Finishing touches

Here are a few pics of projects we've done lately.

1) Well it took about 5 coats of paint with primer, but the bookshelves are finally white.  The whole room is so much brighter now.  A BIG thank you goes out to Kasey, Katie, and Angie for coming over for a late night paint party. I didn't really like my bookshelves before but I totally love them now.

 2) Blinds are up in Corbin's room and in Reese and Quincy's bedroom.  Goodbye ugly blackout curtains!  I was completely debilitated on the sofa the day my dad installed these for me. I am so grateful for his help and compassionate service.

3) I've been busy organizing my preschool supplies. There are about 15 more bins where these came from and each is filled with all of the curriculum for a week's theme.  For example, last week's bin has the large plastic bugs, the small plastic bugs, the bug puzzles, the bug flash cards, bug catching kits, bug stamps, and the bug puppets.  All of my curriculum is printed and filed so I can easily grab a folder, and the associated supply bin and I am ready to go!  It wasn't until I started this system that I realized how much preschool stuff I have.  Holy moly. I can't wait to have a real classroom in our next home.

4) Ding Dong the fence gate is done!  Credit behind this masterpiece really goes to my dad for creativity.
The left side of the fence is a 15 foot gate on a wheel that swings open for access to park a boat or trailer or rv or whatever in the side yard, but the right side also opens easily as a person gate so you don't have to push the huge gate open every time you need to get to that side of the backyard.  Brilliant!

 The backside of the gates.

 Ta da!  My dad and I worked our tails off yesterday and finished the person gate. It makes me really happy to see it finished finally! woot!

6) Baseboards and trim.  Remember the door we installed 2 summers ago? Well, I finally got around to adding trim around the door frame (it still needs to be caulked and painted) and putting the baseboards back up along the back wall of the dining room.  While we were at it, we put the baseboards back up in Corbin's room along the wall that had to be repaired after the great flood/carpet installation a year and a half ago.  

If you haven't noticed a trend already, I'll tell you that it takes me forever to put the finishing touches on big projects.  It's always little stuff that gets left behind.  By the time I am done with the hard stuff, I am usually so burned out on the project and/or up to my armpits in another one that the little things are forgotten.  This month I'm trying to focus on fixing or finishing little things that would totally bug me if I were looking at a house to purchase.
Evidently, there are lot of little things that bug me.
And so the list goes on...

Orderly Conduct

1) That weird narrow space next to the fridge. This is a $1/yard strip of fabric that I made into a curtain about 7 years ago. I cheated and didn't even sew it. I folded the top down a couple of inches and ironed it stitch witchery, then slid it onto a little tension rod. It fits perfectly to cover that 10 inch wide gap between the end of our cabinets and our fridge. What's in there?

We don't have a pantry, so I store our broom, mop (correction, the BEST MOP EVER), and dustpan back there. I also have a few hooks attached to the wall in there, for fly swatters (even if you do have a pantry, do you want your fly swatter hanging out in there with your food? blech).

2) Pet food storage.

We quickly realized with the buggy/humidity/grossness of the Arkansan summer, that we would need a storage solution for the chicken food. Granted, our hennie pennies would have no complaints if their feed was full of bugs, but we don't exactly want to attract the bugs to the garage, which is exactly what a giant, open bag of pet food does, in Arkansas. One of these storage. Also, pet food just sort of smells funky. And if the bag was full and tipped over it would make a huge mess. And no one ever wanted to reach way down into the back when it got low, to fill the feed bowl, because it makes your whole arm smell like pet food. Here is my solution:

I knew a flip lid was the only way to go because a) the kids needed to be able to access it, and b) I knew that we would get lazy and not want to mess with snapping down a regular storage bin lid in the tightness that the space offered. Now, we flip the lid open, fill the bowl and close it back up before any bugs can get in there. The bin holds a 50lb bag of feed, so I only have to refill it once every six weeks. Functional and attractive and it makes great use out of what was once wasted space. I imagine a similar idea would work for you dog and cat owners out there. (That is, if I even have any cat lovers left reading this blog.)

