Moira needed a bag for her soccer gear this fall.  Instead of buying one we decided to try a pattern in One Yard Wonders.  (which was otherwise just ok) We went through our fabric stash and see what we could come up with.  She chose a brown and pink cotton. 

The bag body consists of four large panel with the bottoms rounded. You sew two fronts to two backs to make a shell and a lining – leaving 4in for turning the lining.  There are two side straps pinned inside and sewn together. Then the right side is pulled through the opening and the lining is tucked into the shell. 

you sew a piece of stretched elastic to the inner bottom which scrunches the bottom of the bag. 

A casing is sewn at the top, the shoulder strap sewn to the sides and elastic pulled into the casing to scrunch the top of the bag.  Voila.  Very pleased.  I tend to start way more things than I finish so this was a morale boost! I can sew a bag <g>

Tardy as usual but I did promise more on the new Family Closet, currently ranked as one of my major life blessings. For years I had read about consolidating the laundry and clothing storage areas into one space. It is so foreign to most people that it is quickly dismissed as impossible, impractical, or just plain out there. One relative of mine who shall remain nameless was utterly appalled at the mere suggestion and asserted that we were hovering on the brink of barbarism. But I tell you, look to the mega families and their systems.  They have come to do things the way they do because those things WORK.  It took me a long time to embrace that fact.  Those women do not have the luxury of inefficiency. As a result, their homes often run more smoothly than those with just a few children. 

In our last home we had already set up the rooms before I got serious about home organization and there were so many fires to put out on a regular basis we never were able to really revamp our system.  When we moved I was determined to start fresh, so we analyzed our spaces well before the furniture arrived. 

The  basement had a large storage/utility room which was perfect for the new closet set up.  This was made possible because we had gotten rid of a considerable percentage of our storage items before we moved. The rest fit into the attic. So the basement was wide open. (If it had not been, we intended to use one bedroom for clothes.) The base issued us one collapsable wardrobe unit per person since we do not have built in closets in the bedrooms.  These I used to line the room.  (If the room had been smaller I was prepared to put those wheeled hanging racks in the center of the room as well.)  Inside each unit is a pole for hangers and a top and bottom shelf.  I have most things hung and then have a number of large plastic dishpans on the shelves for "toss-ers"  like socks, unmentionables, pj's, etc. The little girls could easily fit a second hanging pole in theirs since their clothes are tiny. 

The iron and board are nearby. At the moment shoes are tossed rather unceremoniously into the bin you see in the pics. There is a basket on the dryer for socks waiting to be matched. I suspect that there will be some boxes on top of the wardrobes to hold 'nearly fits' and 'just grown out of' sizes as we finish unpacking the winter clothes boxes. 

We are blessed with two dryers but honestly I rarely use them both. The beauty of having the clean clothes near the washer is that I am bound to visit that room several times a day to get myself and others dressed and undressed.  While I am there, I move laundry. That simple. If I can't fold and hang immediately – and I usually cannot) I move the clean baskets to the closet side of the room til the end of the day and catch up then.  Its a matter of minutes to fold and hang when I can put it all away right there. It helps to plan ahead some so that the machines are empty for the day after games and the bed changing day. 

 It's been almost three months now and I have no plans to change a thing. Only wish I had done this sooner.  The bedrooms are now a breeze to keep clean as well since there are no piles of clean or dirty clothes to wade through. Kids are notoriously bad about maintaining closets and drawers. Even if you are fanatical about folding and stacking their clothes, one child in a hurry can undo hours of clothes organization in a moment's rifling for socks before practice.  Been there.  Done that. So wherever your clothes are stored, I highly recommend NEVER letting small people take out their own clothes. Small meaning anyone under double digits.  Seriously. I have never seen that go well in any family we have visited. Store them high, lock the closet, or whatever. 

 If you can't imagine how this would work in your house, think outside the box. Key here is to compartmentalize rooms more than the American norm of having lots of rooms with similar functions.  This was explained really well in the Duggar's book.  When the move to a new home was delayed they ended up in a two bedroom home with a half dozen kids or something like that. Living with most of her things boxed and labeled ended up being a blessing and they realized that most families don't need more rooms and furniture in and on which to sit, but rather more organized storage space. She continues to keep only the daily use items in easy reach and the rest are shelved and boxed and labeled for easy access. 

A bedroom doesn't have to be a bedroom. Ditto for a family room or whatnot.  Figure out your needs and assign each room a function in that order. Don't let common room labels dictate the use of your space. 

So there you have it. Family closet 101.  Since the laundry and dishes amount to the majority of a families chores and messes, getting on top of those makes the rest of life go very smoothly. 

