Maybe She's Born With It.....

Or maybe she's not.  So maybe instead, she buys tons and tons of products to try to fake that she's born with it. 

Just sayin'.

You'll see what I mean.

Okay, so I know I have been MIA.  That's not really the case though.  It's more like I've been GIBOS.  What's that????  GOING INSANE BECAUSE OF SNOW!!!!

I can't handle the snow anymore.  I know I live in PA and this is somewhat "normal" I guess, but I'm not cut out for it.  I need to see grass.  I need the temperature to be above 32 degrees on a consistent basis.  Little things, really.  

Anyway, because of the snow, we have been trapped inside.  Because we have been trapped inside, we have been making messes.  It's like "if you give a mouse a cookie"....one thing just leads to the next.  It's been bad, but I think things are turning around.  The last storm missed us, so there is hope that even Mother Nature is sick of throwing snow at us.

Enough complaining and excuses though.  Onward and upward, right?

So, I saw this thing on Facebook called Forty Bags in Forty Days and I was instantly all about it.  You can read about it here:

40 bags in 40 days

The concept is just what it sounds like.  Get rid of 40 bags of stuff in 40 days.  The days happen to coincide with Lent, but you can do this regardless of your religion.  

I started yesterday with my LONG overdue Master Bath re-haul.  I have had bags, (you know the ones-the cute little gift with purchase bags and travel makeup bags) FILLED with random make-up items that I have held onto for WAY too long.  Why?  I really have no clue.  Maybe in OFF chance that I would need metallic silver eyeshadow again?  That happens oh so much around here (insert sarcastic snort)

I decided, after nagging my 8 year old to stop hoarding things, that maybe I should take my own advice and set an example.  

So....here are some before pictures.  Let's just analyze together, shall we?

Here is a peek at all the random bags.  I wasn't joking.  They were all full of stuff too.  It looks like at one point, they were dedicated to certain things, but that went out the window.  NONE of this was used on a daily basis.  Not even an monthly basis!

Moving on.... All of THESE were found in a bin that had a label on it that said "lotions".  I remember that label maker.  It was before kids.  Check out what was taking up the most space:

Sigh...I love me a self tanner.  But 9 different ones?  Um...overkill.

I complain on a DAILY basis about not being able to find a rubber band for my hair, and often have hot pink ones from my daughter's in my hair.  Shouldn't have that problem anymore!

Same thing with bobby pins.  

So you want to see what filled my first bag for the challenge?  Pretty much ALL of this:

(do you see the multiple containers with blue eyeshadow?  Why, just why?  I know I bought some when Emily was an Egyptian for Halloween.  Then I bought MORE when Allie was an Egyptian, but still....why?)

Seriously?

"My name's Janell....I love lipstick.  If I don't have it, I go ballistic"....that was my intro when I was a pledge for my sorority.  Something never change.

I don't know if you can see it, but there were 4 purple eyeliners there.  4.  

So anyway....you get the picture.  

I know everyone is aware, but just in case, I wanted to remind you that makeup DOES have a shelf life.  Here is a handy Expiration Guide to help you out.

Needless to say, the majority of what you see above was expired and thrown out. 

I have this great cabinet in my bathroom, that before yesterday looked like this:

Pretty much a hot mess of disorganization.  

After cleaning everything out and moving it around, it now looks like this:

Yay!  So much better!

And my makeup?  Well, it is all current and in one place:

I was able to clear out space in my cabinet and it fits perfectly.

So there are a couple of morals to this story. 

1. Don't hoard makeup.  There is no use. 

2. Don't judge.  Don't ever judge.

3. Don't ever feel embarrassed to have me over to your house.  Clearly I have seen some messes of my own making!

I'd love to see your messes!  Share them with  me!  Are you doing the #40bagsin40days challenge?  Tell me about it!

Next up....coupons!  

It is too early in the morning for this....

That is what I said to my 8 year old this morning.  Truth be told, it was 8:15, which in this house, isn't THAT early, but still, too early for a meltdown over shoes.

She couldn't find her "black shake it up shoes" and the world was apparently going to end.  I tried to help her find them, but then the baby started tripping over the mound of shoes and we just found a different pair instead.

Enough is enough.  

The foyer and hall closet have been on my to-do list for a while, so I tackled it this morning when the girls went to school.

I posted it on my Facebook page, but again, here is the before.  A side by side view of both the closet and the bench/shelf in the front.  

Ugh.  Ridiculous.  

Okay, I need to confess.  I had a secret weapon in my mission. 

Batman.

 

 I get that you probably don't have a superhero in your home, but I promise, you can still get the project done.

Okay, so CLEARLY, there was some major purging that needed to be done in today's area of the house.

Let's just take a look at the things I found while sorting:

 19 pairs of sandals and flip-flops.  

