Day 301 - Office Miscellaneous

The boxes of office offal are yielding some interesting things. 

1 to 7.  Toddler markers and carrying case.  They are such juicy, inky things that they invariably end up creating a mess.  Granted it's an easily washable mess, but still inconvenient.
8 to 11. Legal file folders - contents transferred to standard size to fit in filing cabinet
12. Pregnancy calendar (unused)
13. Avery Vellum Overlay Greeting Cards (unused)
14. Ink refill kit - empty
15. Ink refill kit  (unused) for a printer we longer have
16. Packaging material for a cool mouse that has a number pad on it - Sweet!
17. CD sleeve
18. Thomas UNO card
19. Board board that got tossed in today after 2 year old squirted copious amounts of hair conditioner on it and between each and every page.  I spent a few minutes cleaning it out and figuring out how to allow it to dry properly but my patience faded fast and I decided to just chuck it and save my children from a mommy hissy fit.
20. Broken emery board
21. Action figure sword
22. Weird bolt or something
23. Dried out ball point pen
24. Pencil stub
25. Tip of a ball point pen
26. Toy ladder - maybe to vintage little people firehouse but not sure

Katie

Day 300 - Office Papers

I sorted through another huge pile of paper today.  This one was mostly recycled with only a few things going into the filing cabinet.  Hooray! 

I'm frantically trying to get the office completely sorted out so I can shift my focus to the holidays.  I am disappointed that I'm not coming up with nearly enough for Project TwentySix out of the office project.  I was so sure I'd be getting rid of the piles but as it turns out I was saving much of it for a reason!

Katie

Working Away . . .

Busily emptying boxes.  Yay for a cleaner living room!  Yay for finding permanent and tidy homes for things in the office!  Boo that I'm not getting rid of more!

It's midnight and I'm too tired to take pictures and post.  I will make multiple posts in the next couple of days . . . I think.

Katie

Day 299 - Baby Socks

The office was slow going today.  I'm sorting through boxes but most of it is finding homes and not finding its way out of mine! 

So I went through DD#4's socks to find today's 26 items. 

Hoping tomorrow will be full of office offal.  

Katie

Photo Update of Office

Today was insanity with morning appointments, lunch with a friend, an afternoon playdate, and an evening freezer meal swap.  I didn't get a chance to do much in the office, but I wanted to post picture updates.

The living room pile is getting steadily smaller.

The many-drawered desk and the bulletin board hung up.  I'm still hoping to get a narrower table in here for the printer.  There are lots of empty plastic bins under the desk and you can see my sorting-in-progress on the desktop!

I need to find a home for this bookshelf; probably in the basement with the rest of them it matches.  Those white drawers on the left are now full of craft and office supplies.  I've got two big bags of scrapbooking supplies on the floor.  I was hoping to find a home for these in the office, but they may end up back in the corner of my bedroom closet where it's been living for five years already.  Boo!  

 

 

 

I'm hoping to bust out the rest of the office this weekend.  DH is out of town and I really just want to wrap it up while he's gone.  I've got plenty of projects to dig into now that the holidays are upon us.

Katie

Day 298 - Desk Sorting

I got busy putting my new desk together today.  I found lots of things to get rid of - it's loosely 26

• Directions to post to our old website from when DD#1 was an infant
• Customs forms for mailing to APO addresses.  Also from about the time DD#1 was an infant.
• Hummel notecards
• Coupon & donation notes that were on bulletin board
• Old to-do lists
• Removeable sticker tabs
• Cell phone charger andbattery from old phone
• Food marker
• Bank receipts from large transactions a few years ago
• Plastic gem
• Half a child safety lock for miniblind cord
• Rusted binder clip
• Plastic penny
• Scoop from lipgloss kit
• 35mm film
• Halloween greeting card - we don't observe so I'll pass thing along to someone
• Old window envelopes for our first mortage we held less than a year
• Eraser broken out of its tube
• Plastic sleeve I was keeping a new paintbrush in
• Plastic gift bag I was considering reusing

I also found a couple fun things. 

These old 2 cent stamps have been hanging around awhile.  I looked them up just for fun and they are from 1986.  Just kinda fun.

This one of those souvenir pressed pennies.  DH and I got this on our honeymoon at Universal Studios.    I was happy to see it.

