Basement Organization

Well, I can't quite call it done yet, but it's so much closer.  And one whole area is done.  And it makes my heart happy.  I feel like it's been the slowest process.  A couple (???) of weeks ago I declared that I was tackling our basement storage room.  This is also the room that houses the furnace and the hot water heater.  And a lot of crap.  That situation is at least 1/4 better now.

I've been working hard on the work bench area.  We started with this disaster.

 

It just hurts your eyes, right?  The whole thing is filthy and disorganized.

 

Cue the white paint.  I just had it sitting around.  I didn't bother priming just threw on a couple coats of white cabinet paint.  And then I ran out of white paint....  I ended up using the light turquoise that I had leftover from painting the hall upstairs.  Nothing like working with what you've got.  I swept out dirt and cobwebs before wiping everything down with Clorox wipes.

So everything got shoved down to the white end that had been painted so I could finish up the other shelves.  And thanks to a Chiefs game on Sunday that my husband went to while I stayed home, I got the rest of the shelves painted.  And the color difference isn't super noticeable, right?  Once the paint was dry, it was finally time to load the shelves and organize everything.

 

Look at that!  It's a thing of beauty.  Everything is organized.  I can find things.   Everything is sorted into categories.  And labeled.  And in useful containers so you know where to find what you're looking for.  Yes, you are seeing shoe boxes covered with duct tape.  Um, it was that or zebra print contact paper.  In the basement, I thought duct tape was the way to go.

 

On that far left shelves, we have a crow bar and a bin of things to cut with.  You know, hack saws and the like.  On the shelf under neat are the staple gun and nail gun.

 

On the middle set of shelves...  The top shelf has nails, screws, caulk, and a stud finder.  The middle shelf has the drill, tiny drill, screw drivers, and wrenches.  The bottom shelf has my husband's tool set and some measuring stuff.

 

The far right set of shelves has paint and painting supplies.  And I even hammered in a few nails to hang our hammers on.

Now it's time to organize the rest of that room.  That means coming up with a better way to store duck decoys...  Um, anyone have any suggestions?  What are you guys up to?  Anybody else organizing the dirtiest space in their house?  I'll be back tomorrow with a 30 Day Challenge for you guys.  I'm super excited about it!

Gold and Sand

I have a confession.  I am a piler.  I love to be organized.  I love for things to look pretty.  But I'm lazy.  We almost always have mail piled somewhere.  The table in the front hall.  The kitchen table.  The kitchen counter.  And it drives me batty.  I try to at least consolidate the piles down to one place, the front hall table.  Because obviously, nothing is more welcoming when you come home than a giant pile of mail.

Last summer I made a pretty tray to hold the mail.  That was ridiculous.  It just meant the pile spilled over the tray.  So, when we had people over the other day, it lit a fire under my bum, I had to do something.  My sweet husband told me I didn't need to clean, that nobody would care.  I gave him my best Monica Gellar look that said, "No, people I do not know cannot come over when our house looks like this."  Oh wait, I may have said that out loud.  You know, there are people that can come over when your house is in any state, other people you need to do the crazy fast panic clean.  And then act like your house is always that clean...

Okay, so I tackled that stupid table.  I sorted the mail.  Almost all of it got shredded.  Some of the junk mail just got tossed in the recycling and the rest of it got piled in the laundry room to be dealt with at a later time.  And I shut the laundry room door because that's the mess that I'm still in serious denial about.  It's bad guys.  Really bad.

So I made the table pretty.  If it's pretty I hopefully won't want to ruin the pretty with piles of mail.  Right?  Right?  Somebody please tell me this will work.

 

In case you're curious, this also doubles as our liquor cabinet.  Sneaky, right?  Oh that just looks so much better.

 A close up.  The vase is one I spray painted gold the other day.  It was leftover from our wedding.  The flowers in it are ones that lived on our mantle in the spring.  The bowl is part of a set we got as a wedding present and holds my keys.  And the square vase full of sand and shells has sand from Gulf Shores, AL courtesy of my parents.  Mainly because I was a dummy and didn't bring home any sand from our vacation.  And the shells are from the beach in Siesta Key, FL from our vacation.  The perfect pretty combination of things to see when I come home.

