Five Question Friday (1/28) and various ramblings

Just a quick post before I get back to organizing. (I have to clean up the mess in the foyer that I made while organizing my desk yesterday.)

- I am working on organizing my desk area. Yea! Thanks to my BFF, I had an idea about getting a desktop file box to replace the overflowing box of papers, so that is what I worked on yesterday. Not a huge (visual) improvement, but a step in the right direction. (I will hopefully be posting pictures later this week of that before and after, yea!)

-My BFF and I are trying to encourage each other to declutter/organize one area per month, since we happened to be working on our office areas at the same time (again, I was inspired by her efforts)--so that will be extra encouragement and accountability in my organizing journey.

-Some movie non-recommendations: 3 Days of the Condor and State of Grace both sucked. You're welcome.


Now onto 5QF.....

1. If you had $1,000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose?
My old favorite charity is Native American Rights Fund, but since L has had health problems I really have two choices: American Partnership For Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) and Phoenix Children's Hospital (PCH). While APFED raises funds for awareness and research, PCH saved L's life. So if I had $1000 to donate, I think I'd give it to PCH.

2. Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain in your butt?
Haha all you snowdwellers, I live in Phoenix. Snow days are not a part of my life! {Don't hate, you don't have to deal with our summers.} But we have our share of cabin fever--we just got over another batch of illness--so I can tell you that I think an occasional break from the everyday routine is nice (and if you have snow, it's fun to throw snowballs or make a snowman), more than one starts to be a pain.

3. What talent did you wish you had and why?
I like to dance, love it actually, and I have a pretty good sense of rhythm. However, I am totally inflexible and slightly uncoordinated--so I wish I were a better dancer.

4. Are you a news, politics or celebrity gossip junkie?
I used to be a politics junkie. Love me some Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow. But with kids and no time and the state of the world, I can't handle the negativity. So now I bury my head in the sand. Oh and I HATE celebrity gossip. I used to follow it back in my younger days, I subscribed to Us and Entertainment Weekly. But now I think all that stuff is so toxic. AND I don't give a rat's behind about Britney, Lindsay, and Paris. Sheesh!

5. What is your favorite "cocktail"? (Are you a beer person, a kiddie cocktail junkie, or perhaps your more the "Cosmo" kind?! Anything flies...doesn't hafta be alcoholic!)
I don't drink alcohol. Not because I'm high and mighty, I just don't like the taste. (Which is too bad cuz some days I'd really like to end with a cocktail! LOL) I do enjoy an occasional Shirley Temple, but honestly if I'm at a happy hour or cocktail party (and I never am), I'm just gonna ask for a Coke. I've been taking care of kids all day, I need the caffeine!

Join the Q&A fun over at Mama M's.

Week in Review--1/7/11

Before I get on to Five Question Friday, I thought I'd share a few tidbits.



In my quest to get organized and cleaned up, today I:



-Printed out this January cleaning calendar from Clean Mama.



-Bought the e-book: Tell Your Time ($7 with code CLEANSLATE), recommended by Simple Organized Living--because time manangement is a huge problem of mine.



And I actually cleaned... because the exterminator was coming over to do our annual indoor treatment. Eek. I finally sorted all the little itty bitty toys that have been on the floor since before Christmas and were added to on Christmas {the place looked worse than ever!} and got them in all their various baskets and into the cabinet. Awesome! I left plenty of odds and ends, but it looks So Much Better. Then I wiped down my master bathroom, which was in half-decent shape because I cleaned it at the beginning of Nevember {I told you I'm a mess!}. Sadly, my bedroom was beyond the reach of a short cleanup time. Embarassing. I like to tell myself the exterminator has seen worse.



Meanwhile, we've been watching a French movie this week, Tell No One. It was weird and complex, one of those films that reveal just a little bit at a time so you spend much of it confused (and even annoyed--I almost gave up on it after the first night), but ultimately it all made sense and it was pretty good. Not great, but interesting and kind of romatic. Kind of.




