Race against time

So last nights post was short and sweet. I was racing to post before my laptop died as well as the hubby was beckoning me to come watch "Its a Wonderful Life" with him before it got to late. So I shared a few of the projects we worked on over the weekend. I woke up today looking around feeling really good at what we got done around the house. When I moved us into this house a year ago (a week before Christmas) while Shawn was deployed, I was determined to get us settled in before the end of the year. I pretty much did getting everything unpacked. But, after a year of day in and day out I have re evaluated some areas and have moved things around trying to make our day to day as efficient as possible. We have a room that is our in home gym and over time sorta became a storage unit and you could hardly see the carpet. Saturday night we cleaned up and cleared out and got the gym in working order... just in time! Shawn has been on a work out break since coming home 3 months ago from over seas and I have obviously been on one for 9 months now. We really want to jump into working out once Baby Adams gets here! I have a couple pictures to hang in there and a small pile of misc things that need to be put away then I will post a picture!

Today I started small, I actually try to every day if I get at least 1 thing done off my to do list then I accomplished something. Today I managed to vacuum all the furniture which is a huge chore since we have a hairy Jack Russell. It took one hour to finish thank goodness D takes a power nap every morning.  I managed to get 2 more organizing things done as well. I have been spending a quality amount of time on Pinterest and cant get enough of it and all the ideas it has to offer. I thinks its why we have been on a bigger than usual project drive. I am really loving the organizational ideas. I expanded on two I already had in place today.

I have a great bank that offers a money tracker online but is not as down to the penny as I would like. So, today I labeled a small accordion file of areas we spend money on and plan on really charting it every 30 days, to then at the end of the year compose the best budget for us. Before I was just keeping a box of all our receipts if we needed to find one for a return or something. I am really stoked to really see where all our money is going.

The other was a binder that I had been storing menus of restaurants in it and some business cards. Well I revamped it based of a few pins I had seen on Pinterest plus some ideas of my own. We now have a binder with tabs of: Sitter, City, Services, Menus with room for more later. Under Sitter I have a fire escape plan, instructions for the kiddos, dog and house as well as contact info for Shawn & I and Dr. hospital info. Under City I have our trash/recycle schedule, and local amenities such as the baseball stadium schedule. Under Services is all the business cards for auto or home repair type places that we have used or have been recommended to. Menus is pretty self explanatory but I did include a piece of paper with our address, phone number, housing development and cross roads. Things I know I could never remember when I was baby sitting so its there for a sitter or even family thats over watching the kids/house. The binder has been a great resource and now that its been expanded on I know it will be greatly appreciated and used often!

On a whim I decided to organize D's hair things. Santa and my Sister in Law helped to make that collection larger & brighter! So thanks to Ikea (bin) they were already just tossed in and 2 up cycled items I have a super easy accessible hair bin for her. A 6 egg holder carton and 2 microwavable dinner trays.

I am always stoked after something goes from useable to super efficient. I am always tell hubby that if things are easy to put away/find then we will be more inclined to put things away and not let stuff pile up. We are both amazed at how right I am at this. It also makes it easy for kids to jump in on this as well as anyone who comes into our home can find what they need with out digging.

Only 11 more days or 18 max before Baby Adams gets here and I am hoping that this week I can finish most of my projects to feel more than ready for Baby and can just enjoy her, D and family time! Hope you all had a great Monday! I sure have.

Project weekend

Been busy here. I am always thinking of new creative decor to put up or projects as my husband calls them to do around the house. Now that hes home I can do the crafty parts and he can do more of the manual labor which he is not a fan of lol! But hes a good sport about it all. I know that most people would think all the things I have been doing would be nesting but then they dont really know me. I am always re arranging furniture, organizing or cranking out some sort of project. I am one of those people who needs to stay busy. So starting with the organizing sort a lost steam on this one after the last post but I did manage to organize some linens. I took table clothes and cloth napkins and put them in the zipper sheet/curtain packaging. Super great idea and you just save the packaging when you purchase new sheets or curtains for later use. I used a name tag for labeling and put them all in a basket on a lower shelf in the kitchen!

Got 2 small projects done in the guest bathroom that has been a piece meal project from day one. I cant wait until its transformation is complete it will end up being 1 blog on its own its been big.

