Organizing 101

Geez! I have been really busy these last 2 weeks, and apparently posting took a back burner. I am here now, so let's talk.

I have been in my house 3 years, and now that I am starting to make it my home, organizing is happening everywhere! It was a really chaotic move, and I will be honest, there are things I am still looking for! As I have been organizing, I thought to myself, "Maybe there are peeps out there that might want this info?"

So, I learned an acronym about 8 years ago that helps me with organizing. I wish I knew who to give credit to for it, but I don't. I know I heard it somewhere- I DID NOT come up with this on my own. It is a really simple thing to remember. Ready?

First things first... DO NOT reinvent the wheel. If you have a system in place for you, and you feel it works, use it. You don't have to be like the neighbor down the street and do it her way because it is different, or even brilliant. I think we stress ourselves out comparing ourselves as women, way too often. Sometimes what you have going IS brilliant. If you want to re-stylize it, go for it!

S.P.A.C.E.

Sort

Purge

Assign
Contain

Execute

Lets begin. Pretend we are going to organize a cupboard. That's easy enough right?

SORT: As you take things out, sort them. Groups, categories, how often do you use this item, storage, or garbage? Sort now instead of just taking it out of the space. Trust me. 

This is what it looks like when you start taking out without sorting!

PURGE: Get rid of what you don't absolutely use or love. If you haven't used it in 6 months (not as a result of it being seasonal) that might be a great indication you won't use it. Love yourself enough to get rid of it, and don't feel guilty. I just sorted through a cupboard in which I had a Pampered Chef Easy Decorator. I have had it for ten years. I have moved it from house to house thinking someday I would use it. It has taken much needed space and I finally got rid of it- and I don't feel guilty about it!

ASSIGN: Assign the things you are keeping to different spaces. Remember the frequency of which you might use items so you know how to arrange them. Some things are best stored in categories, assign them a place in your cupboard. Like mine has measuring cups, water bottles, and up on the higher shelves are things I use, but not as often.

CONTAIN: Items that are hard to store on their own might require a basket or two. I have put all of my measuring cups in a basket cause they don't stay together well when children use them. I also have the lids to all of my water bottles, and the springs that go inside Shaker bottles all in a basket. This way I don't have to use much needed drawer space to contain them.

EXECUTE: This is the most important step of them all. If what you have set up to contain your things, or where you have assigned them is something you won't be able to follow through with, your attempt to organize this space will fail. Your system HAS to be something you can execute.

Having a place for everything and everything in its place makes me feel like all is right in the world. There is nothing worse than trying to get somewhere, ON TIME, and feel like little ninjas have moved your things to various places (my ninjas like to play with my keys). Of course I would love to believe that little ninjas really are responsible, because that means I do not have to face my own inadequacies and realize I need a new system.This is what I have learned- take from it what you want, and leave the rest. No hard feelings here. :)

Vinyl Obsession

If you saw the tab that lists my current faves, you will see that Vinyl Lettering is in the top 5 right now. I purchased a Silhouette about 3 years ago, and then... never used it. I now have the opportunity to be creative again, and love using this awesome machine.When I say it in my head, the word "machine", I want to do the Tim-the-tool-man Taylor grunt cause it is UH-MAZE-ING!

 I love it so much in fact, it has doubled as a label maker.

I was making this Menu Chalkboard for the kitchen. This was the start of the craziness! If you know me, you know I love words. I wanted to put something on the chalkboard to make it pop. Tiffany is taking french and is fairly obsessed with it. so I asked her how one might say "Welcome to the kitchen". Translated it reads "Bienvenue `a la Cuisine". As I thought more about adding stuff, I designed the curly cue at the bottom too. I saw how much it added to the whole project and I have been "adding" to others since.

Containers in Pantry

Jars- I have these old school jars that I use for my flour, sugar, rice, and protein powder.
 Todd has been so good to not use the eye rolls at this time, but he is over compensating with snarky remarks :) ...{ "So if I hold still long enough, will you label me too?" } I swear... verbatim!

I designed this from the monogram to the photo corners. It turned out pretty decent I think.

FHE Magnet Board- (I will probably do a separate post on this alone!) With my own vinyl cutter, the Family Home Evening board had no limits!

