Holiday Organizer II

Right around this time last year, I posted about the handy organizer I made to keep myself on track for Christmas. You can find it here.

Well, this year I have something even better! WAY better! I have been using it daily since I discovered it. It is the most wonderful app in the world, called "Santa's Bag".  It is available for FREE in the App Store, so go and download it now!

Santa's Bag is a place where you can save lists for each person you are buying for, enter costs & budgets, track whether your gifts are wrapped, and more awesome things! For me that means no more scraps of paper & notebooks full of lists! (Or at least FEWER scraps of paper & notebooks! I don't think I'll ever get rid of those entirely!) But there's also no more searching to find where I left the lists...it's all in my phone. :)

Here's a peek at Santa's Bag:

These are just a couple of the screen shots with information changed to protect the innocent (sorry Mom, you may not actually be getting wine, cheese & chocolate!)

The icons next to each item on the list indicate whether the item is an idea, something you need to purchase, or something you've already purchased. You can even mark items as "wrapped" when you're all done!

Overall, I think it's a really helpful app & I plan to use it throughout the year!

Bathroom Closet ReOrganization

One thing that has been on my "to-do" list for a LOOOOONNNGGG time is cleaning out & re-organizing this:

This closet-slash-cupboard over the stairs (hee hee, funny, right?) is in my bathroom, and is really very large. In fact, large enough for a really big mess:

Embarassing, I know.

So I was very anxious to get it whipped into shape.

I had a little help from my daughter (remember, I said it's a large closet?)

She said she thought she should sleep in there after it was all emptied out :)

I had gotten some bins for all the miscellaneous stuff and labeled each of them.  When I started out, I thought I'd have way too many bins, but I'm actually thinking about getting a couple more now!

My original plan was to get some shelves for the bins. But after looking around, I couldn't find anything I liked that fit in the space the way I wanted. I had a shoe rack in my closet that turned out to work just perfectly though. However, now I'm in the market for a new shoe rack!

Here's how it ended up:

MUCH BETTER!!!

I even found some sheets I forgot I had!!

Not a very glamorous project, but it was one that felt good to get done!

Holiday Organizer

I'm sure everyone out there has been asking the same question...but I'll ask anyway. Are you ready for Christmas?

Let me start off by saying, I'm NOT one of those ultra-organized people who buys all their gifts and wraps them all by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. (OK, if you know me really well, you can get up off the floor and stop laughing now!) Nor do I calculate down to the last penny how much I've spent on each individual, making sure that everything is exactly equal. 

But I am a total list-maker. I could probably pull out my purse right now & find at least 3 different lists...groceries, "to-do's," recipes, you name it. And I know at this time of year, there are a ton of store coupons, sale flyers, etc. 

So to help myself stay a little more organized for Christmas, I made this nifty little Holiday Organizer. Yay Me!!

I just used a red composition notebook and added some pockets & tabs to the pages.

Pocket for coupons - very important!!

Calendar page...also a key item

Receipt pocket...just in case

Tabs along the side for:

To Do Lists

Recipes/Crafts

Gift Lists

So now I can breath a sigh of relief knowing I'm a little bit more organized for Christmas! Whew! 

Linked to these great blogs!!

Keeping it Simple

Navy Wifey Peters

The Dedicated House

Made in a Day

Violet Imperfection

The Rustic Pig

The Blackberry Vine

The Winthrop Chronicles

The Taylor House
Two Yellow Birds Decor

UPDATE: A big thank you to Lanaya at Raising Reagan for featuring the Holiday Organizer! Go check our her blog here:

Cute Clipboards

Since I've been soooo anxious to do something crafty, I put together these cute little clipboards last night. They were quick & easy - just what I was looking for!

It all started when I was looking for something in my closet yesterday. I found these two old mini-clipboards that our kids took to church with paper & colored pencils when they were younger & had a hard time sitting for an hour!

I have also been wanting to put together a pre-printed grocery "shopping list" that I can use. Hmmmm....sounds like an idea is forming!

