A Birthday is a Dangerous Thing

Alternately titled, "Why I need to take some photography classes."

But to return to the subject at hand.

After much debating, I have decided that I am going to spend my birthday money on......

Toy Storage Boxes!!!

I'm so excited! Of course, my birthday money won't buy very many boxes, but I am so excited about getting them a bit organized and out of falling-apart cardboard boxes.

But you know...

- Before I can put toys in boxes, I have to organize the toys and books in the front room.

- To organize the toys and books in the front room, I have to redo the bookshelves.

- Before I can redo the bookshelves, I have to redo the new "homeschool bookshelves" in the back room.

- Before I redo the homeschool bookshelves, I have to relocate the bookshelves and redo the shelf heights completely!

In other words, one thing led to another, and now we're in complete chaos. The younger-kid books on the front bookshelves are almost-kinda-sorta done:

But now the toys are a disaster:

But we are in progress!

Here are my new "homeschool bookshelves," previously known as "the bookshelves that we're using to stash in-between kids' clothing" (still displayed in my stylish diaper-box storage units).

I am styling them a la Pam W., an amazing homeschool mom who has the most amazing homeschool bookshelves ever. My goal is to have rows for textbooks and curriculum, older-kid books (i.e. chapter books), non-fiction and reference books, and notebooks/records. I have the sneaking suspicion that these bookshelves too will fill up quickly, but for now I'll shut my mind to that possibility and pretend that this will be good enough for our whole homeschooling career.

My other goals are to corral toys and take some out of circulation, and in general simplify our play room (i.e. living room) so that it is not an absolute disaster every night at pick-up time. We'll see.

And all because of a few dollars of birthday money - yikes!!