But where did all the mail I actually needed to keep (silly bills) go?  Not far, it just moved to the laundry room.  I hung up a wall organizer and threw in a couple of file folders.  One for mailing supplies like envelopes, address labels, and stamps.  One for bills to be paid.  And one for things to file.  Right underneath is a paper recycling bin and the shredder.

 

I also have a small cork board and a wipe off calendar board.

What do you think?  Is this going to be the end of my mail struggles?  I'm trying to make myself deal with the mail as soon as I walk in the door.  It doesn't get set down anywhere, it either goes in the bin or gets shredded/recycled. 

Basement Sneak Peak

It's a tiny sneak peak.  The tiniest of sneak peaks...  And not even an accurate one.  I did some serious work last night.  My husband got off work early yesterday so we celebrated by grabbing Chipotle for dinner and doing some work on the basement.

So, I mentioned that I was going to paint the workbench area.  It was dark and disorganized and pretty much a giant mess where we couldn't find anything.

 

And somehow it looked even worse in person.  Just super dirty.  And dark.  Probably the darkest corner of the basement.  We had stuck up one of those weird fake battery powered light bulb things.  Well, I ran down to the basement last night and it had fallen completely off the ceiling.  Good thing I had already bought a new light.

So last night we worked on painting part of the shelves.  And installing my new light.  I had initially thought we could just use regular screws to mount it to the beam directly above the workbench.  Um, turns out that beam is metal.  So we got creative.  It's super rigged, but my light is up and the corner is so much brighter!  I just picked up one of those fluorescent lights that you plug in, like people often use in the kitchen under the upper cabinets.  Of course there's no outlet at the workbench so the cord runs across the ceiling to an outlet on the other side of the room.  It gets the job done though.

 

And a third of my shelves are painted.  This picture is just my start from the other night.  The top two shelves are painted now as well.  I'm working in sections so that I don't have to dump everything off into the floor.  I'm hoping to get the whole workbench finished this week/weekend so that I can tackle other parts of the room.  

Then there is going to be sweeping.  A whole lot of sweeping.  I had to sweep the shelves off before I could even wipe them down.  I'm pretty sure they had never been cleaned.  So gross!  And then I'm going to sweep the crap out of that floor.  I can't even think about how gross it is.

What have you guys been up to?  Anybody else tackling any kind of gross projects?

Clean in 2013 Revisited

Back in May I declared this the year of getting my house under control.  Well, it's been a very slow process.  I keep getting distracted by life.  No excuses though.  I only have three and a half months of 2013 left so now it's time to get on it.

  

So we're doing it.  I have this giant mental list.  And there are some serious problem areas that are absolutely embarassing.

First, the spare bedroom.  Also known as where I dump clean laundry and all of my clothes.  The main problem is that when I get home from work/the gym I just dump my stuff in there and never put it away.  So I have an idea.  As soon as I get home from the gym I'm going to put away/put clothes in the laundry.  No more just dumping them.  Then I'm going to re-pack my gym bag.  And I'm going to put up a hook to hang my outfit for the next day.  That way I'm not scrambling around every morning.

Absolute disaster zone.  Yes, that suitcase has been there for... at least two weeks, since we got back from our anniversary trip.  And that is half a pair of legwarmers...

Also, I'm going back to my 4 Cleaning Tips I found and was in love with before.  No love lost, just lazy.  So, we're getting back to those tips.  Because they were amazing.

I'm also going to deal with the mail.  I'm going to try to only touch it once.  When I come in the door mail is going to either get recycled, shredded, or paid.  Which means I have to deal with the giant pile of junk mail first.  I'm seriously dreading this.  I have an embarrassing amount.  So embarrassing that I'm not sure I can show you the proof.  Just trust me, it's bad.  Like mail hoarder bad.

