40 Bags in 40 Days

I’ve seen this challenge throughout the blogosphere and pinterest.  The idea is simple, each day tackle one area of clutter and fill bags to discard.  At the end of the 40 days, the entire house should be free of extra “stuff” as well as much cleaner.  I am going to do this challenge and then at the end of 40 days have a garage sale! 

I made my list of 40 places and tried to somewhat group them together, I might end up tweaking the days a bit so that the more timely activities take place on the weekends.  The area that I think will take the most time is going through all the bins downstairs, so I gave the basement two days.  Although now that I went through and put dates by the areas, I noticed that the basement got put on a Tuesday and Wednesday so most likely those will swap with a couple other areas.  The basement doesn’t have the most stuff in it, but it’s going to take longer to sort through since it’s a bunch of Rubbermaid containers with holiday décor and childhood memories. 

My organizing goal for the next 40 days

I started the challenge over the weekend starting with my utensil drawers.  There were a few items that I don’t use often but still want to keep for parties, so I put them in a mini Rubbermaid and then into a shelf in the garage with all the other party dishes.  This evening’s activity will be the fridge; at least we just got back from vacation so it’s not that bad right now, just needs some reorganizing and wiping down.

At the beginning of the year, I mentioned that one of my goals for 2012 was to simplify life.  I’m hoping that through this venture my rooms will be more organized and thus simplified.

If you want to join me in this venture, I’ve included a couple printables to make your own list of 40 places to de-clutter.  Let me know how it goes for you!

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Update: 3/30 linked up to the Organizing home tour. Check it out below:

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Clothespin Picture Holder

An exciting Saturday night of crafts!  Renee and I ventured out to the craft store Saturday evening with a mission to make a clothespin picture holder.  We also learned that clothespins are available at the dollar store and are a TON cheaper than the craft store.

Our goal for these are to show off pictures and cards that would otherwise end up on the fridge.  We are also going to make a Christmas wreath in red/green/gold.  The clothespins were painted with Elmer's glue and then covered in glitter.  To keep the glitter in place (as much as one can control glitter) we spray-painted them with clear lacquer.  We then used a glue-gun to attach the clothespins to our ribbon-wrapped wreath.  To hang the wreath on the door we used an upside-down hook.

Both Renee and I are super excited how they turned out and are looking forward to making a Christmas one as well.

The finished product

Kendra's finished project

Renee's finished project

Clothespin wreath with wedding invites and baby announcement

Update 3/30: added to link party over at Clean & Scentsible. Head over there to check out other fun projects!

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Minneapolis & San Diego

I finally uploaded my pictures from my Minneapolis & San Diego trip. We had a great time enjoying the different locations.

Below are a few pictures from the week.

Last week Thursday we helped decorate for Danette's wedding.  Brad even joined in the fun and helped hold the paper lanterns as we added to it.

Brad helping hang the paper lanterns

Yoda even made an appearance at the rehearsal dinner:

Danette & her mom walking down the aisle

Brad and Me at Beth's wedding in San Diego

The San Diego Zoo!! We spent the day with Christie, Barry, Becca & Nathan enjoying the zoo and dodging rain.

The panda exhibit was closed, but we found a viewing area into their habitat

This meercat cracked me up...he loved posing for pictures

 

 

Monday we drove up to Newport Beach to visit Jon, he showed us around town and then took us to Pelican Hill Resort to show us around.  That place was GORGEOUS and I could definitely imagine it being an amazing escape for relaxing.  We toured the grounds right and watched the sunset over the circular pool (its the largest one in the US).  

Brad took this amazing panoramic with his phone!  The pool looked so inviting.

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2 Weddings, 7 Days, 5000 Miles

We just got back from a whirlwind of a trip. My cousin got married on Friday in Minneapolis and a high school friend on Saturday in San Diego. We got into Minneapolis Wednesday, and enjoyed the wonderful heat wave. Friday included 7 hours at Mall of America, Brad enjoyed Buffalo Wild Wings to watch March Madness while I enjoyed Nickelodeon Universe. San Diego was having a storm of the year so it was colder and wetter than expected. We still enjoyed the wedding, the zoo and a day in Newport Beach.

Now we are home after 5000 miles of traveling in a week.

I will post more details later when I have my computer back and can get some pictures online.

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Exciting News

Major changes are coming to our family (no, I’m not pregnant).  Starting the first of April, Brad is going to be going three-quarter time at BCS to focus on his new company.  Many of you know that back in October, Brad and a few friends started a new company, Blue Spectrum Technology.  Blue Spectrum Technology has been chugging along and Brad is hoping to eventually make it his full time job, but to do this there needs to be a paradigm shift by taking the leap to work there for more hours each week.  Fortunately, BCS is allowing him to cut back to part time initially; this is good for both us and them, it allows Brad a guaranteed (although smaller) paycheck and also lets BCS keep him around for special projects and maintenance on systems he has designed. 

If any of you know of a person or business that needs some technology support, give Brad a call or check out their website: www.bluespectrumtech.com.  They have also partnered with 25/7 in Tukwila to add security camera and security DVR setup/maintenance to their offerings.  They can also maintain servers, new computer installation, audio/video set-up etc.

We are excited to see what comes with this new venture!