It's January.

In Pennsylvania.

To say those shoes were taking up prime property would be an understatement.

I know for a FACT that I used to go through the shoes when I switched clothing seasons over.  I'm not sure why I didn't do that this time.

Oh wait-I DO remember!  Because I have a baby now.  Because my girls are older and are involved in more things.  Because life happened.  That's why the shoes weren't top on the priority list.

Anyway-all of the summer shoes are now living with the bins of summer clothing.

I made sure that won't happen again this year.  I set a reminder in my phone for April.

 

Moving on-

These were all the empty hangers in the closet.  WHY I had 20 coats hanging on 5 hooks in the entryway is beyond me.  

Oh wait...again--another "a-ha" moment.  

I had all those coats NOT in the closet, because about 15 little spring jackets were taking up space.

Duh!

THESE shoes right here.....these bad boys were in a bag all to themselves.  Because they are too small for any girl in my house.  So that tells me at some point, I took the time to sort them out.  And then I put the bag BACK IN THE CLOSET!

What?  Where is the logic in that?  

If you look closely, there are 2 boots that have no match.  Interesting, right?

So, I started sorting everything out.  All 5 us got our own pile where I threw our shoes.  I started a trash pile and a yard sale pile as well.  About half-way through cleaning the shoes off the bench area, I found them

The "black shake it up" shoes that started the whole thing.  I could have stopped there, right?  Wrong.  I was on a mission, and the caped crusader wasn't going to let me quit

You might see the shoe organizer in the closet and be thinking "isn't she part of a company that sells organizing things?  That doesn't look like a Clever Container product"

And you'd be right on both accounts.  I do sell Clever Container and that is not a Clever Container product.  Clever Container does sell many cool shoe organizers, but I don't need them in THIS area.  I have a system that works--well, a system that worked and will work again.  

That is the thing about organizing.  If you have something that works for you, USE it!  Don't buy something you don't need!  That defeats the process.

Anyway-I got off topic.  

So I got all the shoes loaded into the shoes shelf, with a few pair on top and few on the bottom of the shelf in the hallway.

Where I DID use a Clever Container product was on the door.  I love our curved over the door double hooks.  I added one on the inside of the door for hats.

So are you ready for the finished product?  Okay!  Here you go!

 

First up: the hooks being utilized

 But Janell?  You live up north!  Where are all your winter hats?  Your gloves?  

Here is a tip-when we are inside, our gloves go in pocket of our coats and our hats go in the sleeve.  It works great for us.  That way everything is together and we can just hang up our coat.  

I keep all of our hardcore snow gear together in the basement (snow suits, snow boots, waterproof gloves, etc).

If you have a ton of winter gear that you need stored in a closet area, let me know-I have some cool solutions for you!

Here is the inside of the closet now.  I took out about 4 big coats and a bunch of little spring jackets.  I also took out a music stand.

Yes-a music stand was in my hall closet.

Makes sense, right?

Ugh.

 And the front entryway?  Well, it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.  

There are 7 pairs of shoes on the bottom of the shelf.  Boots of the girls that were too big for the shoe holder in the closet, a pair of shoes for each of them that they wear on a regular basis, and a pair of shoes each for Ben and I.  The top of the bench can now be home to my diaper bag and the girls' back packs when they aren't in use.

The shelf above the coats had become Ben's catch all.  I was able to clear it off and he has a little dish for change and random things and the dog leash is up there.  I feel like the wall above needs something now!  

Suggestions?  

I know it might still look a little cluttered, but trust me it's not.  It's functional and organized.  Just what this busy family of 5 needs.

And no more morning breakdowns.  

At least over shoes!

I mean really....

Okay, so this desk project took way longer than I had anticipated.  Not because it was such a big undertaking, but because I was attacked (yes, attacked) with some vicious sinus bug last week.  I have not been that sick in YEARS!!  It was awful and just now, a week and a half after my first sniffle, do I feel somewhat human again.

Anyway, I told you I would give you the good, bad and the ugly when it came to the areas in my house that needed some attention.  I joked here about what I might find in my cabinets.  Well....get ready because it was interesting. 

For Starters:

I mean, why WOULDN'T there be yellow jacket trap attractant in my kitchen area desk?

Even sadder, we bought the traps at LEAST 3 years ago.  I'm almost positive we bought them to have in the backyard for Emily's 5th birthday.  In 2010.  Nice.  

This is now put in its proper place in the garage with the actual trap thingies.

Next, I joked about the yellow pages that were residing on the top shelf of one of the cabinets.  I guessed 2009 as the year stamped on the front.  

Um.....In November 2007, I still lived in Virginia.  So that means that the bottom yellow pages was here when we moved in and has been here for the past almost 6 years.  

What.the.heck.

