Command post

I started setting up my kitchen command center. Mostly so hubby stops leaving mail everywhere. I mean everywhere, I found a pile of it in the bathroom sink the other day!

I've so far moved the pantry to bring the trash can next to the shelf (so junk mail is more likely to make it in there). Underneath the shelf is my paper, metal , glass and plastic recycling bins, hidden by a rag curtain (easier to shove thing in that way). We've got a big calander made from an old whiteboard, a cork board for important notices, return receipts, etc. my meal planner (still need to laminate the cards) and my mail bins on the shelf. It's not very pretty (yet!) but it'll free up my kitchen counters. And bathroom counters. And bedside table. And coffee table. lol.

Craft corner reveal

Revealing my almost finished craft corner/classroom closet. I've converted the closet in our guest room into a workstation filled with all our crafting, drawing, sewing, scienceing (so not a word) and keeping-children-busy-while-mom-folds-laundry... Um... Ing.

The kids side of the table.

Foam stickers and shapes can keep your kid busy enough to fold all 5 baskets of clothes you've left until someone ran out of pants to wear. And if not, a tub filled with baking soda and a squeeze bottle with colored vinegar keeps mine entertained forever! I wash and reuse the plastic containers meat comes in for this, usually.

My side has sewing stuff, tapes, various cutting instruments, and my oh-so-handy glue gun. actually, I have 2, because I didn't USED to have a dedicated craft space and I lost 1 of them for awhile. Yeah... the savings of having everything in one place!

That first row of baskets on the shelf hold different as-yet-unfinished projects. Because I have the attention span of a goldfish and I'm always starting something new, heh.

Mommies side, where I do all my sewing.

Next to the closet I have my 6 foot banquet table I use for folding clothes. Underneath the table I keep a big basket where all socks go. When it's full I sit and sort them. I find this easier than doing it with each basket of laundry since we have, like 10 different kinds of white socks. Why???

Lastly we have our guest bed, which gets used frequently. When family is 3000 miles away they tend to stay for a long visit. We probably have some family member or another here 2 months total out of the year!

Having power at your fingertips is awesome.

How do you multipurpose infrequently used rooms?

tape measure along the table for easy fabric measuring.

Monster boy is enjoying his new space!

Monster Boy supplies

Closeup of the mom side!

Stumbling reality

I love going on Houzz and looking at all the gorgeous homes they have on there. How wonderful if my home could look like that! Formal dining rooms always set with beautiful china and seasonal tablescapes. a bathroom counter with nothing but a vase of flowers on it. kitchens with fancy cabinet organizers and granite counter tops and again, cleared counter tops. And those enormous craft rooms!

Sadly, I live in the real world, where finding enough room for the things we use everyday is hard enough in a 1500 sq ft, 3 bedroom home. I have no room for formal dining rooms or clear counter tops, and every room must serve several purposes when you have 4 people living together.

Our master bedroom currently sleeps 4 (did you know you can fit 4 people in 1 king-size bed? How do kids take up more room than the adults?) to our familyroom, which is currently the children's room (no wonder they sleep with us, right?) to the guestroom/laundryroom/craftroom/linen closet/classroom/occasional mommy-needs-10-minutes-alone-before-her-head-explodes room. And our third bedroom, which shouldn't be called that since I haven't found a way to fit even a twin-sized bed in it it's so small, which is my poor husbands office.

Why does he get his own office? Well, because his job is almost 2 hours commute, each way, from our house so he works from home a lot :)

So forget about manicures, and tablescapes and fancy-shaped cutout sandwiches in my kids lunchboxes. Forget date nights and schedules and swapmeets. Sure, plenty of moms can have 6 kids and send each to school with a perfectly balanced homemade lunch, keep an immaculate house and cook homemade meals every night and all the other things a housewife is *supposed* to do.

Some of us just aren't proper housewives. But thats okay, because we can still be great moms and great wives! Hopefully I can help a few other "accidental mommies" out there escape from "how you're supposed to do it" and be able to be a mom AND retain your sanity.