Our massive amount of plastic containers

I dumped out all of our plastic lids and containers on the kitchen table (see above). Then I matched each one. Every base without a lid or lid without a base was tossed. We got rid of so many containers, it was ridiculous!

Top Drawer - Old Plastic Containers (all matching)!

I put all of the older containers in the top drawer and the newer ones in the lower. I like to keep old containers because then I can send people home with leftovers and not worry about getting the containers back. I feel so much better now that there is some semblance of order to my tupperware drawers.

Lower Drawer - New plastic containers!

Have you organized anything yet this year?

I actually spent this New Year’s Day reorganizing/cleaning my pantry. It took 2.5 hours, but it was well worth it.

Food

• Tame your tupperware
• Organize snacks for portion control
• A well stocked and organized pantry
• Cheap and easy grocery coupon holder

Storage

• Cleaning out the closet
• Bins for a better garage
• Kicking shoe mess to the curb
• Revamp a memo board for mail, key and note storage
• Cleaned up laundry nook

Favorite Organizing Resources

• I Heart Organizing
• I’m an Organizing Junkie
• Declutter Calendars from My Simpler Life
• Pinterest (Follow Emily and Megan)

I hope some of these links might be helpful. Happy organizing!

Me: Babe, did you wash these clothes?
Matt: Yes.
Me: Umm, did you add fabric softener?
Matt: No.  You know I hate to do that.
Me: It still says “softener added” on the washing machine, but you are saying you did not add it?
Matt: Yes.  I did not put any in.  Can’t you just appreciate that I did the laundry?

See how quickly Matt’s kind deed transformed into an argument?  He was trying to be nice and do laundry, but I became upset because it was done incorrectly.  This shows my selfishness, I know.  Now, there are a fews ways to fix this problem.  First, I could just let it go and appreciate the sweet thing he did.  Second, I remembered that my mom made a “laundry chart” for me back home, and it enabled me to do laundry on my own — but in her way.  I asked Matt if that would help, so he remembered what settings that everything needed to be on.  He agreed!  So I whipped up this little chart on excel.

Recently I learned that you need to keep your laundry separate so that germs do not spread.  I cannot imagine my clothing getting contaminated with kitchen germs and then wearing them around!  Yuck!  This chart reminds us to keep things separate and to wash the highly germy stuff in hot water so the germs die!  Now, Matt can be sweet and do the laundry and it will be perfect!  How do you wash your laundry?  Do you have anything to add to my chart?

Before -- It's a shoe disaster!!

As you can see, there were piles of flip flops on the floor and lots of shoes in their original boxes.  That is not the best way to store shoes, as you cannot see what they actually look like.  I tried to keep the little pictures / post its with descriptions on the front, but it just does not do them justice.

After -- so much better!

I also got a couple of open boxes for the flop flops.

After -- a better view from the front!

The clear shoe boxes were just what the doctor ordered and I plan to buy five to 10 more in the next couple of weeks.  I can already see just how gorgeous this closet is going to be!  How do you organize your shoes?

Unorganized Messy Labels

After I sorted all of the papers into files by type (medical, giving, home, etc.), I took them back to the file cabinet and started putting them away. The problem is that our files were messy. I had not really changed them since Matt’s bachelorhood — and instead of the plastic labels, he used masking tape. Over time, I added newer folders with built in labels. This weekend, I fixed all of the messy labels. I cut off the tape and replaced them with nice new paper labels inside plastic sleeve things.  It looks so much nicer!

Nice and Clean File Labels

Okay, so the camera does not do it justice. The files really do look so much better! Also, I forgot to take before pictures until I was halfway through cutting off the old labels. I did, however, get a sweet picture of all of the cut off labels!

The Old "Labels"

What a mess! It was so nice to get all of our papers filed away and organized.  I added a few new files, and fixed the labels on the old ones. It may seem like a small project, but I was so glad to have it finished. The tiny project really does make the whole house feel organized. What have you been organizing lately? What seemingly small projects have you done that made your life feel so much better? Next on my list: taking pictures of our garage sale stuff and listing it on eBay.

Project Number 1:  Journals.  I scrapped this project.  I knew I would never finish them, so I just tossed them.

Project Number 2:  Wedding initials.  Done.   I showed my newsprint one earlier.  Here are the other two…

Project Number 3:  The beanie was unwound and I am currently making a bunny with it.  It was for Easter… maybe I will finish it by next Easter.

If you want to see the rest, click on over the jump…

Project Number 4:  Blue beanie is finished.  I don’t think I took a picture though.  Oh well!  Instead I will show a picture of my craft room as it was being cleaned… so you spy the kitten?

Project Number 5:  I definitely made the potholders.  I also made a coffee cozy with the teacher fabric, and a cute little apple button!  Still haven’t used the HSM fabric.  I think I will make it into some reusable grocery bags.

Project Number 6:  Aprons.  Done.  Mostly.  There may or may not be a few that still need to be completed.

Project Number 7:  Felt Ornaments.  Still in the same condition as a year ago.  Sad days. haha.  I have cleaned off the craft table though.  It is actually put away now.

I could create a whole new post with current projects… but this is how things are now!  Thanks for the reminder to finish up my projects!

The kitchen chalkboard is a perfect place for heartfelt encouragement -- or a list of things to bake!