Okay, on to this week's Q & A, some unusual questions so I thought I'd join in with Mama M. Here goes:



1. What is your current favorite book, and why?
I'm not sure I understand the "current" part of this question, do they mean of the books I'm currently reading or the book I would tell people (currently) is my favorite book ever? If it's the latter, my favorite book {that everyone must read} is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Awesome! If it's the best of what I'm reading right now, I'll say Memoirs of a Geisha, because I'm further along in it than the other novels I'm reading {more on those in a future post} and though I'm not sure yet about the plot (aren't geishas prostitutes?!), the writing is very good.



2. Do you go to the dentist regularly?

I am embarassed to say it's been YEARS since I've seen a dentist. I won't tell you how many years, let's just say more than five. {Hangs head in shame.} I blame the IBS as well as our lack of dental insurance.


3. What is your worst memory from High School?
I've said before that I hated high school, so let's see if I can choose one moment. Oh here's a good one. I was skinny in high school and had no boobs (not that I've got much more up top these days, I was not blessed by the boob fairy). One day in Geometry (I was a freshman, these annoying boys were sophomores), we got a test back. One boy saw my good score and said "let's give her {meaning me} a medal" and the other boy replied, "yes, and a chest to put it on." Yeah, good memories! (That's just off the top of my head, I can't say for sure it's the worst memory.)

4. What do you hope to be remembered for in your life?
I wish that I would make the history books or be a published author one day, but it's not looking like that's in the plan, so it will just be friends and family who remember me and I hope they say I was a good person, that I was kind, and I hope my kids have good memories of our times together, that they'll say I was a good mom.

5. Are you superstitious or do you have any superstitions?

Funny, this reminds me of when I was a kid and I was watching something, like beauty pageants or award shows, and I was rooting for someone, I'd cross my fingers--and then I went through a phase where I thought it was better to un-cross everything so I'd sit there with my fingers all fanned out rooting for Miss Tennessee to make the finals or for Janet Jackson to win best album. Funny to think back to that, now I hate beauty pageants with a (feminist) vengeance and I'm lucky if I catch the Oscars.



So am I superstitious these days? I guess a little, because I don't like to "jinx" myself (not that I actually believe in jinxing or tempting fate but I can't help it) by saying, for example, "my kids haven't been sick in 2 months" for fear they will promptly get sick. I like to keep an umbrella in my purse because, Murphy's Law, it will rain the one day I forget it. And so forth. Not really susperstitious in the black cat/broken mirror kind of way.

Or just now, I thought of putting as my facebook status that "I'm having a good day," but I can't because then surely the day would take a turn for the worse. So I won't post that--I can, however, wait till the end of the day and declare "it was a good day." So there you go.

For more Question fun, go here. Have a great weekend!!!

New Organizing Project

Catie from Newby at Home directed me to this exciting challenge for the new year: the One Year to a {more} Organized Life project, created by Brenda of Unsolicited Advice. If you've been here before, you know that I'm always talking about what a mess I am and how I'm trying to get organized and in fact just yesterday I put out a plea for help with time management strategies. If you're new here {welcome!}, I'll tell you that since my second child was born (my daughter, T, born in Sept '08), I've been a disorganized mess. Well, actually I've been a mess all my life, but after T was born I suddenly realized how much the mess (the clutter, the bathrooms that need cleaning, the lack of schedule) was in my way! But then I also didn't have the time to do anything about it. So I declared 2009 the Year to Get Organized--but working in such small time increments, I realized it will take more like a decade. Anyway, I'm slowly making progress, very s l o w l y, but still have a long way to go. I finally have the motivation to get the *crap* out of my house, but I need the time and direction and I hope this OYOL challenge will help with the direction and motivation.

Okay, so this week's assignment is to find our purpose. Like I said, I've made some progress, I'm not losing things as much, I've put some good systems in place, but on a daily basis I am surrounded by clutter and clueless how best to use my time--should I be playing with my kids or going through the piles in my closet? Should I clean the powder room or the master bathroom? And there's so much to do that I get overwhelmed and play on the internet.

Brenda recommends we dig deep for a substantial purpose/reason to keep us going in the challenge. I assume that's so when we hit that inevitable "why bother?" moment, we have a statement of purpose to remind us that life isn't going to get better till we get organized. So while I have a lot of practical reasons to get organized (so I can find my stuff when I need it), the *purpose* behind the effort is this: the clutter is keeping me from living the life I want. I want a life that includes less stuff, a house that I can invite people into, a clean shower that wouldn't frighten the health department. I want to be a happy mom who plays with her kids and a balanced mom who reads (and maybe puts together photo albums). I want my husband to be less frustrated and I want my kids to have happy memories of childhood. And so on....