Then the big project.  I'm going to tackle our basement storage room.  I have plans.  Big plans.  This room has two bare bulbs, no actual light fixtures.  So the dream is to install some directional track lighting.  Super hot, right?  But, I'm thinking at least 3x the light bulbs.  And I'm going to install one of those utility lights over the workbench, one that I can plug in.  Why haven't I thought of this before?  And I'm going to paint.  I'm going to paint every single surface.  This room is not finished and all the raw wood and concrete are eating what tiny bit of light there is.  So I'm thinking if I paint all the shelving and the walls it will help brighten the place up.  I'm also planning to paint the floor joists above for some light reflecting up at the ceiling.  And figure out some storage for my husband's hunting decoys.  They are heavy and take up tons of space.

Clockwise from top left:  super dark corner with the workbench, duck decoys, um a tire,

and a metal shelf with creepy spray paint on the wall.  We had never noticed the spray paint until I took this picture.  So creepy!

This is apparently where shoe racks go to die.  And there's an extra sink...

Extra doors...  cabinet doors... duck decoys.... basically a disaster

So, what are your secret horrifying areas?  Anybody else want to tackle your scary rooms with me?

Clean in 2013 Update

My motivation is back in full swing.  Which kind of means chaos right now.  We're making serious progress though.  And we're getting ready to make a huge mess this weekend.  More about that tomorrow though.  Today, it's just a little project.  My kitchen drawers.  All three of them.  But it means we're one step closer to Clean in 2013.

Yup, we only have three kitchen drawers.  One of them is still a disaster zone but I have a plan for that.  So I set off on Tuesday afternoon to solve all my kitchen drawer problems.  After striking out at the dollar store I headed over to Walmart.  I spent forever in the kitchen storage before striking upon a silverware tray that would work.  I measured all my drawers before I left, I wanted to make sure I bought stuff that would actually fit.  So, I found a new silverware tray.  But I was still not having any luck for my kitchen utensil drawer.  Then I got the best idea ever, the office supply section.  I found a perfect solution there, it's actually a desk organizer but is multiple pieces that snap together and for way less than similar organizers in the kitchen aisle.  Score!

So, now here's a break down.  I fully meant to take before pictures.  I even had a concrete thought and said to myself "Don't forget to take before pictures."  And then I got home and I was so excited to get started and have pretty drawers that I forgot to take before pictures.  Fail.  But I think it was totally worth it.

So, since there are no before, let's get straight to the afters.  And a break down of my new organization.  It's magical.

First, the silverware drawer.  I picked up a Rubbermaid non-slip expandable silverware holder.  The back part slides out to fill your whole drawer so there is no wasted space.

1.  Measuring spoons

2.  Random small kitchen items.  The filter for regular coffee for the Keurig.  Beaters for the hand mixer (which I  never use).  A wine stopper.  Liquid tablespoon measure.

3.  Long knives that wouldn't fit in the silverware holder.

4.  Weird miscellaneous stuff.  Tooth picks, the blades for our french fry cutter and a roll of tape.

5.  Steak knives

6.  Spoons

7.  Forks

8.  Butter knives

9.  Meat Thermometer and marinade brushes.

I love it so much.  Everything has a space and there's no space to shove weird extra stuff in.  Other than that tiny area on number four.  I did that intentionally though.  I like having a roll of tape in the kitchen.  And that seemed like a perfect little nook for the toothpicks and french fry cutter blades.

And now the utensil drawer.  Despite frequent cleaning out, this drawer is always a disaster.  But now it's all sorted and everything has a specific place.  And once again, not a lot of extra space for extra junk to accumulate.

1.  Rolling pin.  That doesn't need a divider.  It just chills in the edge of the drawer.

2.  Large task specific utensils:  an ice cream scoop, small cheese grater, can opener, and pineapple cutter.

3.  Wooden spoons

4.  Silicon spatulas

5.  Small task specific utensils:  a bottle opener, apple corer, and candy thermometer.

6.  Meat injectors.  Yes, we have a whole container of those.

7.  Tongs and pizza cutter.  Yup, those are just free and easy inside the drawer.

8.  Scissors

9.  Egg slicer

10.  Grease trap for the electric skillet

I try to not buy too many task specific kitchen utensils.  I think it's a waste of space and money.  There are some things that are worth it though.  In hindsight, my whisk is not in this picture, it must have been in the dishwasher.  It's going to go into bin #2 though.  