1st picture is of 3 pictures I got hung... originally a post card that I cut up matted on scrapping paper and hung in cheap small frames for a nice big impact. Total cost only $13.00

This pic is of iron hooks that were off white that I painted black. Found a salvaged gold frame and you have creative eye catching towel hangers!

Then I did 2 small projects in the girls room total cost for the ribbon wreath $10.00 and the hoop wall art about $10.00 as well. Both I have seen on many sights but my colors and display are unique and not over paid for something every store has. Home made is my favorite!

The mirrors where plain I added the rhinestones for some girly glam! Pretty proud of all these projects this weekend. This was just a quick post gotta go join the family for family movie night on the sofa.

January 2012

January 2012!! Cant get over how fast 2011 flew by... it was one heck of a year full of all sorts of challenges but I think that 2011 helped me grow a bunch in so many ways and I couldn't be more thankful for the experiences. I have a feeling 2012 will be just as challenging but I am ready for it!

We spent the 1st day of the new year busy but relaxed. We got up and went to Church, walked around the mall, came home took a nap, watched a Disney movie as a family and did a few little chores around the house. Over all it was a perfect day and a great start to the New Year.

Yesterday was a super productive day! I started the day cleaning out our junk drawers on a whim, actually I had been wanting to for a while and I figured new year and all the consumerism/advertising for organization I better jump on it. I wouldnt call it nesting because I am an organizing freak and am always looking for something to organize. Outwardly it annoys the hubby but inwardly he loves it cause he can find things on his own, most everything is in clear bins/containers and labeled too so its pretty hard NOT to find what you are looking for. After the junk drawers I got our tax paper work together... well it was already together I just went thru it to organize it better and double check were good to go. Then I recalculated our budget, paid a few bills and my favorite part... paid off a small loan, great feeling! Then I decided to 1/2 gut our master closet to fine tune its everyday use. Its a GIANT closet so I recently ditched the dressers in our bedroom and moved every piece of our clothes and the kids into our closet. When I did it though I didnt really map it all out, so yesterday I literally sat in our closet for a good 20-30 minutes configuring in my head where the best place for everything to go would be. The end result... not bad. One of these days I am going to go all out and have the closet professionally done but until then what I managed to accomplish will work for some time.

Today the quest to organize continues. But, I thought I would share some of my organizing mania with you all, feel free to steal the ideas some I have some are original but I have always been one to share. Happy organizing!!

Couple junk drawer tips... office drawer dividers work well but if your on a budget I have found that microwave meal dishes work well. After you enjoy your meal wash the plastic dish in the dishwasher and then into the junk drawer it goes to hold just about anything. I have 2 in the back of the drawer on the left! Laundry soap lids work great for all sorts of things I have one in the front of the drawer on the right holding misc nails and such. Be creative I have seen egg cartons used, muffin tins all sorts of things. I love it when I can re use/recycle things!!

I learned the hard way but plastic bins are the best. I used to use all sorts of decorative cloth, cardboard metal etc but I finally realized that they are not exactly cleanable friendly. Plastic can be wiped out and washed out. Plus with a man in the house to SEE what's inside AND label it its guaranteed he will be more inclined to put things away and take initiative to find things on his own!

For a closet this is great this one is from Target there are much nicer more durable ones at Ikea but for the closet this works just fine and is cheaper. each cubby has 2 purses in it... yes I have an addiction! Since most of my purses are Coach and come in purse bags cloth storage seems to be ok. Since you cant see whats inside I opted to label the wood right underneath each bin. Another option is to take a picture of the items inside and attach to a tag putting the tags on a ring on the handle of the bin.

Clear drawers! They are stackable and hold things like my socks, tights, work out clothes etc. Shoe storage I have had these for some time and they work decent of course who wouldn't love a Sex in the City closet but on a more affordable everyday use this works and looks pretty good. This of course isn't even 1/2 my shoe collection. For the most part I try to keep them in there shoe box if its a decently durable one those are stacked on the one built in bookcase in our closet just to the left of these. These I would say I really great for kids shoes cause as you can tell some of my sets of shoes don't fit so they take up two cubby holes. VERTICAL is key and personally so is a LABELER!! 

One of my favorite ideas. These are supposed to be for belts... as you can tell they work super for necklaces. I have a send one hanging right underneath this one for all my costume jewelry to hang on. Super cheap! Other options are peg board which we have hanging over head but have hats hooked on. I have seen wood hangers with plastic shower rings as another option. 

Thats it from yesterdays organizing day... more to come tomorrow.