Productive Day

Yesterday I had one of those days. No, not one of 'THOSE" days were you are pulling your hair out, have a course voice from yelling and can't wait until bedtime, but a day where I achieved alot!  

For those who follow my Facebook page, you would have seen my 'To Do' list abd everything marked off and completed! Yip -eeeee! It helped that I only had Angus at home, the other 3 kiddos went for a play at their Grandparents and I made the most of my time. I could have and probably should have relaxed, done some scrapbooking, read a magazine , had a coffee, but instead I worked like a trojan, skipped all meals but felt better going to bed than I have in a long time. Absolutely exhausted but accomplished!

 For me, having always worked, and only becoming a Stay at Home Mum 12 months ago, I have found that to be the hardest to deal with. I am used to going to work, doing wages, ordering products, training staff and all while caring for my kids, cooking , cleaning and trying to give my kids a beautiful life.

Its been hard for me, feeling like I haven't achieved much. In reality, I have achieved alot. Our kids are fed, happy, safe and entertained. We often do craft and I like to keep my house tidy and relatively clean. Isn't that enough? Of course! But often I want to feel like I have done more. I NEED to see changes, see those ticks on a list. Or I feel somewhat like a failure. Silly I know, but surely someone can relate? This SAHM gig is tough!

Anyhoo, yesterday,  I started the day like this;

I got out all the spare baskets and organising tools that I had around the house, just incase I needed them and just to see what I had to work with. I always do this, it gives you a better plan for what is going to where and how. I actually had a chuckle to myself when Clare from The HOME She Made posted on her FB Page that she does the same thing, great minds, but it really is the most practical thing to do.

One of the jobs on my list was to do something about our beloved Flash Cards. They are fantastic for a learning and interactive play tool for the kids, but lately the only thing they have been learning, is watching Mum play 52 pick up with the darn cards. ARGH! Not only that, but the boxes were starting to look rather worse for wear and the cards were all getting mixed up.

 

The boxes started to look like this.

I had a spare set of little plastic tubs from Ikea, available in a set of 3 for $4.95 and HERE, they really are so handy and CHEAP!
I saw on Pinterest that someone used them for card games like Uno and playing cards and instantly thought of our flash cards.
Now they are all organised nicely, labelled and whats better is, the tubs are easy for the kids to open and close themselves, no more 52 pick up for Mum! I'm not silly!

Then I moved on to finish organising Stella's wardrobe. Remember when I made the wardrobe dividers for her School clothes in this post?

Well ever since then, I have wanted to finish sorting and organising all her knick knacks that seem to scatter everywhere or get knabbed by her little brother and sister.

Even though we have a toy room, we have decided to allow the kids to keep their special toys in their own rooms. For a few different reasons, to teach  them that some toys are for sharing but some toys belong to certain people, to teach them to care and look after things and that some toys are more precious than others and need to be treated accordingly, just to name a few. So for Stella, her 'precious' toys are obviously her Blythe dolls, but they are up high in her wardrobe, but her Strawberry Shortcake dolls and accessories and a few Littlest Pet Shop ones. All of these are also small and fiddly bits and are easily misplaced.

So I moved a small white bookshelf that used to live in my sewing room (now the twins bedroom to make way for dear Angus) that has been stored in the garage and sorted all her goodies and placed them in different baskets and containers (bottom right side) .

It looks MUCH better and Stella is really happy with the result and instantly started playing with everything, simply because she knew where it was, what was in what box and where to put it back!

FYI- The bottom baskets are General shoes (left) and dress ups (right) then the pink tin is for the bulkier items like a Barbie horse etc, her keyboard is standing behind and then the shelves with her baskets . School shoes are in the shoe hanger, school clothes to the left and then normal clothes in a few sizes to the right.

I also managed to mark other jobs off the list, like filling and organising my new and mega gorgeous camera bag I got for my birthday last week (post coming tomorrow) , Sort and fill our new School folder from Kikki K ( sorry tried to find it on the website and it seems to have gone, hopefully just out of stock!), clean the inside of the washing machine, download and print the Laundry labels from  'A little delightful' and most importantly , begin our Master bedroom makeover (it definately needs it and I am going to be keeping you informed along the way).

Totally knackered by the time I was finished but love seeing the results!