This my bucket list. Ha ha... see the bucket? My friends and i got together after being inspired by Pinterest.

Even the walls aren't safe! Although, this project was way to big for my cutter so I had to outsource it. Thanks Tammy!

I even labelled my house...

But then again... it is an OBSESSION right now!

Laundry Room Makeover

In the attempt to put our house in order, I have come to the conclusion that next to the kitchen, the Laundry Room has to be changed first. I figure with 6 children, 2 dogs, a cat and other animals I spend most of my time in there washing clothes. If I want to  be effective, I have to enjoy the space I "work" in. 

So, change it must be. 

Todd has been so very patient with me as I have run around like a mad woman, ripping things apart just to put them back together. He has also been really great about keeping the eye rolls to a minimum. 

Of course the patience comes from the fact that decorating can happen on a budget, which I am great at!

The palette is yellow, black, and grey. If you are not envisioning it, that is fine, I can help.

As a refresher, this is my laundry room:

As we all know, builders put watered down flat paint in their houses as they are being built. Because of this, washing the walls is virtually impossible. All forms of grease, hand prints, and gunk seem to become cemented in place. When I do get it off, I can see sheet rock underneath. There fore paint is a necessity. We can start with that. I prefer Benjamin Moore paint, at the very least, their colors. I have some Dorset Gold left from when I painted my Living Room, so this is going to save me some moola!

Here is a collage of what I plan on using. Starting from the top left and going clockwise we have the Dorset Gold in interior satin, a Damask patterned wall paper, and Vintage Border, both purchased from Steve's Blinds and Wallpaper, and Aspen Aloe decorative contact paper.

The plan is to paint two thirds of the wall from the ground up with the gold. Then one third of the wall in the wall paper from the ceiling down. The vintage border will separate the 2. I realize cars are not exactly laundry room material but I love anything vintage! 

The decorative contact paper is for the shelves inside the cupboards. I saw something really cute on Pinterest and I cannot find it to save my life! She did the shelves all cute. If I find it I will update. Now.... off to redecorate!

What the Crap!... When did this happen?!?

Since my days of extreme exhaustion, fatigue, and sickness seem to be behind me, I am noticing so much more about my house than I ever did before. Like, "When did I become sooo disorganized?!?", or "What is this cupboard being used for?", and even "Since when did we start storing the lint roller in the pantry?" I am serious! These are things I have legitimately said over the last few weeks. Let me show you....

Pantry

See the baskets? I should get some points for an attempt to be organized! Do you see the lint roller next to the graham crackers?

Master Bath Linen

It seems our linen closet has just become the collect all, crap all closet. I didn't even't know what was in here!

Master Bedroom

I have a great husband whom is so willing to actually help with laundry, but his methods are sometime a little bit less than desirable. This is the staging area for our clean laundry. It sits there until I usually fold it.

Laundry Room

This is probably the reason laundry sits next to my bed. Because there is no where to keep it. This is supposed to be a laundry room but it is kind of eclectic in its function. 

So I post this in an attempt to get the ball rolling in the direction I want to be heading in. I want my home to reflect the state of me, and my personality!

Living...

I am sure that I could come up with a catchier title for this post next to "Living...", but that is what this is all going to be about. Living. With my religious convictions being of the LDS faith, there are many teachings that offer peace and solace for life. Hope being one of them. Hope, that there will come a time when all does not have to be tried and tested. There are times I wish that I could just "arrive" at the end of the trials, and there would be rainbows and sunshine forever. But this is not the plan, this is not Living.

I will give a brief synopsis of my "living" over the last 3 years:

I was a single mother. My husband and I put all our hopes and dreams out there to open our own physical therapy clinic. He was gone for anywhere between 12 and 15 hours per day, to come home, and kiss me goodnight before I fell asleep. Four forty five am was the only time I could have time to myself and I spent it working out and training for half marathons and other races. I would come home from the gym just in time to see Todd for about 30 whole minutes. He would leave for work, and I would start my day getting kids ready for school, and prepping my oldest for our daily battle of homeschooling.

Ethan, our oldest is speech delayed. The teacher at the local school let him fall through the cracks by 3 grade levels before I yanked him out of public school to do my best by him. He wasn't happy about any form of school. It was a negative in his book. After driving 3 of the kids to school, it was Ethan, Megan and I to face the day. School was frequently interrupted with phone calls to the "clinic". My home office was the computer in the kitchen on the counter top next to the math and history book. I worked Tuesdays and Fridays at the clinic doing massages for 4-6 hours.

