file restart.

We recently moved an old, clunky filing cabinet to the basement from the baby's room (former office).  It found a home in ours when my parents downsized last year, and we quickly filled it with anything and everything... it's industrial sized. I have no idea where my dad bought this thing! We were tempted to sell it on Craigslist and get something smaller, but decided to keep it and utilize it for more things.

Re-placed in the basement.

Before we moved it, we took everything out and combed through all of our files, discarding old papers and pay stubs, etc. We had filled almost all four drawers with paper; after downsizing, I can fit all of our files into two drawers! So here's my plan:

...Use the third drawer for crafty kid supplies (finger painting stuff, pipe cleaners, whatever Liv, sister, & friends will enjoy using, etc.) and the bottom drawer for office supplies that won't fit in our upstairs desk (extra pens, pencils, tape, copy paper, etc.).  It's kind of silly how giddy this makes me, but I'm glad these things will finally have a designated space vs. floating around in basement land.

At this point, we've:

Moved the cabinet
Organized our files
Filled cabinet for use

Before I put everything in its place, I wanted to show you how I organized our actual files.

 

I came up with broad categories, like Health Records, Government Documents, Investments, Credit Cards, Receipts, Taxes etc. and labeled 11 x 17 file folders with these titles, and then filled them with specific manilla folders:







Then I put the main categories in alphabetical order:

It feels good to know what we have instead of wading through pointless paper when we're looking for something we need!

I suggest sitting down with your favorite cup of tea or coffee for this job, as well as some tunes that keep you awake. :)

card storage.

Got this idea from seeing some gals at Bible study use these rings to keep notecards with verses together...

Originally, I thought I'd put Liv's baby shower and birthday cards in her baby book, but now I can put them in a memory box for her to comb through someday--I like how all of the cards are corralled, but easy to flip through (vs. just using a rubber band or something).

I did the same for R's 30th birthday cards as he has a drawer he keeps mementos in. Sweet.

Punch. Click. Done!

staircase frames: part II

Can I just say I love this? What a simple and fun way to spice up a stairway. Lovin' it. It changed slightly from my original setup (being that I didn't want to buy more frames). I'm still figuring out what to include in this collage photo-wise, but wanted to share this boxy, linear goodness with you. Everything seems to happen in phases when you have a one-and-a-half-year-old running around...

View from the kitchen nook:

The first frame I've filled so far: A picture of our house when it was built in 1977.

No trees yet, isn't that crazy? {Photo layered on burlap, my latest obsession.} I wonder what all of the original paint and fixtures looked like then...and who lived here through the years. Remember this post about former homeowners dropping by with a gift?

Okay, so here was the before:

And the after:

With room to grow. :)

staircase frames: part I

Over the last year, I've been collecting frames of various sizes for a lil staircase photo collection. I found some watercolor paper in our office (which is slowly becoming the new baby's room!), and am thrilled I could put it to use--we've had it for.ev.er.

I traced the frames onto the paper, and attached the cut-outs onto the wall with double-stick tape to get an idea of how I'd like the frames placed. I wrote whether or not the frame had a mat, and what size photo would fit into each frame, as well as marked where I would need to place a nail to hang them with a sharpie. (Genius idea--I would use wax paper next time.)

Now I'm in the process of deciding which pictures/memorabilia to hang up... the fun part. Or I should say, part 2. ;)

organizing and house talk.

I love inspiration photos. I included some in previous posts, but wanted to include some more that I'm oohing and ahhing over.  I'm still keen on making 2011 an organizational year; it's been a lot more slow going than I thought it would be. Wait, who am I fooling?

It's now June; halfway through the year (!). I should have half of my house organized by now, right? Riiiight... let me show you what I've been thinking about.

FOR THE LIVING ROOM

To make room for the new baby bug, we've moved our office (primarily our desk, laptop, printer, and a couch) from the second bedroom down into our living room. This room was basically empty, except for Dex's kennel... it's been great to make it functional! We loved the idea of having the computer centralizied, especially as Liv and Bug get older and have homework to do. For now, R will often bring work home and hang in there, and I'll plop on the couch with a book. It's nice together time without actually being together-together.

Anyway, I liked this picture because we don't have any bookshelves near our desk. I'd like to put up wall shelves to house our books, which are all now in the second bedroom on built-ins. I would put books in every room if I could...

GUEST BATHROOM or LIVVY'S ROOM

Labeled cubbies? How cute is that. I'll keep my eyes peeled at Savers or garage sales for something like this...Would be easy to paint and fill with fun things, either for bathroom items or playthings for Liv or Bug. (I guess the baby's official name is "Bug" now...)

