Organizational Must Have

Do you spend more than 20 minutes tidying up?

Then this may be your answer!

Now I realize that there may be some repercussions from putting these little tent cards all over the house. I'm also anticipating the "I see your things lying around, do I get to label all your stuff?" response. When anyone else in my house starts picking up and putting things away, cleans toilets, counters, tubs, floors, well then I suppose that would earn them the right to put those out. But for now, I'm reserving this for me.

I'm mass producing these puppies. They're on good cardstock, printed on my computer. If you'd be interested in purchasing them, I'd sell them $2 a sheet + postage. I'll update this blog with the complete cost, but I'm thinking I could probably get 12 in a regular envelope for a regular stamp postage. Message me here if you like it and want some for your house. They're available in a multitude of colors, just ask. Here's a close up shot of the graphic. Of course keep in mind, this was my prototype, so I grabbed whatever cardstock I had handy. It'll be an interesting experiment for sure.

So, this is my organization tip of the day. Time to work on my budget!

2 Days Before My Birthday!

...and that's all I'm saying about that. Honestly when you hit your 40's age doesn't quite matter anymore. At least I don't think so. I haven't kept track of how old I am for a good 8 years at least. My children remind me whenever I get that glazed look in my eyes when someone asks, so I really don't need to remember then do I? I'm sitting today on this particularly cold day in Southwest Michigan staring at my laptop wondering just how I'm going to segway those comments with some organizational inspiration. I think we'll start with the glazed eyeball look. Where exactly does the term "glaze look in your(my, their) eyes" come from? I have no clue and don't wish to speculate, I do however know that it matches the fog that swirls around my head and both things usually happen simutainously. Like when I'm looking at my desk drawers wondering, how in the heck am I going to make this not only an organized mess, but functioning chaos as well.
Google to the rescue!
Googling how to organize a home office works. I found an answer on "How Stuff Works" that will explain it to you if you have no idea where to start, but that's not my issue. I'm very organized, I have labels and bins, and magazine holders and file folders galore. What I need is to get rid of the old stuff, and set up a more efficient way for the paperwork to flow through this space.
Paperwork may be an oldfashioned way of organizing an office, but let's face it, some of us still get paperwork in the mail, and need a way to process this. The estatements are cool, and I write down every verification code they give me when I'm paying bills online. However, I have important, and not so important things that physically cross my desk and need to be organized. I have reviewed a fellow bloggers system and loved it! http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2009/06/the-care-feeding-of-the-file-crate-system.html She does file folders per week for everything and once a year in June she cleans them out and redoes for the next year. I thought long and hard about doing it this way, then decided it wasn't for me. I need to have an account specific file system. If I want to review say my tv satellite provider bills, I do not want to have to remember what week I received it in and try to hunt down the file. I realize and acknowledge that if you have ebills this would not be an issue. It's very tempting to try her system and have everything go electronic, but I'm still to scared to take the plunge. Plus, what in the heck would I do with the other 4 file drawers in my desk? Ok, enough with dragging my feet on this, let's get started.
First I need to look at the flow of my office, and what I don't like about it, then hatch a plan to fix it. This is how I took care of the problem of my OCD and my husband hanging up his hats on the post of the bed. Every night he'd hang his hat on a post, or his pants, (OMGoodness!!! I remember the pants were the last straw!) on the post of a beautiful four poster king size bed. When the grease and dirt form his clothes started rubbing off onto the beautiful wood, I pondered the dilema. The problem wasn't that my husband was using the bed as a clothing rack, the problem was that the bed was presenting itself to be a multifunctioning piece of furniture! So instead of getting mad and trying to change his patterned behavior, I took the ripsaw and cut the posts off the bed. See, problem solved, no more post, no more stress. I've since gotten rid of the bed altogether, but it actually worked out quite nicely and was beautiful in a new way. We downsized to a queen size bed, another one of my schemes, but a story for another day. Point is, I spend a lot of time at my desk, and I get a little freaked when people stand behind me or start digging in drawers especially when said digging boxes me in or squishes me. Remedy, I'm going to move the files to my outside drawer and then now one has to crowd me to get into it. Next, is the file system. Now I don't need the carboard file folders because for $8 at Sam's Club you can get a box of 50 hanging file folders.http://spaceforlivingos.com/2012/10/3-steps-to-organized-files.html. Here's my picture of today's accomplishment. All ready to go for the next year, and another plus to buying all those hanging files, I now have a sturdy empty box to put last years paperwork in. Oh, and store/misc receipts I simply put on one of these and then stick them in an envelope with the first date and the last date on it. Just in case...

