home office organization part 1

Last week end Dale and I switched around the family room and bought a desk and file cabinet to try and attempt a home office. We have never really had an organized space for bill paying and household management. Gasp, I know. We have the spare bedroom/craft room in the basement but the computer isn't in there and I don't really like other people around my stuff. The file cabinets are in the basement for old bills etc. but where do I keep the few bills that aren't auto pay. School info was to be hole punched and put in a binder that's a little fussy and that's not my style. This morning I labeled the file folders and I was a wee bit giddy about breaking out the label maker. It was almost a Carrie Bradshaw moment in the SITC movie when she sees her new closet. Sooo.. here's my plan for the folders. Keeping in mind we have another place to store old bills, statements, etc.
-Aiden: will have his activity and school info, school phone numbers
-Amelia: activity info
-Bills: bills to be paid
-Dale: anything specific to him that he would need to reference quickly (I'm not really sure right now)
Dining out: take out menus, restaurant recommendations, Papa Murphy coupons
Emergency info: contact info, emergency shutoff for water and gas ( I don't know where that is right now but I plan on asking Dale and writing it down)
Gift ideas: birthday list organized by month, gift ideas and size info, (a lil confession- I make my birthday/Christmas list in the summer when I start to think about how long since I received agift,sigh)
Household: garbage day, recycling info, HOA newsletter, housecleaning schedule etc
Jen: anything specific for me
Meal plan: master grocery list, recipes I'd like to try, meal ideas, meal plans
Party: ideas, magazine clippings, destination info, party catalogs
Receipts: all receipts placed in this file for the month (hopefully we can track our spending better and reduce the outflow!!! also planning to sign back up with www.pearbudget.com this fall)
School: phone lists, newsletters
Vacation: itineraries, info, driving directions, ideas, plane tickets
*If anyone is still reading this and need some haniging file folders I have lots!

tis the season

If you know me, you know this is my favorite time of year... to purge and organize! I feel overwhelmed after Christmas about how to accommodate all the new stuff into our home. My 'word' for 2008 has been reduce and it's worked well for me. The majority of the time I have thought about what I am bringing into our home and ..'do I need it,do I love it'. Of course that hasn't always happened especially with the little people in my life but we've definitely made progress. Yesterday I purged our closets and bookshelves. I had always thought books were off limits to decluttering but it felt good to get rid of the books that are never read or I dread reading at bedtime. Look and find books drive me crazy and Aiden only wants to read them at bedtime to prolong going to sleep. I've also really tried the one thing in and one thing out rule. I am really trying to do this with Christmas gifts we've received. Trying to find what the new stuff is replacing. Today I will be taking a car load of stuff to the Goodwill!

master closet organization

All the summer clothes are packed away and I finished some last minute tweaking and cleaning of our closet today. I have culled my closet and aside from 3 or 4 pieces that I have until the end of the year to wear or give away I have a very bare wardrobe. Supposedly we only wear 20% of our wardrobe but I have probably gotten rid of 80% of my wardrobe over the last year so I don't have a lot of extra pieces taking up room. I am definitely ready for my Saturday shopping spree with the girls!
Here are a few of my closet organizing tips to share:
- hang up as many clothes as you can (it's so much easier to see your wardrobe)
- divide your clothes into categories shirts, skirts, pants, dresses
- sort your sub categories of clothes by color and hang this way in closet
- hang your shirts in order of sleeveless, short sleeve, long sleeve, sweaters (is this OCD?)
- when you organize your closet hang all your hangers backwards and flip the right way when you wear an item of clothing (it makes purging fast and easy)
- edit your closet every 6 months
- when you bring one thing into your closet try to get rid of an item you don't really like or wear
After my little organizing and cleaning party in my closet this morning I made a little mending jar to store in the closet for fast fixes and hung a lint roller on ribbon behind the door.
While I was doing this Amelia had her own little party as evidenced by the mess in her room and hallway closet!