Obviously the bonus is that I can blog about my progress! To see some of my past successes, click on the organizing tab in my sidebar. Also, Organizing Junkie is planning 52 Weeks of Organizing so every Friday we can share our organizing successes in the comments or by linking up. {Nothing like seeing other people's Before and After pictures to keep me motivated and excited to declutter!} So stayed tuned, hopefully I'll have lots of successes (and no doubt some failures/hiccups along the way) to share in '11.

Do you want to get more organized in this new year? Visit Brenda to check it out!

WFMW--time management tip

Ever since my second child was born (almost 2 years ago), I've really struggled with time management. I don't know how to juggle housework, playing with the kids, and much needed downtime for me.

I recently (maybe 6 weeks ago) saw a tip, probably on WFMW, where the mom wrote out her To Do List for the day and then scheduled when she'd do each item. At the time I thought "She's crazy!" Actually, I believe my thoughts were more along the lines of "that's nice for her, but I couldn't do that, I never know what my day will be like" etc. {Which is why, I'm sorry to say, I didn't bookmark the post, therefore I have no one to credit. If you know who you are, let me know in the comments!}

Edited to add: I found it! Alicia's Homemaking is where I originally saw this idea. Go read her post here. Thanks!!!

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago.... I don't know how it came about, I guess I had several things to get done the next day, so I scheduled those tasks for 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00 the next morning. Surprisingly, this is the best idea I've had in a long time. As it turns out, I do have pretty predictable mornings--my kids play in the living room while watching tv. All our activities are in the afternoons (other than L going to camp Tuesday and Friday mornings, which doesn't affect my 9, 10, 11 plan). Sometimes we run an errand--which can be scheduled at 9, 10 or 11.

So here's what I've been doing: I take 3 items I want to get done (not including laundry, it doesn't need a time slot since it's just 5 minutes here and there) and I give it a time slot of 9:00, 10:00 or 11:00. Now, in the couple weeks I've been doing this, I've never actually done all 3 tasks right on time. I am extremely lazy and tend to procrastinate, but generally the stuff is getting done! That is HUGE for me!

As an example, here's what today's To Do List looked like:
9:00 shower
10:00 make phone calls
11:00 fold clothes

Okay, so that list looks pretty pathetic. Other examples are: go to Target, get dinner in the crockpot, and blog.

This system spreads out the work (very important to a lazy girl like me)--since each task only takes 15 to 30 minutes, it builds in plenty of time between tasks to play with my kids or take an internet break. It's realistic because I'm not trying to fit 6 tasks into a single morning. It also gives structure to my day. And I don't have to do anything (other than get the kids up, dressed, medicated, and fed) before 9am. I am NOT a morning person.

As I said, it's not a perfect system and I'm still lazy and I still procrastinate. I've had "make phone calls" on my list for 3 days now! But it's still been a huge breakthrough for me. And the days that I closely follow my schedule, feel so good and I've found myself at 1pm feeling productive and with nothing to do but hang out with my kids. Awesome!

For the record, I get more than three things done in a day. As any mom knows, I'm also feeding my kids, cleaning up breakfast, changing diapers, making lunch, changing the laundry, calming a tantrum etc. This new trick should help me find time for the non-daily stuff like cleaning toilets--ooh fun!

The only downside of this system, is that on those days where I'm lazy and let time pass unproductively, I can see exactly where I went off the rails. I know all that could've been accomplished but wasn't. Not a great feeling, but hopefully that's motivation for sticking to my plan the next day.

That's what's working for me these days. Check out lots more ideas at We are THAT Family.

Organizing My Entryway

I'm very proud of this project because it took me less than one week to go from idea to fruition. Amazing! This is the area by my front door. It's actually been in pretty good shape since we took down the Christmas tree in January, but some stuff had started to pile up. Then, the other day I had an idea to get a storage unit and fill it with dress up clothes/costumes and various toys that aren't allowed in the living room (things like legos that L has to play with in the kitchen, away from T).

