Almost every pregnant person I know makes all sorts of lists.  One of the most important is the list that contains all of the things that need to be done before baby (or babies) arrive.  Some of the things on my list are the fun preparing for baby things, but most are home related.  My goal is to have our entire house organized by the time baby comes.  This will be no easy task. We have been chipping away at this for awhile and are seeing a great improvement, but still have a ways to go.

I am currently 18 weeks pregnant and likely have 21 or 22 weeks to accomplish these tasks.

To do:

1) Organize master bedroom-move chairs, dust in places I can’t reach, change bedding to my favorites, go through drawers again and make each of them work for me, get the totes to the garage when full of outgrown kid clothes…

2) Organize master bath-do a deep clean of tile and bath, organize stuff on counters, in drawers and cupboards and get rid of anything we don’t need.

3) Organize small bedroom and large closet- get all scrapbooking and office stuff into the closet, organize the entire closet and get rid of stuff we don’t need, organize all non-Christmas holiday stuff, and make the room look how I want it to!

4) Go through upstairs hallway closet- purge, organize and maximize the space.

5) Make laundry room cuter and clean the floors

6) Organize kids bathroom-take out anything that does not belong, decide what to store in the cupboards, and deep cleaning (since our kids aren’t potty trained we don’t use this bathroom often at this point).

7) Finish my crafting space and make the large storage/inspiration board

8 ) Finish organizing toys

9) Organize the garage

10) Finish putting stuff on Craigslist

11) Donate to UGM

12) Take things to consignment store-multiple trips involved (I think they only look at a few things at a time)…we have been putting this off for too long. Use credit to buy clothes in next size up for kids and things for baby.

13) Print pictures and put them in frames

14) Set up an art station for the kids

15) Start and finish the twins baby books….HA, Just kidding!!!!

16) Create a working paper organization system for for the misc. things that stack up

17) Get car maintainence done

18) Go through book shelf

19) Potty train kids

20) Take a family vacation

21)  Decide what to do about room arrangements and who will share when the baby moves out of our room and prepare accordingly (sort of dreading putting my “separate sleepers” in a room together).

Baby related tasks

1) Go through baby clothes-organize, wash, make a list of any little things we need (this baby will be born in June and my twins were early Feb babies).

2) Put gear back together

3) Figure how in the world to configure the car seats in the van and get them all checked by the tech.

4) Put little baby stuff into the diaper bag

5) Purchase-Small cloth diapers, used glider, used papasan swing, My Breast Friend nursing pillow,

6) Make- Burp rags and baby hats out of re-purposed clothes,

7) Read a couple books

8 ) Decide between a repeat c-section or to try for a vbac

9) Go on a couple “dates” with the kids individually

10) Stock up on a couple baby related products (use coupons and watch sales)- wipes, booty cream, wash, and little diapers (we might largely use disposable for the newborn size so I don’t have to buy tiny cloth that will be grown out of quickly)

11) Pick out a name!

There should be plenty of time to finish all of these things, but I reserve the right to “alter” the list at any point. I will post updates as things progress to keep myself accountable

This is a Public Service Announcement!

This morning as I was preparing for family pictures I decided to look for that one missing hat I needed to reach Gymboree Matching Bliss (G.M.B.) (don’ t judge me, I used coupons).  I figured I should look in the diaper bag to make sure it had not been shoved in on some recent outing.  As I was pulling things out of my very full bag I was surprised by the lack of importance of the things I was carrying.  The bag was full, but there was nothing very interesting in it. (Kind of like, “The lights are on but nobody’s home”).

That is until I reached the bottom.  I was hoping to find a cupcake hat, and what I found instead would frighten anyone…..”WHAT THE  PETUNIA PICKLE BOTTOM IS GOING ON DOWN HERE”?  The further I got down I was realizing things were starting to become attached to each other by magical mystery sticky stuff.  Then I found something even worse…..the black fuzz of death! MOLD, yes, mold.  Now it was not as bad as last time…..yes there was a last time (and I don’t want to talk about it)….but the black fuzz of death is never a good thing.  I am not sure how it happens,  I am a fairly clean person, I try and never throw nasty stuff in my bag, everything kinda has its own spot and has a bag to go into…..How could this be happening again? Maybe it is because my bag is really deep and can hold tons? Not sure.

But, it’s a good thing my bag is washable! So, inside out it goes on a gentle cycle cycle with mild soap after a good scrubbing with an old toothbrush.  After that it will get a rotisserie treatment in front of a fan.  It will be as good as new (sort of) tomorrow.

Let this serve as a reminder to dump those bags occasionally!

Am I the only one that has had a  gross experience that gives new meaning to the word “grab bag”?  Hope not!

Now where IS that cupcake hat?

After using coupons for awhile and constantly being on the quest to save ourselves money, I realized that there were many things that we buy that we might be able to do with out (or use much less of).  After I started cloth diapering I was especially aware of paper products that could be replaced with a cloth alternative.   Here are a few things we have either completely done away with, or have reduced our consumption of.

