The Organizing Has Begun

I'm slowly but surely get our house back in order after the chaos of Christmas. All of our decorations are put away (except for a few lights) and the tree is ready to go back in the basement. (My allergies prevent me from having a real tree, much to Hubby's disappointment). Hubby and I spent most of the past weekend sorting and organizing the girls' toys. During a visit to Target, I checked out an organizer that I had been eyeing online. Hubby and I talked it over and decided to buy it... and when I went back it was on sale!

It may  not look like much, but this has made a huge difference. Since all the "little things" now have a place to go, it's so much easier to keep the toys organized. (We have the stuffed animals in large tubs and the dress up clothes in mesh totes). The girls understand that things need to be put back in their proper places and (so far) they've been really good about putting things away. Hubby set up the storage rack while I was at work, so I have to keep asking my daughters where certain items go!
Now I'm on somewhat of a cleaning frenzy. I'm trying to tackle one room/area at a time. We never seem to have time to organize, so it's easy to wind up with clutter. My goal over the next few weeks (yes, it's going to take that long. No, we're not hoarders) is to tackle all the areas that we keep saying we'll get to when we have time. Wish me luck!

I Love Cleaning the Toilet Now

OK, so that title is an exaggeration, but I have found the best toilet cleaner ever. So, let me be clear... this is not a paid or sponsored post. I simply like this product and felt the need to share.
Hubby and I have always lived in houses with hard water. This is typically solved by a water softener, but our toilets have always developed deposits in the bowl from the water. It drives me crazy. Cleaning the toilet once a week is a gross enough task.... having to do it more than that is just ridiculous. For awhile I used Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Max cleaner. I like that you can just toss the part that attaches to the wand and not have a dirty toilet brush hanging out in the bathroom. But for the last year or so I have only been able to find the Fresh Brush flushable pads, which don't work as well as the Fresh Brush Max.
Then a few months ago I was picking up more of the flushable pads when something caught my eye: Kaboom's Scrub Free Continuous Toilet Cleaning System. It was on sale so I decided to give it a try. Thank goodness I did.
The product snaps in your tank and somehow releases Oxiclean each time you flush. It lasts about three months, which takes some of the sting out of the price (I bought it for $7.99. The Kabooom website lists it at $9.99). It truly keeps the toilet clean until I can scrub it. Now I can use the Fresh Max flushable pads, since the toilet bowl doesn't need a tough scrubbing. On the occasion when I skip a week of cleaning, the toilet is no worse for the wear. Even when I do clean, the bowl no longer has hard water build up.
I like anything that makes my housework easier, so I thought I would share... even if I still don't like cleaning the toilet.

The Big Split

When we moved into our house a few years ago, Hubby and I had great intentions. We planned to go through every single box and purge all the non-essentials. Unfortunately, having toddler quadruplets at the time really hindered our plans. Our basement is filled with boxes. Our office has become a "catch-all" of sorts.
Now it's time to get our rears in gear. We're moving the girls from their toddler beds to twin beds. Four twin beds won't fit in their room, so they're going to be split up. Our guest room will become their other bedroom. Our office will become the guest room. I guess we don't really need an office, huh? (Details of the split will come in a later blog).
In about two weeks, Hubby and I are hoping over the span of two days to get the office cleaned out. It will mainly involve a lot of shredding and filing... record keeping just seems to slip when you've got preschoolers running around the house all day.
Once the office is cleaned out and the big move takes place our next goal will be to tackle all the boxes in the basement. Who knows what treasures we'll discover? Most likely we'll end up with lots of things to either donate or trash. Wish us luck!

A Place for the (Stuffed) Animals

A few months ago, I blogged about all the stuffed animals in my daughters' beds. I accidentally found a solution to keep their beds a little less cluttered.
Now that all four of my daughters are 100% potty trained, it seemed like it was time to take the changing table out of their room. For the last year or so, the changing table has been more of a storage area anyway. Oh, and a nice little climbing toy for them to look out the window.
About a week ago I did my seasonal cleaning out of their closet. During that time Hubby cleaned off the changing table and took it out of their room. In it's place is a Rubbermaid-type "dresser" with four drawers. Each girl has her own drawer. Roo and Tortilla put their cases for their glasses in the drawers. At night we pick out their clothes for the next day and put those in the drawers as well. In the morning they put their pajamas in the drawers.
The first night the dresser was in their room they wanted to fill their drawers to the brim with anything and everything they could find. Tortilla took every stuffed animal and baby doll on her bed and crammed them in her drawer. The other girls followed suit. They refuse to remove the animals at bed time and would now rather keep them in their drawers. It's not the perfect solution to a clean room, but at least they each have more room in their beds now!