Part Time Project/ First Day

After I made the commitment to begin my project, I jumped right in.  I spent the morning with my two little ones.  We had lunch and around 1 o'clock, I started to work. 

I first made better use of the bookshelves.  I had several things that could find other, more appropriate, homes.  There was no sense taking up prime book space for an empty wedding album box or our home inspection binder.  Those moved to long-term storage in the attic.  I put away all of the books the children had left on the floor or on the desk.  I made enough space to fit some new chapter books we had been given.  They had previously been sitting in boxes just inside the doorway.

I kept a trash bag handy for all of the useless things I found... Broken pencils, scraps of paper, shopping bags and receipts left over after gift-wrapping, fast-food toys, etc.  I also  had a recycle box for paper and a box for things I wanted to sell or donate. 

I went through and tossed about half of my craft paints that were nearly empty or dried out.  I removed a canvas storage piece that no longer suited my needs.  I found a few books we didn't need, though I should have spent more time sorting through them because I am sure there are more I could part with.  I found several other things I could part with including scrap fabric from a Halloween costume I made 10 years ago!

In just 3 hours I had made a significant difference in the room!   I had to quit for the day to get the older boys and head to church, but seeing the huge improvement in so little time gave me the motivation to finish the cleaning phase.