winter clothes organization

Yesterday, the air definitely felt crisp. Time to break out mittens, hats and scarves. I had the kids try on all their old stuff and most still fit. There were a few things that didn't so we gathered those into a bag to be taken to the "winter coat drive" at the hospital,if anyone has old winter coats, gloves, hats etc child or adult size, I will gladly bring those too. My first thought had been the consignment store. But the most I would see is $5-7 for a bag full of winter items, my 99 Goodwill receipts aren't going to help at tax time so this is perfect timing. I keep a pair of gloves, scarf and hat for each member in the over the door shoe hanger in the laundry room (labelled of course). All the extra winter gloves and hats are stored in baskets in the front hall. Hopefully, this will keep it reasonably organized. How can a pair (that make me cringe) Lightning McQueen winter boots fit Aiden for three years straight?

school box

Aiden is finished with preschool this week! I can't believe how fast it has passed. I started to think about how I would store all his school papers year to year and came up with this... I bought a plastic file box from Target, personalized it with some letter stickers and the 'school' sticker, labelled each file with the school year and voila - in under 10 minutes and for under 10 dollars I have a school memory box. I think I might have Aiden place a handprint and write his name each year on the front of the corresponding year file. I think I'll make one up for Amelia just because it's so easy (it will just collect dust for the next few years).

hair clip storage

This is so easy and quick. I mean like so easy and quick you can put it together in less than 10 minutes and it looks so cute! I bought an 8x10 picture frame, picked out some patterned paper from my stash (it's so cute I can't believe I hadn't used it already!) cut the paper to 8x10, used double sided tape to affix to the glass, cut two strips of ribbon, attached them at the back with double sided tape, and reassembled the picture frame. You can attach hair clips, flowers and bows and have them prettily displayed and organized! If you have a lot of bows I would use an 11x14 frame and 3 strips of ribbon.

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photo organization

This morning I finally got my photos organized. There wasn't an overwhelming number of digital images because I lost most of them last November. Since them I am careful to not delete images off my camera until I have made a picture cd. But now I have "a system". At the end of each month I burn a cd for that months' pictures. On the front of the cd case I list the date and contents of pictures. I do not store my photo cd's and blank cd's together because it just makes it simpler. "My system" is that I will now order my photos online for that month. Pictures I plan to scrapbook and put in photo albums or share with family. I still need to get all black photo albums and scrapbooks and then display them on shelves in the family room. I have been terrible about printing pictures for traditional photo albums since I started scrapbooking but now I hope for all this to change!

clip it up

Saturday I purchased the ultimate scrap booking organizational tool! I love it. You clip all your embellishments, rub ons and stickers on it and it rotates. That way everything is in plain sight while your scrap booking. I have tried to put everything away neatly and organized before but then I forget what I have. And the best part about this tool -I got to use my label maker to label the dividers!

old phone book

Today we received our new phone book (thrown in the middle of our driveway, nice). My plan is to put our old phonebook underneath the driver's seat. This way if I'm out and about and need a phone number I can look it up with my "car phone book". And that's my organizing tip for today and about all I can muster on 4 hours sleep!

washing the washing machine

It seems like one day I will put a load of laundry in the machine and notice how disgustingly dirty it is inside. I've heard about all the gross bacteria that lives inside washing machines but I don't think about it until I can see the "sludge". I've figured out a way to hopefully keep this from happening. Each time I open a new container of laundry detergent I will know it's time to clean the machine. Here's how I clean it (I have an old school top loading so I don't know if this works for the fancier models):
1) select the largest load and use the hottest setting
2) add 1 cup of bleach ( I love the smell of bleach)
3) let the machine fill and turn off for an hour (or 6 like I did yesterday)
4) turn the machine back on and let it run through the cycle
5) when the machine empties of water, scrub the plastic agitater and sides the machine with a scrub brush, wipe all the grooves with a wash cloth
6) run through one more cycle with no bleach and your washing machine will be fresh as a daisy!

almost done

Last week end I cleaned out the pantry closet and we took a truckload to the Goodwill (including our broken treadmill{I think it died from under use}). I've pretty much tackled the whole house organizing and purging. But that leaves that last room where everything else has been dumped. I hope to have it finished next week and then I can a few months before it starts to pile up again!

cute and green organizing tip

A great way to reuse tin cans! And of course I love any excuse to break out the label maker. I'm thinking this would be a great way to organize Aiden's craft supplies. Just run the tin cans throught the dishwasher and mount a magnet on the backside. The 12x12 magnet boards from Treasury would be perfect!

found!