How's your kitchen organization?  Anybody else stepping outside the box and using other organization to corral kitchen utensils?  I need another cereal box to upcycle into a baggie holder so that I can reclaim my third drawer.  Guess I should go buy a box of cereal....

Camis and Tanks and Under-shirts Oh My!

Okay, it's a rare two post day.  I'm procrastinating on the laundry.  Really, I just discovered I have a serious problem.  I think I never have the right shirt to wear under things.  Turns out it's really just bad organization.  Really bad.  I have a little shelf-y cabinet-y thing i put all my tank tops in.  And leggings.  And swimsuits.  Logical, right?  Well, it's a disaster and I can't find the bottoms to my red swimsuit, despite pulling everything out.  Anybody know where I put them?

So, now everything is out on the bed.  Swimsuits are sorted into two categories:  those that fit and are going in my suitcase for vacation and those that don't and are being sent to Goodwill.  The leggings are neatly folded in a stack.  They're under control.

The tank tops however, are a serious problem.  I didn't really comprehend just how many I had.  Or the variety of colors until I started refolding.  37.  Yup, thirty-seven tank tops of some variety.  That is ridiculous.  One of pretty much every color of the rainbow except orange.  Apparently I hate orange.  Okay, I do, it's unflattering on me.  Anyway.  Tons and tons of tank tops that spill out every time I open the doors and yet I can never find the one I want.  Oops, I guess it's actually 38.  I bought a new one yesterday.

36 of the 38 tank tops.  They're sorted by style.  I know, I have problems.

So, the real question is, how do you guys sort your tank tops?  Anybody else have a serious tank top buying problem like I do.  I'm considering buying a hanging shoe bag to store them in.  

Also, I'm wearing a pair of my vacation shoes around the house.  You know, to make sure they're comfy.  Or maybe it's because I'm weird and like to wander around in my new shoes....  Either way, super adorable, right!

Okay, back to laundry.  Seriously, help me solve my problem.  How do I store this ridiculous amount of tanks?  Mind you, I already threw a few in the Goodwill pile.

A Bargain, a Cup, and Dinner

We're busy getting ready for our vacation to Florida in nine days so projects have been a little slow around here.  Today I'm getting back to it.  Not with anything exciting though.  It's going to be an extreme day of doing laundry, getting the laundry room disaster under control, and organizing closets.  And maybe a little pre-packing.

So, before I head off into the land or clothing organization a couple of things.  First, sometimes my husband surprises me with sweet little things.  A while back we were at Bass Pro and they had Duck Commander plastic cups.  You know, like the one Uncle Si drinks tea out of all the time.  *If you don't watch Duck Dynasty, you should, it's hilarious.  Well, they had pink cups and I mentioned I would love one.  The other night the hubby had gone to Bass Pro again (it's right by his work, this is a normal occurrence) and said he had bought me something.  And then he showed up at home with this.

My pink Duck Commander cup.  It's fantastic!  Best hubby ever!

Yesterday I was at Target picking up a couple of things for our trip.  When I walked into the store they had clearance alcohol right up front.  And they had the brand of wine I frequently buy.  St. James Winery.  St. James is a Missouri winery that's won tons of awards.  And puts out delicious wines.  It's generally fairly inexpensive like around $6-$8 a bottle.  Cheap, right.  But delicious.  Well, it was on clearance for $2.75.  Score!  So I bought six bottles.  I also picked up a bottle of Pinnacle Marshmallow vodka for like six bucks.   Alcohol wasn't on my shopping list but for that price, it all went in the cart.

Score!

Meal planning has been a complete success!  Even with my diet this week, our meal plan has made this week so much easier.  I don't have to scramble around for what to fix for dinner.  And since I had my meal plan when I grocery shopped, I know I have everything I need to fix dinner.  It has been so great!  I am totally loving this.  And since I'm doing this diet, I have my husband's dinner written on the left and my diet foods written on the right.  And I can check off my food days.

Meal plan success!

Anybody else completely stalled out on projects for the moment?  I think it's because my summer vacation just officially started and I'm in the "laying around, enjoying my free time" phase of summer.  Maybe next week I'll be back to being motivated.  Hopefully.

