My Closet

I organized my closet and decluttered a little but not much. I bought these new baskets at Wal-Mart for $14.99 each. I have 4 of them on the top shelf. The one holds pants that I need to hem up, two of them hold my workout clothes, and one holds purses, hats and scarves. The box lying on the side is my memory box that I painted and decoupaged about 5 years ago.

I hang all my winter clothes on the bar in my closet. I have my summer clothes in my bedroom dresser along with underclothes. I hang my clothes in order of night clothes, jeans, shirts, jackets, dress pants, skirts and dresses and last coats. I like to organize in color order. I hang my clothes on my hangers backwards at the start of fall and hang them the right direction after I have worn them. This helps me to see what I am not wearing each spring that may need to be purged, which I still need to get done.

 

My new shoe rack I bought at Wal-Mart for $20. I need more shoes to fill it up mainly I need shoes I can wear in the winter. My workout bag filled with my Yoga equipment which I’ll share about in a later post. I got the bag for Christmas this past year for $20 at Dunham’s.

I have my Zumba bag hanging on a hook that I bought last month for $12 at Dunham’s. I bought it because it matches my Yoga bag.

This is the full view of my closet which is small but functional. The baskets and shoe rack make it so much more organized before I just had stuff setting on the shelf and floor although, it was organized it got messed up easier. I may end up getting a carpet for the floor of my closet at some point.

My closet redo cost me a total of $80 for the baskets and shoe rack which was a splurge project for me since I would not normally buy everything new. It seems over the last year or so I have found that buying new is sometimes it’s worth it if I know I will get many years of use out of it and I just can't find what I need at the thrift stores.

February 2013 Reading List

In February I continued with the stack of books that I borrowed from the library that I mentioned in my January 2013 Reading List. Once I finished reading those books I started to work on My 2013 Reading Goals. I read the Dixie Hearts Collection was from my bookshelf and it has now been donated to the library. In March I am going to do a review on the book Organize for a Fresh Start: Embrace Your Next Chapter in Life, and give a personal account of my journey towards my next chapter in life.

In February I Read:

Winds Across The Prairie Series by Martha Rogers
Christmas at Holly Hill
Amelia’s Journey
Becoming Lucy
Morning for Dove
Finding Becky
Caroline’s Choice

Organize for a Fresh Start: Embrace Your Next Chapter in Life by Susan Fay West

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks (audio book)

Dixie Hearts Collection
Southern Sympathies by Andrea Boeshaar
A Matter of Security by Kay Cornelius
The Bride Wore Coveralls by Debra Ullrick
Submitted to:
2013 Booking It @ Life As Mom

Organization Goals for 2013

I participated in several organizing challenges this past year such as Zone Defense, 8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home & Home Organization 101. I did not do any posts for Zone Defense or Home Organization 101 but you can read about what I did on my  post  8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home.

You can also read my post from last year were I shared tips on Keeping Clutter at Bay.

 

One of the projects that I started in February of 2011 was to declutter my magazines. I had magazines stored in several places along with 8 boxes of them in my basement before I started the project which you can read about at 52 Weeks: #5 Magazine Storage & 52 Weeks: #6 Magazine Organization. As of August 2012 I have donated all of my magazines. I sometimes just took a stack and donated them but most of them I read through.

That was a lot of magazines to read in 1 ½ years along with ripping out some pages for my notebooks but it is done and I won’t be collecting that many ever again. My rule is to read them within a week or two and out they go. I plan to mostly borrow them from the library that away I know I have to return them read or not. You can see in the picture below from October the basket next to my bed with the magazines I borrowed from the library that is all the magazines I have in the house now. I am proud of myself this was a big project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My house is in pretty good shape but I will continue to do organizing challenges just for the fun of it and to keep my home maintained. Since organization and decluttering is an ongoing process I have a few projects that I want to work on this year that are more project oriented that just general home.

The Projects on My List this Year:

1. In the Basement-

The basement is in the biggest mess and it seems to get that way every winter and so it is time to clean it up again. Besides the general clean up, the 2 areas of the basement I most need to work on this year is our homeschool storage areas because to be honest it is emotional clutter more than anything else.

I want to organize all my kids' past years homeschool work. I need to downsize it so that it is manageable enough to pass on to them. I have 10+ years of stuff for each child and I would like each of their stuff to fit into one file box each. I don’t know why I kept so much. I threw a lot away each year but at the end of the year I would just store everything we had left and I meant to condense it down each summer but it never happened. It has just been too overwhelming a job to deal with emotionally but I think I am ready to work on it this year. I may have to ask my husband for help.

I want to downsize the amount of school supplies we own. When we started homeschooling we shopped the before school sales and got supplies for cheap but now that the kids are grown we no longer need so much stuff. I have given the girls some for their homes, donated to the church school supply drive, and given some away to the girls my daughter Nastasja nannies but it is not enough more needs to go.

2. On the Computer-

I need to organize our digital pictures and get them into a viewable format. The pictures I have on my computer are very organized and I have put a lot of work into it over the years but I need to merge my husband’s into mine and delete duplicates. I also want to get them organized to print in books and put them on CD's per year so that people can view them along with giving copies to our kids. I have already done some work on this project this month but this is a huge project so it's going to be a long project.

3. In My Office-

The last 4 months I have been working on reorganizing and decorating my seasonal and personal notebooks and I plan to continue the process.

4. In the Kitchen-

I have done a lot of work on my cookbooks, cooking magazines, and recipe notebooks this past year but there is still a lot I want to do. Most people would think what I have is manageable but I want to only keep favorites and a usable amount. I find that I do not even use 90% of what I currently own so some of it needs to go.

I am sure there are more that I will be doing over the year but these areas are the main ones I want to work on this year.