I break them down into categories that will serve to organize and where I can dig up info dating back through the year quickly and efficeintly. Example:Budget, bank accts, utilites, income, taxes, medical, insurance, vehicles, kids, pets, storage unit. (I lied, I do use some file folders for each seperate bank, and vehicles, the utilites are filed in their own hanging file. All are in alphabetical order. File categories are given on this organizer guru's blog

Here's before & after:

 

 

A great start, don't give up, it has to hurt if it's to get better!

Yep my office exploded when I emptied some drawers! Don't be afraid, just break out the garbage bags!

 With this mess created, it's time to bounce! See you tomorrow, in a cleaner office I hope.

 

Thinking bout the new year and what I'm going to do with it:

Over the last few years I've had some really interesting epiphanies. Today I'm wondering exactly what I should do with them and trying to get a game plan for the new year. Seems every year I want to be more organized, healthier, richer, more lively, and not only more goal oriented but more goal achieving as well. So this year, as is the norm I scoff at the "resolution" writing and instead am coming up with a game plan to get back to basics.
My plan will include daily visits to organization, cleaning, finances, and health. I realize with the blink of an eye that God can take me down a different road then the one I plan to follow.  Travelling the road is the key though, you can't expect God to take you anywhere if your aren't moving already. My success is based on my obedience to God. I pray for all of us this year that  our ears will be open to his voice, that our eyes will be open to his direction, and that if we achieve nothing else this year that we all learn to love and live more fully. 
Fullness in life is something that is missing for me. I fell into the rut surviving this life, without seeing any beauty. I was convinced that my burden was to suffer through a mundane existence, that my life had already been lived. I've travelled, I've done good, I am loved and love deeply, and still I would sit at this desk and wonder, "Is this it?" "Is this all there is." How many times did I pray to my God, "Okay, I think I'm done, I've done what you wanted, and will do whatever you ask. Have I finally learned the lesson I was sent here to learn? Can I go home now?" Looking up to heaven I've thought that I was ready.
God then started placing people into my life that made me wonder. Where did it go, my passion? I've read and studied and watched modern day inspirations from "regular" however famous people. The "self-help" guru's of our age, and wondered with all the pieces before me, how they all fit together to form the big picture.
My quest now is to find out what moves me. Surely there is something here amongst all my life's messy pieces.
I invite you, reader, to follow my rights of passage into a new chapter in my life. This month as I wrap up our holiday traditions and pack them back in the boxes they usually reside in, I'll be forming the skeleton, if you please. The framework of some sort of routine, that will once again carry me down the road of life. I'm hoping while doing this I'll come across the wheels that will make the journey much smoother. In my minds eye I'm seeing something more along the lines of a travois.

Not the most ideal way to move, but sometimes it's necessary just to start the motion. Ken Davis said in Fully Alive, "A body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest, rests in peace.

Speaking of people that have inspired me to finally put the pieces of this journey together and their works that go along with it, I want to make it very clear that I am a christian. None of these self help authors have actually proclaimed that they are saved. I have been, and I believe there is room in my belief system to add these hints on making my life better, and I believe that each of these people are on to something. Life's "Secret" if you will. So you may have to open your mind a little more than what is comfortable, but as I say when I pass on information from unorthodox sources. Take what you want, and discard the rest.