Get with the Plan Man

I said it was coming....  I've been working on it....  It's here....  My whole meal plan and cleaning calendar plan.  These are all chilling on the side of my fridge in pretty white frames.  With a dry erase marker hanging out near by.  I'm so excited!  This is going to be great!  So, without further ado, here are my pretty pages close up.

As usual, I just uploaded them to Walgreens and printed them as pictures.  I picked up all three of them, thanks to a coupon code for 40% off for around $6.  Sure I could've printed them at home but I think they turn out a bit better printed as a photo.  And it means I don't have to buy ink for my printer.  It's a win-win.

I left the weekend days off my meal planning.  I knew we wouldn't successfully meal plan for the weekend.  In the summer we usually grill at least once.  And we usually go out to eat at some point.  So we're usually pretty casual on the meals for the weekend, especially for just the two of us.

I think I'm pretty happy with my color choices.  With the red and black kitchen, I needed something that would still match but wasn't necessarily the same color.  And I'm loving coral these days.  I'm still on a quest to make my office at work coral and turquoise.  I just need the right fabric to cover my bulletin boards with. 

So, here's my creation on my fridge.  My husband didn't really so much know I was doing these.  He came home last night and saw them on the fridge and was super impressed.  Yay!

 

It's really hard to take good pictures of the side of my fridge....  Also, really hard to take pictures of picture frames.  I'm in love though.  And our menu for the week is already written on the fridge.  Well, it wasn't when I took the picture because I forgot.  But it is now.

Project Clean in 2013 is well under way.  And feeling very successful.  So, what are you guys planning for dinner tonight?  Steak quesadillas are on the menu for us.  We grilled Sunday and have leftover steak.   Mmmm, it's going to be delicious.

What's For Dinner (Part 1)

If your house is like mine, you are always trying to figure out what to cook for dinner.  It's the same conversation every night.  "What do you want for dinner?"  "I don't know, what sounds good to you?"  "Oh, I don't care.  Whatever you want."  Arg!  It can drive a girl crazy.  Maybe you're already on the meal planning bus.  If so, good for you!

Last night while we were catching up on episodes of NCIS, I made a huge list of all the things I regularly make.  Eventually it's going to get made into a pretty printable list.  For now, it's on notebook paper, written with hot pink ink.  But I have created a weekly menu sheet.  It's going to go in a frame on the fridge.  That way I can write on the glass and it will be dry erase.  Perfect.  This is totally my favorite way of keeping track of things.  It's fantastic.  All the perks of a dry erase board but none of the traditional ugliness.

So, here's my meal planning sheet for the week.  I'm off to Walgreens to pick up a print of it so that I can throw it in a frame.  I may update my cleaning calendar to match it so I can stick that on the fridge as well.

 

How do you plan your meals for the week?  Any great tips you'd like to share?  I can use all the help I can get!

4 Tips That Are Changing My Life

I know, that sounds really dramatic.  What can I say, I like to be dramatic.  Remember how I mentioned the other day that I'm working desperately to keep my house cleaner this year.  I even named it.....

Well there has been definite progress.  I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet.  I set up a mail center.  I cleaned off the hall table.  I need the right flowers to put in a vase on that table.  I added a bowl for keys and I'm getting rid of the tray.  Hopefully this will cut down on the dumping ground space if it's pretty.  Last night I worked on the guest bedroom.  And it's definitely getting better, almost company ready.

The other day I pinned 4 Simple Rules for a Clean and Tidy House.  Guys, it is seriously changing my life.  Once again, dramatic, I know.  But it really is, I've gotten a different way of thinking about things.  It doesn't really take that long to pick up each day.  And when you do it each day there's no giant amount of cleaning to do.  Ever.  I know, my mother is cheering right now.  And maybe dancing.  Okay, maybe not dancing, but definitely cheering.  So, I am striving to make sure everything has a place and that everything returns to that place each day.  That means I'm going to stop having twenty pairs of shoes lying around the house.  More like five, but there are definitely more shoes out than ever should be.  If you can't put them all away in one arm load, I think it's a sign that there's a problem.

So, here's the gist of the rules.  Go read the whole thing yourself.  You will thank me.  I promise.

