Organizing

I have been in a cleaning mood for the past couple of days.  I think it's because Kasi and I have been watching Hoarders, and some of those houses, well, all of those houses, are completely disgusting.  It's made me want to sanitize my house from one end to the other.

Last night I decided to tackle my desk, and I was surprised at all the papers I have in there that are pretty important.  I started thinking that I should buy one of those fireproof safes to keep it all in, because God forbid something were to happen to our home, I would need those papers.  I pray that I am never the victim of a house fire, but it's better to be prepared for anything, right?

I found this safe on SafesAtoZ, and it is perfect for my needs.  I don't have any valuables, to put in a safe, just papers.  You know, things like birth certificates and tax papers.  I like how this particular safe is like a filing cabinet, so I can keep my papers organized as well as safe.

When we moved to this apartment last year, I got rid of a lot of stuff and I have been trying really hard to keep this place organized.  It's been difficult to get the kids on board with the whole organized thing, because they have a tendency to drop their stuff on the floor as soon as they walk in the door.  I am trying to get them used to bringing their stuff to their own rooms as soon as it comes in the house and throwing away things they no longer want or need, but it's a work in progress.  Hopefully, they will get it soon, because I do not want to find myself on an episode of Hoarders.

Organizing Your Garage

I have never lived in a house with a garage.  Weird, I know.  I do know people who have garages but can not get their cars into them because they are filled with so much junk.  My dad, however, has the neatest garage I have ever seen.  There is a place for everything and everything is in it's place. 

If I ever do live somewhere with a garage, I would see it as a place to store things, not just park my car.  With the right garage cabinets, keeping it organized would be easy.  Of course, having garage storage cabinets and using them properly might be a challenge for some people.  I mean, I have storage cabinets in my house now that were perfectly organized at one point in time but they are a mess now.  I blame my kids.  They have a tendency to not know how to put things back where they belong.

Ryan seems to keep his room more organized than the girls do, and I am sure he would help to keep our garage neat and clean.  He would love to have steel storage cabinets that he could organize his tools in.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to convince me to get him some Arrow Spacemaker storage cabinets for his bedroom here at the apartment.  Right now, he has so many tools and tool boxes in his room that you can hardly walk in there.  But, he's a boy, and I guess even as kids, boys love their toys.

I Want!

 I used to love to cook.  I probably still do, I just don't have the time.  After working all day, the last thing I want to do is stand over the stove.  The kids hate it, because they live on cereal and sandwiches most nights.  I want to get back into the habit of cooking, though. 

I love looking online for recipes and kitchen gadgets.  I know I have said this before, but if I was to ever buy a house, the kitchen would be the deciding factor in my picking a home.  One of the things I would want is a huge pantry.  I have a small one now, and I am crazy about keeping it organized.  Right now, my biggest annoyance is my canned goods.  I can only stack them so high, and they take up so much room.  I found this can organizer, and I really want it.  Isn't it awesome?

 The best thing is that I also found a shelf reliance coupon that can save me some money.  I really do love coupons, especially when I find them for things I really need (or want!).  And I really want that organizer.  In fact, I want a few of them.  They would make my pantry look great.

Room By Room

I have been so busy cleaning!  I want my house perfect (or as perfect as I can make a rental house where I am not allowed to paint) so I am going room by room, organizing and making things nice.  Yesterday, Kasi and I put together my new desk and bookcase.  I really like it better than the old hand me down desk, mostly because it doesn't have the hutch top.  I no longer feel like I am being punished and sitting in the corner whenever I am online.  What do you think?

I also got a new flat screen computer monitor, and that takes up a whole lot less room than the old one did.  I am happy with how the living room looks, aside from wanting new curtains.  The ones hanging were made by my mom the first year I got married, so 16 years ago.  Wow.  I do think it's time for something new.

Tomorrow, I am going to concentrate on the bathroom.  I asked the maintenance man if I could have some of the paint they use to re-paint when a tenant moves out so that I can at least refresh the walls in there, and he said he would get me some.  I just hope it is before this weekend.  Until then, I have other things I can do in there.

It's a small bathroom, but the lighting is a little weird.  There is one contemporary lighting fixture in there, and it is right above the sink.  I like having that light there when I am doing my hair and brushing my teeth, but that one light doesn't exactly light up the entire room.  Taking a shower can be a kind of dark experience, especially with the curtain closed.  I would love to convince the maintenance man to put up some flush mount ceiling lights in there closer to the tub, but he will probably tell me I'm crazy.  He probably wouldn't be opposed to us buying some Lampclick Lighting with our own money and installing it ourselves.  Heck, we put up a ceiling fan in the living room ourselves. Aside from the lighting issue, I have no complaints about the bathroom.  I found one of those metal racks that goes over the toilet, and I am excited to see how that is going to look in there. 

