My organizing HERO…

A few weeks ago, we moved my office furniture in with Richard's so that we could free up my office for a playroom. All the stray toys that had no home were thrust into the new playroom. Not placed, thrown. We had bookshelves, but they were empty because all of the toys were in the floor. There were crayons strewn about. The toddler kitchen dishes, appliances, wooden fruit and plastic dry goods were scattered all over the floor. Balls, game pieces, toy tools, dvds, puzzles, cut pieces of who knows what paper EVERYWHERE. It was so bad that I couldn't even go into the room. It was such an enormous mess that as soon as I darkened the door it was as if I was immediately paralyzed. I had no idea what to do or even where to begin with cleaning it up, MUCH LESS actually organizing it into anything remotely useful or fun.

Enter Heather. My new hero. She came over for a play-date and knowing that she's particularly gifted with organizing, I went out on a limb and asked if she would just but look at the room and give me a few pointers. Well, she did much more than that. She walked in the room and immediately said, "Oh, this isn't bad at all!" WHAT? This room that I can't move in, can't breathe in, keeps me awake at night for all the horrors of mess? It isn't that bad? Who is this person? THEN….she proceeds to start picking stuff up and organizing it into stations. Stations? I never would have thought of such a thing. We needed a station for crafts, a station for kitchen, a station for reading, a station for sports. Oh, yes, and let's move this bookshelf perpendicular to the wall to create sort of a room within a room effect for coziness. Oh, and the reading corner should be here, just under this one bright light. Yes, and the little girl's iron and ironing board should go with the kitchen in the household area…because that just makes sense. Oh, and this table is perfect for crafts. You need to buy a little organizing basket and have crayons, paper, scissors, glue, etc. all here on hand and the table. Yes…brilliant! Oh, and while we're at it, get the vacuum for me…we need to get these papers up out of here. Do you have a shorter extension cord? What are you using the closet for? How do you feel about moving the tv "here" for better flow?

She must have had a hidden magic wand, people, because in a mere 45 minutes Heather the Hero had turned our nasty playroom into a clean, organized, preschooler-friendly area AND she took the time to train the little people in the house on just where everything was supposed to go and what everything needed to look like in order to qualify as "picked up."

There's nothing like seeing another person's gifts in action!!

Thanks a million, Heather. I've slept well ever since! J