For Dad...

for whom I have to thank for my wonderful organizing genes.  If I weren't a teacher, I'm sure I'd make a mighty fine organizing expert!  Looking at my house these days, though, you wouldn't know it.  I'll chalk that up to working full time, mommy-ing full time, and trying to squeeze in time with my main squeeze.  So in the summer, one of the things that makes me feel like I accomplished something (other than to plan 3,000 miles of car activities for my two busy ones) is to work on organizing my home - it makes the school year flow more smoothly when I can find what I need and don't have to waste precious time looking for things.  Plus, the cleaned out, cleared off spaces make me feel more at peace than constantly looking at a jumble of mess.

So this "little" project has been three or seven years in the making, depending on how you count it.  We've lived in our house now for seven years, which means we've been accumulating "stuff" for that amount of time without necessarily taking care to put things in their proper places.  I won't even detail the things we found in our garage since that would take up the rest of this post and would be too embarrassing, but Nate and I have been planning for the last 3 summers to tackle a garage clean out.  Nate has a different level of tolerance for messy than I do, and even he was itching to get this chore accomplished.  It finally happened!  I only wish I'd taken "before" pictures (although they would've been too awful to even post).  So without further ado, here are some pictures of proof that we really did spend HOURS cleaning it up yesterday!  Nate is off to the dump today with our cleaned-out messes, and though it will never be a thing of beauty to behold, it is now at least functional!

The gear corner: winter playthings, bike tires/parts, rooftop carrier accouterments,  life jackets, etc. Yay!

The kids' corner: all toys organized, shelved, and reachable.  They can finally get to their riding toys WITHOUT our assistance. Mom's potting bench cleaned out, organized, and accessible. Yay!

 The tool corner: hung, pared down to only working tools, and no longer a danger zone in our garage.  Yay!

The bike racks: out of the way storage. Yay!

I don't expect anyone to be excited about this little project except for me and perhaps Nate, but don't forget to admire all that floor space!  No more stumbling my way to the car in the morning rush - my bruised shins will thank me.