I leave you today with a list of sources that sometimes gave me epiphanies, but always inspired me to become better at being me.

 

The Bible

Excuses Begone

The Secret

Fully Alive

The Power of Intention

The Tao

How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have

 

Until later, may you have peace my friends.

 

 

 







 

Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming!!!

Well here I am, yeah, I'm still here. Have been working some long hours and haven't had a chance to blog in a while. Marching band season is over and the kids did great! Lakeshore Marching Band - Stevensville took 2nd place in their flight, we're all so proud of them. The next big thing is their France trip to honor D-day anniversary. So today I wanted to talk about our Christmas celebration. Now whether you call it Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or Christmas, it does not matter to me. I just love the idea of the season! It's great to tie a celebration in with your religion but seriously aren't they all just lumped together and tied into some pagan calendar somewhere. I'm pretty sure scholars are correct when they say that Jesus was not born in December. Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. I will hang my wreaths, decorate my tree, wear my Santa earrings, take those extra trips to church praying to my God and rejoicing the birth of his son, at the same time I'll try to spread my holiday cheer like a plaque.

Enough with the politics of this holiday and on with the projects! I have the kitchen pretty stocked up and decorated so I'll start baking tomorrow! For now, let me share with you some interesting little projects I've found and shared on my facebook. Some I've found on pinterest, others I've come across accidentally. So let's dig in!
The first one is a favorite fall back of mine: Trash to Treasure!
Folgers has a link on their website sharing free printables for these cute little canisters.

The top on I color copied a napkin onto printer paper, then cut, corner rounded, and modge podged it onto the canister.

The bottom one is from the Folgers site.

I needed to do these to make cookie containers for Bob's guys at the shop. Now I have to fill them with goodies, and soon!











This next one is also from my trash to treasure collection. Found it on Pinterest! Imagine that. LOL
Save up your pop bottles girls/guys and grab your paint brushes. Now for these I literally base coated the bottles with a white satin interior house paint. The other colors I have in craft paints. Black, white, blue, red, green, yellow, and brown. I custom mixed the pink and the orange for the beaks.
My hands shake and I can't paint a straight line to save my life, but "tole" painting is pretty forgiving in that your lines don't have to be perfect, and cover it with spattering.

Go on over to pinterest and look up bottle penguins.

 

Have to roll! Have got to get up early and go to work. Merry Christmas ya'll. Tomorrow I'll start sharing my Christmas trees. I almost have one in every room!  Almost. Nothing compared to my aunt who has 22 trees in her house. She starts decorating them in October.

 

 

 

Where did the summer go!?

I know it was here, somewhere. I have tan lines to prove it. It appears that summer has left the building. This weekend was the beginning of the fall chores, that will culminate when the snow stakes are set in the driveway.  So far the air conditioners are out of the windows. Two windows are cleaned and plastic is attached in the hopes of keeping some of the winter chill out. The living room set and the front glass is cleaned, screens have been stashed in the basement. Did you know that if you live in a northern climate where the winters are bitterly cold that taking the screens off your windows and giving the glass a good cleaning lets in more sun, allowing those warming rays to enter your house impeded?  I'm attacking this monumental task a few windows at a time. I have to clean the north windows, and two sets on the south side and I'll be all done! What a difference it makes looking through clean glass to the beautiful fall scenery.
It's amazing the variety of views that God grants his people throughout the year. Even the desert has it's seasons. I found while doing some digging in the good book, a verse that should help when you feel the winter blues coming on and when things seem to get worse and the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Don't be down hearted for God promised us right from the very beginning, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Genesis 8:22 Let that also be a warning to us, that we should all do our part to help keep the earth safe. That's why I love trash to treasure projects so much! We can do our part, and make something beautiful out of it. I plan on going to the Restore in the next day or so, I believe they have glass blocks and I found some really cool holiday projects on pinterest that I'm going to give a try. However the holiday to get ready for now is Halloween and Thanksgiving! As I was digging through stuff I stumbled across some old squished, dusty old tired looking fall wreaths. Let me tell you if you have something like that, don't through them out! Why do you want to go out and buy all new stuff. I forgot to take pictures while I was in the process of revamping them, but I did take pics of them afterwards. I took these two floral decorations and completely dismantled them, put in new oasis and then wrapped new stakes around the flowers and stuck them back in. With all the handling I didn't even have to clean the silk flowers. Put fresh new bows on them and waalaa! My fall wreaths reborn!

