09.05.09
Fall…Already?
It feels like summer never really happened around here. No humidity, no heat, no swimming in the little pool…nothing. Most days were either wet or looked wet, weekends were rained out. Blah.
But the new season has brought me back here. I’ve been in an organizing FRENZY! I pulled all of Scott’s computer bits and pieces out of the closet and organized it into two 5 bin plastic drawer units which are STUFFED! I know there is another drawer of cables but there is no more room at the inn.
I also pulled out the ancient IKEA unit that was housing the computer bits (not in the most functional way) out of the closet of computer piece doom and it is now acting as the boy’s toy unit. He seems to enjoy knowing where his cars are, his “pieces” (puzzles for the rest of us). Even putting them in the drawers and cupboards seems entertaining for him. I’ll post pics next week I think.
I need to get back to posting her regularly, to remind myself of what I’ve accomplished in this crazy house and to keep writing….I’ve missed it.
10.07.08
Sewing Room With a View?
I have several blogs I read daily, including a few on organizing. Today Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie is asking about craft rooms. I’m getting heart palpitations just thinking about an entire room dedicated to my crafty bits and bobs. Sadly my reality just won’t allow that to be possible.
So where do I craft? My kitchen table. *dramatic sigh* While I do enjoy the ample space it allows me, it is rather a pain to put every single thing away when it comes to meal times. Never mind that I have to share this space with a certain little grey cat. There’s no door to close so I’m kind of stuck with having at least one feline helper. The dogs at least aren’t as helpful, but they are very good company.
The Certain Little Grey Cat
My sewing supplies are kept in check because I only have one shelf…which is currently full of fabric so my sewing machine has found a permanent home at the end of the table we don’t use. My thread and other sewing notions are kept in a small two layer box with separated areas.
It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting a dedicated crafty corner anytime soon since our house is just too small so this will have to do for now. The good thing about sewing in the kitchen is it is the brightest and sunniest room in the house!
Do you have a dedicated crafting room? How about an area? Or are you like me and my very tiny crafting area? Tell me about your space and drop buy Laura’s blog and maybe she can help us all figure it out!
08.12.08
Spoonfuls of Sugar
Before
Ugh…what a mess. And yes that is the stuff IN the drawer…nice eh. So let’s see what a little divide and conquer can do.
Divided
Ahhh so easy to find what I need now. If I can just get MC to leave it alone that is. I suspect however there will be in influx of wandering spoons.
Conquered
And here’s a few things that are out of the kitchen and into someone else’s. I mean really, how many slotted flippers, spatulas and cheese graters do we need? Don’t panic we’ve still got plenty! Buh Bye
08.08.08
On The Ledge
Another small and easy job today. This took me less than 10 minutes and it looks a heck of a lot better.
Before
So there it is. The catch all…if I don’t have a spot for it, it goes there. Outgoing mail is there as well. I also stash any gift certificates there because this little shelf is right by our door.
After
Sorry about the shiny picture, but it’s the best I can do on a cloudy day…I had to use my flash. So I got rid of a bunch of garbage and I found yet more nail polish to add to my collection. Much nicer to look at…now I have to remember where I put the baby monitor???
Lickety Splitting
He’s cute…but he’s out of here. One little Webkinz figurine….bye!
Go see what you can do in 10 minutes!
08.07.08
Out With the Old
The August Declutter Challenge has inspired me to get rid of a more things than I thought. I figure I’ll go with the inspiration and get rid of a few extra things until my steam runs out. If I run out of steam I’ll go back to one a day. It seems to me that once I got started there was just a one more thing I could do, and really it didn’t take too much time.
Today I did indeed clean out the floor of my front closet. After I pulled out the large tumbleweeds of dog hair I could actually see the floor…and well…ew. So I pulled out the plastic cabinet, shoe rack and boot try and gave everything a very quick wipe down before putting things back. So here’s my first two pictures for the day…the closet…
Before
After
- Going, Going, Gone
Just a few extra cat bowls huh. And notice the very unique cat there…he’s a toilet brush holder. As I recall I found him while I was in college. A pair of shoes that I bought in wide and have never, ever fit…it could be because I don’t wear a wide but you be the judge. That gold thing back there is for fingertip towels, which I can’t seem to find. I bought it for the cats bathroom and I really wanted to find some, oh well. Oh and the projectile hazard/car blind which I bought before I knew that it wasn’t safe to put in the car with MC. Why they sell something that’s not safe I’ll never know.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing another small job…our living room shelf. It’s just a little shelf that tends to gather all the bits and pieces of the day.
08.06.08
Easy Peasy
Day 6 of The August Organizing Challenge
I’ve opted to take it a little easy today. Tuesday and Wednesday are my larger cleaning days that a vacuum and mop both floors of the house. So I did a little easy peasy job today. Such a small thing that I’ve been putting off and it really makes things look nicer.
