Chuck Day 2014: Before and After

                                                  Chuck Day 2014 was a success! 

      We began around 9 AM with the main part of the basement. This is the area that includes my desk (aka: the dumping ground for all things paper), the woodstove (and firewood hoops), and other random "stuff". Here is the "BEFORE" photo from the area of the woodstove looking at my desk:

After a trip to Walmart for some shelves, and about three hours of work we have created order where chaos once ruled:

The desk still needs some organization but since most of it has to do with taxes (home, farm, woodworking business) it will wait until January. But now at least, I can see that my desktop is gray with fake wood trim. I was beginning to wonder...

I have moved my sewing machines into the main room so I can better organize my sewing room for Christmas projects. I should have photos of the newly organized sewing room in a few days. The trophies have been displayed nicely on a new shelf and have been labeled with the correct owner. A new shelf was also added for books that are specific to either my sewing, my writing, or our farm.

After a quick lunch we moved on to the "play area". The "BEFORE" photo shows how everything had been basically piled onto any and every horizontal service. The photo doesn't show the girls' desk area that is piled with books, papers, CD's, and DVD's. You also can't see the layer of dust and dirt from when the chicks were kept in this room for their first few weeks, but trust me, it was there!




























By 4 PM we were just about finished except for the last sweeping/vacuuming and dusting of Sam's fire department awards and knick-knacks:

The homeschool shelf was reduced from four shelves to just two, now that only Rachel and Samantha are being schooled. Hannah fixed the broken bench and we noticed that the couch has seen better days. We'll start saving up for a sleeper sofa or a futon type couch; something that will give us options when we host missionaries or have sleepovers with the cousins.

 

The girls have fewer toys and they are taking better care of their things, so we only had a small pile for donation and just three trash bags for the dump. We discovered that they had not taken down the Christmas decorations from last year and it was voted that they would remain up since Christmas is only 55 days away!

So the basement is now neat and organized! There is still work to do in the mudroom, laundry room, and my sewing room. Those are smaller projects that we will tackle as we have time. So how was your Chuck Day?

It's That Time Of Year!

It's that time of year again!

Chuck Day will soon be upon us!

If you are unfamiliar with Chuck Day, you can get educated here: "'It's All About Chuck' Day", and here: Chuck Day 2013. I think it is awesome the number of people I now know who have read about Chuck Day and have created their own version for their families!

We have chosen Saturday, November 1st for our Chuck Day this year. I was surveying the "WrecK" room the other day and realized that we'll need to change how we do things this year. The girls are older and the numbers of toys and games has dwindled considerably. We will still pull everything out, clean, and sort through it all, but it definitely won't be the hours-long process, like in years past.

This year I think we will need to switch our focus to the areas where we have things stored: the mudroom, laundry room, and office spaces. I am even considering taking on the bedrooms. (Eeeek!) More of the girls' things are stored there instead of in the "play area," which can make the rooms cluttered messes. I am considering stretching Chuck Day into Chuck Week and tackle one bedroom per day. I might even take on the "Sewing Room"! (Yikes!)

So in anticipation, I will be shopping for garbage bags, plastic totes, and other types of containers. We'll need a new broom and dustpan, since the last one "somehow just broke." (??Really??) I cleaned the filters on the vacuum yesterday and dug out the oldest towels and cut them into rags. This morning, Sam is reorganizing the outside garbage area in anticipation of the onslaught. I do believe we are ready to take on Chuck Day!

"Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."
   - Winston Churchill

It's All About Chuck Day 2013

So today was "It's All About Chuck Day". Back in 2008 I wrote a blog post about how "Chuck Day" got started: http://movinlikeaherdofturtles.blogspot.com/2008/10/chuck.html

We did Chuck Day without both Nathalie (at college) and Abigail (at work). Hannah, Rachel and Samantha worked hard and we managed to get rid a whole lot of "stuff".

Sorting the books into three piles: KEEP, DONATE TO COUSINS, and GOODWILL.

About halfway through putting the books back on the dusted shelves.

Sorting the markers. Each one got tested with the "dead" ones being thrown away.

Sorting through the DVD's, CD's, and computer games. We even found some old cassette tapes I had "mixed" when I was in high school!

Samantha sharpened all the pencils before sorting them into the cans.

Hannah is rearranging the electronics to better hide all the cords. The pile in the lower corner is all the stuff we still needed to sort thorugh.

Rachel and Samantha sort through the legos and kitchen toys while Hannah sweeps behind the two shelves we were able to throw out by thinning out the board games and puzzles.

A bucket of doll clothes and toy horse stuff was all that was left to sort through!

The finished bookshelf!

The finished product! Good for another year!

Chuck

Yesterday was our annual "It's All About Chuck" day. This is a day in October that we set aside to clean the playroom. We started this tradition about ten years ago. Abby was four years old; Nathalie was two. Sam and I were tired of the mess in the playroom, which we have come to affectionately call, the "WrecK" room.

We knew that Christmas was coming. A time when my (at the time) unmarried and childless siblings, loved to lavish my children with toys. I was dreading the mess and it was only October. We decided we were going to clean the playroom and anything broken or missing pieces would be thrown away. Anything we knew they really didn't play with would either be set aside to be donated or thrown away, depending on its condition.

We had the girls helping us and at one point Sam lifted a toy from the heap that hadn't been played with in months because it was missing pieces. Sam questioned as to where it should go and I (without thinking) replied, "Chuck it." As Sam placed the item in a garbage bag, the girls began to wail. Thinking quickly I explained that this particular bag was not going to the dump. It was going to a special little boy named "Chuck". His family was very poor and wouldn't he have fun with these things? Sam (sometimes the man is really on the ball), grabbed a marker and wrote "Chuck" on the bag. The girls bought it and "It's All About Chuck" day was born.

So yesterday we cleaned the playroom. The girls being older now, know where the stuff is going. But we do still have a box labeled "Chuck" and any items they are tired of and are still in good condition, go in it and get brought to the Good Will store.

I was amazed only three bags of garbage and one box for Chuck. Nearly all of the puzzles had to be tossed as they were missing pieces. But the girls have been taking better care of their board games and only two of them were missing too many pieces to be playable. We culled through some of the books and have eliminated the sets of encyclopedias with copyright dates in the 1950's. While they are beautiful books, they are simply too outdated and we don't have the space.

The "WrecK" room is clean and organized again. At least until Christmas...