Cleaning/organizing/decorating goals and tools to accomplish them!!

I've spent quite a bit of time today thinking about how to keep my house clean and organized and what things I want to improve on this year.  So here it goes (in no certain order)...  Some embarrassing pictures, links to how-tos, and some random thoughts on my growing obsession on organizing and redecorating.

1.  Spray paint all of our doorknobs.  Our house was built in 1994 and every single doorknob is cheap, builder-grade brass.  Hate them.

Isn't she lovely??

I would love to replace all of the knobs but have you priced these suckers?  It would cost us probably $300 to do the whole house!!   I followed a tutorial that I found on Infarrantly Creative on spray painting interior door knobs.  I've done one so far but I love it!!!  And it has held up perfectly!!  Granted, it's on the pantry door but so far so good!

 

2.   Begin and stick to a daily/monthly/yearly cleaning schedule.  So that things don't look like this....

Hello dust.

I found a blog called I Heart Organizing.  She has some fantastic ideas and templates for keeping a clean and organizing house.  I am going to implement a checklist like this:

 

If you are computer savvy, you can create one of these on your own.  If not, Jen (the author of this blog) has an Etsy shop here and will customize one for you for $3.

3.  Lighten up the feel of my family room.  This will probably involve painting a couple of walls, adding some decor (probably DI redos), buying a new rug for the floor. 

This picture is of my family room post-Christmas decor but before I have put all my regular stuff back.  I want my family room to look more like this:

 Picture courtesy of 320 Sycamore

4.  Keep the toys and kids' stuff under control.  Over the past week, I have organized and dejunked the girls' and Tyler's rooms.  Wow.  S.C.A.R.Y.

Here was Tyler's room before we started today.  Seriously - how is it okay for anyone to live and sleep in a room like that?  And why do my kids not care???  

I have decided that four tools are key to my organizing the kids spaces.  First...

Plastic, see-through storage cart (wheels not attached).  I bought a bunch of these last year at Wal-mart for about $20 each (a little steep for me but they have lasted). Luckily my kids have big closets and these have worked really well.

Second....  A super cool label maker.  My mom gave me mine but I think that you can find them for under $20.

I used this a ton in Tyler's room to label his plastic drawers.  He doesn't need little pictures on the drawers like the girls do.  And this leads to...

The ones that I actually made are SO much cuter!!  I couldn't figure out how to post a picture of the Word document.  They have a super cute girly font.  I am going to print these, take them to the UPS Store to be laminated, and attach them each to the drawers.  If you would like me to make you some or send you the Word Document, let me know!!

Oh and for inquiring minds, these pictures were taken by Tyler after most of his room was clean/organized.  We still have to work on a few things, but SO much better!!

5.  Keep my room a clean haven where kids crap is not allowed.  Seriously - they have every other room in the house.

I need to buy some curtains, recover the other lamp shade, paint the doorknob, and PAINT the walls.  Don't you all love the cool, sponged faux finish done in the ENTIRE room??  NOT!!


6.  Improve/encourage/make my kids do more chores.  The other day Kailey made the comment that all I do is clean.  My reply was that if everyone else did their part, I wouldn't have to clean so much (and no - not all I do is clean.  Far from it.).

My sister and I made these chore charts last summer.

While I love them, I'm not sure that they are the solution.  As you can see, the magnets get used for all kinds of things (like holding pics of my super cute nephew) instead of getting chores done.  I am thinking that I may go to something like the one at Controlling My Chaos.

Basically, the idea is that each child has one "chore" per day.  This is different than a "procedure".  Procedures are things like picking up their room, bathing, brushing their teeth, etc.  Things that they must do every day and that they do not get paid for.  Chores (like dusting, emptying garbages) do come with pay.  In the form of tokens.

She has a system on her blog that you really just need to read about.  Basically, the tokens (chips) are worth 25 cents each.  They can be used as pay for the chores or also taken away as consequences. 

Now, in order for any chore system to work, it must be enforced.  That would be me (and Ryan).  My biggest downfall is enforcing and following through.  But I am determined to not let my kids be slobs and follow behind them all day when I could be doing plenty of other things (like on my blog).  :-)


Well, there you have it.  At least six things of it.  I have many, many other projects in mind but these are the things that have stuck out at me this week and that I have started on.  Hopefully this energy and excitement will continue past the first week of January....