3) Garage trash can. I love our trash can for a number of reasons, and was totally stoked to pick up a similar yet newer one at a garage sale for $5. The old one was moved to the garage. It is really helping us (ahem---"us" meaning everyone else in this family.) to keep the cars clean, because we no longer have to haul our garbage into the house. It gets tossed into the can that was stragetically placed along the path to the door inside.

4) The Lid Drawer. This is a silly one, but it dawned on me the other day, when I opened it to get a lid, that many people still store their pots and pans and serving dishes with the corresponding lids. Here's my beef with that: I don't have enough cabinet space and everything must be stacked up inside of them...but that isn't possible with the lids on the pots. Lids roll around and clutter up the cabinets so the other items don't fit easily. Also, lids are flat, so they get misplaced easily and that drives me crazy. I have been using a "lid drawer" for years and it is great! I don't have a problem finding the right lid to fit on the right pan, and it makes it easier for the kids to unload the dishwasher, because they can toss all the lids into one place, rather than attempting to match up the pots with the lids inside the cabinet.

Skeletons in the Closet

I've received a lot of positive feedback via emails and FB messages regarding my organization posts, so I'm going to try to make it a more regular feature. So keep sending tips and ideas and I will post them soon so we can all be inspired!

So, let's talk about doors. My friend, Janeene sent me this photo of the door to her coat closet.
Like me, she also lacks a room for a den or home office. Her solution is an over-the-door pocket style shoe holder for all of her desk/office supply needs. There are larger pockets at the bottom of the holder (not shown in image) for extension cords, USB cables, cameras, etc.

Brilliant?
Jes.

A similar shoe organizer is used at for mixes and sauce packets in Kasey's pantry.

Now, everything can be seen and used before it expires or disappears in the Land of the Lost (aka the back of the pantry)

My friend, Michelle, has one on her bathroom door for health and beauty supplies, so they don't get shoved under a sink cabinet or in a drawer to be lost forever. It houses hairbrushes, clippies, hairspray, detangler, lotion, cotton balls, nail polish remover, baby powder, etc. neatly and right next to where the are needed so it is easy to put them away after each use.
Kasey has a mini pocket organizer (found at TJMaxx, I think?) in her bathroom for jewelry. No lost earrings for this girl! I also like the idea of being able to see all of her accessory options all at once.

happy organizing!

Monica on the Loose

It's been awhile since I've done an Orderly Conduct post, so I thought I'd share 3 things that have been working for me.

1) DVD storage.
I am so over having a zillion stacks of cds lying around to get scratched. Ever open a movie case with the wrong movie or nothing at all in there? Irritating. About a year ago, I snapped and threw away ALL of our movie cases, save the tv series collections (the Office, Friends, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, etc...the ones that have a box for each season). Our movies went into one of two cd cases that hold like 100 cds each. We have one with all movies that the kids are allowed to watch, and one with the rest of our movies in it.

When the kids want to watch a show, they just flip through the case like a catalog and choose something, rather than bringing me 10 movies in their cases and not putting them away. I do not miss movie cases at. all. I get asked this question often and I am telling you. NOT AT ALL. It feels great to throw cases away after opening them. I do keep one or two empty cases around just in case we want to lend a movie out or take it somewhere.

This also helps because the kids are no longer fishing through and scratching up our movies, or seeing a colorful, kidsy-looking movie case and asking to watch BabyMama or something that isn't appropriate for them.

But really, the best part really is the clean up. It takes 2 minutes to put a stack of movies back into the case. And 200 movies can be stored in less than 1 square foot of space. Sold.

2) Magazine Rack Mail Sorter.

Do you have little stacks of papers around the house? Piles of bills to be paid, papers to be filed, and mail to be opened? We did, too. And they drove me insane. I hate stacks of paper like I hate cats.