After the bathroom is done, I have to tackle the kitchen.  I am going to repaint the cabinets with a better paint so that I can actually wipe off spills.  Right now, if I wipe the cabinets, the paints comes right off.  They used a pretty cheap paint when they painted them the first time.  They are white, too, so every spill stands out.  I bought a kitchen/bath paint yesterday that the sales person promised could be scrubbed without coming off the cabinet.

I guess we'll see if that's true!

I Need To Get Organized

 How do you organize your day?  Are you the type of person who makes lists of all the things you hope to accomplish, or are you like me and have everything you need to do written on sticky notes, which are stuck all over your computer monitor?  On any given day, I have at least five or six sticky notes reminding me of all that I have to do each day.  Some days, come bed time, I am scrambling to get things done that I have forgotten.  I need a better way of organizing my day.

I just heard about Taskwise, and I have to say, it sounds like something that I could use to make my days flow a little easier.  I can organize my time, even setting alarms and alerts to make sure that I meet my deadlines.  Check out this little video:


Sign up for a free Taskwise account! Not only can it be used personally, you can also use it to help run a business more effectively as well.   You can decide who sees what, and you can access and share your information with employees easily form nearly anywhere. 

I think this program can make a difference in my day.  I know I need a better system than sticky notes.

It's Cleaning Time!

I have gotten so much done this week around my house.  For some reason, I have been in cleaning mode, and with cleaning comes organizing!  I think it has something to do with the changing of the seasons, although our weather hasn't changed at all.  We are still going to be in the low 90's today.  The weather man says we might be in the high 70's by Sunday, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Anyway, with my house being so small, everything has it's place, and when things aren't out away, it can get pretty cluttered.  We have a storage building in the yard, but it's not big enough to hold everything I need it to.  Junior is trying to talk me into renting a storage building from Storage Milton Keynes, but I am determined to organize things around here better so that we don't have to.   My biggest problem is my kitchen. 

As you can see, this little corner of my kitchen has become a storage area.  These totes are filled with toys from the girls room.  On of them has Barbie dolls in it, and one of the others has Little People.  I am not sure what the on on the bottom has in it (probably junk!), and then the little one in front is filled with Brandi's snacks that she takes to school.  That was the best idea I ever had, too.  Whenever I food shop, I just empty all of the snacks I buy for her to take to school into that tote, so she knows exactly what she has without rummaging through the pantry.  It also saves a lot of room in my pantry.

I am hoping that I can get these totes back into the girls room (except the snack one) by this weekend.  Of course, that means cleaning their room, which I am making them do.  I don't understand how two girls can be so messy.  My mom would probably argue that I was the same way as a kid, which is true, so I guess it's just a girl thing.  I keep threatening to go in there myself with a couple of trash bags, hoping that will motivate them to clean.

I'll let you know how that works out.

Springpad

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Springpad. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love finding recipes online. This is a new thing for me, because it is only recently that I have decided to try new things. I am a creature of habit, and that held true for my food as well. I was scared to try new things, and one day I realized that I might be missing out.

Turns out I was.

Now that I am trying new recipes, I need a place to keep track of it all. This is where Springpad comes in. In a nutshell, Springpad is a free online personal organizer. I recently opened an account with them, and am feeling my way around the sight. From what I see so far, when I find a recipe I like online, I can add it to my profile. This is great because I am known for trying a recipe, loving it, and then when I want to use it again, I can not find it. Having all of my favorites in one place will make it so much easier. I can even upload pictures of the dishes I make, which is pretty cool. I mean, you all know how much I love taking pictures. Oh, and I can also make a weekly meal plan, and create my shopping list at the same time. How cool is that?

Right now, Springpad is giving you the chance to win $100. All you have to do is check out their bloggers favorite recipes, and when you add the ones you like to your recipe box, you are entered to win the money. It's that simple. You should Check out Springpad and enter the contest. I am going to be adding lots of recipes to my recipe box, so I should have a good chance of winning that money.

Trying To Get Organized

I am not a very organized person. I would love to be, but no matter how I organize things, they never stay that way. One of the biggest things I need is a calender. I keep meaning to pick one up when I am at the store, but I always forget. At this moment, all my "to dos" and "don't forgets" are on sticky notes, stuck around my computer screen. And trust me, this is not a good system, because the sticky notes can fall off, and then I forget important things.

I found a Family Calendar online, and I really want the black one. These are really cool because you can customize the pages to suit your needs. You can keep track of sports and school events, and anything else that is important in your life. I also found a Digital Photo Album that I could put to good use. It looks kind of like the planner, but the pockets hold all the CDs that have your pictures on them. Right now all my picture CDs are stacked on a shelf by my desk, and it is not attractive at all. I can also get a Leather Photo Album that matches the planner and digital photo album to hold all my actual pictures, although I don't have many of those these days. In fact, I can not remember the last time I had pictures printed.

I might want to look into doing that soon. I probably have 20 CDs full of pictures that need to be printed. I also have 35 mm film from when Kasi was born 12 years ago that is still undeveloped. Do you think the pictures will still come out?