Submitted to: I'm an Organizing Junkie

January 2013 Reading List

I had a huge stack of books that I borrowed from the library in November and December most of them Christmas Themed that I wanted to read before I started my reading goal for the year. In January that stack of books is what I read and most of next month’s will be also.

I have found that I really like to listen to audio books because I can listen to them on my computer as I am working on the computer, working in my kitchen, and in the car as I am driving. I can listen to most audio books in a day or two depending on how long they are and how long I am involved in the activities where I am near the audio player.














In January I Read:


A Dog Named Christmas by Greg Kincaid (audio book)

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (audio book)

'Tis the Season by Lorna Landvik (audio book)

A Prairie Christmas Collection

Take Me Home by Tracey V. Bateman
One Wintry Night by Pamela Griffin
Image of Love by JoAnn A. Grote
The Christmas Necklace by Maryn Langer
A Christmas Gift of Love by Darlene Mindrup
God Jul by Tracie Peterson
Circle of Blessings by Deborah Raney
Christmas Cake by Janet Spaeth
Colder Than Ice by Jill Stengl

A Lancaster County Christmas by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Prayers of a Stranger: A Christmas Journey by Davis Bunn

A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

Submitted to:
2013 Booking It @ Life As Mom

My 2013 Reading Goals

My reading goal for this year includes declutter my shelves, and not spending any money on books to complete my reading goal. To start it off at the end of 2012 I organized my books and decluttered the ones that I have already read or decided I wasn’t interested in reading anymore. I had a whole banana box full of books that I donated to the library.

 

Since I have lots of books on my bookshelves that I have not read I have decided to make it my goal this year to see how many I can read off of my shelves and then donate them. I have one shelf that I organized for this year that I am going to read from. Most of the books on the shelf I had bought this past year at the thrift stores and yard sales. I estimate I have spent $20-$30 to get all the books on the shelf. Most of the Love Inspired Series I got from my oldest daughter Brittany for free since she bought them at a yard sale herself several years ago for about $10 from a neighbor.

 

The shelf that I am going to read from in 2013 is the 4th shelf down. I am going to work on reading the first and second stack of book but may not get to the third stack. I am going to read through each Author's complete series of books so that will be alot of books that are not on my shelf that I plan to borrow for the library to complete each series.

 

I hope to not have to buy any books to reach this goal but as the year progresses I may pick up books to read for next year. As I finish reading each book from my shelf I will donate them and keep track of how many of them I no longer own.

 

The Authors I am planning to read this year are Beverly Lewis, Kathleen Fuller, Lori Wick, Karen Kingsbury, Nicholas Sparks, Janette Oke, and Debbie Macomber. I also plan to read the books I own from the Romancing America Series and Love Inspired Series but not the complete series of books published, I may read them next year.

I have read several of each author’s books or series before so I will not read the ones I have already read. To help me keep track of what books I need to read I have made a complete book list in word for each author and noted the ones that I own and the ones I had previously read. I currently have my lists stored in my seasonal notebook for winter but am going to move it to the current season's notebook as they come.

 

Submitted to:
2013 Booking It @ Life As Mom

Christmas Gift Plans

"Do the holidays-NOT BUY the holidays!"

This has been my goal every year for the last several years.  It has been a down shift every year to see how we can continue to simplify and yet get more joy out of celebrating Our Saviors Birth.

We drew names at Thanksgiving again this year for gifts with our kids and my sister’s families. This has really cut down the amount we spend and people we have to buy for. It has been a lot more fun which relieves a lot of stress and I can give nicer gifts. I hate buying gifts that I am not sure people really need or want and most people have way too much stuff anyway.  

I only have three people to buy for this year.  I am buying for my gift exchange person and my oldest son since he still lives at home but most of my budget will get spent on my youngest son who is 16 years old. My husband is doing most of the shopping for him so I don’t have a lot to do there. We will go next Tuesday to buy our gifts for our exchange person. My husband and I will spend a Saturday gift shopping together but since we won’t have much left we will see a movie and go out to dinner.

I am happy with this arrangement since I prefer to give small token gift like baked cookies, homemade candy, or a small crafts during the month of December to people. They don’t expect anything and I don’t expect to get anything back so it is fun. I can spend my time making token gifts to give away and everyone is happy to get one nice gift in the gift exchange.

As one of my gifts I am helping my oldest daughter organize her apartment with my youngest daughter’s help. We went over this past Saturday and worked all day on my 6 month old granddaughter’s room and I plan to go back to work on other rooms throughout January. I am printing pictures for some frames for my granddaughter’s room, hanging some stuff on the walls, and painting some furniture which I plan to have done before Christmas along with cleaning and organizing the room since it needs a second day. This will be a double gift for my oldest daughter and granddaughter.

My youngest daughter and I plan to use the time to find out what my granddaughter need so that we don’t over buy on her first Christmas and get stuff she doesn’t need. One thing we are working on is buying dresses, leggings, and sweaters for her since my daughter prefers to put her in dresses so we are looking at thrift stores and are each going to put together three sets each.

My Almost No Spend Gifts

I made homemade red peppermint scented play dough for the 3 girls that my youngest daughter nannies, her fiancés 2 youngest sisters, and my oldest daughters nephew. I spent $1.50 on a pack of 6 cookie cutters from Wal-Mart, and I used plastic deli style tubs that I got at GFS for another project to store the dough.

I used the Best Ever No-Cook Play Dough Recipe but did need to add more flour and salt to thicken it up along with kneading it vigorously as the directions call for. I made the recipe 3 times to fill my tubs. I made 6 gifts for little ones at practically no cost using supplies I had on hand with a minimal amount of time.

I used paper bags that I have had for years and folded them down, punch two holes and tied the cookie cutters on with green yarn that was in my stash.