Here's the before: The enormous brown box is a birthday gift for L (his birthday isn't till June). Under the red table are the toy sets we keep out of the living room (aka choking hazards). The backpack is my everyday bag and that's its home.

Under the table you can see the play sets.

This is a wonderful picture of our closet before, the costumes are shoved on that second shelf in a jumbled mess. Nice.

So what I thought I wanted was a 3-drawer plastic (sterilite or whatever) cart I'd seen at Target in primary colors. When I was there doing my normal shopping I checked that out and it was $30. No way--I had previously gotten a similar cart (in white) on sale for $19. They did have a similar cart in fuscia on sale for $18 but I really didn't want to put fuscia in my entryway, so I kept it in mind and went on my merry way. A few days later I was in Big Lots and checked their storage aisle and found this white one for $16--and since I'd priced out the others I knew that was a good deal and I grabbed it. Sadly, the drawers are clear rather than opaque like the primary colored one, but I'll work with it. I saw a tip on a blog to put colored paper in the front of each drawer for decor and disguise. Clever.

Okay, so I put the cart in the foyer and filled the drawers: bottom is girl costumes, middle is boy costumes and top is various toys that T can't play with. On top I put a bankers box (one day I will post about my love of cheap bankers boxes) full of dress-up accessories like hats and purses. I did this in part because I knew introducing a new flat surface (i.e. the top of the dresser) would invite piles (I have a wee bit of a clutter piling problem) so the box prevents that. I hope to one day replace the ugly box with a pretty basket when a bargain presents itself. :-) Here is the cart after:

And here is the entryway after:

Much better! I wrapped the present that was in the huge box so that is gone. Sadly I didn't find a place for everything. The other banker box has baby clothes to send to a cousin and on top of that is a bin I don't know what to do with (ah, indecision). :-(

To see what others tackled this week, please visit 5 Minutes for Mom. Also, Leanne at Organize and Decorate Everything is starting a new link-up called We're Organized Wednesday, so check that out here. Thanks for stopping by!

Blitz-It Friday

Here's what I accomplished in 45 minutes yesterday:

-emptied the dishwasher

-loaded and started the dishwasher

-409'd the counter

-folded and put away the towels that were in the dryer

-moved clothes from washer to dryer

-swept under T's highchair

-washed L's plate and T's highchair tray and the pan we used at breakfast

-sorted the paper pile on the kitchen table and put stuff where it belonged

-409'd the table


Later, over the course of the afternoon and evening, in spits and spurts, I was able to get all the photos out of my camera (140+ pictures from the last month or so), onto my computer, deleted the red eye, and uploaded to the internet. I still need to make a slideshow for friends and relatives, but I'm getting closer to checking that off my list (and moving on to taking Christmas photos, and making photo calendar gifts, and so on!).

For more blitzing and organizing, head to Organized Everyday. Thanks for stopping by!

Command Central

Today I am joining Organizing Junkie's Monthly Round-Up--this month's challenge is the command central area. I love orgjunkie.com, but this is my first time participating in a Round-Up. Yes, my command center needed a cleanup, but mostly I just wanna win the goodies. This is, after all, my "year to get organized" (though, at the rate I'm going, it's more likely to take a decade), so I need all the tools I can get. ;-) So here goes....

I set up this area a couple of years ago and it still works very nicely, but as you can see, it got a bit overgrown and needed a good de-cluttering. BEFORE:
AFTER:

Ah, that's better! I sorted through everything and purged a ton, I even ended up with an empty slot. So here's more about how my command center works....

First, the two organizers are from Pottery Barn. I never buy from PB because it's so expensive (instead I just drool over the catalogs), but when my generous sister gave us a gift card a few years ago, these are what we chose. Organizer on the left: top drawer has stamps and a variety of note cards, bottom drawer has several lists, addresses, computer passwords. On top are my envelopes and that box is full of broken Christmas ornaments, not really a part of my command center, but whatever.

Organizer on the right: the three front cubbies hold (1) notepads and checkbook, (2) pens, pencils, highlighter, sharpie, and (3) return address labels and church tithing envelopes. Behind that, the middle slot holds coupons on the left and bills-to-be-paid on the right. The back slot ended up empty(!), so I'll leave it for papers from preschool that need action.

