Beautiful Organizing #2

My first tackle in getting organized was my home office. And, the best way to organize, is to pick an area and go with it. Don't try and organize a whole room you will get burned out and overwhelmed. The first area I choose is the desk.

When I tackle a desk or anything with drawers, I take everything out of them. This is the best way to clean out the clutter and put back just what you want to keep.

It's amazing the crap that accumulates in a drawer. Another thing I do is keep all "like" items together. My stapler, staple remover, and staples are all in one area. Believe me I learned this the hard way. Have you ever had to look in 20 different places for one thing and wonder why it wasn't with the rest of "it's group"? 

Ummm, Yeahhh! I have...Can you say frustrating!!!

I also use a lot of containers especially in areas that have a lot of wasted space. If you have space, then utilize it. And, another thing I do is make labels. Especially for containers or drawers. Then I can see what's in them. So much easier, especially for those of us getting older and can't remember where are glasses are. Oh! they are on our head!! (Yep! I've done that)

I don't keep a lot of files anymore. Just important things like taxes, insurance, owner's manuals, etc. All my bills and banking stuff is paperless. And, I toss receipts once they clear unless it was something expensive and paid with cash. Look how I shrunk this file drawer down. I'd say I have more room for bloggy notes ;-)

The most used drawer in my desk....

I took everything out and measured the drawer for dividers. These file boxes fit perfect.

Oh the feeling of opening something up and being able to see everything. 

Now that the desk was cleaned. I decided to hook up my new printer and clean the little space next to the desk. I knew it wouldn't take long and then I would be done with this whole side of the office.

If you don't know what to do with extra paper that won't fit in your printer. File holders are PERFECT.

Well, isn't that better.

I will blog about my desk accessories in another post. But, here's where I sit to hang with all my bloggy friends :-)

When you are organizing you need to set priorities.

• Set goals
• Establish balance in your life
• Don't be afraid to say "no"
• Prioritize
• Remember that 80% of the time is spent doing 20% of the work
• Schedule tasks ~ Resist surfing the Internet or constantly checking e-mail, Facebook  etc. I know believe me, easier said then done. 
• Make to-do lists. 
• Spend your time wisely

I will be tackling more of my office, and there may be a BIG announcement soon!!

Now it's time to get....

Have a CRAZY BEAUTIFUL week!

"My Home" Journals

I am forever looking at decorating/organization magazines and not to mention my 53 boards on Pinterest. At least I'm organized on Pinterest because my magazines have taken over.

They are thrown in a basket, piled on a shelf, sitting on a table, and not to mention the stack I get in the mail I haven't even looked at yet. I'm sure I am not the only one that has magazines all over the place. I always keep them thinking I will need to comeback to the great idea I found. Now, that is funny because I wouldn't know where to begin to find that idea. 

I was thinking I really need to organize these magazines without keeping them. It took me a while to come up with an idea that would work for me and not create more clutter. I pulled out my craft tote and found some page protectors. This is a good start!

I have these really cute 7 x 9 binders. I just love them because they do not take up a lot of room, fit perfect on my shelves, and they are perfect for the photo journaling I do. (That will be another blog...hopefully soon)

I think I have everything. Let's get started!!

The first binder is for "My Home". It is filled with all kinds of neat ideas for the house. I not only cut out ideas in the magazines, I also cut out phrases and words. I use them through out many of my journals. This one I used "Your Home" from one of the magazines and cut out photos of different areas of the home and pasted them on a piece of scrap paper and made the cover of "My Home" journal. 

The different categories are: Living room, Kitchen, Bedroom, Office, Bath. And, in those categories I have some sub-categories such as Laundry, Bedroom 1, Bedroom 2, Foyer. 

In each category, I add any ideas that I find that I love about each room of the house. 

Some I slide down in page protectors.

And, some I glue on scrap paper and make notes about anything specific I like about each one. 

My second binder is full of decorating and organizing inspirations. 

My categories for this journal is: Color, Shelves, DIY, Organize, and Outdoors.

 

This is where I keep color combinations I like...

Shelf decor ideas, any good DIY projects...

Organizing ideas and dreamy outdoor projects. It's still a work in progress. But, at least I will have all my decorating and organizing "LIKES" in two places. Either on the shelf or on "Pinterest".