For as long as I can remember I have loved old things. Flea markets, rummage sales, thrift shops, bazaars. If I had all the money in the world I would still love junking. The thrill of the hunt is at least half the fun and it's really gratifying to resurrect something discarded and forgotten and give it new life. Not to mention that over the years we have been able to furnish a home this way on less than what one room of new furniture would cost. 

 Our old bed was so beyond its last legs it was picked up by the metal man on the roadside before we left. We knew we would need to replace it here but didn't relish the thought of paying the prices we were seeing for pressed woods. We were blessed to literally find this set in the basement of the local junk shop for less than what we could have picked up a new bed at a furniture warehouse.  Such a deal. 

 The old European furniture is not nailed and glued together but rather held in place with a system of pins. When the pins are taken out it stacks fairly flat to fit through the narrow stairways and doorways. Genius. Although putting it all back together was tricky.

In the end we got a marvelous master bedroom with a lot more character than could be found on a showroom floor for a fraction of new. 

I am still so very pleased. 

The new issue of Victoria has an article about an American company importing French cross stitch patterns – The French Needle.  This piqued my curiosity to no end so I came home to look them up.  They are gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous.  Off on a new tangent…

Cheryl's room by room declutter is nothing short of amazing.  We have talked a bit as we both worked through this process but I hesitate to even share my results because they are no where  near as remarkable as hers. You want inspiration?  Go there.   I am less cluttered but  Cheryl is becoming truly minimalist.  She is making very decisive moves in that direction.  I am flirting, one toe in the water.  In the spirit of sharing progress however I will tell you what we have done and where it is going.  

Before you get too impressed let me disclose a few things.  First, we rented a 22 by10 ft roll off (construction type) dumpster and we filled it three times.  Now, much of that was rickety furniture, patio set, farm stuff, and so on.  Lots of fixer uppers that never got fixed up or thrifted items past their prime and we had to be real about the likelihood that they were going to be more than that in the foreseeable future. 

Then came the bags of stuff.  LOTS of stuff.  A humbling amount of stuff for a woman who thought she was doing decently well at simple living. We have lived here 8 yrs though and had an enormous amount of room to spread it all out indoors and in the barn and outbuildings so it was easy to miss how much we were dealing with – much of which came here with us and hadn't been touched since.  I will elaborate on what went out as we go. 

Letting go of stuff can be a wrenching process even if you are not all that materialistic.  There are lots of emotions attached to the 'stuff'.  For me it it is a often guilt, especially if someone gave me the item or it got ruined while we had it. That last one is particularly hard.  Or it is a frugality thing. Maybe it could be worth something if we fixed it up or it would be cheaper than replacing it with something new.  So there is that tug of war going on every time I pick something up.  There is only so much time in the day however and oftentimes space is worth more than the items in question. And finally there are the things that our kids used. I am seriously looking at little airplane baby jumper knowing it isn't even functional.  But my babies used it. : /  Realistically though, we aren't in a position to maintain a shrine to our past so we have to make these calls. The whole thing goes in stages with me initially thinking I can't part with it and months later deciding, yes, I can. With our numbers and mobility I must.

The living room was the easiest room of the house so we will start there.  It was easiest because we also have a family room.  There is no tv in here, hence there is never food in here.  Secret #1 for an easy to maintain room. 

So what it is in here is the piano, music books, art, 3 piece leather set, lace curtains, a plant stand, the sewing machine table holding the lamp, and the prayer table with statues/bible/devotional books/candles.  

The biggest clutter challenge in here was the music books.  The volume was unreal.  It is STILL unreal though it is fairly well contained behind the chair in baskets.  Alannah is still culling the books, saving what we can use for the littles and tossing the duplicates. 

There were some project items under the couch – frames to be painted – and the basket under the prayer table was overfull.  I love all my books and have a bad habit of grabbing one and thinking Oh! this is a great read.  And then another.  And another.  And they ARE great reads.  Inspirational.  But they are just as accessible on the shelf as in a stack.  Probably  ; ) So there is a bible and devotional left on the table and a few on the windowsill for good measure. 

Some challenges left -besides the little box left on the chair lol – are the blinds.  They are really hard to keep clean on the prairie but the sun demands something be there.  I have debated about whether to take or leave the lace panels.  I realize that lace has fallen out of favor in design circles but I am still torn.  Maybe it's the Granny Chic in me lol.  I have this ongoing internal battle between minimalist and vintage and the latter keeps winning. 

The leather is really easy to clean. Good call that was.  The floors are easy care.  It takes all of ten minutes to clean the room.  So there you have the easy fix room.  

…happily thrifted this winter