Org Junkie's Monthly Organizing Round-Up!

Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie is hosting a Monthly Organizing Round-Up, and she selected the dining room to focus on for the month of March. I just barely missed February when I learned about this great idea, so my kitchen will have to be disorganized until next year! Just kidding (sort of)! I actually was so inspired by the Feb posts that I've done several things in my kitchen (medicines, pantry, and drawers). It was so nice to be "invited" into someone's home to view their steps of organization that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do it myself. And my dining room needed it!!! Problem issues you can see in the before picture:

1. Children table & chairs that are beyond being able to clean. They're nasty!
2. Unused highchair acting as a storage unit.
3. Recycle center needs different home.
4. Art supplies need new (but close) home because we use them in the dining room.
   

Here's a close up of the recycling center/kid's art station. And I didn't stage that for the picture-we have actually been living like that! My husband had his half (recycling) and I had my half (supplies that I needed to get to in a moment's notice).

Here's the after shot:

I didn't even stage the flowers either! My dear friend, Christi, sent them to me this week because she loves me and knew I would feel loved every time I saw them! I'm so glad I hadn't taken my "after" pictures yet. Let's go through my changes:

1. The kid table and chairs went in the trash. I was going to replace it with this one from IKEA. But in the 4 days since I threw it away, my daughter asked for it 1 time (my son not at all) because they know they can do anything at our dining table that they could do at their table. Plus, this put us together for little things, not juts meals. Timothy sat by Dan while he read the paper. It was cool!
2. Unused highchair is in the garage in a designated area of things to give away. A charity is coming this Friday to take them. The highchair has not been used (as a highchair) for a while since I bought the Kaboost. This is my favorite product! You can see it in the picture under the chair on the far right. This product boosts the chair up, and now my little 2 year old is at eye level with us. It is so awesome!!! The KABOOST website is quite informative.
3. Paper, bottle, and can recycling center has been delegated to my husband. I'm not going to worry about it, but removing the highchair prevents him from being able to use the dining room!
4. I never really know what to put on the ground in the pantry. It seems weird to put food there. So as I was organizing that, I put my art supplies and play-doh (the items needed at the dining table) there. I also printed off clip art of what is in each box so the kids know what they're looking for. The kitchen (and pantry within) is just to the left of the dining room. Here is the before and after of that:

My long term hope is that I can put a buffet right under the window and house the art supplies, play-doh, and everything else for the dining room. That was not in the budget this month, but it's cool that I've already made the space for it when the opportunity arises. The ficus has been sitting in the garage (kicked out there due to a different living room arrangement), and I'm glad I brought it back inside.

Thank you, Org Junkie, this was so fun, and I look forward to many more months of organizing!