The BEFORE photo

Why, oh why, do both of E's grandmas have to live so far away? I could really use them this weekend as I attempt to organize the attic. A few years ago, we had about 2/3 of the attic space finished into what I call the "everything else" room - a queen size futon for guests, built-in bookcases, filing cabinets, desk, treadmill, sewing machine...

Of course, this only leaves about 1/3 of the attic for storage. Imagine 7.5 years of E's outgrown clothes and toys in that space. Now imagine that only the first two years of the 7.5 are boxed up nicely by size and season. The remaining 5 years are thrown randomly into boxes or (gasp!) plastic bags. And now imagine that said boxes and bags were shoved into every nook and cranny into only half of the storage side, since holiday decorations and other miscellaneous stuff takes up the other half.

So, my big project for this weekend is to organize the clothes. I pulled them all out and have them in big piles, by size and type. This is what sorted looks like, honest.


In the last 24 hours, I have also invested in no fewer than 15 large storage containers. (Note to self: Buy stock in Sterilite and Rubbermaid next week...) Tomorrow, I will tuck all of these cute little duds away and label the file boxes with little plastic-windowed tags. I just have to come to grips with the fact I will always have seven years of stuff to save. As the baby grows out of size 2s, E will be growing out of size 8, so it will be a constant rotation.

Anyway, grandmas would be really helpful to have around this weekend, just as they were helpful when prepping for E's arrival. Of course, now that they've seen this photo, they will smile and say a little prayer of thanks that they live so very very far away. And yes, I will post a picture of all my neatness and organization when it was done.