My Brain Binder

I have surgically removed my brain and imported it into this 3-ring binder. Well, maybe I stopped just short of surgery. Truth is, I feel very scatter brained these days. Keeping up with household responsibilities as well as all the wonderful, exciting things at church has been leaving me overwhelmed and frankly, tired. And the result has been disorganization. Disorganization rears it's ugly head in a few areas of life here and there, and usually a little time devoted to setting things in order remedies the situation without much harm. But when a mama is disorganized about getting food on the table come dinner time, well that is a serious problem, in need of serious attention. When I entitled my dinner recipe section of this blog, "What's for dinner?" I had no idea how prophetic I was! So in an effort to not feed my family boxed macaroni and cheese every other night for dinner, I have a binder that is now serving as my brain until such a time as my brain can function adequately without it. Maybe when my last youngin' leaves the nest....

My poor photos leave me no choice but to explain what every tab is for. The thick plastic dividers with pockets are labeled: Menu, P.C. (stands for "Price Chopper", my local grocery store), Rite Aid, Target, Toiletries, Baby, Household, Grocery.

Under the Menu tab, is...you guess it... my dinner menu. I also typed a list of family favorites, of which I came up with 25. That leaves a few nights a month to try something from my "wanting to try" stack of recipes in a different binder... my longtime used recipe binder. As I filled in my plans for dinner for the next couple of weeks, I made a list of items I need for the store. I keep extra paper for such lists in this area of the binder.

Under the individual store tabs, I keep the store ad, store coupons and manufacturer's coupons I plan to use at the store (because they are offering that item on sale). I also have RiteAid's coupon policy, for handy reference when a inexperienced cashier doesn't know what to do with me and all my coupons. ☺

After the store tabs, begins my coupons. After the category of "household", I created subcategories using these cute tabs (I found mine for 50 cents on clearance at Staples) such as "air fresheners", "laundry", etc. I stuck the tabs directly onto the plastic covers that contain my coupons. Above, I used 4x6 photo sized plastic sheets.

Here, I used trading card sized plastic protectors. It certainly is easy to find exactly what coupon I need and sized perfectly for this category: "baking", under "Grocery".

One of the reasons I switched to a binder as opposed to the expandable little coupon clutch is that I am tired of cutting out every single coupon. So I now will just cut the coupons I am fairly sure I use, and leave the "maybe's" or "not likely's but will hang onto it just in case a sale allows me to get it free" coupons uncut and store in full sheet covers.

And in the back pocket, gift certificates and restaurant coupons.

In the very front, is my to-do list, bills I need to care for, etc.

So there ya have it. I always suspected my brain was pink and black plaid and now I know for sure that it is.

Love,

Organization: Purging

Purging what? Purging the clutter. This step cannot be skipped. I have helped a few people begin the process to get organized and in some cases, the person was unwilling to part with anything. Anything at all. That is basically a lost cause, in my opinion. I felt like saying “Give up the idea of organizing and just embrace the notion of living in a storage unit because that is what your house is becoming.” I hate to sound super negative but if the purging is not done, it MAY be possible to slightly better organize the mounds and mounds of stuff but it will be temporary. Every single day, more items are added to our homes. If nothing is exiting, your organizational ship is sinking fast. You have got to throw over the excess weight.

People can be very nervous at the thought of purging. I am not advocating carelessly tossing out valuables, whether valuable monetarily or sentimentally. But there must be a limit. Gather all the sentimental mementos you have. If they are useful, use them. If there are merely for display, then consolidate to one shelf/table/whatever and display them (which means dusting them one a decade… whether they need it or not.) If they are neither functional or to be displayed, but you still would be saddened to not have them, store them out of the way in a labeled container. But set a limit on how many plastic tubs or boxes of family heirlooms you will have. It might help to really evaluate each item and decide to keep only the most precious and only those they bring back good memories. And remember that the item itself is not a memory… you will always have that even if the item is given away. Well… until dementia hits anyway. Bottom line about memorabilia: people are more important than things. Don’t lose sight of the fact that it is just a thing.

A common road block to removing clutter is the thought that it would be wasteful to toss it because you might need or want it someday. Here is my counter to that: Clutter steals from us. It steals our time as we search for things lost in the pile. It steals our money as we go to purchase something we know we do have- somewhere- but could not find. Clutter steals our relaxing environment. It creates a chaotic feeling. To me anyway.