 I think I might be on my way to being organized. OK! not really but it's a start.

WHAT GREAT ORGANIZING PROJECT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON???

Organized Kitchen

When I saw that Toni @ A Bowl Full of Lemons was doing "14 weeks to an organized home"I thought, 

"I can do this". 

Yep!! I'm laughing too but I'm sure as heck going to try. I figured it would be easy seeing how I just moved AGAIN the end of May. And, most of my things are in a storage unit!

For the most part my house is always pretty organized so I was hoping that this challenge would give me the incentive to organize the areas that are not. So, needless to say I was ecstatic to see that the Kitchen was the first place we are organizing. 

Why? Cause mine already is...woo hoo!!!

A real quick history before we get to the good stuff..."The Pics"!

In the last 3 yrs we down sized from a 2400 sq ft house to a 2600 sq ft town home to a 1200 sq ft condo to a 2800 sq ft town home to a 1400 sq ft house to our current home and it might be a 1,000 sq ft. Did this make you dizzy cause it does me to see that we moved that many times in the last 3 yrs. This last move is only for 1 yr and we are hoping to buy a house next year (this is another blog for another day)

With our current downsize I have a lot of my things in storage. So, if it didn't fit it went to storage or goodwill. One thing I can not stand is clutter. Especially on my counters and in my cabinets. Since I don't have a lot of counter space my racks from IKEA came in handy for some of my most used spices and my fancy (never use) coffee/tea cups.

I will not bore you by showing you every cabinet in my kitchen but you will get the idea of how I organize. It really is nothing fancy. I keep things I need at an arms reach and everything has it's own place. Including the cute dividers I use in the junk drawer.

***NOTE: I DID NOT LINE THESE SHELVES WITH THE HIDEOUS PLAID PAPER!!!

My IKEA cabinet came in handy for my dishes. With being in a small house I don't have a lot of space and I needed the space for food and my bigger appliances. 

Here are some pics of the house before we moved in, and some after pics of what it looks like now!!

This is the kitchen if you enter from my side door...

And, the kitchen standing on the other end...

So, see it's not much and a bit small for me but I make it work.

I hope you enjoyed my kitchen tour of my "Cabin in the woods" (as I call my home)

What are you organizing???

Memory Boxes

I have been wanting to do something with my boxes and boxes of photos...

Doesn't that look overwhelming???

I can definitely reassure you that it is...I have been toting this mess around for years and since I have moved 9 times in less then 8 years I am sooo over it!!

Wouldn't it be great to have all these photos put into nice memory books?

{Source}

Only if I come up on a money tree...Realistically, NOT going to happen...Now I had to dig deep into my creative mind and come up with something on my own... 

I will start with these boxes...I bought them last year for .50 after Christmas...I believe they may do the trick..

Now, to grab my stack of scrapbook paper, Modge Podge and cover the boxes...

I think this will work, don't you???

I plan on doing a box for every year I have photos for...YIKES!! This might take me awhile...

Let's go back to the year 1989 that seems to be where I stopped putting pics in photo albums...I have added some pictures from that year on to the cover of the box and the year down the side to decorate it up a bit...

It's a live and learn process...I will add photos of major events for that year or photos that are the most memorable for me...Like a wedding, birth, vacation, and any firsts!!!

1989 and 1990
It's a good start...

Time to gather the supplies and photos for inside my new "Memory Boxes"...

To organize the photos I wrapped them in bundles using ribbon and making tags to document what life event is wrapped up...

Oh, I love it!!!!

Now to make a little note and glue it to the inside of the lid about that years life events...Ages, Milestones, Dear Friends, Weddings, Births, and God's Angels!!

Close up the box and put them on the shelf and they make for a beautiful decoration and keeper of all your memories...I plan to add not only photos but newspaper clippings, gift cards and anything else I find that correlates with that year...

There is so many ways you can decorate these boxes to make them your own...Frame the photos on the front, add embellishments or whatever your creative mind wants to do...

They fit perfectly on my book shelves I never know what to do with...
(If you've followed my blog you know about my book shelf issues)

 I have several more years to go...But, to be honest I can only go up to year 2000 and then everything becomes digital...

I wonder if I will every be fully organized...

HOW ABOUT YOU???