So here's how I did it:

Materials: 

Wood Clipboard (any size)

Scrapbook paper

Mod Podge & foam brush

Fabric flowers (optional!)

First I cut the scrapbook paper. My clipboards are 9" x 6", so I cut the paper just a little smaller than that. I also used my scrapbook corner rounder to round the edges:

So that the clip part wasn't in my way while I worked with the Mod Podge, I took a paperclip & looped it through the holes to keep the clip "open":

Then I painted the clipboard with a coat of Mod Podge. With me so far?

Next, I centered the scrapbook paper onto the clipboard and painted another coat of Mod Podge over the top: 

There WILL be air bubbles under the paper at this step - don't be afraid to smooth them out & paint some more!

After everything dried (I let them sit overnight), I added a fabric flower to one (for a tutorial, click here) and a ribbon to the other. 

All ready for the grocery list!

By the way, I edited all these pictures with PicMonkey and I have to say....I like it...A LOT!! If you are a Picnik user and are looking for something new, PicMonkey is a great alternative. Very similar. Simple and easy to use. Just what I was hoping for!

Linking up to:

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials

Jillify It: Party #3

Polkadots on Parade: Wow Me Wednesday

The Stuff of Success: Success U Wednesday

Two Yellow Birds Decor: Thursdays Temptation

The Crafty Blog Stalker: Blog Stalking Thursday

live.laugh.rowe: live laugh linky thursday

One Artsy Mama: Shine On Fridays

Creation Corner: Friday Link Party

Serenity Now: Weekend Bloggy Reading

Too Much Time on My Hands: Get Schooled Saturday

I Gotta Create: Spring Fling Week 1

Sew Can Do: Craftastic Monday

Serendipity and Spice: Manic Monday

Carolyn's Homework: Inspiration Board

Uncommon: Uncommonly Yours

Destination: Craft: Cutesy Monday

Simplifying Things

One of my goals for this year is to get my house in shape. One of the biggest problems around our house are the piles of "things" that accumulate all over the place in some parts of the house. The worst is the kitchen counter. There's one corner that ALWAYS has a pile of papers sitting on it. I'm embarrassed to admit that I have a bag of mail sitting there that my neighbors collected while we were gone at Disney over New Year's! Still! I did go through and take out the bills and important "stuff" but it is still sitting there, full of junk mail!

The Pile - and this is on a good day!

So...one of my new routines is to bring in the mail, go through it IMMEDIATELY, and either file the important things or throw out the junk. I realized that if I just take 5 minutes to do this every day, I won't need a bigger chunk of time later on to go through everything that builds up. This goes for school papers, too! (Now I just need to get rid of that bag!)

We also have a lot of clutter in general (you would be amazed at what the rest of the dining room table looks like when I take pictures for my blog posts! I'm very good at clearing off a little section to make it "presentable" for a photo!!) I haven't quite figured out an easy way to get rid of this stuff without just going through room by room and weeding it out. 

The second thing I've been doing this year is the old "hanger turn-around" trick! I have so many clothes that I never wear (and I know I never wear them, but I always think "maybe someday...") So, before January 1st, I turned all my hangers in the closet BACKWARDS and as I wear something, I replace the hanger the right way. 

It's amazing how little I've worn in the first month and a half! Of course, it is winter in Iowa, so some of my things aren't even in the running right now. But I decided that by June or July, I will have a true picture of what I really wear, and the rest is OUT OF HERE!

So who else has these kind of goals for the year? I'd love to hear your tips & tricks for getting organized!!

The New Year Giveaway & MORE!

As promised long ago, I do have an upcoming giveaway! But first, I'm taking a little "Blogging Break" to organize some thoughts & ideas for 2012. I promise that my giveaway will be up and going very soon!