(source)

I keep writing and deleting....  I don't want to plagiarize.  Plagiarizing is so not cool.  Okay, let's try this again.  

1.  Make sure everything is put away before you go to bed.

2.  Do one cleaning job a day.

3.  Set a cleaning timer.

4.  Before you sit down for the day, spend a couple of minutes making sure everything is put away.

Now these are not my tips.  I'm not trying to take credit for them.  I just want to share their brilliance.  I pinned this at the beginning of the week and have been doing these things ever since.  My house is so much cleaner.  My kitchen counters have stayed uncluttered all week.  My pots are all put away and not sitting on the stove.  

I'm trying to actually start using my cleaning calendar.  I know it will help if I can just get in the habit.  We're getting better though and I'm feeling good about it.

What are you guys up to this weekend?  We're hoping to work on painting our house if it's not raining.  And I'm headed to a high school graduation.  What are your thoughts on Greek yogurt?  I'm still undecided.  I just spent at least twenty minutes eating a tiny carton of the stuff.  I want to like it because it's healthy but.....  Anyway, enjoy your weekend.  Go outside.

Getting Closer

Okay, I think I just needed a name for cleaning my house.  I have tackled three small projects in the past two days.  I am ridiculously proud of myself.  Like I'm dancing.  Ba ha ha.  I'm doing the running man, in case you're curious. 

Yesterday I attempted to tackle the mail situation.  If you remember from before, we had this ridiculous pile of crap.  Paper recycling.  Paper to be shredded.  Random stuff....

Okay, there's nothing on the wall above.  But the pile gives you a good idea of the trouble I was dealing with.  It was bad.  And I had to shut the door if people were coming over.  It was too embarassing.

So a while back I had picked up a couple of picture frames with the intent of making one into a wipe off board and making the other a corkboard.  Well, mission accomplished.  Project Clean in 2013 is working so far.  Memo board and cork board are on the wall.  The mail sorter still needs a little attention.  I'm really striving for the whole zero junk mail thing.  So now that I've emptied the ridiculously full paper recycling can and the shredder I can tackle the box and make some real progress.  Slowly but surely we're getting there.

 

It obviously looks better than this in real life.  The picture turned out terribly for some reason.  But I'm pretty pleased with what I ended up with after only about five minutes of work.  Tonight it's on to tackling the guest bedroom before my parents come this weekend.  Wish me luck.  Eek! 

Stuck On You

Progress!  I made progress!  Last night I cleared off our table in the front hall.  There are no before and after pictures.  Just picture a pile of mail vs no pile of mail.  I think I may put a vase of flowers and a bowl for keys on the table instead of the tray that's there right now.  The tray encourages the piling.  So if there are pretty things in the way, maybe we will be less likely to pile.  Here's hoping.

And I cleaned out one of the kitchen cabinets.  My cabinet with pots and pans drives me crazy.  It's not a very big cabinet and I have a lot of pans -- muffin pans, mini loaf pans, cake pans, and cookie sheets.  Things are always crashing down on me when I open the door.  Or more accurately, sliding out on my toes.  Not cool.  So, this is what we started with.

Before

Okay, that is just ridiculous.  And yes, that's a deviled egg plate in with the baking stuff.  I know it doesn't make sense.  To be perfectly honest, I had already pulled the pot lids out because I had a plan.  In the end, I pulled everything out.  And I had a plan.  I'd seen a couple of ideas how to better store my lids.

(source)

(source)

I really loved the first picture with the rail, just resting the lids inside.  Perfect and beautiful.  However, the doors on that cabinet are fairly narrow and that just wouldn't have worked at all.  So I went with the hook method.  I grabbed a couple packs of hooks at Dollar General, spending a grand total of $2 for this improvement.  I just held the pan lids on the door and positioned the hooks.  Perfect.  And it makes it so much easier to store and access my pots and pans without things crashing down on my toes.

 

Ignore the saw dust.  I need to vacuum my cabinets, my drawer sheds saw dust every time I open it.