FOR MY DRESSER

I love a) the color of this little system and b) all of the little squares that are just big enough for a pair of earrings or a bracelet. Would be easy to make with small boxes for a more mis-matchy look (which I also like). And it's nicely tucked away. I have some necklaces and earrings out on my dresser top displayed, but sometimes I think it'd be nice to just have a vase of flowers there and everything else put away. Especially as I don't own or wear a lot of jewelery! The drawer it would all go into is a complete mess right now... it looks more like it belongs to a teenager than an almost 30-year-old. Oops.

I remember going through my mom's jewelry and makeup drawers as a little girl, and they were emmaculately organized. Maybe that's why it was so fun to go through them? ;)

FOR SOMEWHERE...



So my friend Tess is awesome about framing all sorts of fun and meaningful little pictures and artwork... whether it's hand-drawn, from a magazine, postcards, tickets, you name it. It's like her own personal museum, all in monochromatic frames she's picked up along the way. It's so fun to look at her walls and ask her about everything, because everything has a story, of course, and she's a fun storyteller. This picture reminded me of her.

I don't know if the whole wall-o-frames thing is a trend that will fizzle out, but it's one I gravitate toward constantly. I'd love something like this over my family room couch, but seeing as the wall behind that couch is all mirrored (yes, thank you 1977), no can do. I'm hatching a plan to do something similar to this up our stairway, and I'm slowly stowing away frames bought on sale, at thrift stores, or ones my folks don't want anymore that I'll paint black.

Alrighty then--so there's a little more fuel for the organizing fire!

messes.

If you had asked me a year ago to describe how messy my house would be after having a child, I would've given you a veeeery modest answer.  I feel like I have a messy house all.the.time. Anyone else? I knew it would be different, since I'd be home most of the time, but I didn't even consider exhaustion, or feeling like a forgetful space-case most of the time.

"Where did I put my keys?"
"Did I not bring the diaper bag in from the car...?"
"Sure Liv has clean jammies; they're still in the dryer. I think."

I will never forget the day I sat in my cubicle at work, close to my due date, and Rhonda, who worked across from me, came over to see how I and baby were doing. "I used to be sharp," she told me. "Before my twin boys, I was as sharp as a tack." I thought she was joking. Nope. She was right on. But that's a topic for another day!

I've spent the last few days helping my parents move and settle into their apartment, and after helping them downsize from a townhome into a cozy 1,000 sq. ft place, I am spent. They are spent. All of us are spent. Stuff is just exhausting, isn't it? I keep thinking to myself, "Oh brother, what if we had to move? Where would I even begin?" Moving is overwhelming, no matter how much stuff you have I'm sure, but the more there is the merrier the worse it is. By far. Thankfully they've purged a lot, and are now in the settling process. Soon it will all be tidy and shiny and organized. Because my mom has the organizing gene I missed out on...

So once I recover from purgeville at my folks, I hope I can tackle some things at home. I think I just feel overwhelmed and then nothing gets done. So how do I overcome the overwhelmed feelings?

Getting out of the house for a walk has been the best solution to cleaning lately. You may call it avoidance; I call it getting some fresh air and a fresh perspective. So that's what we did today--Dex, Liv, and I went for a nice long walk, then stopped by the playground on the way home and swung on the swings and played in the dirt. Dex was tied to a metal pole of the swing set, and jumped around like a maniac whining for most of the time... isn't it amazing what you learn to tune out?


Now we're back, and ready to sort and fold some laundry.

Some messes are cuter than others.

Project #2: Coat Closet

BEFORE

Slowly but surely, the organizing continues... This time I tackled our coat closet by the front door. Not horrendous, but certainly not great, either. One of my favorite parts of this before photo is the lovely kitty litter box, compliments of Costco, holding our winter gloves:

How classy. :) Believe it or not, most of the coats in this closet aren't mine--they're R's. I think we can pare it down, but I'll let him do that.

As with the linen closet, I took everything out {coats aside} and made a pile for what to keep, toss, and give to Goodwill. We typically store scarves, hats, gloves, shoes, coats, and purses in here, but I decided to move my purses to our bedroom closet, and may move my shoes too, but it's so convenient to have them at the ready. I'll probably just keep some flip flops and gym shoes here.

AFTER

I found these cute wire baskets at Target awhile ago, and had them in another room; thought they'd be better utilized here. The basket on the far left holds umbrellas; the middle basket holds R's stuff, and the basket on the right holds mine. I'm still looking for ideas on how to store scarfs--they're too fun to just roll up and put away, but it works for now. :)

Now we have room for guest's shoes--not so much for their coats {yet}. But that's what the coat rack is for. :)

Project #1: The Linen Closet

At the end of our hallway lies our linen closet, which has been a mess for awhile. I finally tackled it this afternoon while plying Liv with some puffs:

So I started by taking everything out and cluttering up our bedroom {as you can see behind Liv there}. I loved seeing these shelves bare! I had a limited time to work with this space as Liv only lasts so long in her bouncer--a good challenge. Otherwise I'm sure I could spend hours on something simple like this!