Moving on.  I always kept some meds in the one cabinet (with the yellow pages).  They were in a basket and then the ones that we used more often, were just casually thrown on the shelf.  Well, I went through all of them today.  In the basket, were a TON of expired medicines.  

Just rancid old medicines taking up valuable space.  They have been properly disposed of now.

The other ones are put nicely in a box and placed up on the highest shelf.  I am looking into one of those locking box things, but for now this will do

I found this bag of art supplies that I used for Emily's Angry Bird party in 2011.  Why they were just thrown in a cabinet is beyond me.  Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose

If you want to see more from that party, you can here

Okay, moving on.  I kid you not, I JUST bought Thank You cards at Target the other day.  And then look what I found living in my desk area

A ton of pretty little cards.  Just waiting to be written on and mailed out.  I also found invitations to Allie's 5th and 6th birthday parties.  She'll be 7 in March. 

And the most ironic find of today?  This little jewel

Organizer Pro.  "The simplest way to get organized"

Ha!

There were more interesting things.  Insurance statements from March 2012, preschool valentine lists (I haven't had a child in preschool in over 2 years), and the list goes on. 

The important thing is that I went through it and it is done, right?

Right.

If you have been to one of my Clever parties, you know that I give out organizing facts.  One of those facts is "About 80% of the clutter in your home is a result of disorganization, not lack of space"

I am here to tell you that is TRUE!!!!  I was convinced that I needed to buy another desk and set up shop somewhere else because I "didn't have enough room in this desk"

So wrong.  So, so wrong.  Embarrassingly wrong. 

After I cleaned everything out, and put stuff in its "right" place, my desk cabinets look almost bare!  It's almost like I have TOO much space now!  Big change!

So here is the after:

 Not a big change, but I did move my printer to the left side so that I can have a notepad on the right.  Since I am right handed.  It just makes it work a lot easier for me.  I also cleaned out the 18000 pens that I had in the caddy next to the computer.  A girl only needs so many black pens.  Am I right?

I put a different filing system up for my business supplies and, once I finish filing everything, I will be able to access it much easier.

Now onto the inside:

As a reminder, this was the BEFORE:

And now---in it's uncluttered glory:

I mean, it looks practically empty, right??

The green box holds my stationary and the blue box hold incoming mail.  My camera and photo paper are there, along with the box of (non-expired) meds on the top shelf and some office supplies on the bottom shelf. 

Beautiful, right?

The other cabinet was just as bad BEFORE:

And now?

I almost can't even handle it.  It's amazing, right?

Remember this hot mess before?

Well, guess what?  It is EMPTY now!  Completely empty!  I did find a bag of cookie cutters in that cabinet when I started cleaning it out.  Cookie cutters that we used in play-doh.  Oh, about 3 years ago!  Anyway, it is totally empty now.  We are thinking of putting our pet food in there, but for now I am just basking in it's clean glory.

So there you have it.  My desk is done.  You will notice there is no after picture of my cookbook cabinet.  I decided to leave it alone.  I did straighten it up a little, but for now it's good.  If I get anymore cookbooks, I'll have to purge some, but that system works for me for now.

What do you think?  Not a drastic overhaul, but much more user friendly now, right?  Thank you for not judging and for being patient while I fought the good fight against my sinus'.

I will be tackling my hall closet and foyer next.  Stay tuned!

Keeping it Real

Okay, so I said I was going to use this blog to show my progress on organizing my house.  I said I might even share before and after pictures.   Well, get ready because I have some doozies of before pictures for you.

I made a list of areas I wanted to organize.  I figured my "office" would be a good place to start.  I use the word "office" lightly.  I have a built in desk area in my kitchen.  That is my office.  It's not ideal, but it works.  The problem is my "office" tends to be a place where everyone's junk gets thrown.  

No more though.  The cycle ends today.

Or tomorrow. 

Whenever I finish getting it all in order.

Anyway, in the spirit of keeping it real, here are the before pictures.

Don't judge.  

From the outside looking in, it doesn't look TERRIBLE.  Not great, but not terrible, right?

Get ready.....

What is really sad about this cabinet, is that I can actually find stuff in it.  I am sure once I start going through it, I will find things I thought were lost forever, but sadly, it is still functional in this stage.  

Notice the phone books at the top?  Any guesses on the year on them?  I'm guessing 2009.  I'll update in the "after" post.

This is my cookbook cabinet.  I use maybe 3 of those cookbooks.  Everything else I do is online or in Pinterest world.

If you scroll down through my blog, I think there is a post about this cabinet from a few years ago.  It was my craft cabinet when the girls were toddlers and we did daily crafts and art projects.  Clearly, things have changed.  This is now the "cram it in and close it quickly" cabinet apparently.

