Reclaiming Our Spaces: Organizing a School Donation Closet

This week I have been doing an organizing job for a local primary school.  They have a huge closet for clothing donations & supplies for the kids there. Such a great resource, but it was crowded & messy; disorganized.  

The first thing we did was take everything out & sort it:

Here's my plan for the space:

My goal is for the teachers to be able to go in there real quick to grab what they need without having to dig around.  

So, we plan to divide the room down the middle.  Boys items on the left & girls items on the right.  

We have ordered 6 sets of heavy-duty plastic drawers to go beneath the rack.  We got rid of about 1/2 of the clothes that were there because they were either stained or had holes or weren't the right size.  We also painted the walls & cleaned the area real well.  

To be continued…

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Holly worked on her daughter's room this week.  You can check it out here.

Liebster Award!

I was Nominated for the LIEBSTER AWARD

by Kylie from Absolutely Arkansas my new bloggy friend!

If you like my blog, then you should really check out hers!!

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About the award:  Liebster is German for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing & welcome.This award is passed from Blogger to Blogger. It’s an award for bloggers with under 200 subscribers & is to encourage each other that they are doing a great job & to keep it up!  Sweet right?

Along with the award, there are 11 questions that were asked (just realized I answered the wrong ones, but I'm just going to leave it as my kiddos are going crazy for some attention now) to help your readers get to know you better. Here are my answers below:

1.    Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in 2009 after I had my first child as a way to connect to the outside world as a stay-at-home-mom.  I had a huge passion for decorating, organizing, sewing…really anything creative & I wanted to connect with other people with the same interests.

2. What is your favorite book?

Hmm…besides the B-I-B-L-E?  Probably, 

 The Search for Significance, 

Where is God When it Hurts by Phillip Yancey, 

Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr John Townsend, 

ok & non self help: the Harry Potters,

The Hobbit, 

The Lord of the Rings,

…you know, all those.

3. What makes you laugh out loud?

My husband.  He's is hilarious: 

4. Who or what inspires you? This can be blog-related or not.

I'm inspired by godly women who are also humble & transparent.  Several women come to mind.  Here are two:  

Evelyn Stilwell.  Besides my own mother, no other woman has had a greater impact on my life.  She is the Proverbs 31 woman & she lives her life poured out for others.

Michelle Duggar.  I love the gentleness in her parenting, but also her non-judgmental spirit.

5. Who would play you in a movie?

          Staci Keanan probably looks the most like me?  

6. How long have you been blogging?

June 2009 - 4 Years off & on

7. What time of the day do you write?

Usually during nap time or after the kids are in bed.

8. What is the most annoying song in the universe?

Hmm…Anything by Weird Al or Barney?

9. What part of your home is your favorite?

My Master Suite.  It's the reason we bought the house.  My bedroom is large enough to have an office in without being crowded.  Our master bath is large enough to have to whole family in without being crowded.  It has a whirlpool tub and I love all of the finishes & hardware.  The closet is one of the biggest ones I have ever seen & you can hear NOTHING when you are in there with the door shut.  I don't have great pictures on them yet, but here are some little bits to give you an idea.

10. What is your favorite recipe?

This Cranberry Almond Scone Recipe is pretty good.

11. What is your favorite season?

Right now FALL sounds amazing, but what I really think lately is every season except summer!  Hate being out in the heat unless I have a pool or an ocean to jump into. 

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Here is a list of the blogs I'd like to pass this award onto!!!

Simply Organized NWA

Lorrabeth

Allow Him To Lead

Crazy 8

Nominees:  Make your own Liebster post answering the above 11 questions, & choose some other amazing bloggers that you think should get this award too!   Make sure to pick bloggers who have less than 200 subscribers!!

My Living Room Walls are Pretty Bare

I'm just going to tell you, my living room is very naked!  When we moved into this house 2 years ago, I had no idea what to do with all of the walls!!  I'm not used to having higher ceilings and everything I had on my walls in the last house just got lost on the walls in the new house; too small.  So, the walls have sat there pretty much empty.  

Now, I still haven't done very much because I have been so unsure of what I wanted to do.  It's pretty funny really.  I've invited friends over & asked them what they would do, but have still remained pretty indecisive.

I put a mirror on the mantel:

Then, I put another mirror on the mantel:

Better right?

I hung some crosses up:

Last week I found something else!  I was shopping yard sales & found 3 mirrors for $10!  

Here they are hung:

OK, here's the whole room now (or least the most bare part):

I did not clean up for this pic.  Ha!  Real life folks!

It's too plain.  What would you do?  I can't decide at all.  There is nothing on the wall with the window or the wall with the TV.  Ideas?