Category Archives: Around the House

Feb22

A Recipe for Organization

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A Recipe for Organization

One item on my list of “things that bother me” was my loose-recipe situation. You know, those family recipes on scraps of paper, 3×5 cards, 4×6 cards, and other odd sizes, the ones that aren’t in a book somewhere. The ones that fall out and spill over every time you pull out a recipe book or pilfer through the chaos to find the one you need.

I’ve had so much fun with my Martha Stewart adhesive pockets. And on one of the advertising videos, I saw them place a pocket inside a cabinet door for recipes. Ah-hah! That would fix my chaos!

So I have two pockets—one for the recipe cards and one for the recipe papers. Because I am short, I placed each one on a different cabinet door rather than stacking them on one door. I also noticed that the adhesive is not as strong as I would have liked for this task, and it does not adhere well to my wooden surface. So I reinforced the adhesive with some adhesive poster squares. And of course, I decorated them with my favorite duct tape. Voila!

Love it! And so does my husband, who no longer has everything falling out all over him when he tries to find his awesome hot wings recipe.

 

How do you corral the recipe chaos in your kitchen?

Feb15

A Refrigerator Make-Over

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A Refrigerator Make-Over

As I was preparing for my new Command Center on my fridge, I knew I wanted a make-over for the front of my refrigerator. What I did not want was my Command Center adding to the clutter.

Unfortunately, I’m not good at taking “before” pictures, but I think all of you can imagine what the front of a fridge can look like. Lots of pictures randomly placed, lots of children’s artwork, lots of cheap magnets advertising local businesses—it was a mess.

I began by hunting for solutions online, comparing different brands of those magnetic photo frames and even placing a few items in my “cart.” Then suddenly, I had an epiphany. I noticed that the products that appealed to me most were the ones that showed the actual pictures arranged on the fridge. I realized that what I was actually wanting to purchase was the layout, not the magnet.

It was a definite “ah-hah!” moment. The simple round black magnets that we use to hold our pictures, the cheap ones you can get at Walmart, were not what bothered me about my fridge. It was the random placement. I walked over to my fridge, took down the outdated photos and put them away, and then set to work. Basically, I asked myself, if this were a scrapbook page instead of a fridge, how would I arrange these? It was so easy, and the difference was huge!

I also limited the amount of child art to one sheet protector per child. I cut off the enforced holes from the sheet protector and attached it with poster adhesive squares. This actually works much better for a couple of reasons. For one, it limits what we display on the fridge; for two, it protects the art from all the spills and mayhem that can happen at the fridge.

Last of all, I moved the business advertisement magnets (the ones we really do want to keep handy) to the side of the fridge that faces my kitchen counter. They are lined up neatly in a row and hold absolutely nothing but the info we want to have access to.

Simple adjustments, but they made a world of difference. My fridge may not care, but I feel so much better.

 

Feb1

Setting Up a Routine

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Setting Up a Routine

Though I shared our new routine with you, I also know that a routine never cuts-and-pastes into someone else’s life. My routine will not be yours. So I thought I’d share my process, how I ended up creating our routine, in hopes that it might help someone create her own.

I mentioned at the start of my last post that we have struggled for a few months finding our groove, that I had a few attempted and failed schedule attempts before getting this one together. Here’s how the trial and error process takes shape for me.

1. Examine what I’m already doing.  We all settle into routines naturally; we tend to do the same things the same way and at relatively the same time everyday.  My first step to creating a new routine is to look at what I’m already doing, whether that is an intentional plan or something I’ve haphazardly meandered into. Also, I try to keep in mind the natural rhythms of my children, particularly Littlest. A major change in his sleeping pattern would throw us all off; I would be more prone to succeed if I planned around what he was naturally doing—when did he get sleepy, when was he ready to play, when did he need to eat. My windows of time would have to fit within his patterns.

If I did need to make a major change in his patterns (and I have in the past with my other kids), I would try to do it in increments and phases, inching him into a new routine 15 minutes at a time. (And even our current routine took a little training, a few mornings of fussing before he decided to conform.)