 

On the top left, I stacked muffin trays together.  Then the mini loaf pan is next to those.  Cookie sheets of the same size stack together.  Larger items -- big cookie sheets, a platter and cutting board are stacked in order of convenience.  And another cutting board and collapsible collander lean against the right side of the cabinet.  On the bottom shelf are other baking pans -- a deep dish pizza pan, three layer cake pans, and an angel food cake pan.  On the back right area ll my skillets and the rest of the pots go in front.  I think this is a system I can work with and keep up.  Hopefully.

How do you organize your pots and pans?  Any great systems I should try out?  Or do you pans crash down on you too?

Spring Cleaning

Spring is a super crazy time of year at our house.  It seems like all the big projects build up over the winter, the ones that it's too cold to do outside.  But I also settle into my spring laziness.  It's so nice out.  All I want to do is set out on the deck and drink lemonade while reading a book.  Well, that'd be great if there weren't a thousand other things to do.  I of course, have given into my whims of laying about, enjoying the spring and let my house become a disaster on the inside.  Our guest room is truly mortifying at this point.

Over Mother's Day, my mom told me she and my dad planned to come to our house this weekend to help us paint the outside.  I'm pretty sure this is a sign I better start cleaning.  Most of the house is okay, it's just those areas that are unseen for the most part that I tend to pile things.  And I always make these great goals, I'm going to be better at house work.  Then I fail miserably and end up feeling guilty.

I want to have one of those houses that is always company ready.  Not one that I have to work for hours to make it presentable for guests.  So, it starts now.  I know, shocking, another grand cleaning plan.  I'm going to try some new things.  It's going to be just great, I know it.  And like all great projects, it needs a name.  Are you ready......

 

So, what are you guys up to?  Anybody else trying a mad spring clean?  Or turning over a new leaf?  This will be the year I get the problem areas under control.  The master bedroom, the guest bedroom, the laundry room, and the front hall table.  What are your clutter spots?  Anybody else want to jump on the Clean in 2013 bus with me?  It's going to be a fun ride.

Weigh In

No, not actual pounds.  Though I'm hard at work on that.  Day Three of the 30 Day Shred down people!  I'm pretty sure it's going to take longer than thirty days though.  We'll get there though.  I'm almost back to being able to walk without huge amounts of pain.  And I'm  feeling pretty good about all my hard work.

Anyway.  Back to the real weigh in.  I need your opinion guys.  I've been thinking about my mail situation.  I know everyone calls this the Command Center or something crazy like that.  I refuse to do that.  I'm fairly sure a two person household doesn't warrant anything called a command center.  It just feels pretentious to me.  If you have a command center, I still love you, I'm not judging you.  I just can't call it that in my house.

So, I'm at an impasse.  I know what I'm want.  But I'm also very cheap.  I've come across two ideas that I think could work.  The first is the completely store bought plan.  The beautiful Martha Stewart organizing system from Michaels.  Remember, I talked about it before.  It's so pretty.  I know it would love to come live at my house.

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But remember, I'm cheap.  And for all the pieces I want, it would cost at least $65.  Eek.  That's a lot just to sort my mail and keep track of things.

So there's a second option.  I came across this on Pinterest the other day.  I've actually bought most of the supplies.  I'm just second guessing myself.  I know it will work.  And I like the look of it.  I just can't fully commit.

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McKenzie over at Girl Loves Glam made this super cute organization board.  I could do a version of her idea.  Mine would have a calendar, a cork board, my cleaning schedule, a mail bin, and a pen cup.  I already bought frames.  And a piece of foam board.  McKenzie used plywood but I think I can totally do it with the foam board and it was less than $2.  Mine would look something like this:

This is of course not to scale.  Just something I whipped up to get an idea of how it would look.  I would cover my foam board in leftover zebra print contact paper.  The main thing holding me up right now is finding a mail sorter and pencil cup that will work.

So, what do you think?  Should I go ahead with my Mary customized mail sorter/organization plan?  Or should I just suck it up and shell out the money for the Martha Stewart system?  I just need to make up my mind and do it.

What are you organizing this week?  Anybody else completely hit by the spring cleaning bug?  Maybe I'll be able to commit to a mail system tonight and be back tomorrow with the finished product.  Cross your fingers.  And give me your opinions.