Memories and Garage Sale Pricing

I just finished pricing two more large bags of clothes for our garage sale. Yeah! Still so much more to do.

I got a little sad while pricing this morning. The clothes are so small, just like my baby girl used to be. Now when shopping for new clothes for Elena I pick out clothes that are too small. When I hold up the clothes that are the right size I can't believe how big they are. I know she has gotten so big. And I know that my just turned 3 year old is still small. But, she is growing so quickly.

I have never been one to look towards the past and miss it. I generally spend most of my time looking towards the future and the fun to be had. Becoming a mom seems to have changed that. I don't miss a day of being a single woman out on my own. Or a day of my fun college or high school years. I don't miss the care free days of my youth. But, I am going to miss helping my daughter with every single thing that she can now do on her own. And every year that passes of her youth. But, I still have the ability to look towards the future and see many great years of learning and teaching, in both of our lives, together.

Who knew that garage sale prep could bring a girl to tears?

Productive Preschool Time

I had two hours to myself in my home while my daughter was in preschool today. I am working on getting ready for a well over due garage sale. It was great. Although, the house was still a wreck when it was time to go pick up my daughter. I had decided not to pick up and just continue when my daughter went down for a nap. The only problem, my daughter would not go down for her nap.

I am thinking that I am going to need to revamp my routines now that school has started. I have been having productive days but they haven't been going to plan. I am going to worry about that later.

Big Job of The Week

When I look back at last weeks Big Job of The Week (here) I don't see the mess that I saw in my head. I knew it was a pretty small big job, but I don't see much difference in these new pictures of the completed task. It made me wonder if I was looking at my home objectively or not. Maybe things aren't as bad as I think some times. Here are the completed task pictures.

Now, remember how I said the last before picture didn't seem so bad. Well, this weeks Big Task looks even worse in person too. At least, I think so. This is the current guest room, that has become the dumping ground of things that my daughter has out grown. And, I hope before the end of the year the room my little boy will be sleeping in. As you can see by the following pictures it is truly a big task. Most of it is going to be in a garage sale that I need to plan.

I hope to get most of it done today since my daughter is gone for the day. I will try to let you know how today went before I hit the sack for the night.

Big Job of The Week (update)

I have my camera so I thought I would post those pictures.

The first shows the completion of my first big job of the week. It is so nice not having that pile of stuff to look at every morning.

Next is a picture of the rest of the room. You may not be able to tell from the picture but it is dusty! Plus there are some small clutter spots that I need to get to this week. It is small enough that hopefully I will get it done in one week. (Oh, and I have been working on making a bedspread and pillows to match the room for years. I hope to get something done soon. As in before Christmas....)

Big Job of The Week

Well, I am almost done with my previous Big Job of The Week. I would show you a picture but my husband took the camera with him.

That also means I can't show you a picture of my new Big Job of The Week. But, I decided to finish cleaning up my room. I am going to try to give it a detailed cleaning. (Everything but my husbands stuff.) I am going to do this by starting at one spot and working clockwise around the room. Then I am going to look up and work my way down to the floor. This is the best way I have found to not skip, or procrastinate, cleaning something that in my mind seems like too big of a job.

Would you like to tackle a Big Job of The Week? Let me know what you are going to take on as your challenge.

Big Job of The Week

I was supposed to post this yesterday. But, I am not done with last weeks "Big Job of The Week". So, I will/should get it done this week. Then I will post a picture of my cleaned up space and post a new big job.

How about you? Did you pick a big job? Did you get yours done? What is going to be your big job this week?

Big Job of The Week

I am not perfect. That is something that I know but don't like other people to know. I am one of those people that rush around when company is coming and clean like crazy and hide any clutter that I can. Then people come over and see a very clean home and openly wonder how I do it all. I tell them that I really am not that impressive, but I don't open the door to the closet that has so many things in it that a mountain might fall on them if they didn't run.

But, I realized that I am not alone. I went to a friends (an ex-roommate of mine) and she admitted that the night before she didn't do her frantic cleaning. Her reasoning was because we had lived together, I knew that she didn't keep a clean home all the time. I looked around and did notice some clutter (mostly from toys as she has 3 kids under 6) but it was still a well kept home. She had nothing to be embarrassed about.

When I think about how I clean (or hide clutter) when company is coming, I realize that if I looked at my home rationally, I shouldn't let my self get so stressed. Now, will that realization turn into actual reduced stress. That is yet to be seen.

But, I bring this to your attention because my "Big Job of the Week" is due to that frantic cleaning of clutter into a closet. My bedroom walk in closet became a reach over closet. Because of this when reaching over the clutter to hang up some cloths I put a little too much weight on the cloths rack and it came tumbling down. I then cleaned out my closet got rid of three tall kitchen bags of cloths and pulled out everything that didn't belong in my closet. Now all those things are in a pile in my bedroom. Here is a picture.

My "Big Job of The Week" is to find places for everything in this pile. I plan to do a little at a time and work through the pile. I will post a picture next Monday to let you know how it goes. If it is cleaned up, I will post a new "Big Job of The Week."

Do you have a big job that you want to tackle? Maybe it is your own pile of clutter that got hidden when company was coming over and has yet to be put up. Add a comment to let me know. Next Monday you can let me know how you did. Good luck!