Before
So what we have here is what Scott refers to as my “nest”. It’s where I blog, write, surf, do my nails…you name it this is the spot for it. It tends to get cluttered and messy because I don’t put things away.
After
What’s gone…the cheese grater handle (MC likes to pull things out of kitchen drawers), flyers, old envelopes. The purple container holds my nail polish, which is upstairs with the nail polish remover now. I also found some random garbage.
What stayed…my crochet bag and book, brand spanking new IKEA catalogue, Moen faucet catalogue and my video camera docking station. Since I do most of my uploading right here, it’s easiest for me to keep it here.
I also gave it a wipe down.
I’m really hoping to have a go at our hall closet, but the thought of wading through that really does NOT appeal to me. So instead tomorrow I will go through the shoe shelf and maybe vacuum out the dog hair…or at least vacuum out the dog hair.
08.05.08
One A Day
You know when you look at all the clutter in your house that you “should” do something abut but it all seems so overwhelming? Could you declutter just one item per day? How long would it take…a couple of seconds at the most.
Marcia the Organizing Queen is having an August Decluttering Challenge that asks you to do just that. No overwhelming lists, just find one thing per day to let go of. I’ve got my pile accumulating in a small box that will go to my local reuse centre. Wanna see what I’ve got so far? No? Too bad it’s my blog and I can post my junk if I want to.
Decluttered
So what do we have?
- 3 Old Cushions
- 1 Exercise Ball with Pump
- 1 NHL Team Car Flag
- 1 Freebie Bag
- 1 Diaper Bag
- 5 Red Glass Christmas Ornaments
- 1 Plastic Magazine Holder
Bye, bye, bye
Marcia has offered a prize for those who complete the whole 31 days, head on over to The Organizing Queen and get started!
06.18.08
Someone’s In The Kitchen…
That would be me in the kitchen. After organizing that shelf yesterday I realized that the spices weren’t in the right spot for us. We have an area where we do our prep work and it would make sense to have the oils, spices and vinegars above that area. Easy peasy.
So…I had to move the dishes to the pet cupboard, MC’s stuff to the old spice cupboard, and the pet stuff to MC’s old cupboard. So I’m done, and it looks pretty good but we’ll have to see how it is to live with. I also organized our tea and snack cupboard…mostly just tossing and moving around. The only cupboard I’m not entirely happy with is the pet cupboard.
Now you’re probably wondering what the heck we could possibly have for our pets that would take up an entire cupboard. So in there are dog biscuits, peanut butter, canned cat food of two varieties (regular and vet prescribed), medications for Maca, the dogs monthly flea and heart worm medications, a couple of pillers, and a few lotions and potions for owies and stinky dogs.
All of this has been stuffed into the most useless cupboard I have ever come across in my life. It’s a top blind corner cupboard. In order to get to the stuff in the blind area you have to remove all of the stuff from the open area. Drives me insane.
I’ll have to brainstorm something better for that spot, I’m just at a loss to what.
Next I’m going to have a go at the lower cabinets, which are pretty good because MC is very helpful in emptying them.
06.17.08
Clean and Easy Does It
Today I finally got around to reorganizing the spice cupboard. Well, it’s not a whole cupboard just one shelf of it. Also on that shelf we keep our salt and pepper, vinegars and oils. I had to toss a lot of old spices that have been sitting in that cupboard for years.
Instead of buying the jarred spices we’ve been trying to buy them loose or the little bags full. While this is cheaper it makes storage a nightmare. So we bought some 150ml canning jars as we had seen our favourite tv chef store his spices like this.
Then I used my handy dandy labeler to label the spices. Highly recommend a labeler for home use, they are fabulous.
See how nice they look with a clean and simple label. One of the other benefits of using a wide mouth mason jar is that you can actually put your measuring spoon in there.
And finally the finished project. I wish I’d have thought to take a before picture, but just take my word for it, it was bad.
One down…I’m not counting how many more to go.
05.05.08
We finally bought our new pantry cupboard for the kitchen. I’d take a picture, but just imagine a big white cupboard…there…that’s it. I’ve been filling it up with all sorts of goodies and I’ve run into a bit of a problem. One thing the open shelf gave me was a place to put some pretty things and now that it closed off I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with that stuff. There is space on top and I’ve put a few things up there, but the glass and crystal stuff will just get lost. I’m kind of at a loss here…oh well.
We will be buying a second cupboard, I’m thinking I’ll be putting some of the excess kitchen stuff so we can have a bit of breathing room in the cupboards we use daily. Now all I need to find is a site that will tell me what cupboards should have what in it? Make sense? So if you know of one, let me know.
