♦ Tackled the bookshelf in the kitchen. First I just straightened up the shelf of my Japanese books, where there was a lot of stuff stacked up on top of the books (photos to frame & hang, a giant coloring sticker book, etc.). I also removed the Japanese children's books & put them with Orson's books since they were not really helpful for language study but fun to look at. Here is the after shot (click on the pic if you want to see notes about what everything is).
♦ Later I confronted the shelf where we've been sticking Orson's craft supplies & other toys he uses in the kitchen (like bubbles & jigsaw puzzles). I've been picking up new craft stuff and there was way too much for that tiny area!
I cleaned off some junk that was on the the top of the bookshelf (seen in the first pic) and moved the wok & steamer up there to make more room. The Dollar Tree has lots of small totes/containers 3 or 4 for $1, so I always keep some of those on hand for organizing things. It looks a lot nicer with everything sorted out ~
Ideally I would have the craft stuff in something with high sides & dividers, more like this, to reduce some of the visual clutter, but this will work for now! Here is the whole shelf, if you were curious (there are notes on the last two pics too) ~
I also....
♦ Labeled some of totes in the kitchen cabinets (spices, mix packets, etc.).
♦ Popped open two mystery moving boxes in our bedroom, re-taped & labeled them & moved them to the basement storage.
♦ Went through my necklaces & sorted them into "wear" or "play". It is all just cheap-o jewelry I bought in high school or college crammed into a tupperware (pencil box?), and Orson loves to open it up & play with them ~ they get very tangled! For now I just put the stuff I might want to wear in a ziplock so Orson can't tangle them up with the rest.
♦ Went through my make-up drawer & threw out a bunch of stuff.
♦ Followed this blog post for cleaning stinky towels. We don't have any problems with our towels, but the washcloths I use to clean the kitchen often sit around damp for a long time & have been smelling mildewy, even when clean. I think it worked well! (I wish I had not thrown in the dish towels we use for drying though. I don't think they were stinky, and they got very linty for some reason)
♦ Made some octopus crafts & food for Orson
♦ Taped up some TP rolls like this for marbles & pom poms. It did entertain him, but not for very long.
♦ Took a *giant* pile of plastic bags in for recycling, like a whole cart full. I'm so glad we got the new re-usable tote bags!
♦ Went through 4 more boxes of baby clothes to sort out anything that might be neutral enough for the baby girl. Then I went through the whole pile of neutral clothes (a hamper & box, overflowing) with Justin to see if I had pulled out anything too boyish. Anything borderline will probably just be worn around the house, but he did pull out a few shirts that were mostly blue. The boy clothes are sorted by size in labeled boxes that will be taped up & stored in the basement. I thought I was done... then I remembered the boxes in Orson's closet!
♦ Mixed this multipurpose cleaner (the "Cure-All") yesterday, but haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'll report back next week! I mixed something like the "Blessing in a Bottle" before & it works great. After comparing prices I want to try a few more of these concoctions.
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