Clutter affects some of us more than others but I feel stressful just having it staring at me. Like its screaming “You can’t sit down and relax right now, Kayte! You have to put me away! Find a place for me!! I will not be ignored! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” If your clutter doesn’t taunt you like mine taunts me, then I’m happy for you. My clutter has a nasty disposition so it must die! Okay that was a little over the top, eh? Even if you find it easier to ignore clutter, there will no doubt come a day when you are looking for something you want and can’t find in the heaps. Or maybe you actually want to use that shelf or table or closet for it's intended purpose but can’t because of the dreadful Clutter Monster. Raise your hand if you’ve been guilty of throwing random stuff behind a closed door because company was coming over! (Kayte’s hand is raised.)Is the solution a bigger house? No. Clutter Monsters love bigger houses because they then have room to multiple and have big batch of baby Clutter Monster-etts. It must be reduced, if not totally annihilated. (I get violent words flowing when I write about clutter, don’t I?!)

We have all probably heard of sorting the clutter into basic groups such as:

1. Trash – it is broken, outdated, obsolete, stained

2. Keep – you use it, you love it, Great Grannie made you swear to keep it forever

3. Sell – it has value or could be useful to someone else, you have another of the same thing

4. Give Away – may not have much $$ value but still could be useful

5. Relocate - what exactly was my cheese grader doing in the bathroom?

It’s a simple system but sometimes it’s hard to make tough choices about to which category items belong. Here is a hodge podge of ideas to help make those choices easier:

- Hang all your clothing hangers backwards so that the open hook is facing you. When you wear each article, return it with the hanger in the correct, normal way. After 6 months (or a year if you have distinct seasons like here in NY), whatever hangers are still hanging backwards, get rid of those items.

- I have decided to stop saving clothes for future children that are in bad condition, or that I just plain don’t like. I end up never putting them on my girls and I’ve wasted time and space saving them after they outgrow it. Of course, different budgets require different levels of scrutiny. And if you’re like my mom, every stained piece of clothing is just an opportunity to whip out the fabric paint!

- If you really cannot decide if something is a keeper, put in a box, label and date. After 6 months, if you’ve not missed that item or forgot about it, get rid of it.

- It may make parting with items easier if a little profit can be made, by selling at a consignment shop or on eBay. I have found consigning better when selling clothing but you have to accept that the shop takes a percentage out. The plus side is that even while it is selling, it is out of your house and there is no loss if it does not sell where as eBay has a listing fee. Antique dealers would be happy to take some older treasures off your hands as well. A garage sale is always a good way to say farewell to junk. Just be sure to designate an area for your collecting items and set a definite time line for the sale so that you aren’t collecting for year after year. Commit to donating whatever does not sell to a thrift store.

- Another way to make the separation easier is to give it to someone you think might need it. It feels good to give something that was just sitting around on your shelf to someone who actually has use for it. Even just donating to a thrift store is satisfying as I think of the many times I found treasures there. Maybe my junk will be someone else’s treasure and make their day. It’s not just “getting rid of stuff”; it’s allowing someone else to enjoy it.

- If something is covered in dust, it probably doesn’t get used much. Bid it adieu.

- Limit how many of one item you will save. I’m referring to things like plastic grocery bags and other things that we save because they are free and handy to have. Once I have a bag full, I recycle the rest. (Wal-Mart has bins up front to drop them off in.) Apply the same principle to things like baby food jars, fast food condiment packets, twisty ties for baggies, etc. Keep a few and chuck the rest.

- Go through your pens collection (or first collect the thousands of pens we accumulate). I notice that I tend to reach for the same few pens that write nicely and are comfortable to hold. Get rid of the ones you don’t like or are low on ink. How many pens do we really need, after all?

Make purging a regular habit. When something new is brought in, search for something to get rid of. This rule does not apply to new babies. ;)

A few other ideas on how to limit to amount of STUFF we have to keep track of, clean, organize, put away:

- Determine to buy smart. Choose products that serve several purposes. I have stopped buying wrapping paper for separate occasions but instead buy paper that is pretty but can used to anything: birthday, baby shower, wedding shower, act. I actually found that I liked the simpler look to the gift, and the bow was more prominent against the solid paper. Kitchen gadgets and appliances are another area to seek multifunction.

- Don’t even check the mail or take the laundry out of the dryer until you are ready to deal with it.