Now remember, we don't have a home office or a lot of space available for paper organization, so piles and stacks have a tendency to accumulate quickly on our contertops and bookshelves. No bueno. It was important that I found a system to eliminate piles and stacks as efficiently as possible. I spent two weeks searching stores and online for the perfect mail sorter and I finally found one I liked. It's a magazine rack. Mail sorters were only 6 inches wide and I wanted something that could fit an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper in each slot.

I love the industrial look of the wire mesh. The metal is a nice contrast to the weathered and painted wood surfaces in my kitchen. The metal offers enough coverage for privacy, but enough transparency that I can actually SEE what is hiding in those pockets, so items do not get lost or shoved sloppily in there.It hangs right next to the door to the garage so when you walk in the house with a stack of mail, you can sort it immediately and it never makes to the counter. We stand between the mail sorter and the trash can and separate ours into 4 categories: toss (envelopes and junk mail), shred (any garbage that has with our name and address or bank information on it), pay (anything that needs attention before it can me filed), and file (self explanitory).

The system is working well because I used to never attempt to tackle filing or bills when I had less than an hour to put into it. I like to have time if I am going to attack any activity that requires that I really tune my brain into what I am doing. Before, it seemed that when I wanted to file, I had to sift through piles, folders, bins, etc where everything was mixed together and search out items that needed to be put away. I couldn't just grab a stack, and get filing.

Now, when I have 10 minutes before we need to go somwhere, or when I am waiting for Reese's bus to arrive, I'll take one or two or 10 items from one of the sections and take care of them. It's easy to make a dent in the pockets without making a big mess on the table for Corbin to get into.

So yeah, we have a big letter sorter in our dining room. It's not the most attractive or ideal situation, but it works for us, and it is soooo much better than stacks of papers and receipts everywhere.

3) Contacts binder
It's been awhile since I have updated this, and after doing that today, I can't believe I forgot how useful it is!

I keep a binder full of clear sheet protectors for phone lists, takeout menus, class lists, etc.

I had half a package of photo holder sheets from a photo album and I stuck those behind all of the phone list pages. This is the best information catch all EVER! I am certain that whoever came up with the idea for pinterest must have sifted through my junk drawer and seen this little beauty. I put everything in those little photo slots. Business cards, email addresses that I wrote on the back of a reciept, post its with directions to someone's house, the ugly magnets with local numbers for POA and city offices, the paint sample cards from different rooms in the house (labeled for which room they were used in), online shopping mailing statements (in case I want to order something again), the labels from the boxes our cell phones and other electronics came in (in case we need the make/model #, temple schedules, the label from my running shoe box so when it's time to replace them (and I've worn through the tag inside the shoe) I'll know what size and style to get, Aaron's eye Rx, printed mapquest directions to places we only go once a year, but need directions for every time, like st. louis, or Aaron's aunt and uncle's house in Dallas.

The only thing I DON'T keep in here are coupons. What a mess. Unless they have no expiration date on them, forget it. zillions of coupons stuffed here and there are what would turn this binder from being a beautiful resource to a cluttered disorganized disaster. Trust me.

I'm not saying you shouldn't use coupons, but use a separate system for those and keep them out of the contacts binder.

And if you are one of the people (ahem kasey, sheena, angela) whom I've gotten referrals for a service (like a dr, dentist, etc), or I've bugged you repeatedly for a phone number or your address from an email, text, or FB message this is probably why I have had to ask you for it 10 times. If it's not in the binder, I don't remember where it is, and it's easier for me to just ask you for it 100 more times until I get a physical business card or save their number in my phone.

Sorry, friends. Blame the (super cool) binder!

Do YOU have a tip for home organization you would like to feature on this here bloggy? Email me, I'd love to share it and inspire others to live a more organized life!

New Toy!