Katie

Day 297 - Clothes

Today we finally moved my new desk into the office.  I also moved the old desk into the playroom for the kids' computer, the old computer table to the nursery for a changing table, and the old changing table/dresser into the older girls' bedroom closet so DD#3 is officially moved in with her older sisters.  She is beside herself with joy.

So I moved furniture but I didn't get much sorting done.  Today's photo is clothing that's been stacking up in the corner.

1 to 3. Adorable pants, top, jacket outfit
4. Gap tank
5. White ruffle top
6 to 9. Tights
10. Raincoat
11. Polka dot pants
12. Princess long-sleeve top
13. Cinderella jacket
14. leggins with purple sharpie stain
15 & 16. outgrown socks
17. & 18. Daddy socks with holey heels
19 & 20. Mommy socks with holey heels
21. Maternity tank top
22. Mommy tights
23. Kid tights
24 to 26. various undies

Katie

Day 296 - Another Big Stack of Paper

Today I plowed through another tall stack of paper.  A lot of it was scratch paper for the kids to use and another big piece was coloring sheets I had printed long ago for them.  I did manage to get rid of a lot (see here) including Chapter 8 of a course I took when I was still working prior to the birth of my oldest (age 7), lots of paperwork from Kindering where our kiddos have had early intervention services, and old insurance policies.

2 more days and I'll give you another photo update.  That's good motivation for me to get moving!

Katie

Day 295 - Homeschool Supplies & More Calendars

I did a little bit of sorting in that corner of the office that is full of homeschool supplies.  There is much more work to be done, but my priority needs to be all the piles in the living room!  I only looked at one drawer of 10 or so full of homeschool stuff.

1. 2012 Bridge calendar
2. 2012 Kitten calendar
3. 2012 Beaches calendar
4. Calendar Square
5 & 6. Lice combs
7 & 8. Candy/Fondant molds
9 & 10. Foodsafe markers
11. Calendar Square
12 & 13. Hardened Fondant
14. Phonics cards - duplicate set, slightly incomplete
15 & 16. Duplicate BrainQuest cards
17. Addition Flashcards
18. Multiplication Flashcards
19. Toddler Crayons
20. Broken Marker
21. Marker Lid
22. Broken Crown
23. Broken, plastic pencil that holds the little lead pieces
24. Broken, unbreakable crayon
25. Foam insert to a discarded book
26. Play coin

Katie

Day 294 - Office Papers & Tax Return

I finally got a huge stack of papers sorted last night.  I kept about 1/3 to be filed including special things the kids made, business receipts, & mortgage paperwork.  I got rid of a whole bunch of other stuff including a huge amount paperwork from the birth of DD#4 over two years ago, non-business receipts, and other bits and pieces.

I also finally found my 2011 tax return!  A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I hadn't deducted sales tax on a car purchase in 2011.  It was a used car so the sales tax isn't high, but finding the return helped me determine that amending it would net only $30.  Worth it?  Maybe.  We'll see if I find any more business receipts, charitable donation receipts, or mileage deductions for our rental property as I continue to wade through the piles.

Katie

Day 293 - Cell Phone & Kid stuff

I didn't get anything done in the office today.  I feel like I've done all the "easy" stuff and now the tedious sorting of paper lies ahead.

Instead I took a picture of more kid stuff.

1 to 6. Part of a Barbie fashion designer
7 to 9.  Markers
10. Art Project
11. Lice Comb
12. Pasta Fork
13. Pez of Tinkerbell's male friend
14. Old cell phone
15 to 17. Old cell chargers (all destined for charity in a postage-paid envelope)
18. Bag of Color Wonder markers
19. Frayed ribbon
20 to 22. Stretched out hair things.
23. broken Kaa figure from Jungle Book
24 to 26.  Pencil tips for one of those "push through" pencils.

Katie

Day 292 - Scrapbooking & Photo Update

It's been a week since I started this office project.  So far, so good with my goal of doing at least a little bit each day.  The pile in the living room is definitely smaller, but there is still a discouraging amount of paper to sort.  I'm going to try and do more paper this week.