I removed a lot of things that I normally keep in here, like medicine and lots of baby stuff. Time to pack away the baby stuff with the clothes that are too small--I didn't realize how much I was cramming in there that I could've packed in the basement months ago.

The things I left in this closet were towels, paper towels {upper left on top}, our sheets, Liv's sheets, a box of medicine after all, and a few odds and ends: a basket with my iron, an extra night light, a lint roller, and a scented sachet envelope to keep the closet fresh.

Before:

After:

Look! Extra space! Can you believe it? I may move some stuff from Liv's room onto that shelf {towels and what not} but for now, I'll take the space. Horray! Project #1 accomplished!

i can see clearly now.

I love my dog. I really do. But one thing he does that drive me ab.so.lutely bonkers is that when he wants inside from the yard, he goes crazy: dancing at the door, wiping his nasty paws all over the glass. Sometimes he'll sit at the door and wait patiently, but this is a rarity... luckily, I have my very own squeegee to erase the mess.

Did you know how excited I was when I saw this at Walmart months ago?? It was only a few bucks, and I was beyond ecstatic. I don't even think I put it in the cart; I just hung onto it until we checked out. R didn't share my enthusiasm, but I know he appreciates clean windows.

Anyway, so I broke that out today, with Dex by my side watching every swipe. I know it won't stay like this for long, but for today I can feel good about it. ;)

Don't mind the tattered deck, also compliments of Dex.... sigh...

Okay, now I'm off to clean the linen closet like I said I was going to do this week. More soon!

the zero-waste home: really...?!



Sunset Magazine, sunset.com


So I want to clean and be organized... but these peeps are REALLY neat & tidy. Yowza. A must-read article; would be interested in your thoughts. Can you even imagine going to these lengths? I really can't... you certainly wouldn't have to worry about tidying up when company came over, though, which would be nice...

the organized year.

I constantly wish that I inherited my mom's cleaning gene, because she is an organization guru... You ask her where something is and she can tell you to a T, and miraculously, it's always there. I don't know why this didn't fascinate me before, but now that I'm a mom it's amazing I can find anything on a day-to-day basis. It just happens that way! If you're not intentional, everything falls. So. I've decided I need to finally get a grasp on organization and just do it.

So with that, I'm going to commit to organizing our home this year, bit by bit. And I'm going to post about it. {Eeek! Good ole accountability!} I was debating about posting all of this on my sidecar site, HealthyBecause, because I think being orderly is healthy, but as I don't really have any projects going right now here, VP is where it's at. So here we go.

Step 1: Identify problems. I've noticed that it's my tendency to not finish home or craft projects. Let's be honest. As soon as I get bored or tired, I justify walking away and leaving it as it is for who knows how long. Sometimes the justification is, "I can't figure this out, I need to think about it and come back" {and then won't} or "How long have I been doing this? Time to start something new..." {and I will}. Why is this? Am I too ambitious in the beginning? Most likely. Am I not patient enough to wade through learning a new skill? Often. Whatever it is, I'd really like to get over it. We were going to "redo" our bedroom, and we got as far as painting it a new color, but nothing else really changed. More on that later. So I'd like to take unfinished to finished this year.

Step 2: A new perspective. I grabbed my camera yesterday and snapped pics of all the areas I want to organize. I feel like I see them everyday, but looking at a picture on the computer makes it different somehow. I'll share these with you as I go, as embarassing as they will be.

Step 3: Inspiration photos. For the last couple of weeks, I've been mostly googling around for inspiration pictures. Imitation will be the route I take to begin with, and I've found some really fun photos... Let's start there to whet the organizing appetite:

I love an organized bookcase. I have two that aren't really doing much except taking up space; hopefully I can make them functional and appealing to boot.

I looove the gray and white kitchen... But we have honey-colored wood in our kitchen, along with cream-colored cabinets. Not sure gray would be the best choice...

How cute is this? Maybe for Liv's drawer someday?

I also love this bookshelf. Would be easy to make... and could be a great place for baby's library books. {Seeing is remembering to return them :)}

Step 4: Pick a place and start. This week, my goal is a small one {as much as I want to start with the kitchen! See?? Over ambitious!}. I want go through and organize the upstairs linen closet. Here's a before picture.

Dum dum dummmm...