The stuff that had been piled by the phone included things I didn't want to lose track of, but I didn't like having a pile there--it was ugly and also made it difficult to open the bottom drawer of the organizer. So I threw the stuff I was keeping into a picnic silverware sorter behind the pretty organizer--the stuff is easy to find, but hard to see.

Also, you may notice in the before picture that there were folders along the left side of this area. I have folders for bills/budget/tax docs, moms club, "refrigerator stuff" (these are notes, recipes etc, that I would've posted on my fridge, but it's stainless steel so not magnetic) and extra return address labels. I moved those into a magazine file, further reducing my command center clutter.

To see more of the command central Round-Up, go here. Or you can stay here and click around, I have an "organizing" tab on the sidebar, or you can learn more about me and my kids with the "about" label. Thanks for stopping by!

Tackle It Tuesday--messy counter

I'm really excited about what I tackled yesterday. It's this area of my kitchen counter that has been a messy dumping ground for as long as I can remember. I was inspired by a 3-drawer organizer I saw in a Walmart mailer (I actually didn't buy the one in the ad but found another one that's a bigger size at an even better price) and got to work. Here's the area before:



A lot of the stuff was just trash! We had several bottles of expired prescription medicines that I tossed. I moved the silver bar set into the Cupboard of Randomness, it was just gathering dust. A few other things were relocated. Then, once I was down to what I was keeping, I cleared the area, 409'd the counter, and filled my containers. Here's the after:

Inside the 3-drawer organizer: top drawer is a package of straws, middle drawer is adult meds (cough drops, Airborne), bottom drawer is kid stuff (yeast cream, saline nose drops, thermometer, nail clipper). In the purple container: tall meds like Tylenol and Chloroseptic. I kept the bubble machine there for lack of a better place to put it--maybe when the rest of my house is organized it will find a new home. (The lap pad and A&D ointment remain in their old home in the front corner of the counter because they are used at every diaper change.)


In case you're wondering, the 3-drawer organizer was $6.50 at Walmart and the purple container was $1 at Dollar Tree. Gotta love cheap organizing! For more tackles, go to 5 Minutes For Mom. Thanks!

Blitz It Friday--Big Project cont...

Okay, after three weeks of not accomplishing my project goals, I realized the problem: I was putting it off till later in the week and then life happens and nothing gets done. So this week, I aimed to work on the project early in the week, to make sure it got done. I put it on the to-do-list for Monday, it didn't get done. I put it on the to-do-list for Tuesday, there wasn't an opportunity. I put it on the to-do-list for Wednesday and I succeeded! I set the timer for 30 minutes, dragged all my stuff to the living room, and filed. Here's a DURING photo (notice T's legs in the exersaucer, she was my "companion" during the blitz):
I was worried about starting up where I left off, but it was satisfying to come across things and think, I have a file for that! Here are my AFTER photos. See how little is left in the basket?! (Keep in mind though, I have another basket to sort, plus another box and basket to file.)

And here's what the box of files looks like now:

Once again, this coming week's goal is 30 more minutes of filing and sorting.

I had an unconventional blitz yesterday that I also wanted to share. It wasn't officially a blitz because I didn't set a timer, I briefly checked email, and I was constantly checking on T, but in 45 minutes I made brownies (from a mix), browned ground beef, and assembled enchiladas for dinner. By my standards, that was a lot of cooking time in a row. Of course the payoff was a delicious dinner and dessert. :-)

For more blitzing, check out Organized Everyday. Thanks!

Blitz It Friday--Big Project Part 3

It was a busy week around here, some extra appointments and very few overlapping naps. Therefore, I'm sad to report I did not work on my big project. I did manage a 15 minute blitz yesterday to pick up toys in my living room. And for your viewing pleasure I have "before" photos:{Ugh, I have no end of frustration trying to get my photos on here and where I want them, I give up!} Anyway, the second picture is my foyer table. You can see the three baskets, on the left is yet to be sorted, the middle is for recycling and the basket on the right is the "to file" pile that I'm supposed to be working on. You can see the closeup of that basket in the top picture. The pile of junk on the far left of the picture also needs to be sorted. So now you can see what I'm working with and why it feels like I'm emptying the ocean with a spoon. ;-)

My goal for the coming week, again, is to spend at least 30 minutes filing the papers in the "to file" basket. Thanks for hanging with me even though I'm always a day late and a dollar short! For more blitzing, go to Organized Everyday.