Today I also sorted through some scrapbooking stuff.  It isn't normally kept in the office but I had a scrapbooking day with a friend just before I started this project and all the scrapbooking supplies ended up added to that pile in the living room.  I also had another friend give me a sack of scrapbooking materials last week. 

We also are starting a project for our older kids at couples Bible study.   It includes decorating a notebook so we need scrapbook supplies.  I figured I might as well sort out some of my things while I sorted through my friend's to see what I could use.  I found lots of paper and lots of school embellishments, too.

Katie

Day 291 - Misc. Kid Stuff

Today I shifted some office supplies and brought a box up from our basement to find homes for its contents.

Of note were 7 reams of water damaged printer paper from our minor flood 3 years ago.  As it happened a whole case of printer paper was sitting on it's long side on the carpet in the basement office.  Due to its orientation every sheet of paper absorbed some water.  So we were looking at 5,000 sheets of paper with a wrinkly inch or two at the end.  We weren't about to let it go to waste so we slowly are using it for kids printables, coupons, directions, etc.  One year we even used it for the Christmas letter laughingly directing readers to the wrinkles at the bottom of the pages.

We still have over 3,500 sheets so I bet we'll use it again for Christmas letters.

We also got rid of huge box our new printer came in.  I'm not sure why it was still in our office unless it's because stuff just was piled on top of it?

I didn't find anything to get rid of out of the office today, so here's a different assortment of items.

1. Wand
2. Brush
3. Broken dress-up shield
4. Glitter hat
5 & 6. Fun cups but 2 are not enough when you have 4 kids
7. Candle I was burning to "use it up."  Why not just toss it?
8. Broken crown
9. Dried out glue
10. Lion/Griffin decoration
11 to 13. Broken chairs that went with a house we got rid of this summer
14. Broken beads
15. Random lego
16. Glitter glue
17. Parrot tailfeather
18. Shell necklace, broken
19. Bananas from Strawberry Shortcake kitchen
20 & 21. Big gems
22. fake flower
23. bracelet
24 & 25. Thomas Game Cards
26. something small and silver, I don't remember, but I can see it in the photo.

Katie


Katie

Day 290 - Calendars

I was busy sorting office supplies today and didn't find much to get rid of.  So I grabbed this huge calendar that I used several years ago for homeschool.  It's a bit hard to use just because of the rearranging numbers and the kids' attraction to sticky tack so we switched to regular old wall calendars.

I counted it as a full day do to all it's bits and pieces.  I remember paying major bucks to have this thing laminated and wonder if maybe that's why I kept it so long.  Oh well.  Maybe one of my homeschooling friends can use it.

Katie

Day 289 - Office Craft Supplies

Today I got more craft things sorted in the office and found more to part with. 

1 to 5. Huge manilla envelopes that are intended for passing around an office or a group of people.  Not sure where they came from or why I had them stuffed in a drawer.
6. Pink feather
7 & 8. Leather conditioner I only used my freshmen year of college when Mom insisted I needed it.  Since it's been hanging around for ten plus years I guess I can let it go.
9. Orange sticky dots
10. Sewing straight pins
11 to 16. Alphabet beads
17. String for beads
18 to 23. Fake flowers
24 & 25. Gunky cheap paintbrushes
26. Well-used watercolors

Katie

Day 288 - Kid Bits and Pieces

Today I didn't get anything new done on the office, but I did get all the bank statements organized which took about half hour between 10:30 and 11:00 pm.  Now I'm beat but I wanted to post so here are 26 kid items.

1. Plastic crown
2. Winnie the Pooh flashcard
3 & 4. Thomas UNO cards
5. UNO instructions
6. Lego train car, but not Duplo so our legos don't fit on it
7. Popped bath ball
8 & 9. Roll Around Balls
10. Gus from Cinderella
11. Marker Lid
12. Stem of a kid fake microphone
13. Scrooge McDuck
14. Belle
15. Butterfly
16 & 17. Crayon twistables, broken
18. Keychain whistle I confiscated
19. Glittery something
20. Gargoyle from Hunchback of Notre Dame
21. Jack Sparrow
22. Paper dog from Strawberry Shortcake
23. Broken hair thing
24. Dora friend - colorform
25. Teeny pencil lead - I didn't even know we had one of these pencils
26. A round plastic disc of unknown origin

Katie

Day 287 - Papers

This is the stack of papers I'm getting rid of today.  I need some insurance paperwork so I dug into the pile I was pretty sure contained them.  Sure enough, I found our current policies and I also found lots of papers to get rid of.

