (or for today at least,) all the laundry is put away.

The hallway counter

BEFORE
AFTER
My Desk Chair
BEFORE
AFTER