Organization Craziness!

This post seems like something that would post in January... when people with New Year's resolutions are "Tidying Up."  Long before the Netflix show, I was on a mission to get things organized at church.  In June I was busy working on the adoption event, but after our 4th of July road trip I was working at church every chance I got.  Pretty much all the time the kids were at camps, summer school, and Park I was busy at church.  Over the years the children's ministry storage has gotten so deeply out of control.  I wish I was better at capturing all the "before" photos because they were crazy.  There were children's ministry things stored in at least 13 locations in our church.  None of them were organized.  No one really knew where to look for things.  It was sort of a nightmare.  It was costing us money because we were purchasing things we didn't need because we couldn't find the things that we already had.  I knew that the renovation was going to cut down the amount of storage in some ways and I wanted to do my part over the summer so things would be ready for the fall classes.  I didn't act alone.  The Children's ministry director helped me sort, Charissa and other awesome volunteers helped me to haul, sort, lift, move etc.  The kids even helped for several hours on the weekends.  It felt like we were living in a reality TV show.  It was truly a highlight of the year and honestly maybe a highlight of the decade.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  I was able to use so many areas of passion and gifting and spend time with truly incredible people.  

I took lots of random photos during the organization, but there are so many things I did not take pictures of.  I will share what I have, but it doesn't do justice to the depth of the transformation.  

Inside one of the Children's ministry closets. 

Another view, same closet.

Another view same closet.

Everything was moved out of this closet and the men's and women's ministry supplies were moved into this closet.  I took no actual after pictures, but an after picture will appear in the next post for a different reason. 

The next room had some children's ministry things, but mainly it was just a huge mess that needed to be organized.  I like that it looks like a full huge mess because I forgot so many of the other before shots, but these give you an idea of what rooms that are huge messes look like haha.

A big mess!

More of the big mess!

A much more organized room.

The other side of the room.

Neither of the last two pictures are the final product, but well, I forgot to get photos of that.

One Sunday afternoon Charissa and I tackled the main attic which held all the VBS storage.  The church had a fire in 2002 which destroyed things, but we pretty much had all the supplies since then.  It was a crazy large amount of things!  SO.MANY.BINS!  Most of the bins were labeled "VBS" (truly, seriously that's it) and had random assortments of left over supplies, markers, tape, lanyards, bags etc etc in them.

Some of the contents!

More contents!

It was so much stuff!!!

One of the more odd finds, apparently we once had a mini-golf course...

As we were emptying out we started creating rooms full of things we no longer needed so we could have a church rummage sale.  We did toss many broken, torn, ruined things as well.  That attic will no longer exist in the renovation and thanks to our efforts it is almost totally empty today!  The rummage sale brought in about $1000 dollars which was a fun accomplishment. 

The photos below are of the "old kitchen."  This room was 100% full of stuff.  Many old fake plants, old tables, storage carts, old curriculum for Sunday School.  So much junk.  The photos below are sort of the middle of the project "done" 

Whoa, empty space!

More space!

Thanks to the emptying out of the room we were able to move some couches and games into the space to make it a fun hang out for youth group kids! Crazy to think that this space always existed but  wasn't able to be used.

The finished product. 

Another view of the same room.  The air hockey table is where the counter used to be. 

Most of the sorting was done in one Sunday School room.  I didn't take any photos of the big sorts which I am so sad about.  I did take a couple photos of the paper sort.  Through the years so much paper has been purchased and since you could never really find what was there, teachers just bought more paper.  Crazy cycle.  Sorting it made us realize that we needed a much better system moving forward. 

So much paper!

A zoomed in view of the construction paper section. 

Along with paper in most of the locations, markers were everywhere as well.  Our family had a sorting markers party and the photo below shows all the markers which still work.

So pretty and sorted!

Some of the bin sorting in process. 

Beautifully sorted paper!!!

The next photos show the final results.  We managed to get all the storage into ONE location.  All the Sunday School, VBS, Christmas program, iGnite storage in one location.  The before of this room is a PACKED room full of old tables and random storage and decorations!  The after still makes me a bit teary! I want to note that behind the moveable costume rack is an entire under the stair storage which also has VBS stuff in it and is organized as well. Every bin is labeled... and not right on the bin, but in a page protector so we can easily add things to the list or remove them so that the label stays current.  This will be SO HELPFUL when looking for supplies for VBS skits and props.

It is finished!!!  Gentry and I in our beautiful space!

Labeled bins!  The back of the door lists everything that is under the stairs so no digging is required. 

So beautiful!

All the game stuff of iGnite is easy to grab and go!

Selfie Worthy! 

I am so thankful this big project is complete and I know that it has been helpful for me and every teacher time and time again during this school year.  The project was completed during the kids time in MO. I was excited to begin prepping my room for Sunday school and the nursery was ready for the fall as well.  

That Sunday night while Brandon and I watched a movie we noticed that it was raining A LOT... well it rained all night long and left the church flooded... stay tuned for more in the next post!