21 Day Organizing Challenge- Challenge 2, Organize the Computer Desk

Challenge #2- The Computer Desk

Before:

(Gulp.  You have no idea how brave I'm being, owning up- on the 'net no less!- to this!)

And, after:

I'm estimating another 20 min. job here- possibly less, but again, that's with leeway given for little person interruptions. 

And you know, it's not as "clean" to the eye as I'd like, but it'll have to do until I can buy more of these white office container thingys at Wal-Mart (the store that I continue my love/hate relationship with).

Part of my overall 2011 goal of "Organizing" is to also adopt these two statements:

1.)  Good enough is better than not at all.  (otherwise spoken in this house as a quote from the movie "Babe", "That'll do pig.  That'll do.")

2.)  Keep calm and carry on.  (Those good 'ol Brits- I love this quote!)

21 Day Organizing Challenge- Challenge 1, Organize the Junk Drawer

Well, already I'm bending the rules.  ;)

But, the organizing of *A* drawer was a success- and it was looking pretty "junky", so I guess that counts!

Let me introduce, our first bathroom drawer.

And, the counter directly above it...

"Oy vay!", you say?  I agree.

Anyway, following the step by step directions, I organized away.

I'm estimating this took me, maybe 20 min. tops- including toddler interruptions.

And the result is...

a neatly organized drawer, including pretty patterned paper underneath.  :D

Oh, and a much clearer countertop...

with toddler hair things all corralled in one basket now.

*Happy sigh*

One step at a time, I think I can do this.

:D

Late Again, But Determined Anyway!

I really wish that I would find these things earlier.

Here I am, just discovering this, and starting 2/3 of the way through. 

Sigh.......

Ah well.  That's just how the cookie crumbles 'round my house!

So, I'm starting late (again), but I am not to be dissuaded! 

I am determined- 2011 is the YEAR.

The year in which I WILL finally get our home whipped into shape!

This is the year that our house becomes a home- and a home that not only feels and looks "homey" (at the very least, by December this year, there will be much improvement in the "homey"ness department!) but that is organized (at least to the extent that organization is possible in this stage of our parenthood life).

Wanna join me?  :D

I may be late, but I'm stickin' to it!

So, here goes: Day 1- Organizing the Junk Drawer.

Stay tuned.

(But only if you want to see pictures of a horribly messy drawer turned neat.  Heh heh!)

Organization

OK.

Wonderful people who may read this blog from time to time- I (once again) need your help!

I HATE, hate, hate to admit it, but I am T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. at organization.  

It's like a gene I was born without.

And yet, I CRAVE it.

Desperately, passionately, CRAVE it!

My biggest problem, what "trips me up" the most, are all the "little" decisions involved in organizing.

You know, like- okay, the bedding is all washed, folded, and sorted by bed size.  Now where do I put it?  This house has no- literally- NO storage space.

There are no linen closets.

There are no "extra" cupboards.

There is nothing but a single shelf and hanging rod in each closet.

And, the closets are tiny.

Compounding this problem is that I need to use things we already have- we are on a TIGHT budget, and there's no extra moolah for nice organizational systems.

Bedding is just one example, out of so very many.

Anyway, my point is that, lately, my house is looking a lot more like this:

(http://brasilmagic.wordpress.com/)

than this:

(http://maruschak.net/page/3/)

SO, help me out!

What's your best organizing advice?  

Got pictures?  I wanna see them!

It's nice to look at beautiful "show" homes, but this is the real world- I'd love real examples of how you've done something.

I'm still plugging away over here.

Trying to pare down, throw away, donate, sell, box up and store in the basement.

But, there are days- more often than not lately- that it just feels hopeless.

Sigh...

So, give me some hope!

:)

Change Update & More

Well, our first month of change is over, and I'll admit that I'm bummed- we weren't able to fully succeed at it, but we did give it a valiant effort!

I tried hard to sew those diapers!