This was my life for about 18 months. Then I hit a brick wall. I couldn't function anymore. Despite how many caffeine pills, vitamins and energy drinks I consumed, my body would have been satisfied to sleep all day. I thought it was depression, so I quickly sought out a prescription. After raising the dose 2 months in a row, my doctor wanted a more thorough exam. The conclusion was under active thyroid, and low progesterone, coupled with situational depression. I thought that was it. We had found the problem! Take the necessary meds, and voila`! Oh no.... not that easy.

Fast forward 18 more months. Eighteen more months of a lowered immune system from a low functioning thyroid. Eighteen months of colds, coughs, strep throat, mono, pneumonia, impetigo, antibiotic reactions, sinus infections, bronchitis, and kidney stones... Eighteen months of constantly adjusting doses of armour thyroid, celexa, and progesterone. Eighteen months of pure chaos for a born organized person. Eighteen months of hell.

Those eighteen months just finished up about the first week of March 2012. Ethan went back to public school in October 2011, and is doing so well! I went back to my roots of some basic homeopathic care of myself and have remained healthy for about 2 months. I have arrived, I hope... for now. I would never want to be idle for too long, that would be boring! Where would the living be?

Living provides experience; joys, happiness, sadness, ingenuity ,heartbreak, tolerance, empathy, charity,and love for others. Living gives us perspective, and allows us to bear each others' burdens, and lighten the load. We can  have compassion on others, and we learn not to judge, compare or contrast ourselves with others. Living has taught me I am capable of so much! It has shown me where my priorities are, and that stopping to smell the roses needs to happen more often then 'occasionally'.

Recommitted...

Can I just say that I cannot believe it has been about NINE months since my last update. Time has gone by way too fast. With this time, my children have gotten older, I have not gotten younger, and there has been so many life lessons that have been learned and I haven't recorded them. Nine months ago I also set up 5 additional blogs in my children's names, in an attempt to write them a monthly letter. The plan was to have these blogs as an additional record of their lives, and this has still not happened!

So, with all of that being said, I am going to recommit! I have realized that my life is best lived simply, and I do not need to upload a photo to make a post. I know that if I put 10 % of the effort into this blog that I do to read all the status updates on Facebook, I would be doing just fine!

This blog was originally created to share our lives with friends and family that live across the world, so i need to get back to that... sharing our lives with them. :)

I've Been Tagged!

I never thought I would be tagged! Sweet! :) Here it goes.

20 years ago......

1:I was getting ready to turn 12 and become a beehive.
2: I was in 7th grade, while my hubby was on his second year of his mission.
3: Went on my first road trip with my grandparents.

10 years ago......

1: I was pregnant with my first child.
2: Working in my first paying job as a massage therapist.
3: Helping my husband look for another job.

5 years ago.......

1: Interviewing for random jobs around the country.
2: Discovered Ethan had Lyme Disease.
3: Had recently lost 40 lbs.

3 years ago......

1: I had 4 children. The youngest was 1 year old.
2: I received a fabulous Valentine's present from my hubby. A vintage silver band.
3: Preparing myself to leave some of the best friends I have ever made.

1 year ago.......

1: We had just been approved for our SBA loan so we could open our business.
2: Lol! I was recovering from a foot injury. Actually a toe injury.
3: I was training for my half marathon.

This year so far......

1: My family has moved from Bountiful to West Jordan, UT.
2: I had a hysterectomy.
3: I have been tested for meningitis, ending up with a leak, and a full week of hell recovering from it.

Yesterday......
1: Held Megan all day.
2: Put makeup on for the first time in a week.
3: Washed 2 loads of laundry.

Today.........
1: Held Megan, my sick baby.
2: Posted on Facebook.
3: Eaten 2 Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs :)

Tomorrow........

1: Stake Conference.
2: Fold laundry.
3: Mentally prepare for the upcoming week.

In the Next Year.......

1: Our business is going to be self sustaining.
2: I will get my new home in order and PAINTED!
3: Run a FULL Marathon.

I tag Catharina, Melissa, and Laura.