• Paper towels (Still hard sometimes.)
• Dryer sheets (Almost never use them.)
• Napkins (We don’t seem to need them often, and use some type of cloth when we do.)
• Tissues (We use toilet paper or cloth wipes for the babies)
• Disposable party supplies/decor (I have fun using my own dishes and try to get creative to use things I already have as decor)
• Cheap disposable containers (We use glass which should last for a very long time)
• Zippered plastic bags (We use fold over sandwich bags (much cheaper) or our glass reusable containers when possible.)
• Disposable dusting tools (Unless I can get them for close to free, I use a cloth diaper or old sock.)
• Cotton balls (Used to use them for makeup removal and face washes etc. and now use cloth for almost everything.)
• Garbage sacks (We only use them in our kitchen garbage which seems to last us a few days)
• Water bottles (We used to purchase a case at Costco occasionally for water on the go. Now we use metal water bottles.)

Now I am not saying that by not purchasing cotton balls you will save loads of money. Obviously some changes will save you more than others, but it is nice to simplify your life, reduce waste, and save time and effort (by not couponing and shopping for unnecessary items).  Start paying attention to the things you go through the fastest and try to think of a reusable alternative or just stop buying them all together.

*Even though many of the disposable items in our home have been replaced with cloth items, I have not seen a large increase in laundry at all.  Most of these types of things are small and can easily be tossed in with loads I would already be running.

Things your family might use that you could find an alternative for or stop using.

Little paper cups in the bathroom.

Paper plates, cups, straws, and plastic silverware.

Disposable floor cleaning systems.

Small hand soap containers. (Refill them over and over or use decorative ones that will last.)

Small jar candles (Fairly expensive and create waste.)

Ways to know you are succeeding at reducing your consumables.

Your have less trash than you did before.

Your shopping lists are shorter and more basic.

Your consumable products are lasting you longer.

You find you run out of kitchen towels faster.

Your family is following suit.

Start phasing out a couple items at a time.  Explain to your family why you would like to make these changes and get them excited about saving money and helping the environment.  You will be so thrilled when an errand to Walmart or Target does not become an $80 dollar trip.  These types of changes will help you spend your “grocery” money on exactly that…GROCERIES!  How exciting is that!

Since I am not quite ready to take on a new big project I decided to just save my update photos for today’s Messy Monday post.   Last weeks project was a success!  I am happy to say that I have a much more organized pantry and I love it.  It is so nice to  know exactly what I have in there.

A few things surprised me as I was organizing.  One was that I thought I would find a lot more food that we had no interest in eating.  With the exception of a can of beets, some pasta roni, and a couple other things I feel like our pantry is filled with stuff we buy fairly regularly or will at least be able to eat before it expires.  The other thing I was quite surprised to see was how few canned goods we had.  The caned food we did have mainly included soups (which we rarely eat…note to self: don’t buy canned soup),  some peaches, a few tomato products, and quite a few canned beans (we eat lots of organic black and refried beans….made me wonder if we should soak our own).

Some things I did to organize the pantry:

• Put all the unopened foods and opened foods together so that we can clearly see what we have and not open new packages unnecessarily
• Put all loose snacks in a basket together to tidy up and make snacks easy to find.
• Put the things we use most in easy to reach places.
• Got the recycling under control.
• Took out things that we don’t use on a regular basis to store elsewhere
• Got rid of most of our water bottles since they aren’t BPA free and we haven’t been using them anyway (I have NO idea why we had so many water bottles).
• Organized my napkins and party-ware so that I knew what I had and could get to it. (I kinda love fun napkins….even though we rarely use them).
• Took all the pasta and rice and grains and put them in tubs.

It really is nothing increadible, but its an improvement and I am enjoying it!

Feel free to join in this week even though I have not selected our next area yet.  If you have a place in your home that needs some love just leave a comment with a link to your blog (if you have one) and the area that you will be bravely tackaling.  If you are so inclined you can also put a link for my post on your blog, so your readers can jump on the band wagon and see what everybody is doing.

-Thanks Deanna from Recycled Lovelies for joining in on the fun last week!

Today will be my first official Messy Monday post.  The idea behind this is that I find a place in my home that needs some love and I bravely take a picture and post it.  Then, later in the week I post an update to show my progress.  My goal is to have that area of my house cleaned or organized by the end of the week (although I know some weeks may get crazy and the job may only get a little of my time).

Join me for Messy Monday and post pictures of your clutter spot or neglected corner of your home on your blog.  Just leave a comment with the area you will be tackling and a link to your blog with a picture or two (don’t worry….you can join us and post pics at any time of the week.)  If you are feeling generous you can even put a link to my Messy Monday post on your Messy blog post.

I know that for myself, it can be really easy to get in a routine where I just try to keep up on the dishes and laundry and neglect the other projects.  Lets tackle one little spot in our home at a time and see what happens!

This week’s mess……THE PANTRY (in a deep and foreboding voice).

Please don’t judge me……join me!