I've been on the lookout for an armoire/hutch/cabinet of any kind for awhile (remember the cute white one I posted awhile back? I went to look at it, broken cabinet hinges, cracked wood in the base, no slides on the drawers and the doors don't stay closed, and $250! Cute, but not practical at all.)
I found this guy on Craigslist for $100 (and she threw in a 32 inch tv). It's 7' x 3' x 18", solid wood and in excellent condition. I don't particularly love the color, but it's in nice shape and coordinates well with our bed, so I may or may not do something (paint? restain? I think it would be lovely in a crusty robin's egg blue, or stained a dark flat/natural antique walnut color) about that in the summer. It's too shiny for my taste, but I love the shape, and the price was right (there are two that are very similar currently listed at $300, and one of them isn't even real wood)
I'll definitely put some funky knobs on it.
I love how tall and narrow it is, it fits perfectly in the space and even with the doors open, doesn't block the bathroom door.
Wondering what's inside?
Peek-a-boo!
Yeah. Shoes. There's only one (tiny) closet in our master bedroom. Right now, I just threw those rubbermaid drawers in there to get them out of sight, but I plan to put 3 more skinny shelves in there so it can house all of our shoes and maybe some sweaters.

I "made" these curtains for Corbin's closet the other day. The fabric was from a king sized flat sheet that I found on the clearance shelf at Walmart for $11. FreshlyPicked.blogspot.com had just posted a tutorial on making window curtains from flat white bed sheets. When I saw the orange one on clearance, it dawned on me that I could use curtains to cover all of the food storage that resides in Corbin's closet. I mean, as much as I like looking a my pretty canned goods and a hundred #10 cans...this is much nicer for a bedroom, right?

It took less than 30 minutes. I just cut the sheet lengthwise down the center, folded and ironed the raw edge and ironed (nope. no sewing on this project!) the edge down with some stitch witchery. Then I picked apart the top two inches of the side seam at the top and slid the curtains onto a shower curtain rod. It was about 12 inches too long, so I "hemmed" the bottom using stitch witchery also. Simple, cute, and a less expensive solution than purchasing closet doors right now. They slide really easily on she shower curtain rod. I screwed a small block of MDF into the door frame for the tension rod to rest on top of, so I won't have to worry about the rod coming down if the kids pull on the curtain. As I was hanging the curtains, I laughed as I thought about how I had managed to make curtains, but had used a chop saw, a drill, screwdriver, and an extension cord, rather than a sewing machine. Whatever. It's Corbin's room. They're boy curtains.

Orderly Conduct

I use canvas baskets a lot in my house. So much that it sort of looks like a canvas basket factory.
-An extra large ($16 at the red circle store where I never shop. shhh...) canvas laundry basket holds shoes in my closet, and another one holds our massive Littlest PetShop collection (thanks Missie!).

-large canvas baskets (Walmart $12 or $5 at the Associate's store when they have them, which is almost always every spring) These line the tops of our bedroom closets. You know that shelf that is so high, that you have to kind of throw the clothes up there, so it always looks like a mess? Now I just take the whole basket down, and everything stays in order. My closet baskets hold off season clothing, swimwear, ready-to-go gifts and birthday presents. The baskets in the girls room hold the Sweet Streets/Polly Pockets, Little People, Care Bears, Horses & Stable, and Ponyvilles. You can say it. My kids have too many toys. I agree...which is why most of them stay in the closet and I rotate which basket we get down each day/week. It's a great system, and they never seem to get sick of things. Plus, items actually get put away in the correct basket when they only have access to a couple of them at one time.

-small canvas baskets ($8.99 for two at walmart. 10 of mine were a housewarming gift from my friend in Green Bay, and most of the others were purchased for 1/2 that price at the Associate's store, but $4.50 per basket is still a pretty good price. I've had mine for 4-5 years and they have held up with LOTS of abuse)
There are 24 of these little guys on the shelves in my living room. The cream baskets keep Corbin's toys, Preschool/learning toys, and VHS tapes organized.
Six of them serve as cubbies for my preschoolers.

