52 weeks of organizing week 7 Living Room & 8 Porches

Living Room under the TV before....

I'm back after a very short hiatus filled with grandparents and pneumonia! If you are interested in what happens when a family with 5 kiddos gets pneumonia you can read my post "Pneumonia Schooling".

Now onto organizing....

Living Room under the TV after

Week 7 -  I organized a very unorganized and unsightly Entertainment area in our living room. We used an antique Pie Safe which was given to us by some friends of ours who used to own an Antique Shop. My dear Husband found scrap wood and made shelves and he added support to the back of the once rickety cabinet.When the pie safe is closed the whole room is so peaceful and so simple you'd never guess what's hiding within it.  It is  housing  the Entertainment Center: VCR, DVD/Stereo, converter, DVD's, CD's and books. Also, did you notice the basket that was on top of the curio cabinet (an organization project in progress) has found a new home on the Pie Safe. Right next to the safe is an antique locker drawer which now holds the baby toys. This was just sitting on the floor in front of the dresser. Next to that is something or another for my husbands surround sound system (given to us from some friends at church) & a cute basket (we won at a 4th of July Party) with remotes. Underneath all of that is a little drawer that holds VHS tapes sadly it didn't fit in or under the safe. As I look around this room the different items within it remind me of the love our family and friends have shown us over the years. Truly I think the only thing we purchased was the TV a couple of years ago for $200.

Total Cost of this organization project = $0

 Week 8 - So during week 7 my parents were here & we had pneumonia but before it all hit I did manage to get the front and back porch cleaned up and organized.

Front Porch



Back Porch

 Until the challenge I think I was just blocking out all the eye sores and pretending they didn't exist. Now, however, I stop and organize little things if I think I have time. When I look at a space I wonder how could I make it functional yet simplify it.

Son on the Back porch you'll notice the Pie Safe was kept on the back porch until Wayne had time to work on it! The back porch had a conglomeration of items that just never got put away! So the first thing I did was put things away, cleaned and swept. I adjusted the grill cover and situated the tanks out of site. The drying racks are stacked neatly next to the grill. The front porch needed to be picked up and swept and I needed to remove some items we didn't use.  I thought these items would be cute junky decorations but they unfortunately they just looked like junk! I needed to find a better way to organize the mud boots. So I got an old apple basket put it next to the door and piled the boots in there, so the kids can grab a boot and go! I ended up switching the furniture from the back to the front. I topped an iron table found on the side road with a lace curtain that was given to me in a bag of kids clothes. I added a white cross I had purchased a couple of years ago at the Roundtop Antique Fair. I think the furniture looks great in their new locations.

The total cost of this organization: $0

New back porch



New Front Porch



I have decided to keep an eye on what I am spending to get the casa organized. So in the last 7 weeks we have spent $18 on laundry room sorting baskets. You'll see that project later.

So here is my progress on organizing my home one week and one project at a time. I'm really enjoying the calm relaxed feel that it generates in our home and in this Mama. Well at least as calm as it can be with 5 kids running around! Now, if you want to see what other super-focused organizing Mamas are doing you can head over to OrgJunkie's 52 weeks of organizing Challenge.