2. Evaluate what I want to see changed. This step is huge. I look at my current routine and try to figure out what it is that I don’t like. What’s not working for us? What is driving me crazy? What is ruining the flow of our day?

For instance, one thing I didn’t like about our old routine was the late start in the mornings. We were starting school at 10 a.m., when Littlest went down for his nap.  I didn’t like that it was that late before I managed a shower. I didn’t like that we didn’t have enough time to finish everything before lunch. I didn’t like that the kids were complaining about starting school because I had to stop them in the middle of what they were playing. The 10 a.m. had to change.

3. Establish a realistic plan. Though I didn’t like starting school at 10 a.m., I also knew that 8 a.m. was unrealistic. So I set our goal for a 9 a.m. start. Then I had to work through what needed to change to make 9 a reality. How early did I need to get up?

Again, I evaluated what would be realistic. Five in the morning was just not going to happen. I tried it a few mornings and utterly failed. But 6 a.m. I could do. I then listed what things I wanted to have accomplished before school and then listed how much time each of those tasks normally takes me. This helped me to make sure that what I was cramming into our morning routine would actually fit within that three hour window between when I woke up and when I wanted school to start.

I went through these same steps for each segment of my day. I examined, evaluated, and then established a routine for our school time. I did the same for my afternoon time and housework.

Also, I kept our new schedule flexible for the first couple of days. I scribbled notes on top of my schedule: what worked well, what was too tight, what would probably work with practice, etc. I adjusted and tried again the next day, tweaking each day and helping the kids understand the expectations.

After about a week of performing a schedule with little to no changes, I knew I had something that would work. And then I worked to make it routine. What’s routine? When we no longer have to consult the schedule to know what’s next. Everything flows.

Because every family is different, a routine really does have to flow from the rhythms of your own life. You will never be able to pull a schedule off the internet and make it your own. There are certain events that are must for every family, and then there are just certain rituals that make your family what it is, certain ways that make you distinctly you. Why change that?

Loving your family is knowing them—knowing what works, knowing what you want to accomplish together, knowing what will stretch them (in a good way) and what will be an exercise in defeat.

How do you find the natural patterns and rhythms of your family and create a routine?

Jan10

Taking Command: A Command Center for the New Year

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Taking Command: A Command Center for the New Year

I recently blogged about a book that I read to help identify how I best organize, and in attempt to put my reading to good use, I’m converting from a household notebook system to a Command Center.

Let me first say that I haven’t trashed my notebook entirely. I’ve found it very helpful for quick reference: important phone numbers, doctor information, babysitter information, etc. But I’m moving my planner out of my notebook and onto my fridge.

I chose my fridge because it tends to be the largest open surface that is in my main flow of traffic. Also, everyone knows that when you stand around trying to figure out what it is you are supposed to be doing, you always end up at the fridge.

organization

 

My purpose for this Center is to keep my day organized: cleaning schedule, routine, to-dos, events to remember for the week, etc. Anything that I need to attend to for the week and for the day, kept in plain view.

What’s Missing—

We use Google Calendar so that my husband and I can share events. It has worked really well most of the time, except that it is often out of sight when I need it. So, to solve that, I’m going to start printing off our calendar at the first of each month and attaching it to a smaller center I have set up by our phone.

My menu is also missing. I’ve been using ziplist.com for my menu planning and have really enjoyed it’s many features, including the ability to import recipes from all over the web (yes, pinterest, too!) and drag/drop them into a calendar. I love it! (and it’s free) Of course, it is out of sight. But honestly, I’m not positive how I want to solve this. I will either print it out and post it on the fridge, or I will write the menu onto my dry erase week plan. I’ll have to see which works best.