 So don't be afraid to destroy those old wreaths, buy some new ribbon, and flowers and go to town! You picked out the wreath from because you loved it. I don't think that ever changes in floral decorations. I love my oval grapevine wreath and my less than perfect cinnamon broom that never smelled to begin with. If new scent is what your after you can buy cinnamon sticks, eucalyptus twigs, or even essential oils. The main thing is be creative and have fun! Until next project!

Headlong into the dog days of summer Project Organization Continues!

Colossians 1:10 So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

What a wonderful inspiration. Yet here I sit, at home, on Sunday, not in church. I feel guilty. I know it's necessary to go to church and fellowship. I am on my own personal journey, trying to grow in the knowledge of God, working on becoming a better person. I love helping others, and my struggle is that I have to remember that sometimes I need to take care of myself. We blur the lines of personal journeys when we are in a family. After being married for over 20 years you sometimes take advantage of the fact that your best friend is right there, and sometimes you forget that you are not "us" that it's important to remain and grow as an individual. Then you get busy in your daily grind and forget that you need quality time together so that "we" become stronger. Life is a great elipse that changes in shape with your days. It flexes, brings some people closer sending other people further away then rolls and changes shape, sending those people away and bringing others closer to the center that is you. You grow by touching others, helping others, inspiring them to grow. Sometimes clawing our way up the hills, and sometimes taking the ride with joy, but always working to make it better. I know it is impossible to attain perfection, but God has given me this wonderful life to make my own, and gave me the power, through him to improve upon myself daily, and although I sometimes suffer with depression, I will always work to improve myself and help others on their journey. With that let's continue with organizing the mess that is my house. Growing in this project and making it flexible enough that I am continuing to make things more efficient without actually effecting the physicality of the structure. We have been approved for a VA loan and are looking for a place of our own. We are still unpacking from prior moves. So condensing and making our house comfortable is still important, but sharing the limelight of our attentions is the endless hours of searching the internet, talking with our real estate agent, and emails. Let's not forget it's band season soon, and within the next month I will be leaving the house to continue my career in call center work outside the home, with an awesome company that helps veterans. The balancing act gets more complicated, and the board of life becomes a little narrower however I have faith that my journey will continue with rich rewards because: "Through God all things are possible."
Today along with laundry I'll be redesigning my master binder. I've made up a new "to do" list and I'll share it and the many sections and individual pages of the binder soon.  For now I had better get to work instead of sitting here putting thoughts to print.

It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, here it goes. Lately I've been concentrating on improving our situation in life. We've been approved for a VA home loan, so now we have to find a house. I have been offered a job, doing something I love (helping people) for more money than I make now, better benefits, and advancement opportunities! God is good! The garden is taking a lot of our extra time, the weeds are growing big and strong! Can't wait for the veggies to start offering up their bounty. I have several tasks on the back burner, and I need a bigger stove! I still have to finish some of my gardening decorations, I have flowers still in their temporary store containers, I have a carpet cleaner sitting in my dining room full of yucky dirty water, and a grumpy husband because apparently I lack inspiration in the cooking department. I sure would appreciate some input there.
On the bright side, I have recently completed editing the next installment of the Bekka of Thorns Chronicles. What an awesome young readers series this is. I love Steve Shilstones imagination! Learn about this great kids series at wildchild publishing. Now I'm working on judging some really good books and I'll have more info on that later. Have a wonderful day y'all! Talk to ya soon!