Creating a Home Project List

We’ve been living in the house for about 6 months now and I’m embarrassed to say that I have an entire house that needs to be organized.  Every single drawer, cabinet, and closet in my house is a mess.  There are still a ton of boxes that need to be unpacked.  

Eeek!  So much stuff and no where for it to call home.

It’s time to take control of the situation, so I did what I do best, and I made a list.  

My best tip is to go room by room, figure out what items you have, and what kind of organizing you need to do in each space.  After your list is done, keep it somewhere you can look at it constantly, and then start tackling each space one by one.

I will share my full list with you tomorrow, but here’s an example so that you can get started on yours.

Kitchen

- Pantry

- Utensil drawers

- Small appliances

- Under the sink

Master Bathroom

- Under the sink

- Medicine cabinets

- Linen closet

Laundry Room

- Storage for laundry essentials

- Cleaning supply storage

Garage

- Storage for seasonal items

- Yard tools

- Car care supplies

Having a list breaks everything down into smaller tasks so that you can focus on one thing at a time.  That will make it easier to get things done and not have to spend an entire weekend on a full room organizing product (feel free to do that if you have time though!).  You’ll feel accomplished when you get an item checked off the list and you’ll have one less thing that needs organizing.  

Have you made your 2014 organizing list yet?  If not, get on it!

Planner Organization

I normally buy my planners by school years instead of calendar year, so since I just bought a new one that started in July, I thought I would finally share how I keep myself organized. This planner has been extremely important during the home building process because I've had a ton of meetings to keep track of.

I have tried all sorts of planners and have even made a couple myself, but I’ve found that the simpler the better.  I don’t like all the extra fancy things added to planners.  All I need is a monthly calendar and a weekly calendar to keep things straight.

I purchased this calendar at Target for around $10.  You can normally get them on sale during back to school sales, but they sell out very quickly and don’t normally restock, so I always buy mine early.

The front cover is clear so that you can add pictures or writing to the outside.  I plan on adding some decorative stickers to the front.

I found that the easiest way to keep my planner organized was to color code items.  I use the Papermate Flair pens because they don’t bleed through the paper and they’re pretty inexpensive.

On the monthly calendar page I just keep generic information about what is going on so that I can see it a glance.  If I want more details about something I have to flip to the weekly page.  

On the weekly page I include what the activity or event is, where it is located, what time it is at and any other pertinent information.  That way it’s all in one location and I don’t have to track down an email or invitation to find out where we are going.

Even though it’s simple, I’m completely lost without my planner.  It has all the important information I need for every day in it.

What kind of planner or calendar do you use to keep you and your family organized?

Scrapbook Paper Dry Erase Calendar

We've had so many appointments and plans to remember, I knew we needed a central calendar that both J and I could look at.   I had the perfect spot, some spare frames, and some scrapbook paper, so I sat down and created these beauties.

I apologize for the horrible pictures.  We have absolutely no natural light where these are located.

I measured the frames and then cut the scrapbook paper down to size and made sure they would all fit into the frame.  Then, I took the fake picture that comes with the frames and flipped it around so that I would have a white surface to work on.  I glued the strips of scrapbook paper to the white background, leaving a small gap between each strip.  Then I just made some circles using my Cricut and glued them on.

Seal the frame back up and then you can add the dates and appointments to your calendars.  I decided to use one for the current week and one for next week so that we could plan ahead.  You could make one, two, or even four if you want to cover an entire month.

More Scrapbook Storage

Michaels had all of their scrapbook storage on sale for 40% off, so I picked up two JetMax cubes.  I got one with 3 drawers and one with 4 drawers.  It's giving me tons of room to store my scrapbook items.

In the small drawers, I have die cuts, stamping and embossing supplies, rub ons, and ribbon.  In the larger drawers, I have paper scraps, mementos that I want to include in scrapbooks, and embellishments.

CSN Store Review (Coming Soon)

CSN Stores have given me the opportunity to review something from their over 200 stores.  That is very hard to choose from because they have everything from a bed to cookware.

As you know, I've been organizing my scrapbooking supplies lately, so I went looking for some organizational items that I could review.  I came across a few different ones that I like.  I just have to decide which one would be better for me.

I like this organizer because it will hold my paper and can be set on my desk so it's easily reachable.  The only downside is that it won't hold very much paper at all and I like to organize mine by color.

This cart would probably be a better option for me so that I have more drawers to separate stuff into.  The downside to this one though is that I'm not sure I have anywhere to store it.

Or I could get this one which has room to store paper and tons of other scrapbooking items.

So many choices!  

What do you use to store your scrapbook paper?

Paper and Sticker Organization

Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies that comes with so much stuff.  You have paper, adhesives, embellishments, as well as a gazillion other things.  

I realized the other night that I needed a better organization system for my supplies.  They were getting damaged and ruined the way they were.  So, time to start organizing!

Now, I wish I had something like this, but that's not going to happen until we get a bigger house.

After getting my huge 3 lb. haul of paper at Micheals the other day, I had a ton of scraps that I needed to have organized.  Since they were all different sizes, I figured that ziploc bags would be the best way to go.  I organized them into colors and then put them all in a different bag.  That way, I can easily find a color that coordinates with the layout I'm doing.

I also have a ton of stickers and 3D embellishments that need to be stored, so I figured the binder method might be the best way to streamline those.  I'm not completely happy with this organization system, so I'm sure it will be tweaked a few more times, but it's better than what I had.

I took a binder and filled it with page protectors.  Then, I put the stickers into the page protector, two to a page.  If I put anymore, they fall to the bottom and it makes it hard to see.

I tried to organize them in categories as best as possible.  I think I'm going to add some dividers so that I can easily flip to the category I'm looking for.

I just kind of shoved all my letter stickers into one page protector.  I'm not really sure how I'm going to organize them yet.

And then I have the huge pages that don't fit into the binder.  What to do with them?

How do you organize your scrapbook items?  I need ideas.

Kitchen Shelf

Last night when I was cooking, I came up with the brilliant idea of hanging a shelf above our counter.  I've always complained about lack of counter room, so of course this was the perfect solution.  

So, off we went today to Home Depot on the search for a shelf.  We found one for $4 and then were able to get brackets at Walmart for 77 cents each.  

Here's the before of our kitchen counter:

And here's what it looked like after my wonderful hubby hung the shelf:

The shelf is the perfect place to put chips, bread, and other small items that have no reason to be on our counter.  For only $6, I think it was the perfect fix for the area.