What’s There–

WallPops

I have two dry erase boards. Actually they are not boards at all, but adhesive dry-erase paper from WallPops.com. The first one is a weekly planner. The major events from the week I will write in. This way, I will have another spot for those events to be seen, and by writing it in I’ll have that extra reminder. The other dry-erase board is for me to keep track of projects I want to tackle and special tasks that my husband would like me to get to. Having it on the fridge allows him to have easy access to add anything or to see that, though something might be undone right now, it is on my list of things to tend to.

Martha Stewart Adhesive pockets

Each day, I choose a few projects from my big list to add to my smaller to-do cards. These cards are laminated for dry-erasing. I have six cards in the pocket so that I can plan ahead for different projects, breaking that project into smaller steps if necessary. These and my cleaning cards are stored in Martha Stewart adhesive pockets. (I love these!) I’ve made mine a little fancier with some decorative duct tape.

Cleaning Routine cards

Last of all is my daily routine. This tells me when I need to be cleaning or working on those projects.

And for right now, that’s it! I may keep tweaking it as I start to use it more, but for right now it has been perfect. Beautiful and always in sight.

Jan4

Organizing in the New Year

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Organizing in the New Year

Every new year, I’m totally inspired to get my life back under some semblance of control, to pilfer through the clutter and forge a new path toward organization.

Often, I ricochet between success and failure in this department. So in high hopes of making strides toward a new me, I’ve embraced my new year’s tradition of an organizational overhaul.

I just finished reading a tremendously helpful book entitled, Organizing for Your Brain Type. (link includes more about the book, plus a free quiz to find your organizing personality)  LOVE it! It helped to break down my personality and what organizational approaches will work well for me and what will most likely fail. Nice to know that before you get started. I am the “innovator,” the creator, the lover of all things fun and beautiful. I also organize by stacks; everything must be out where I can see it or it might as well not exist. This totally explained why keeping a household binder with my planner has been such a struggle. I like the idea of the system but it takes oodles of discipline for me to actually make it work. It’s either always open on the table adding to the daily clutter, or it’s tucked away and absolutely useless (I never remember to open it).

The solution? A vertical system of organizing. In other words, the “command center” approach is much more likely to be successful than the binder approach, because I can have all my must-have info right in front of me at all times. So, I’m in the process of converting the side of my fridge. I’ll show you the finished product later, but for right now, I thought I’d share a few printables.

You see, as part of my innovator/creator personality, organization cannot be merely functional; it has to be either fun or beautiful (and ideally both!) So, I’ve devoted the time and energy to actually embrace this aspect of my organizing personality.

The first printable is my new cleaning schedule (inspired by a few different Pinterest posts) on 4×6 cards. I’m going to place these in an adhesive pocket on my fridge and daily switch to the next card. It will have both my repetitive maintenance tasks and my special cleaning task for the day.

The second printable is my new To-Do system on 3×5 cards. Each day, I’ll have up to 6 items on my to-do list that I’ve chosen from my longer list of Projects and To-Dos (this longer list will be on a dry erase board—pics coming soon—that way, Hubby can easily add any projects that he needs me to tackle).

Click on the images to download the printables. I’m so exited! Now, I’m off to make my home both functional and beautiful.

**UPDATED** for new designs

 

Jan2

Focusing 2013

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Focusing 2013

Last year, rather than an exhaustive list of resolutions or goals, I chose a one-word focus for the year—joy. I also had an accompanying passage of Scripture, Deut. 28:47-48

 

Not your typical verse about joy, I’ll admit. But the verses really resonated with me. I wanted to serve the Lord with gladness for the abundance of all things; and I knew that if I did not, I would serve my enemies—enemies of fear and doubt and discouragement and discontent. It was a great year filled with life-changing lessons.

This year, I wanted the same strategy, one single word to hold to all year, to focus the year and to focus my heart.

Intentional

My word for this year is “intentional.” I want to be intentional with my time, my relationships, my gifts and abilities, my health, my home, and my walk with God. I want to redeem the time, to make the most of every moment. I’ll be sharing bits of that journey with you along the way, I’m sure.

What about you? What single word would you cling to for this year? Or in what other ways do you focus your year? I’d love to hear!