-Ask that people not purchase toys for your kids if you feel they have enough. I really believe most American kids have WAY too much. It seems with my girls, the more they have, the less they play with and appreciate their toys. It almost overwhelms them. We have started rotating toys (and storing ones that they outgrow).

- Never tell anyone what you collect. Okay I’m joking. But really… collections scare me. I once made the mistake of mentioning to my family that I thought Sponge Bob Square Pants (this was back when he was “new”) was amusing. Can you guess what ALL of my Christmas presents were centered on? Yup. Good ol’ Sponge Bob. There I was: a college sophomore with more Sponge Bob memorabilia than I knew what to do with. So now I tell people that I like butterflies but don’t want any. ;)

Purging is my favorite part of organizing. I can just about hear the moans at that statement. For so many, this is the hardest part. However, as time passes and the number on my driver’s license tells me that I’m getting older, and with the addition of children, living with the just the bare basics is not as easy as it once was. In order to not be downright wasteful, I do have to keep and store things. Lots of things. I will be addressing the topic of what to do with all the stuff we still have after purging soon. However, that step will be so much easier if we bite the bullet and purge first.



Love,

Find the rest of this organizational series:
Organization: Philosophy & Purpose

And my "How To Posts" disclaimer

Organization: Philosophy & Purpose

I’ve been reading all the books I can get my hands on about organization in the past few weeks. As I shared in my post about my new year’s resolutions, I have a few areas of my home that I can never quite get organized and KEEP organized. The KEEP is the important issue for me.


One such area is my basement. This is where my laundry hook up is and the primary storage. Being from California, basements are yucky and scary to me. I’m told that I have a nice basement for an older home in upstate NY. It has concrete floors and is fairly dry. But those same qualities that appeal to humans apparently appeal to spiders, too.

Me = no fan of spiders.

Basically I use the fact that my basement is dark and scary and has a weird little room where I’m convinced the previous owner held some creature or ugly child captive as a reason to never clean and do anything down there other than grab my laundry and run back up the stairs. (Anyone saw that old movie “Goonies”? I do not recommend the movie but that might explain the deformed child living in the basement theory.) And then of course, there was that one night a few years ago when a giant mutant rat snuck up on me while I was doing laundry. Okay well, in actuality it was a frightened cat that had squeezed through a gap in a window somehow. But as I saw nothing but a black tail weaving its way through my brother in law’s junk, I made the only obvious assumption: giant mutant rat.


Anyway, the time has come to finally tackle my hard to organize places. And while I’m at it, I will share with you all the handy tid bits of info I have been learning. Some are ideas I’ve been employing for a while, some are new to me that I plan to use and some I do not plan to use but thought they might be beneficial to someone else. As stated before, I’m not an expert by any means. These organizational posts are served buffet style… you can take whatcha want and leave whatcha don’t! Read my disclaimer to learn my feelings about "how to" posts such as this.


Perusing throughout the home section at Barnes & Noble’s, I was surprised by how much philosophy and belief systems were involved in organizing. The term “fung shui” came up numerous times. I do not wish to sound critical but reading about fung shui makes me suddenly crave a bologna sandwich. ;) Get it? Bologna? As in fung shui sounds like a bunch of it? It was usually paired with phrases like “have faith that the universe will replace the object if you truly need it”. This, to me, sounds like a prime example of worshipping a creation rather than the Creator.


Having said that, there is no doubt that our surroundings, which is most often our home, have enormous influence over our attitudes and emotions. Some of us are more sensitive to our environment than others, and perhaps different senses are more astute for some than others. I believe that I am a visual person. Paint colors really have an effect on my mood. My husband is very tuned in to the fragrances and odors around him. My sister in law plays music virtually every second of every day. I think everyone would of course enjoy having ALL of our senses stimulated in a pleasing way all at once. For each person, that scene would be different. My idea of the prefect sense experience is relaxing on a soft couch, wearing my comfy jammies, with my new cozy blue blanket wrapped around me while drinking a Chai Tea, or eating some potato soup (or whatever food craving I’m having at the moment) with an encouraging song playing on the girls’ CD player and my house smelling like lavender and vanilla while soaking up the view of a nicely decorated room. Nowhere in my scenario is clutter and piles of junk or stuff hanging around everywhere. But I know some people actually enjoy many knick knacks and trinkets. It makes their home feel more "homey". What you prefer isn't important...but learning what puts you in the best frame of mind is important. Study yourself.