I did manage to get one almost completed, but somehow, with a one year old and an almost 4 month old to take care of during the day, I just couldn't carve out enough time to "get 'er done"as Pete would say.

And so, we did have to buy more disposable diapers towards the end of the month.

Oh well. I'm not going to allow myself to feel bad about it, because our "heart" is in the right place. We are trying, and we will continue to try!

I did discover a few things in the sewing process though-

1. I can sew if I put my mind to it!

2. I like cloth diapers MUCH better than disposables (I think I already knew this, it's just that I reaffirmed that to myself during this challenge.).

3. I don't really care for the way the Little Comet Tails diapers are supposed to go together. I'm tweaking the pattern to my liking as I go along. Which brings me to...

4. I'm seriously thinking, as I do get the time to sew, that other people might be interested in buying my version of a cloth diaper. I'm pondering on how to find the time to sew more and thinking about possibly trying to sell some (if I ever get enough finished to have a supply!). And,

5. I am not a fan of snaps on cloth diapers. I'm a velcro girl. I'll openly admit it.

I did the numbers, and it will be cheaper for me to make our diapers in the long run, rather than buying them. I love shopping for the fabric and notions, and I can't wait to (find the time to) post pictures! :)


I am coming along, slowly but surely, on the Five a Day Clutter Challenge too. I'm slowly weeding out clutter and junk (I even discovered that I have 6 extra shelves of storage space now!!!), getting rid of it, and organizing what's left behind.

I'm not stopping at just 30 days though- I'm going until all of the rooms in this house have a place for everything in them, and our home feels comfortable and relaxing instead of cluttered and chaotic!

I've written down a daily routine, for each day of the week, that I hope will help me find the time to do things like sew and sort. I really hope I can get the baby to work with me on it too! ;)

And, on a side note, I'm feeling much better these days (though it will be such a relief when winter starts to end and we can get outside again every day!). I've been taking St. John's Wort at each meal, and I've noticed that I'm definitely calmer through my days, and my mood is generally better. I'm hoping if I can stick to my new routine that I'll start to feel more rested and have more energy through the day too.

On a second side note, we had Regan's 3 month pictures done last weekend, and I can't wait to see them! Hopefully we'll get them in time to send out Valentines! :D

Here's a neat video on how fast it all goes once you're a parent- I'm already beginning to see it start to happen, and it's good, but a little bittersweet. :)

How are you doing on keeping your New Year's Resolutions?

Stir Crazy!!!

Sigh.......

Here I am, having disappeared from the blogging world again, with a confession to make.

I suffer from S.A.D. every year- and the toughest stretch of it for me is right now, in the depths of the winter freeze.

I usually do pretty good through fall (love that season!) and even Christmas- it's just that last leg of winter that really gets me!

Thankfully I've found that, for me, light therapy helps a lot.

So, I try to get out for a daily walk (hard to do with such little babies and kids around everyday, and temps as cold as they've been here this winter), and do my best to either sit by a sunny window (UGH! haven't even seen the sun here in a WEEK!!!) or somewhere that I can have my little HappyLite light box shine on me (hey, I'm not at all above tricking my brain into behaving!).

But, I still have days like today (and the last couple of days leading up to today)- days where I'm pretty much a crazed basket case.

The serious starch and sweets cravings are attacking, all of the unfinished and un-begun home improvement projects are starting to loom up around me, and I just pretty much feel like an out-of-control emotional mess. I try hard to "self medicate" by throwing myself into a project or two, but this year my beautiful, wonderful, miracle-baby bundle of joy is here- which has helped, I think, ward off the worst of the symptoms so far, but also makes it nearly impossible sometimes to really get into a project. (But, I am NOT complaining about her! She is my- our- greatest blessing!) :) No, not complaining, just admitting that lately it's all just a bit difficult for me.