I lost my housekeeping master schedule when our computer crashed last November and today when I was frantically trying to rescue paper from Amelia's grasp and I found it! So here it is...
WEEKLY
MONDAY: laundry, dust surfaces on main floor, vacuum main floor
TESDAY: iron, water plants, empty garbages
WEDNESDAY: clean bathrooms, dust upstairs and vacuum upstairs, scrub kitchen sink
THURSDAY: wipe down appliances, wipe and disinfect counters in kitchen
FRIDAY: kids laundry
SATURDAY: change and launder sheets, vacuum

MONTHLY
FIRST MONDAY: vacuum upholstery, wash floors
SECOND THURSDAY : wipe out and disinfect garbage cans and diaper pail, disinfect doorknobs
THIRD TUESDAY: dust ceiling fans
FOURTH THURSDAY: wipe down front of kitchen cabinets

EVERY 3-6 MONTHS:
JANUARY, APRIL, JULY, OCTOBER: wash mattress pad in hot water, vacuum mattress
JANUARY & JULY: vacuum mattress
MARCH & SEPTEMBER: clean and condition leather furniture
JUNE & NOVEMBER: wash baseboards
APRIL & DECEMBER: wash windows inside and out
JANUARY & SEPTEMBER: clean and degrease stove hood
JANUARY, MAY, SEPTEMBER: clean and descale coffee maker

EVERY 6-12 MONTHS
JANUARY & JUNE: dust lampshades, wash upholstery and slipcovers, wash duvets and covers, empty cabinets and clean, vacuum coil under fridge
FEBRUARY & SEPTEMBER: clean oven and fridge

we were meant for each other...

today I was putting some Christmas lights in a tote in the garage and I noticed a little something. Dale had written where each string of lights should be hung. I was a little proud but then I thought why didn't he use his label maker? We each have our own, isn't that cute (weird)?

shiny, happy bathrooms

I spent the good part of today tackling the upstairs bathrooms. Washing shower curtains and bath mats, cleaning bath fans, organizing cabinets. Ahh bliss. Dale has amassed quite the collection of hotel soaps and shampoos (kind of reminds me of an old lady). I found my teeth whitening kit, score! There is still some leftover gel and I am debating whether to try it out. Is three years too long? I'm scared I could end up with grey teeth! Remember that Friends episode with Ross and the teeth whitening, hilarious! Right now Dale's out in the garage working on a new headboard for our bed. I can't wait!!! Organizing tip * pack up a travel pack with an extra toothbrush, paste, deodorant and shampoo and leave under the bathroom sink.

clean sweep

Every January I look forward to cleaning the house top to bottom. I know, it's kind of like an illness. I usually start in the master closet and work my way way through each room cleaning, organizing and getting rid of stuff! I give myself at least a week for each room. I just filled up the back of the jeep with 3 big bags for the Goodwill. They must weigh close to 30 pounds. (that's kind of like losing 30 pounds in 2 days right?)I took some before pictures of our closet and wanted to look into a built in drawers and such for our closet. $2500 -$4000 seemed a little steep so I will be improvising and posting pictures soon. Anyone want to join the challenge - organize your closet and lose at least 10 pounds in less than a week! Email before and after pictures - I would love to see them. Goodwill accepts "anything except computer monitors and mattresses" and that's a direct quote from the guy that accepts my biweekly drop offs. It's starting to become one of my favorite drive thru's! I've sold a few things on craigslist and the consignment store too. *organizing tip - when you collect a bag of donations put it right in your car and then next time you're out and about it's ready to drop off!

spice drawer

what happens when you are left at home on a rainy windy day. I need to pick up some more spice containers but I love an excuse to break out the label maker!

ornament organization

I bought these ornament storage boxes at Target a few years ago. I'm very happy how neatly and safely they store my items. The two I have fit inside a tote bin (probably 3 or 4 would fit) which of course is labeled and easy to find on our Christmas shelf in the garage. In October, Dale and I tackled the garage and three rolls of p-touch tape and several tote bins later we are very happy with how easy we can find things in there! (Maybe I should take some pictures,hmmm).