I am almost scared to take everything out of this cabinet.  I don't know what I'll find.  Right now I know there is paper and bubbles.  And it looks like cat food.  That makes perfect sense.  (Insert sarcasm here)

 This is my filing system.  It is an amazing product that Clever Container used to offer.  It's not so much being used to it's capability though.  I mean, I don't remember reading "Shove it full of stuff, then put random things like gift bags and take out menus on top of" in it's description.

And last, but not least, there is this thing.  Appropriately labeled "stuff".  I see a note from Frankie, our elf on the shelf, caulk, tissues, and a pen.  

And I call myself an organized person. 

I'm living a lie.

Okay.....so there we have it.  The Before pictures of my hot mess office.

Like I said, we're all friends.  Don't judge.  

I will post after pics as soon as I finish everything. 

I would love for you to comment on this and tell me it's not all that bad.  That I'm not a terrible slob.  That you have areas in your house like this too.....seriously people....help a girl out here!

Craft Cabinet

I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs: No Time For Flash Cards  She shows her craft closet.  Love it!  When we lived at the beach, we had a closet under the stairs that served as my craft closet.  It was great to have that stuff right there on the same floor as us!

Now I am lucky enough to have a craft room (our 4th bedroom-the room over the garage) where I keep my sewing machine, all my ribbons, material, tulle, etc.

I hate running up and down the stairs too many times during the day because I always have little feet follwing me, so I cleaned out a cabinet over our desk area in the kitchen and reserved it for craft materials!

We also have a 3 drawer metal cart in the playroom that serves as the coloring book/crayons/markers/some stickers/paper, etc....

I would show a picture of it, but it is a MESS right now!!!  I just glanced over at it as I was typing and added it to my to-do list for today!

How do YOU store your kid craft supplies?

Problem Solved!

It's done! My shelf/bench combo are assembled and put up! I love the way they look! Sorry it looks a little crooked---that isn't the shelf...it's my picture taking! :-)

I am thinking I need to put something on the shelf part....not sure what though. Maybe a picture frame or something....who knows. I'll figure something out.

I don't think this job would have been done as efficiently if not for the help of 2 very important people:

Big Thanks to Emily and Allison for keeping Daddy on-track while assembling and watching the NCAA tournament! Multi-tasking at its absolute finest!

Mission Organization

I'm getting there....."there" is back to where I was 4 years ago. Completely organized and put together. It's taken me a while, but hey, give me credit-I had 2 kids in 2 years and moved twice in 3 years. It's been a long 4 years. Good, but long. Anyway-enough excuses---time to organize again.

I have these problem spots in my house. My biggest bone of contention at the current moment is my front foyer. My husband (who I love and adore) seems to think that the floor is the perfect place for his coat. He comes in, throws his wallet and keys on the front table, shoes, hat and coat in the floor, along with his computer bag and that is where they stay. DRIVES ME NUTS. I am working on a solution to this problem now.

I have these 2 things sitting in boxes waiting to be assembled-I have been told it is a weekend project---during March Madness--we shall see how this goes-lets just say I'm not holding my breath.

These will go on the wall behind my front door-I ordered both in black.They are from the Westfield Collection from The Company Store http://www.thecompanystore.com/

LOVE THEM!!!
Some of their prices are a little much for me on some things, but if you have an account with them, they send great coupons and usually there are some good free shipping codes or deals on http://www.retailmenot.com/

In other house news, the master bedroom is coming along quite nicely. Just for a refresher here are some before pictures (Before we painted and the new furniture arrived)

Our old Master was a mess. The furniture was really old (it was mine from when I lived with my parents, and before that belonged to some old woman). Don't get me wrong-it was fine, but it was a full sized bed and we had just really outgrown that. The room just made me angry when I went in there. Not really good for a master bedroom. But since it was upstairs and no one other than us saw it, it wasn't really high on the priority list. That all changed after Ben got his bonus! Yay! We decided the days of the girls having the nicest bedroom furniture in the house were over. We started with the mattress--we found a great deal on a KING and purchased that first. We then started looking into furniture. I found a couple of collections on-line that I liked, and off we went to the furniture store. We ended up getting the Madison collection from Raymour and Flanigan (http://www.raymourflanigan.com/) and we were really pleased with the transaction. I didn't realize you could negotiate furniture prices! We were able to get a king sleigh bed, 2 night stands, a dresser and mirror and a chest for a nice price! Here are some after pics of the bedroom! I chose Restful by Behr-approriate name for a bedroom, no?

We are in love with this room now! I have 2 framed pictures of the girls to hang up (another weekend project, I have been told) and I added this above the bed:

This was our wedding song and when I saw this vinyl decal on ETSY (http://www.etsy.com/), I just had to have it!

So....that is all for now! Hopefully once all the "weekend projects" are done, I'll have more pictures to post!