Speaking of organizing, I REALLY REALLY want to make organizing my home one of my New Year's resolutions. I tried an "organization challenge" last January but failed miserably! There was a very cool blog that had a daily organizational challenge - I totally FELL IN LOVE with it...and then quickly fell OUT of love. I couldn't keep up. I didn't want to spend $50 (or even $20) a week on trendy little bins, trays & labels to organize my closets. And let's face it, I had a hard time throwing certain things out. I do believe there's a little bit of a hoarder in me somewhere! :)

But the wake up call came last week when I was looking for something in our bathroom closet & came across a box of motion sickness medicine. Its expiration date was 1998! We moved into our current house in 2002. Hello??! Something is not right with this picture! Now throw in the fact that we actually use our bathtub for a laundry hamper, and I decided something must be done. (We do have a shower as well in case you're wondering - the tub is rarely used. We shower daily, however.)

So one of my goals for 2012 is to organize my home. I will share my journey on my blog, and I can promise I WON'T have a daily challenge. (It will be more like a weekly "suggestion".)

I'm also hoping to get my blog a little more organized with a new look and some regular weekly topics. I'm still working on ideas for that, so any suggestions are welcome!

Happy New Year to everyone - and best wishes for a GREAT 2012!

Day 13: 16 Days of Creating - Recipe Binder

I really don't feel like today's feature is very creative...But it is something I desperately needed to do. So we'll just call it..."creative organizing!" 

I used to have a shelf in my kitchen full of this:

Pages and pages of recipes I printed off the internet or copied from a friend. This picture was even taken AFTER I sorted through and got rid of the ones with a 52-item ingredient list that I was delusional enough to think I'd make "someday"!

I also have a binder that was maybe 1/4 full of recipes from my now-nonexistent "Freezer Club." Freezer Club was fun while it lasted - we would meet about once a month and swap meals that everyone made up ahead of time. Each participant went home with anywhere from 6-12 meals to put away in their freezer. The rest of the night we sat around and talked, ate, drank and had fun! But sadly, Freezer Club is no more...so I changed the label on my binder to say "Freezer Meals & More" (so catchy, AND accurate!)

Then I three-hole punched everything and made a few divider pages:

I have to say, it was a BIG relief to get my things a little more organized. Whew!

Household Inventory

A couple days ago I went to the bank to empty out our safe deposit box. (I was moving it to the bank's branch office closer to our house.) I hadn't opened it for a couple years, and I found something I'd completely forgotten about:

I bought this handy dandy "Household Inventory" book a LONG time ago and thought it was a really great thing at the time. It's basically a place to keep track of all your major household belongings in case you ever need a record for insurance purposes. And I was waaaay more organized back then, so it really appealed my obsessive-compulsive side! I think I got it right around the time a friend of mine had a fire at her home, and although it wasn't a major fire, a lot of things were smoke damaged and had to be replaced. I learned through her experience that documenting everything helps immensely when filing an insurance claim. (I think she even had to list the food in her cupboards. The Household Inventory doesn't get that in-depth, but you get the idea!)

Here's a sample of the pages inside:

It has fill-in-the blank charts where you list items in each room of your house, along with serial/model numbers, year purchased, where it was purchased, original price, and any appraisal information. It also has little plastic pockets where you can keep receipts. As you can see, I have crossed out things we no longer own. (Like the 20 year old VCR and answering machine!) What's funny to me is that I can definitely tell from this book that my then-childless self had a LOT of extra time on her hands! I thoroughly noted all our kitchen appliances, including serial & model number for things like our toaster & electric can opener! I guess at the time I didn't realize that those can easily be replaced on Black Friday for about 10 bucks each!

So to bring all of this info into the 21st century, I came up with a spreadsheet which I will (hopefully) update more than once every 15 years, placing a neatly printed copy in my safe deposit box! There's probably a website out there where you could do the same thing, but I'm thinking a copy on my flash drive and a hard copy at the bank is probably cheaper than paying a website to keep track of my things. (And I'm sorry this image is so small and hard to read, just click on it and it will bring up a larger window.) Taaa-Daaa!