Blitz It Friday--Big Project Part 2

Once again I'm late to the party. It took me till Saturday just to do my blitz then another two days to write about it. In the words of my cousin, a new mom, "Motherhood is busy." Here's what I accomplished last week.

Big Project
So my project is my foyer table and my goal was to spend 30 minutes going through the paper crap. Saturday, I gathered the "to file" basket, my new manila folders, and a stapler and sprawled out on the living room floor while the kids slept and hubby worked. Because my filing cabinet is a project in and of itself, I just made new folders for all the different topics as they came up. I went about 15 minutes past the timer for a 45 minute blitz. It felt like I was trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. I'm so aggravated that my house is a disaster area and I have no time to deal with it.

This is a busy week ahead, but I will try to do another 30 minute blitz. Also, I'll try to upload my "before" picture.

Weekly Blitz
Sunday morning I blitzed my kitchen table for 25 minutes. And I didn't even finish, that's how messy it was! I need a new system, everything gets dumped there. I managed to get through all but two pieces of mail, made a much smaller paper pile, and wiped down the surface.

For more blitzes, check out Organized Everyday.

Blitz It Friday--Big Project Part 1

Weekly Blitz
This week my only blitz was on Monday. I set the timer for 30 minutes and did the following:
-changed the laundry
-cleaned the downstairs (half) bathroom (toilet, sink, mirror)
-scrubbed pots and pans
Very productive and no interruptions. Shocking ;-)

Big Project
Okay, so we're supposed to name a big project to work on this summer. Well my house is brimming with projects. It took having a second child to kick me in the pants and make me want to get organized. I've named 2009 my Year to Get Organized, but with so little "free" time, I'm not likely to finish by Dec. 31. It's June 5th already--eek! But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (that's a quote, but I can't remember who said it, sorry). So for my summer blitz project, I choose my foyer table (or, more specifically, the top shelf of my foyer table).

Identify the Problem:
Historically it's been a dumping ground, lots of mail to be filed or shredded. I've made my first step toward organizing by putting out three matching baskets. Eventually they will be: one to file, one to recycle, one to shred (we're quite anal about not throwing out mail that could aid identity theft, but that creates a huge pile of crap waiting to be shredded). Right now one box is to file and one is to recycle, but the 3rd basket is full of stuff to sort. So in order to complete this project, I need to finish sorting the sort pile (that will leave the basket free to become the shred pile), and file the file pile. I also bought some $1 cardboard magazine files so that once the space is cleared I can set those up and stand up my various binders and folders. My goal is that between the baskets and magazine files that my foyer table will become an organized area of my home for sorting mail and finding the things I need.

Plan for the Week:
Between two kids and my struggles with time-management, my goal will have to be modest. I will try to do a 30-minute blitz of this area this week. The "to file" basket is pretty full, that's probably where I should start.

Start and End Dates:
I'll start this week (June 5) and give myself the whole summer. How about August 31 for a potential end date? I'd love to finish sooner and move on to another area, but let's be realistic.

Before Picture:
I'll try to post a picture next week.

For more blitzing, check out Organized Everyday. Thanks!

Tackle It Tuesday--Office Space

I'm joining http://www.5minutesformom.com/ for Tackle it Tuesday. I'm thrilled to report that the hubby and I tackled a big fat pile of clutter that was the corner of our master bedroom and turned it into an office space. This is a before picture (or really a "middle" picture, as I'd already spent nearly an hour sorting paper clutter).

After I sorted the paper clutter, hubby moved the coffee table (not child-friendly) and tv into the garage (which recently gained space after hubby moved the trash and recycle bins out to the side of the house). Then he vacuumed and I dusted and he put the desk together (an old one we'd been storing in the garage). And Voila! a new office space. Yea!

To see what others have been tackling, check out 5 Minutes for Mom. Thanks for stopping by!