I'm Reorganising

the nesting phase came a bit early this time. or very late if you look at the four seasons, since its way past spring. everyone seem to be sharing ways to organise the wardrobe on fb recently. i took in some i thought would be good for the family. the boys are now choosing their own clothes to wear (i used to do that for them, to save time mainly, and of course to ensure clothes are not jumbled in the cupboard and also to make sure they wear different clothes all the time - if up to them, they'd take the same thing again and again!)

after i saved some of the pictures i saw on fb, i started to psych myself up to actually sit down and start organising. that took a (whole!) lot of effort. i had 6 sets of drawers and i was just so, so, soooo lazy.

then one day, the urge just came. it was a weekday afternoon. akmal did not want to sleep and was obsessed with watching bambi for the 4423894th time. i pulled the curtain, switched on the fan at high speed and sat in front of my chest of drawers. after an hour, i ended up with clean, organised, easy to see drawers. it was actually easier than i thought…

unfortunately, not all of my tudung can be folded facing up because of the silky material, so i pushed them to the back. still look pretty good and i can see all the shawls better now.

it took another 2-3 weeks before i finally got the spirit to start the boys' room. that would take more energy. i sat alone in ariff's room first one friday morning, before moving to amir's room. all the drawers and cubicles were finally sorted after a little over two hours. i felt like throwing up when i reached amir's cupboard.

i sorted the t-shirts, pajamas and shorts facing up in their drawers and their jeans, long pants and towels rolled up in the cubicles. at least now they can see their clothes and (hopefully) are able to pick out those they have not worn in a long time. it seriously made a lot of difference.

akmal's before and after…

 ariff's before and after...

asyraf's before and after... 

amir's before and after...

the cubicles look much more organized after the whole exercise…

however, there is a bit of a drawback doing up the drawers and cubicles this way. firstly, to put in the clothes need 2 hands. one to hold the clothes already in the drawers in place, another to put in the newly folded clothes. putting them in a stack just require one hand to place each folded item back into the stack. the second drawback is to keep the rolled up pants intact. i usually fold clothes in front of the tv. and then i would put them into the laundry basket and bring them to each room. rolled up pants is more difficult to keep in the laundry basket and i would end up folding them the normal way first and then continue to roll them up once i reach the respective room. kind of double work.

but the drawback are minor and i don't mind facing them to ensure the clothes are maintained this way in the drawers and cubicles. i know some are skeptical and don't think it will last but so far, alhamdulillah, the boys are quite reliable in taking the clothes out of their drawers. its lasted two weeks now and insyaAllah will continue to last.

continuing the room reorganising theme, hubby and i went for a quick stop at ikea one weekend. we got hooks and stuff for the boys' rooms. and other rooms too but mainly for the boys' rooms. i was tired of seeing their school bags everywhere. i saw on fb to use hooks or towel rails to hang their bags, so i followed that idea. their bags are now kept neater near the study tables.

i also got hooks for their rooms. i love hooks. the boys recycle their pajamas and day clothes regularly and keeping them on hooks make it easier for them. i first put only one hook each but realized it wasn't enough so i added more. one would be for school uniforms and the other for pajamas / day clothes that they recycle.

after the few hours spent, we ended up with more organized rooms which are easier for the boys to maintain.

what i found out after this reorganizing exercise:
1. hubby has a lot of tshirts! and half of them are hard rock tees.
2. he also has a lot of football jerseys.
3. akmal has lots of everything - from shorts to jeans to pajamas to tshirts, everything. maybe its because he gets all the hand-me-downs.
4. asyraf also has quite a bit of clothes but not as much as akmal. he actually gets hand-me-downs from ariff.
5. ariff has the least clothes. maybe because he outgrow them faster than the other three.
6. amir has ok amount. not too little, not too many but he wears the same thing again and again. he's starting his own football jerseys collection, like his daddy.
7. i don't think i have enough clothes.