Tidy Up Tuesday

Much has been going on to improve and beautify our home. First up, I finally made some time to hang up my cross collection. (I know it's not very big, but it's a start. The big one was a gift from my MIL, who made it in ceramics class a long time ago; the smaller one was a purchase during my recent trip to Phoenix.)

I also rearranged some of the baby gates & barricades on the first floor. The top of the basement stairs was really cluttery. The whole area had been blocked off, so we had kind of started lobbing things to go downstairs over the gate... where they sat & sat. It's nice to be able to get to the window again.

The same thing happened with the entry table. It tends to collect stuff to go upstairs, but the stuff sort of sits there longer than it really should. I purchased two small baskets at Walgreens that now sit on the stairs. The baskets collect the stuff to go upstairs & are emptied several times each day.
I wish I had thought to take before photos so you could see the great improvements that were made.

Much of the tidying that happened this week was of the organizational kind. I reorganized Tyson's control journal...
...as well as my own. We needed to accommodate for summer break. I love this idea, which I got from the FLY Lady. Having my routines and daily to-do lists helps to keep me on track with the housework, and spreads it out. We do a little each day, and then on "Home Blessing Day," we've only got about an hour worth of cleaning to do. We use the timer method FLY Lady recommends, and amazingly, it all gets done (when we stick to the program).
We've got a lot to do this week. I'm trying to tear through all the hidden spaces this week (closets, cabinets, etc.). Once the nooks & crannies of our family living spaces are clean & organized, we can move on to cleaning up the basement & decorating the bedrooms.

Have a Tidy Week!