Feeling Good About Organization

Some days organizing feels like more work than benefits. Right now feels that way. I know otherwise but it doesn’t change how I feel.

I thought that maybe I’m not the only one who sometimes feels this way so why not blog about it? Many of you probably have insights that I don’t mention here.

Organizing and getting one’s life in order can be so exhausting. And then to have to maintain whatever it is you do! There are some key benefits that I can see to getting and remaining organized in the many different facets of our lives.

Health – When we maintain a clean home (note the different between clean and sterilized, please), we can have better health. Did you know that indoor air is more polluted than outside? And there are cars outside!

Finances – When we can’t find items, we tend to purchase more of that item. Also, when we’re organized, maybe we find that we don’t need extra items. Being organized in our finances can give us a sense of control because we know where our money is going and what we can and can’t do.

Less Stress – And more time! Think of how often we look for something because we didn’t put it away or because not everything has a place. I feel like I spend a lot of time trying to decide on a place an item can call home—and then I don’t remember because it really wasn’t a good spot!

One really key thing for me to always remember is that what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for me. If I try something and it doesn’t work and I’ve really tried to make it work (rather than expecting it to work without me doing anything), I don’t have to feel like a failure. If I gave it an honest try, tweak it or try something new. Just don’t give up!

Another trick is to dedicate time to it. Maybe all you have is five minutes. Maybe you can spend an hour on it.  Instead of wasting that time deciding where to start, just start somewhere. It’s better to do something than nothing. Afterwards, make a list of what you were able to accomplish. Give yourself a little reward. Dance a celebratory dance. Give yourself permission to feel great about whatever you were able to accomplish and don’t give yourself permission to think of what you didn’t get done. I love writing down in my planner how much time I spent and what I did. When I feel discouraged, I can look at it and see what I can do with any amount of time that I have.

I’m the type of person who loves lists. I like writing things down. I like checking things off. I can go too far sometimes. I can get so uptight about things that I fall off the wagon so hard that I’m sure I gave myself a broken leg. Then it is tough to get back in the swing of things.I constantly have to remind myself that I have my own permission to back off!

Here are some of the many areas of my life that I am in the throes of putting in order: spiritually, fitness, family time, blogging, household maintenance and cleaning, fertility, grocery shopping, my house at large, finances, my future unveiled plans, my church calling, crafting, painting, sewing! I’m sure I’m missing some.

I am finally reaching a point where I think things are working FOR me instead of AGAINST me. I will probably share my methods at some future point. Hope it’s not too boring for you! I take requests. :)

Under Shelf Organizer

Those who are {still} friends with me on Facebook know that my mini project for the kitchen was thwarted yesterday. I was even commended for using the word thwarted.

My project remains thwarted today.

So I completed another project instead.

And I am happy.

This is what one cupboard started like. It's an odd angle because I'm showing the mugs into the back corner of this odd-shaped cabinet.

This is another cupboard. Earlier in the year I had rearranged cupboards and gotten the corner shelf for the dishes. What that meant is that I had to remove the second shelf. I hated all that extra and wasted space above the cups but what are you gonna do, you know?

Enter the undershelf organizer basket. I got it from Meijers and it cost under $10. I'm being lazy and not checking the actual price. I totally was hoping that it would fit. Edit: It cost $6.19.

It does and it's awesome! I moved Kaelyn's dishes (and cups and bottles) into the basket and moved some of those mugs with the cups. Back where they belong. Sigh of relief, everyone. Sigh!

The odd shaped cupboard. Empty space! And yes... a lone mug.

And a few more mugs. We have 11 mugs. I am tempted to get rid of some of them except we actually use all of them when we have family over in the winter and we have hot chocolate or tea.

Jewelry Hooks

I've had this project done for many months now. I kinda felt guilty for not showing it off but really... tonight I'm grateful since my computer is having issues with me.

I used to have a pretty little jewelry box. It was my aunt's and I got it when she died. The problem was that it was little. It wasn't long enough to hang anything except chokers or lengths close to that. I started to not wear jewelry because it was just too much of a hassle to deal with it. So I decided to do something about it.

Cost: FREE

These two doors had been laying around for months waiting for me to do something with them. One of the hinges had gotten bent by (I think) my niece, Grace. So I just took them both off until I wanted to do something about it. Months later, I knew it would be perfect for this project.

I primed it (with $1 old primer that was sitting around being unused and was NOT water based--lesson learned) and then painted them a light pink. The pink was a sample from Valspar that my sister, Lindey, picked out for me.

I didn't paint the back but here you can see the before and after.

Oh yeah, I "sanded" it first. I probably should have done a better job but I didn't.

After it was painted and dry, I decided where I wanted the jewelry to go. I took pictures so I could remember where after I took the jewelry off.

I used cup hooks leftover from previous projects. I am in love with these hooks. I want more. Doesn't even have to be these specific ones. Just hooks in general. They are from Target. I did pre-drill the holes before screwing the hooks in.