So, that's what's turned me quiet here in "Paradise". ;)

All of this, on top of having my font stuck somehow on italic today- it's almost more than a girl can handle! So, I finally decided today, as soon as Pete got home (that sweet hubby of mine! more on him later.), that I was going to have to distract myself with a project of some kind. I've been blog-browsing over the last couple of days, and so I'm going to share some of what I've been enjoying/dreaming of doing. Hope you find some it useful too- or enjoyable at the very least! :)

This piece of canvas wall art:

It's (ah-ha! no more italics!) called "Tree of Life" by Jill McDonald. I found it here, but, ouch! $144.00 is a bit beyond my budget! Not sure how I'm going to make that one happen yet, but the wheels are a-turnin'. We shall see...

I'm also really enjoying The Copy Cat Cottage blog! I'm so glad my friend Melissa shared a link to it on her blog. Stacy is such an inspiration! She's decorating her home beautifully on a budget- my kinda gal. ;) I already have plans to be a copy cat myself and make some of her chalkboard tags for the various toy and daycare storage baskets we have around here. Because of her I've decided to go ahead and dig out my old home improvement idea/inspiration binder- and have some Pottery Barn catalogs on their way here, that I'll be ripping ideas out of to try to duplicate (on the cheap) in our home.

And, last but not least, I've been enjoying watching some of DIY Wasted Spaces on Hulu.com. It's when I find programs like these that I'm especially thankful that we don't have a t.v.- I'd become an extremely unproductive couch potato, just sitting there, watching these great home improvement shows and daydreaming. ;)

So, tonight I've busied myself by rearranging the playroom shelves (trying to see if I can get all of the toys in there with it still looking neat, not cluttered, giving us more open space in the living room), moved some baskets around to give the art storage area in the dining room a nicer look to it, thrown out a lot more of our piled up magazines, and decided that- just as soon as it's warm enough to open the house up a little for proper ventilation- I'm going to finish the painting projects I've been meaning to get to for so long now!
(I get a bit manic and frantic during these S.A.D. days at times!)

On the painting list:
-finish painting the kitchen drawers and cupboards white & apply new hardware
-paint the kitchen (this will mean figuring out how to patch the big lathe and plaster hole in the wall- hubby be ware!)
-painting the living and dining room one color to unify the two
-painting the bathroom a much lighter, airy-er color

and,

-very possibly painting the outside of our front door and applying a new (read "prettier") door knob/latch.

Plus, hubby's supposed to start the remodel (one of these days) on Regan's room.

As for the aforementioned sweetness of the hubby, he came home, saw the state I was in, and not only bought and prepared supper for us, but also came back from the store with chocolate. Just for me.

:D

Ahhhh. :)

Now, off to bed. Wish me luck getting up and continuing on with this all in the morning!

Clutter Challenge!

So, my own personal New Year's Resolution is to live simply.

That means, I have GOT to get a handle on my CLUTTER!

I know that, for me, a cluttered environment equals a cluttered mind.
I feel frazzled and stressed.

Unfortunately, my "frugal" side (save it, we can use it again/later) conflicts with my need for a well organized environment. Add to the fact that in our truly "blank slate" house we have next to "nil" built-in/ready-made storage (you know, things many people take for granted, like an entire set of kitchen cabinets instead of just two, or a linen closet instead of... well... nothing- that kind of thing!), and it all adds up to a recipe for disaster! A cluttered, messy house.

(Sigh....)

Okay, my moment of self pity is over (for now- wink, wink!)- the question is, what am I going to do about it?

Well, one of my favorite magazines, Mothering, issued a clutter challenge for the new year that I'm hopping on the bandwagon with! The "Five a Day for Thirty Days" challenge is a great idea- get rid of five pieces of clutter a day for a month and, if a new item is brought into the home, five extra things have to go. Even I can accomplish five little pieces a day! I'm hoping to continue this for well past a month though- my goal is to keep it going until I truly have a place for everything, and everything in it's place.

Wish me luck! So far, several things have made their exit from our home, including daycare toys that were never played with, two cooking pots and a skillet, and lots of junk mail (hey, I figure junk mail can at least count as one item!).

Wanna join me in the challenge?

Here's to a year of much less STUFF!

:)