 

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A busy week with the Silhouette

I've had a busy week with my Silhouette this week.  I had 4 main projects that I worked on this week (there is one more in the works, but it got delayed thanks to the cat stealing a few pieces). 

The first project this week was trying out the heat transfer material.  I cut out some retro looking sunglasses and ironed them on to the onsie, then used puffy paint in order to create a "necklace".  I'm thinking that these could be great baby shower gifts.  It would be fun to make a set of 12 for one each month saying something like "1 month old" "2 month old" etc. 

The second project I had was to make my parents a welcome sign similar to what I made myself last weekend.  I used the same Ikea door and paint samples to create one in colors that are more her decor. 

Earlier in the week my mom posted a picture onto Pinterest of vinyl decor onto a Kitchenaid mixer.  I knew that it would be something that I could create and found the file for all the words online.  It definitely took a lot longer than I had anticipated to cut out and was staring at it towards the end hoping that it was almost done as the battery levels fell lower and lower on the laptop.  Today I put it on the mixer, I probably should have waited to do this project for when I was better at positioning the vinyl the first time.  It turned out slightly crooked but its still cute.  This is actually a bright teal vinyl, but I'm still learning this camera and it kept turning out blue.

The final project this weekend was to add something to the map wall around the doorbell.  I keep seeing this saying on Pinterest and felt that it was applicable to the theme of the wall.  I love how it brings a bit more symmetry to the wall around the doorbell.

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Organizing the Massive Piles of Paper

Come tax time I always realize how disorganized I have been throughout the year.  From the outside it looks organized; the mail is originally sorted into three piles: to pay, to file, and to shred.  After this stage, it falls apart.  The “to file” pile used to get put on top of the filing cabinet waiting for either Brad or me to take the time and put them in the correct files; however, throughout the past couple years this pile has turned into a box that goes for much longer stints before being sorted.  The sorting task then becomes a much more daunting task which leads to the pile becoming even larger and the recursive equation begins again.  Now, as I look for the proper tax forms to put into Turbo Tax I have to go digging and hope that I find all the necessary documents and don’t miss any deductions. 

Another source of disorganization comes from all my donations to Goodwill throughout the year.  As I put the bags together, I write down all of the items on a sheet of paper, and then leave it there…for the rest of the year.  (Hopefully you see the dilemma). 

This year I am going to simplify. 

First, the mail will be “filed” in the kitchen.  Instead of having a pile of all documents that need to be filed, I am going to pre-file them into an accordion file in the kitchen.  This allows us to just pull the set of papers out of the accordion file and put them into the filing cabinet.  No more tedious hours of making piles just to put them into the filing cabinet! (Or so I say at this point.  Ask me about this in August if I’ve followed through…please, really do ask me and make sure I’ve kept it up).  I’ve had these two accordion files for a few months, I originally found them on 75% off clearance at Target and knew that they would be perfect for some sort of organizing project.  They have had a few random uses since then but this will be their final use.  I pulled out Brad’s labeler and got to work labeling each section.  I’m using one of the accordion files for Bills and the other for Statements. 

The current issue with the Goodwill donations is that they are written down on scraps of paper and left around the house which leads to them getting lost or thrown away.  I’m determined to fix this problem too.  I found these cute folders in the Target clearance section so the plan is to put all donation lists into the folder as they are written.  When I bring the donation to Goodwill and receive the donation slip, I can then staple the slip to its corresponding list. 

Here are before and after pictures of my paper organization.  The files in that filing cabinet have 3-4 years of paperwork and the drawers are getting a little stuffed.  I didn’t get rid of all the paperwork for now, but all of the pre-2011 paperwork got moved to Rubbermaids and put in the basement until I can sort through and decide what needs to be kept.  In a couple months I will move the 2011 paperwork down there as well so that only the current year will be in the filing cabinet.  

The reason I like this system and am hopeful that I can keep it up is that it is easy and moves items off of my countertops.  One of my goals for 2012 was to keep our kitchen counter cleaner and I believe that moving the mail filing station is one way to accomplish this.  

When we got a wine fridge this past summer, it moved into the place where this cabinet was housed.  We moved the cabinet against the wall in the living room and I think it will be perfect for decorative storage.  Some of the squares can have cute decorative items and the others can be for small storage.  I found the drawers on clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond in December and knew they would work great to further divide the squares.  My only wish was that a tall and short drawer would fit in one square; they are about ½” too tall to do this. 

I worked this week on making the cube organizer prettier.  I found a table runner on 70% clearance at Target and topped it off with Glassybabies and PartyLite Glowlites (the white candles will entirely glow when lit).  The center cube has the electrical outlet and all of the wiring for the stick lights.  I wanted a way to cover that cube so I used left over fabric from a previous project and stapled it to the front.  

I had a bis of a mishap building one of the drawers.  I went to put the last piece on and couldn't figure out why the holes didn't go all the way through.  I pulled out Brad's drill, made my own holes, finished putting it together only to realize I had flipped the top and the bottom pieces.  The top was no longer the nice pretty white color and I really didn't want to completely uninstall to fix it.  Instead, I cut some pretty scrapbooking paper and put it on top of the two large drawers.  I really like how it turned out, I have storage for all of the paperwork that comes through the mail, drawers for items that I want hidden and also display space for some lovely candles.

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