Oh yes, see the knobs? Those got painted too!

I put picture hanger things that were being unused somewhere else on the back and then hung them on the wall. I love the pink. I'm not fond of the wall color (and seriously--I picked out that wall color last year! I blame the pink for me not liking it anymore).

So far, Kaelyn hasn't pulled it down. She hasn't really tried and she's not allowed in our room without us so that helps.

It's easy to see what I have. And it makes me want more fun jewelry.

Snack Station, Smoothies, & Smores

I feel like I got a lot done today. Maybe because I did. I didn't vacuum or do laundry one little bit. Priorities, people.

Kaelyn helped me with some more cooking today. (Ignore the mess. Focus on the kid.) I'll show you what we made a little bit later. Jared seemed a little surprised.

One thing I got done today was grocery shopping. Among my purchases were two of these baskets. One medium size and the other was smaller. I wasn't sure which one would work best and knew I'd find a purpose for the other. I don't know if I would have gotten this brand initially, but I forgot to see what Meijers had and so I got these at Walmart (since I was there picking up something else there that Meijers apparently doesn't carry). Walmart gives me the hives.

One thing that is cool about these baskets is that the handles flip in so that you can stack them on top of each other. I have some green ones (different brand) for our recycling. Although we wish they had a scooped front for easy access to the bottom basket, I like using up the vertical space.

Oh! I guess you want to know what I used the basket for. I made a snack station! I've seen them around but never really thought about having one for us. I mean, no kids are in school and I only have the one anyway. But Kaelyn eats constantly and I have lately found myself getting tired of having to prep something else for her to eat. Sometimes I would feed her the same thing several times and I really don't like that in terms of nutrition. SO. Snack station it is.

I've used lemon juice to keep apples from browning in the past but never really liked the taste afterwards. I ran across a tip that said to try ginger ale or any lemon-lime soda. Soak them for 10 minutes. So I got Meijer (cheapest) diet (no HFCS) lemon-lime soda. And six pounds of apples. I may have gotten a little bit too much for our little family of three especially since Kimmi is no longer staying with us. Oh well. :) We like apples.

Three cans of soda soaked all six pounds of apples. I even had to do them in two batches because my bowl wasn't big enough. I used the same soda for the second batch as the first and it still worked.

Best of all, they still taste like apples afterwards. I didn't detect any soda-type taste or anything kinda funky like that.

Grapes were washed & de-stemmed. Everything was bagged up into snack-size baggies. Except for the string cheese since those are already easy grabs. String cheese, grapes, apples, carrots. The only thing Kaelyn can't eat are the carrots. She LOVES the grapes and recently has been liking apples (especially with peanut butter). She also LOVES string cheese.

I now have a place in my fridge for this easy quick grab snack. This will really be handy for Jared's snacky moods and additions to his work lunches. (I already warned him that he'd better not eat all the string cheese.)

Something else I did was create smoothie packets. I froze plain yogurt (homemade with powdered milk) into cubes. In each packet are two cubes (which I think is somewhere around 3 Tbsp) of yogurt and 1 1/2 - 2 cups of frozen fruit. We already had all of these ingredients so I didn't have to purchase anything. Although, we are now fairly low on frozen fruit but since they were mostly for smoothies anyway, I'm okay. Each packet makes one nicely-sized smoothie or two small-ish but probably more *accurate* serving size (8 oz). It is the perfect amount for Kaelyn and I to share.

All you have to do is stick it in your blender (our blender is horrid--truly) and add a little milk until it is the consistency you like. If you want peanut butter or flax seed or anything like that, now is also when you want to add it.

Remember that picture at the beginning with Kaelyn? We made cookie wrapped s'mores. Oh my heavens, they were huge! They looked like baked potatoes. Seriously. Here's a picture of one next to an avocado.

If you want something sweet, you should try having just a half of one of these babies. It is a basic cookie dough recipe. You make a smore and wrap the cookie dough around it. I got the recipe from here (via Pinterest).

When Jared came down to help Kaelyn (since I needed both my hands to wrap), he sounded surprised that I was making s'mores AND cookies. When I informed him that they go together, he didn't really know what to say. I guess I really don't make dessert all that often. But at least when I do, I go all out.

We ate two cookies between the three of us. And that was stretching it. But it was soooooo good! SO GOOD. I can't even describe the gooey, delicious, awesomeness of it. The marshmallow is a nice addition to the chocolate chip cookie but then you get the graham cracker and it's a little unexpected but works so well.

And because I want to brag more, I also put a pork shoulder in the crock pot. I just shredded it and it was so easy. And so delish. I can't wait to eat it for reals.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing meal preparations. I think it's easier to spread them out over a few days because of Kaelyn. I can work on it during her naps. I am excited about this venture of mine. I even kept up on dishes today since I was in the kitchen so much.

My craft area looks better too but not good enough to take a picture. Yet.