Home: The nature corner

I've been wanting to tackle many home improvement projects. But just thinking of the things that need to be done, plus my perfectionist streak, and more often than not I end up feeling overwhelmed and not doing anything. 

Then I read this. Which made alot of sense. Start really small. Gain a small victory, and move on upwards from there. So I'm trying to break up my projects into tiny steps, and making myself take it one step at a time. 

One of the projects I've been wanting to work on is the entryway. This is the space that greets us when we open our main door, which is currently filled with random outdoor things: bicycles, scooters, umbrellas and shoes. It is a mess, but it also holds the answer to the boys' need for messy play and nature exploration, while keeping those things away from a crawling, active baby. 

Believe me, this is actually the neater part of the entry, the other side is a chaos of stuff!

I have no pretty pictures to show for the space yet, since it is still a work in progress, but at least I've gotten down to doing something about it!  Thus far, I've cleared off an old shoe rack, relocated the shoes, cleared out the shoe cabinet of many pairs of shoes, and generally started making this space more conducive to play. 

I wanted a table which we could place natural materials for the boys to explore, but we have no space for a table, so we're making do with the top of the bench for now. I've just left baskets filled with random natural materials on the bench, and the boys, especially Lil J have been wandering out at times to fiddle and play with them. 

We also added a small picture shelf above the bench to fit displays. I'm not done with that bit yet, but the boys have already started adding their own little findings to the the shelf on their own accord:

Will update when we see more progress!