(last names blocked for privacy) Each of my Friendly Frogs has a cubby with his or her name on it. When they arrive at school, they put away any excess outerwear, backpacks, share items. They each also have a large t shirt in their cubby to serve as a smock for the really messy paint projects, and a large ziplock bag with a change of clothes and extra underwear, just in case. The cubbies are also helpful as a separation prop for those days when blankies and little toys sneak their way to preschool.

Canvas baskets=everything has a home.

Works for us!

Recycle

I have wasted a small fortune on plastic baggies since Reese started school.

You can only fit so many plastic reusable containers into thermal lunch bag. I recently restocked my baggie supply and discovered that I had spent $9 on plastic bags. $9 freaking dollars! What a waste! I know they hold a purpose and all, but $9?

But I just can't live without the convenience. At least, I don't think I can...and I don't want to. It is absolute torture when I really need a ziplock bag and don't have one available.

I still feel like I threw $9 away.

While all of this was on my mind, I was reading a book about a pioneer, and it described her wrapping contents of her lunch (jerky, nuts, slice of pie, etc) in brown paper, or fabric napkins.

I'm not about to put a piece of pie in a napkin.

But it did help me to look around and think about what I would do if ziplocks weren't available.

I didn't discover some superb alternative.

But I did find that I'd been throwing away even more than $9 worth of plastic bags.

A lot of the food we buy already comes in a plastic bag or container.

bread

apples

oranges

bagels

butter

cool whip

english muffins

A lot of people already think to reuse plastic containers, but why not reuse plastic bags, too? I'm not about to wash and reuse something 100x, or save the bag my frozen chicken came in, but why not shake the bread crumbs from the breadbag and fill it with something else, at least once? That's one bag I don't have to buy.

My favorite re-usable so far, is the tortilla bag.

We eat a lot of tortillas, and they come in a ziplock bag.

Tortilla crumbs have been shaken out, and now the bag is keeping the leftover white bread from going stale.

Look around your house and see what containers can be reused for another purpose before they get tossed or recycled.

Do you reuse or repurpose something in your house? Tell us about it.

Orderly Conduct

When Reese was struggling with the adjustment to Kindergarten and having to be ready to leave the house at 6:40am (yup. School starts so early here. Cruel, isn't it?), fully loaded tantrums were blowing up in our house on a daily basis. It was rough. Even when we picked out clothes the night before, we still ended up with a problem in the morning, when Reese would change her mind and not want to wear the outfit she'd selected and demand her share (and a half) of our attention while we helped her pick something else out. I know that the problem was not actually the clothes, but getting dressed always seemed to be the thing that pushed Reese's morning anxiety into panic attacks and ugly temper tantrums. Reese was also always wanting to wear the same thing every day. Once she'd get over the discomfort of an outfit, she didn't want to change and readjust to something else. Call me uptight, but I'm not going to let my kid wear the same outfit to school, every day, for a week.
My sister, HolleeAnn (hollah!) gave me this fantastic idea that was the perfect solution to abolish morning outfit drama.



A closet shoe hanger!

There are two shown, here, because the solution worked so well, we went out and got one for Quincy. (and for those who know how bad my OCD is, YES. It totally drives me crazy that they are different sizes. The product changed in the 3 weeks between when we bought the first and when we bought the 2nd. Oh well. Aren't you proud of me for just letting it go? You'll also notice that I didn't go through and fold all the little outfits before taking this picture just so it would appear that I live a June Cleaver lifestyle. I did pick the apple core up off the carpet before I snapped the picture. Keepin' it real, folks.)

Anyway, On Sunday Night, Reese and I select her outfits for the week, and put one in each "cubby" of the shoe holder. Everything. Socks, underwear, jacket, hairbows, sometimes even shoes. In the morning, she can choose which outfit she would like to wear that day. We've had a few problems come up, usually on Fridays, when there was only one option left, or on a PE day when Reese's selected outfit didn't include PE friendly shoes. Also, Quincy still manages to work in at least one costume change every day. But, for the most part, our routine morning clothing drama is gone!