I also found all of these banking and brokerage statements that need to be filed. 

Katie

Day 286 - Kid clothes

I worked in the office today finding homes for craft items.  I pulled a few things out but not 26.  Instead, today selected 26 items are accumulated kid clothing.

1. Black velvet Christmas dress - headed for consignment
2 & 3. Ruffle socks - one has a hole
4. Pink capri pants with little stain
5. Blue capri pants that haven't had a matching for 3 girls.  I don't need to keep them for the 4th.
6. Pink skirt with athletic stripes.  DD #1 loves it, but I don't.
7. Green skirt that got one of those shadowy, all-over, undetermined source stains in the laundry.
8. Purple skirt that's too short for modesty with my tall girls.
9 & 10.  Little pink socks
11. Green flower onesie that is outgrown and has a small stain, but front and center.
12. Cute white t-shirt that got some purple paint on the back.  Gah!
13. Tights the DD #4 never wore and has now outgrown.  Consignment.
14 & 15.  Little dress socks
16 & 17. Cut monkey outfit headed for consignment.
18. Purple pants with a stain on leg
19. Undies with waistband hole
20. Undies with holes in leg elastic
21 & 22.  I love these boots!  So sad DD#4 only wore them once because I somehow missed getting them out of the closet when she grew into their size.  I found them when I was moving her up the next size.  Rats!
23 & 24. Sandals that are too small.
25 & 26. Worn out Daddy socks to make 26.

Katie

Day 285 - Books

I dug into the bookshelves in the office just to get started.  I dusted first and started sorting things into groups like homeschool, Biblical commentaries, parenting, kid fiction, adult fiction, classic literature, etc.

I pulled a few things out to get rid of but mostly shuffled and sorted.  I found a few inches of sheet music that could go in my filing cabinet and some old 8.5 x 11 frames that haven't been displayed since I was 17.  I was able to put lots of homeschool books onto the shelves.  I was pleased to get them off the homeschool bookshelf in the kitchen because the 2 year old keeps pulling them off.

The best "find" was a check for $25 from February 2010.  It must have been a birthday gift for DH.  OOPS! 

Interestingly enough, my mom called today to apologize for her part in that rough weekend.  I had already forgiven her, but it was still nice to hear that she recognized things weren't OK. 

Here I am moving kids' reading books.  DD#1 happened to have the camera out.

Here's the newly tidied bookcases.  Note the addition of the white plastic drawers on the right.  DH brought those up from the basement and they were so dusty from the construction I had to clean them inside and out!  I'm planning to use those for extra office supplies and craft items for personal and homeschool use.

And here are my 26 items for today.

1 & 2.  Picture frames
3. Wolves - youth non-fiction
4. Skyfire
5. Roger Rabbit
6. Scribbled all over flap book
7. What to Expect When You're Expecting journal
8. Ramona the Brave (duplicate)
9. Ramona and her Father (duplicate)
10. Pilgrim's Progress (duplicate)
11. The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner
12. Kentucky Weddings - Christan Fiction
13. The Wishing Star - Christian Historical Fiction surrounding the forming of the LDS church
14. Florabama Ladies Auxillary Sewing Cirlce - great read
15. The Lovely Bones - thriller, disurbing
16. Heather - Christian Fiction
17. Lorna - Christian Fiction
18. Good in Bed - laugh out loud funny
19. Western Gardening Book - (duplicate)
20. Christian youth worker book
21 & 22. children's books I'm adding to the gift pile
23. The Bunny Who Found Easter
24. Foam book that a kid managed to destroy
25 & 26. play money that I constantly pick up and much of this was actually sitting on a high bookshelf out of the kids' reach.  I actually sorted out three different sets and decided to keep my favorite.  It all fits nicely into our kids' cash register.

Katie

Wednesday Narrative - Office Horror

Truly I don't want to make this post.  When ProjectTwentySix began I posted "Before" photos of almost all of the house.  I never did get around to posting the office photos and now I wonder if it was a subconscious defense mechanism.

