Cleaning Up, Sorting Out

After an long stretch on the road I found myself home this weekend full of vim and vigor for a proper clean out and set myself off to cleaning out some storage areas. Because I also run 2 businesses from the home (Far Flung Craft and my law office) I have boxes of paper stacked in my bedroom. Needless to say, looking at this stack everyday is well disheartening as it is not moving as quick as I would like and frankly it is ugly.

Let me also preface this post by saying that closet space is a real premium in Singapore. Most places don't have walk in closets and those that do are well small at best. The current unit we are in has this small storage closet...that is it. The remainder of the closets were built in and not well done at that.

I have moved all of those boxes, behind a screen and moved the items that were behind the screen into our storage closet. I pulled out empty boxes upon empty boxes (I guess I thought I might need them? I released a bunch of floor rugs to the greater good and they are on the way to the Philippines to be used in home of our helpers family. I got rid of three old worn suitcases and really just dumped a bunch of stuff. I still have two small boxes that need sorting and that will happen this week.

Here is the closet in the early stages of the reorganization

And, after reorganization I have open shelf space. All of the Christmas stuff is in one tote (save the tree and the wrapping papers). All of the tools are put on the same shelf.
The car seats that we save for when we travel back to the US are neatly stacked on top of the Christmas tree and the odds and ends pet stuff is in the cat crate.

More importantly, all of the luggage is stacked neatly to the side, with room for the ironing board and people to walk in and out. I may play more in this room and may designate space for some long term food storage now that I know I have the room! What types of closets do you have?

Stuff out the door.

Today I am purging more stuff. getting rid of a few things that have been sitting around our very small apartment.

Today, someone is going to come pick up the bed rail that we had for the kids. They are bigger now and don't need a bedrail. I am also listing my old artifical Christmas Tree on Freecycle. I imagine it will be picked up soon.

I need to also take a look at the Kids stuff and see what else can go. We have so much kids stuff... it is almost a shame to see stuff hardly worn, maybe I should try to sell some on Ebay Singapore... make a few dollars? Hum, it is a thought no? Get rid of some of the stuff I don't need and earn a few bukaroos on the side!

Declan is doing well with his new smile. He took his tooth fairy money and got himself a Thumper (from Thomas the train) at our "Good" toy store. While this is techincally a purchase, as I said from the start, the kids were not held to the same standard and this is money he he was given as a gift from the tooth fairy. In one way it is kind of fun to watch him look at this money and try to chose a train. He knew he had $10 but how to equate that to the toys on the wall he wasn't quite sure yet. Hey, he is only 5... but he would pick up two toys (the trains Ben and Bill) and I told him he didn't have enough money he could only get one. Either Bill or Ben. That made him think, the next train he picked up was a big engine with a coal car. Again, more than his budget by a long shot (Wooden toys are a bit spendy here) so we talked about the fact that the little trains would probably be cheaper and he could find one he liked. Well, once he found Thumper he was happy. He has wanted Thumper since this summer but the store did not carry it. They must have gotten a few in for Christmas, so this was a treat!

So, now it is back to normal around here, Mommy is adjusting to the fact that her son has a gap toothed smile, Declan is doing well without his teeth and I am working hard on books, Christmas gifts, organizing and all that my normal routine covers.