And now, there is a lot more room in the dressers, so we can actually see what is in them.
Works for us.
Thanks, HolleeAnn!

Orderly Conduct {1}

1) Headbands. I kind of (really have a problem) love them.

My bathrooms are lacking in drawer space (meaning drawers are practically nonexistent) and there are too many of them to just leave them lying loose on the bathroom counter. My friend Jerushia suggested using a large oatmeal container. I was skeptical, at first, but found that the containter can't even be seen once the headbands are on it. And I love being able to see all of my options without having to dig through a drawer, so much, that I wouldn't care if the container showed.

I received about 7 new headbands as Christmas gifts and this one is getting a little crowded, so I'll probably start another one, soon. The photo is kind of washed out, but it's actually a cute little accessory on my dresser. I am thinking of covering one with cute paper to match the girls' bathroom and putting all of their headbands on it, and storing their loose accessories inside the container. The oatmeal container is the perfect size to hold the headbands so they don't slip, but not stretch them out, either.

Large oatmeal tubs for headbands.

As my nephew, Brock, would say, "See? It's Pohfect!"

Thanks, J-ru!

2) Baby Gear

The other day I was pulling the sheets from all of the beds to launder, and I discovered a sweet little hidey hole under Quincy's bed. The drawers on her captain's bed only go halfway under her mattress, leaving an 18in x 6ft pocket of wasted space behind it. It isn't super accessible, since I have to remove the mattress to get to it, but it is the perfect place to store the items I only need to get to every couple of years, like infant gear.

I busted out my mad packing skills that I inherited from my dad...the true Master Packer, and in that tiny space, I managed to squeeze in:

-the Jumperoo

-the bassinet and changing table attachments to the pack n play

-the cradle swing

-the infant carseat and base

-the high chair

-the boppy pillow

I'm mostly excited because zero of these items easily store any other place in my house. They are odd shaped and bulky, and end up floating all over the garage, blocking the way to things I actually do need to get to from time to time.

Have a captains bed or daybed in your house? The space below it is bigger than you think!

Do you have a storage tip you'd like to share that's "just pohfect"? send me an email

New Feature

I'm pretty excited about 2011.
It's going to be a fab year for our family. I have a lot to look forward to, and even more to be grateful for.

The week before the New Year begins, I often freak out and have an unrestrainable urge to declutter and organize everything in my life. Gotta make room in our lives for new goals, new toys, new adventures, etc. We live in a 1700 sqft home. There are three bedrooms and 1 and 3/4 baths. There is no attic space, no basement, no laundry "room", and no pantry. I have two closets for storage, a tiny closet with shelves and a tiny door that Aaron refers to as my "Messy Monica Closet", and a 2' x 2' coat closet. And there's a fugly boat eating up half of my garage, so storage space is minimal in the is place.

But still, 1700 sqft should be plenty of room for a family of 5. Especially when most of those people are tiny. Our problem is stuff. We are 'stuffed to the muff' with stuff!

So where do I put everything?

I'm starting a new segment on the bloggie for organization ideas. I'll start with some things that have worked for me, but if you have an organizing tip or method to help keep something in your life in order, send me an email @ leggo_my_meg-o(at)juno(dot)com and I'll feature it. Attach a picture of your brilliant idea if you have one. It can be anything from to how you store your recipies, to bills and paper organization, to a handy way to stack cups in the cupboard. Little tricks like this can be life changing.
Don't laugh at me, they can! Less time spent picking up after someone, or looking for a lost something or other means more time for the important things in your lives. Like Facebook.

Hopefully, everyone will get a little inspiration and a little motivation to simplify, or give order to unorderly corners of our lives.

Cool, yeah? I think so.

Speaking of cool things....guess what? Blogger has eliminated the limit on invites for private blogs...or at least it eliminated it on my blog...because I just checked and there are like 120 readers. What? When? How did this happen? Who cares! No limit! Yay!

Email me your storage/organizing ideas...