I worked hard in the office starting in late spring and running through summer.  You may recall lots of "paper" posts if you've been around that long.  In July my brother came and worked on the next phase of our basement remodel and I had to bring a lot of things upstairs.  Many of those things ended up in the office and I kept hammering away at it, bit by bit.

Then my mom and aunt came for a visit in September and pretty much tore me apart for the disarray my house was in and how I'd neglected the housework.  I've spent weeks reflecting on their thoughts and coming to a number of conclusions I won't go into here because it would be long and boring for you to read.  Here's a summarized version: Mom and Aunt can't possibly understand what my day to day life is like.  However they both have more life experience than I and wisdom to offer so I have considered their views.  I forgive them for the deep hurt they caused though neither have asked.

While the visit was most memorable for its painful conversations, I should also note they were a blizzard of cleaning activity which I greatly appreciated and likely would have appreciated more if they hadn't complained about it continually.  One of their solutions to hide my clutter was to put everything they thought was clutter into boxes that were then added to already not insignificant pile in the office.  They considerately put things they thought would need immediate attention (like bills and my checkbook) in a smaller box and pointed it out for me.

All of this to say that their words and the additions to the office mess have brought me to the point of having to deal with it.  Following are pictures of how it looked before I started pulling boxes out earlier this week.

This is the view from the doorway.  If this doesn't look to horrible wait for the next photo.

This is the floor in front of the bookcases.  That box right in front is one of the Mom & Aunt additions.

Behind the door.

My workspace.

DH's workspace.

As you can see there is much work to be done.  I see the work, but I also see the progress.  I remind myself how bad it would have been if I hadn't cleaned out so much paper and junk over the summer.  I've been steeling myself to accept that there will be a huge pile of stuff in my living room for at least a few weeks.  The reality of my life is that I can only chip away at this mess.  On the weekends I might get a bit more time, or less depending on the weekend.

Here's what my living room, the room I can generally count on to be tidy and ready to receive company, looks like:

It seems overwhelming but I'll just do a little (or big!) something every day and watch it disappear.

Here's what the office looks like on the bookcase side.  I hope it stays this way as I purge, sort, organize and find homes for a wide variety of items.

I hope to posting about office progress in the days to come.  Stay Tuned!

Katie

Day 284 - Miscellanous and Larger Items

I have a variety of items today I've collected over the last month or two. These are the here and there items that go out on their own or are a little too big to keep in the corner of my bedroom until 26 accumulate.


1 to 7. A fun toy we've had for all 4 girls.  This one went to consignment.

8 to 12. Packaging for squishy Disney princesses.  Why was I keeping this? 

13. Many pieces in this, but I'm just calling it a big one.  These are the remainders of make-your-own-lipgloss from DD #1s birthday party.  I got it as a hand-me-down over 2 years ago so I'm really happy to see it go!

14. A broken lamp.  The knob to switch on and off fell off.  I don't love it.  I picked it up for our guest room at a yard sale years ago for $2.  DH took it the city recycle event which takes anything that plugs in.

15. A high chair that sat on a regular chair.  The cushion/seat cover got mildew on it out in our garage and I have never been successful in getting mildew out of fabric.  It's been just sitting in our garage for about 2 years because we weren't sure quite what to do with it.  DH took it to the city recycle event's "bulky garbage" station.

16. A dinosaur computer monitor.  The city recycle event had a store designated to receive monitors so DH took it over there.

Making a formatting switch.  Not sure what's going on but I'm so bad at technology let's just go with it!

17 to 21. Outgrown Tinkerbell slippers, shoes, potty training seat - all destined for consignment

22. Great Book!  I gave this a friend who loves Jane Austen even more than I do.

23 & 24.  Red shoes outgrown - gone to consignment

25 & 26. Pillows that got put away during the headlice quarantine this summer and have never been asked for.

Day 283 - Changing Seasons

1. A sundress of mine
2. Shirt of DH's
3. Shorts of mine - finally fit again, but too short for this old lady
4. Shirt of mine - just not flattering
5. Shirt - cute but again, not flattering
6. Shirt - too short
7 & 8.  Socks - one has a hole in the heel
9. gap jeans
10. black leggings
11. pink leggings
12. blue leggings
13. purple corduroy jumper
14. long-sleeved plaid dress (so hard to get rid of long-sleeved dress but I don't love it)
15. hooded sweatshirt
16 to 19. skirts - we must have a dozen skirts so these aren't getting stored for next summer.
20. purple tee - oil stains
21. striped sweater
22.  plaid shirt/pink vest
23. summer play shirt
24. yellow tee - small spot
25. red summer shirt
26. long-sleeved tee in DD#1's "to grow into" box.  A hand-me-down that it turns out is too short.

