Clean up the clutter!

I took all of last week off from work (minus Thursday for a conference) to clean up the clutter in the basement. For the past 15 months (since Mallory was born), we have been putting everything in the basement and saying "we'll get to it later". Well, it's later, and on the cusp of the holiday season , I felt myself slipping further and further into later. I am very happy I was able to take some much needed time off of work, not only to tackle this basement, but to spend some alone time with Mallory.

I have got to say, she was the best behaved baby girl, a mom who was about to embark on a great decluttering journey, could ask for. I think she truly enjoyed it because we were in the basement, which is a place in our home Mallory has not seen much of. There are all kinds of new things to explore down here, and all sorts of household items to play with.

My goal: get the spare bedroom downstairs decluttered, in the midst of doing that, list a few things on Craigslist, rearrange the laundry room, send a pile of donated stuff to the Veterans, dust, vacuum, and get the Christmas lights up outside. I am happy to report, all of the above has been accomplished with the exception of the spare bedroom. I did get most of the clutter out, and as you can see in the before and after photos below, you can actually walk in there! I am a little disappointed I was not able to get the room completely done, but I am very happy with the progress so far. This makes the task much more manageable on weeknights, and weekends.

With cleaning and decluttering you tend to find all kinds of "fun" things in which you forgot you had. One example I have is Christopher's ARMY issued glasses. Soldiers have a fancy name for them, RPG's, which I won't explain on here, but for those of you who are curious, you can Google that I am sure, or send me an e-mail and I will explain. HA! Since Mallory is quite the little copy cat these days, here she is channeling her Daddy to a T.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Mallory to date, if not THE favorite. She is such a little ham!

With the opening up of the spare bedroom downstairs, and winter on it's way, we decided to bring in some of Mallory's outside toys for use in her new playroom, when it's complete. She just loved the little rocking horse the Kreilings gave her right around her birthday, so here is a video of her, just a rocking away....

She has also really enjoyed playing with the balance ball we use for exercising. I guess it's fine she's so interested in it, we need to get some use out of it. HA! Here is a video of Mallory "doing her exercises".

And lastly, her scooter car that Grandma Dee gave her for her first birthday, is more than just a scooter car. It's a daredevils tool! I tell you, after watching Mallory play, and play this week, I have a feeling she's going to be a lot like me, and full of stitches. Man, she makes me nervous, because she's always trying to climb up stuff.

We had a BLAST! While it's back to work tomorrow (blech), I have just come to the realization there is time to do both, manage our home and be a good mommy. I have heard many people tell me, and I have read in many books, balance is the key, and I wasn't sure when I was going to find mine, but I think I am on my way there!