I think the approach we take to organizing has been be rooted in our personality. For one person, an idea can be exciting and hopeful but that same idea to another person could instantly invoke stress. My point in saying all this is that if the thought of alphabetizing your books by author sounds like cruel punishment, then don’t do it. If the first thought you have is “Well it would be nice to be able to find the book I want without having to look for 5 minutes or more” than it’s worth trying. The degree to which you are organized is up to you. My observation is that most people are craving more organization, regardless of being “uptight” personalities or more "laid back". It's just a matter of finding "laid back" organizing techniques or "uptight" ones... whatever you happiest!


What’s the purpose to organizing? It’s NOT:

- To meet expectations of others

- To be able to say “My home is organized.”

- To take a picture to record the moment because it will never happen again.

- To impress your mother in law (Don't worry, I'm sure she already is thoroughly impressed with you!)


So what IS the point?

- To make life smoother. To relieve stress, NOT CREATE IT in the pursuit of organization.

- To save money (ever had to buy something again because you lost the first one?)

- To make it out the door, on time, with everyone dressed and you have not blown a fuse in the process (reminds me of Sunday mornings...)

- To save time by not needing to search for items.

- To make your home the comfortable, peaceful haven we all need.

There are few things in life that irritate me to no end. Not being able to find something I need right away and forgetting things are near the top of my list. Both problems can be attributed to a lack of organization on my part.


Organization is not a goal in of itself. It’s a means to bigger, more meaningful goals. Being organized should enable us to accomplish more with our resources. Ultimately, that means being closer to the Christian, wives, mothers, etc. that we strive to be. We are not here to serve our houses; our houses are here to serve us. They are not museums. People (gasp!) actually live in them, and some of those people are mess making munchkins who require whole lotta stuff. The “stuff” and the “messes” can threaten to take over. Creating maintainable, realistic systems and methods to keep our house from interrupting our day to day enjoyment of family life, and effectiveness outside the home, is what organization means to this mommy.

My organizing philosophy is that organizing your home should remove stress, not create it. It should save money, not cost it. It should work with your personality, not against it.


Love,

"How To" Disclaimer

I’m preparing a few posts on the topic of organization but I want to preface them first with a disclaimer.

I love “how to” posts on other people’s blogs… I am just that kind of girl who is always looking for someone to teach me something that I don’t already know. I’ve sat and read books and articles about how to do a huge variety of subjects, even when it is something I never intend to actually do myself. It’s fun. Even though it’s probably a ginormous waste of time for me to read about rock climbing or refurbishing a hot rod, because if any of you know me at all, neither of those events will ever happen. Ever. Never ever. But I’m just weird enough to still be interested in reading about any subject. Sometimes I read stuff like that so that I don’t sound like such a huge nit-wit when talking to Seth and someone else who may want to have a conversation about something OTHER than diaper rashes and cookie recipes. But if the "how to" post is actually pertaining to things I will indeed use in real life, I’m completely pumped and elated to find it.

However, on the few occasions when I have sat down to write a “how to” post about something I want to share, I always feel a bit presumptuous. I just want to tell each and every person who reads my how to posts, which I am going to post soon, that I am not an expert at… well... really anything. In my very best arenas, I am a B, maybe a B+ in something like, washing dishes! ;) And I am okay with that, in fact. I’d rather be a B in everything than an A at one thing while being a C at everything else. Make sense? No? Yeah not me either.

I am not an original person. Just about everything I know that is good has been taught to me by more experienced wiser people. I am just relaying their info in my own dorky terminology.

So let it be known throughout the lands than I do not have it all together. But I do read a lot (when I should be just getting my ducks in a row rather than reading about how to get my ducks lined up in the exact right way) and merely want to be the tiniest bit helpful to anyone who might actually read my “how to” posts.

You know, women, in particular, are really hard on each other… and sometimes on themselves. We put a lot of expectations on ourselves rooted in comparison and efforts to “measure up”. The very, very last thing I would ever want is for someone to read a how to post on, for example, organization (since I’m about to post a few of those) and instead of feeling encouraging and energized to become bit more organized, instead feels discouraged and that she will never attain the level of organization that I describe. It’s a sad thing to me when one woman makes another woman feel inadequate. I believe that happens sometimes among Christian woman, albeit it can be self inflicted at times. I’ve been on that side of it , too!

