Cleaning with all sorts of help

I have this goal to have my house organized by the time I start teaching again next month. It seems like a fairly impossible goal since I can't even keep my kitchen floor swept, but we'll see how it goes.

Last week I decided to start with the worst closet first. Since I can't get anything done in the evening since I seem to be gone so often I told the kids they could design and paint the closet if they helped me clean it out. I was aware of what an awful plan this was even before we began but I was trying to figure out some way to actually work on it during the day with kids while still keeping them entertained and out of trouble.

They actually really liked the idea.

 Azia and Addison got to work right away coming up with design possibilities for all the kids to choose from. And the boys were ready to start hauling things out and putting my piles into the appropriate places.

 We needed to go through everything so we could actually get to all the paint to begin touch up (and in some cases more major) work once on the other rooms in the house once we got things organized.

 So this is what we started with.

 Okay I'm lying. This is the great organization system that was in place.

I wonder why I couldn't find anything?

Once we had it cleaned out and the kids had decided on a plan, I got them some paint and they got to work.

 Again. . . unwise. . . look at all those children with paint.

And then after every once left for the day I left Lex with access to the paint.  He was sort of following the kids' design plan, but he got a little out of control with it.

 Luckily Azia & I got most of it scrubbed off their newly painted wall and the couch.

We will not discussed the side of the house. No one will notice once we repaint there. It's on the list.


Anyway, now we have a new closet play room! (There were also big circles on the ceiling in their plan which we will add later. I ran out of patience and also didn't want to buy more paint! )

This is largely a toy storage area because we don't have a play room but do have a half dozen ride on toys and giant trunks of costumes that have no homes in any kid's room. Some time in the near future we will probably cut much of this little kid play equipment & use this space for something more practical, but for now I need somewhere to lock all this kid stuff so it isn't overtaking the house when kids aren't using it.

But as a lovely side feature, the kids do think they now have a play room. Who cares if it's only like 3x6 or something and there isn't actually any room to play once more than one person is in it.

 It's still exciting and somewhere new to hang out.

Also,  it serves as a guest room:

Bryce & Iyezk: I found these two like this at about 2:00 am when I got home from an ambulance call. I was worried they had enough of the sleepover and went home in the middle of the night but then I noticed them in the closet!


Anyway, one huge headache of disorganization under control, about a dozen more to tackle.