Katie

Day 282 - Kid Shoes & Acessories

1. Ariel swimsuit getting balled up on rear
2. Piggy bath puff coming unsewn
2. Some pipe clean art project
4. Lion mask
5. The other shoe.  The first shoe fell apart and I couldn't fix it/wasn't worth effort to fix.
6 to 13.  Shoes DD#4 has outgrown. 
14 & 15. Shoes DD#2 destroyed.  Check out the toes
16. Another fairy card
17. Chase Bank piggy bank keychain
18. Cinderella notebook - too tiny to be practical
19 & 20.  socks outgrown
21. Strawberry Shortcake paper doll animal
22 to 24.  kid gardening gloves.  Much cooler in concept than reality. Another yellow must be floating around somewhere.
25 & 26. Plastic container filled with tiny glitter hearts intended for use with nail polish.  So glad DD#1 agreed she didn't need the hearts to make her nail polish fancy.

Katie

Day 281 - Homeschool, Toys, Etc

1. A Fairy Fashion paper doll book completely devoid of all dolls and clothing
2. Family Fun magazine I actually flipped through!
3 to 5.  Flashcards that are duplicate sets
6 & 7. Sight word flashcards - our homeschool curriculum came with its own set.
8. Sock puppet book.  I will not make these with my kids because it would be one more thing they expected me to keep.
9. Iridessa fairy card
10. Broken Hello Kitty hairbrush from the Sanrio store.  One of my kids spent her birthday money on this and it broken in the first few days.  Grrrr.  We picked out another pretty one for her from the dollar store.
11. Winnie the Pooh match flashcards
12. Cardboard box DD#1 saved her "coupons" in.  I told her if I found it anywhere but her room it was disappearing.  Guess what?
13 & 14.  Toothbrush covers
15. Marker
16. Broken Mr. Potato Head feet
17. Spritz dressing topper
18. LPS leaf
19. Tiny monkey toy from dentist
20. Ear that doesn't fit Mr. Potato Head
21. Strawberry Shortcake McDonald's toy
22. Broken sunglasses
23. Cassette tape - I can't wind the ribbon back in
24. Thomas UNO game missing lots of cards that will turn up, I'm sure.  They prefer the Barbie UNO anyway
25. Lice comb
26. Kid ring

Katie

Day 280 - Kid Clothes

The rain finally started so it's time to sort out the girls' summer things and refill the drawers with long sleeves. 

Most of these are from DD#4's drawers.  I pulled out tanks, sunsuits, shorts, skirts, and a few short-sleeved tops.  A few more items have stubborn stains that even my mom couldn't get out and she's a stain miracle worker.  One is a pair of DD#1 pants with a hole in the knee.

Most of these will be headed for consignment next spring, but half a dozen went to retex to be recycled.

Katie

Day 279 - Broker Statements

Here is another huge stack of papers from the office.  These are out of an old binder that was in the basement and absorbed water 3 years ago.  They're old statements from 401(k)s and other employee savings plans from previous employers. 

Katie

Day 278 - Videos

An assortment of movies has accumulated.

1. Once Upon a Forest
2. Switching Goals
3. Lady & the Tramp 2
4. Angels in the Outfield
5. Darby O'Gill and the Little People
6. Blues Clues - Musical
7. Elmo in Grouchland
8. Barney musical alphabet
9. Barney Camp Wannarunaround
10. Blues Clues - numbers
11. Abyss
12. Snatch
13. Maid in Manhattan
14. Something to Sing About
15. Field of Dreams
16. Emma
17. Pulp Fiction
18. Music & Lyrics
19. 321 Penguins
20. Alice in Wonderland
21. Scooby Doo
22. Guarding Tess
23. All Dogs Go to Heaven
24. Raising Arizona
25. Someone Like You
26.  Here on Earth

Katie