We all have our strengths, and we all our weaknesses. I’ll forgive your weakness and you forgive mine, deal? And while we’re at it, share with me your strengths and I’ll try to share with you mine.

As I post a few “how to” posts in the next few days, no comparing amongst ourselves is allowed. Just look for ideas that could help you and work in your life and ditch the others.


Love,

Mission Impossible: Oragnizing kid rooms

My new year's resolution of organizing every inch of my home has caused me to step back and consider what really works in keeping my home organized and what does not work. For a long time, I think I approached organization backwards. That is, I would go shopping for containers and systems before taking a hard look at at what I was needing to get organized. (I think retail therapy made me feel more organized even though I really wasn't.) The reality is that truly being organized requires more thought and planning. So before tackling those areas that I feel need improvement, I'm evaluating the rooms that are in a working organized manner to see why they are working for us and how to get the same results in the harder places.

And people call be over analytical! Ha! ;)

Our girls share and small room: 8' and 12'. Amazingly though, it is almost always in decent condition and every item has a home. Hmmm. That seems to be critical in every room and closet: Everything has a specific home.

Lately it seems that I am in competition with myself to write the most boring post ever. Sorry. But look at the title. Yada Yada Yada. I never claimed to have anything interesting to share! So this is what ya get! Really, when I was an expectant mom, I think I would have appreciated a post like this. (If I read blogs then... which I didn't.) You see, I created a cute little room for newborn Maddie with the goal of making it look like it came out of a magazine. (A budget minded magazine anyway!) But the thing about babies is that they don't stay immobile newborns for very long. And while I thought I just needed to think about diapers and clothes, the major issue in a kid's room is the TOYS!!!! The ridiculous amount of toys they accumulate by age 3!!! I believe we have personally bought like 4 toys for our children. The rest were all gifts. We're grateful for them but we could be buried in them without some organization.

So here is what works well for us. A working organizational system is all about what works for you and your family. The girls, yes even Eden, know where things belong and when it's clean up time, they can do a great job. In these pictures, you'll see that their room does not look like it should be in a magazine. It's a real room lived in by two real little girls. I didn't go through and "prettify" things. There was dirty laundry in their basket. Which I did not take a picture of. You are welcome. The things on top of the dressers looked messy because the girls had been pretending those bears were their babies and when they put them back, they didn't take the time to artistically arrange them. I'm okay with that. The sheet on the bed does not match a thing (we had wet through situation last night!). Life and budgets and practicality have over ruled any picture perfect ambitions of mine. I think you could find thousands of beautiful immaculate rooms on HGTV or other sites so here is just our reality. And we like it.

This is Maddie's drawer. The spring loaded dividers are my favorite invention other than the dish washer. We have them in everyone's dresser. See her cute little undies! Maybe someday she'll be irate at me for showing the world her unmentionables. I have a label maker that I used to make it clear to any random stranger who happens to be helping put away laundry (ie. Seth) where everything belongs. And I tell myself that it's helping the girls learn to read since I say to them "These go where it says 'tights' ". The clinical study is still in process.
This shelf was a great buy. I think we got for like $15 while pregnant with Maddie. It is above Eden's dresser, which is also the changing table. That hanging hair clip thing was a gift from a friend who used to sell them on etsy. It's basically a quilt square with ribbons down in. Very handy. I used to keep all baby medications in those little canvas bins and then those that didn't fit went in their closet. But not only can the girls climb up and get into them, but it's been much better for me to just keep all medications for man, woman and child in one location. For us, that is in empty baby wipe tubs the kitchen. Keeping pills in our bathroom was leaving them sticky from the dampness and there really wasn't enough room to keep them ALL together in there.

The girls have a super small and awkward closet. There is a bin that you can not see that holds toys that are "out of the rotation". When I see them bored with their newer toys, we'll bring those ones back out and swap. I buy in advance for the girls so the shelves in the closet are full of the next sizes they'll need in shoes and clothes. I am a clearance rack addict.

When the girls were younger, I used this neat little dividers in their closet.

And here is the last of the toys... the bulky things get thrown into the ottoman in our living room. Makes for easy clean up.

This has nothing to do with organization but is this piggy bank not the cutest thing you ever saw?

Clearance find! A insanely expensive children's boutique was going out of business and I found this hand painted little guy.

Look at his little tail!!!!! Oh he's completely ridiculously adorable!!!