Regular guests. I love entertaining, obviously. I want to have the house clean when people come over, so that is a good motivator for me. Our cell church has divided and now meets at three different homes on Sunday; this is exciting as our small home can now host church. We have been hosting about every other week — meaning the guest bathroom and front of the home are deep cleaned and de-cluttered on a bi-weekly basis.

Chore charts. We made a google spreadsheet outlining what chores need to be done and how often. We split up the list together, leaving some things (like dishes) as joint tasks. Each room or area now has a specific date and time that it gets cleaned. For someone who is poor with time management (me) this keeps things manageable. We rarely look around the house and have no idea where to begin cleaning!

Mutual encouragament. Words of affirmation is one of my love languages, and verbalizing things helps us figure out what is going well (or not) in our marriage and chores. I feel like a million bucks when Matt complements our spotless sink. And I know he appreciates the notes of greatfulness that I leave on the mirror after he cleans the shower.

This combination of methods has been pretty successful for keeping our home clean and tidy. What works for you and your hubby?  Any ways to keep it fun and lighthearted?

Over the last six months or so, I’ve noticed some odd tiny bugs and couldn’t figure out what they were or where they were coming from. There wasn’t a ton of them, but every few weeks or so I’d find one and it struck me as odd. Research led me to find they were carpet beetles.

These are how tiny the little stinkers are. Yuck.

Essentially, you start seeing their larvae around the baseboards and carpets. They’re really tiny hair worm like things that are a few millimeters long. They eat carpet and other fibers and eventually turn into tiny beetles. They almost look like tiny ladybugs with wings. You’ll find these in similar places, but also near windows. While not harmful, they may damage fabrics and carpets. The good thing is that it doesn’t mean that you live in a filthy home if you have them. It just means it’s time to clean, clean, clean.

It’s been a couple weeks and I haven’t seen a trace of the nasty little bugs. We washed our clothes, sheets and towels, and vacuumed every inch of our floors (carpet, rugs and laminate), paying special attention to the baseboards, as well as our couch. It involved moving furniture and clearing clutter, but it was well worth the massive effort for the peace of mind.

From what we read, however, we needed to vacuum the floors every day for about a week to really keep them from coming back. While it seemed like we didn’t have an extreme case of the little pests, I was overwhelmed by all the work to keep them from returning. So I may or may not have convinced Matt to use our Costco credit card rewards to bring home an iRobot Roomba vacuum.

Love my Roomba!

The idea was just to try it, but so far we really like it. It seems to do a fairly thorough job as long as you keep your floors clear of clutter. It does well on carpet and bare floors, and even picks up my long hair well. The one compromise that I’ve noticed is that you have to clean out the brushes more often. It doesn’t get the stairs, which is probably its biggest downfall.

If you wanted to know the real reason why I wanted it, though, is so I could make a DJ Roomba as seen in Parks and Recreation.

So far, we’re carpet beetle free! Chalk that up as a win for our cleaning robot. Thank goodness. I’m hoping none of you have to deal with any of those pesky pests!

Caitlin showing off the clothes that she brought to swap!

I have heard about these parties for a while, but this was the first time that I actually got to attend one. It was a lot of fun. We did not really have any rules, but I remember hearing about other parties that did.

Another table loaded up with items to swap...

Tips for a Successful Clothing Swap:

• Bring clothes that you actually like (somewhat).  Something that you do not like from Aunt Suzie might be the best fit for your friend Jenna.  However, you want your clothes to be relatively free of stains and holes.  Remember that you want others to take your clothes, not pass by them in disgust!
• Plan your guest list — we had around 12 and it seemed like a great number.  There was a large quantity of clothing, but we quickly ran out of space to display the items on.  If we had one or two more guests, it would have been okay, but many more would have just been too busy.
• Set out an assorted array of appetizers and drinks. Finger foods are great for a party like this, because it keeps you free of a plate that you have to keep from dropping on clothes!
• Make up your own rules. Like I said, we did not really have any rules and it worked out fine.  Some people have tickets, so you get a “ticket” for each item that you bring.  That way someone cannot show up with one item and take home twenty.  We had a nice group of women who were generous and not trying to sneakily steal a bunch of things.
• Decide what to do with the leftovers.  We ended up with a few bags worth of extra items after everyone picked things out.  I happened to be having a garage sale, so the girls just let me take all the extras.  The other plan was to donate them to the Goodwill.

Caitlin and Bobbi showing off some sweet selections with me!

There you have it.  A fun way to get a whole new wardrobe — or at least a few cute new pieces!  Have you ever participated in one of these?  I highly recommend it!  If you want to see a few items that I brought — and left with, come back later today.

One of Matthew’s major frustrations in the house was how quickly the dining room table became cluttered with stuff (purse, mail, recipes, etc.).  It is my desire to keep this area clean for Matt, but I slip back into old habits so easily.  I found an easy way to not leave things on the table though — keep the table set constantly!  The table then looks nice, and I will not be tempted to leave stuff on it.

These placemats and napkins were a wedding gift from my cousins -- perfect for our Tuscan theme!

When Matt came home and saw the table set like this, he was so excited!  He knew I was trying to keep it free from clutter and make his priorities important.  We actually use cloth napkins for dinner, as I think it is better for the environment.  We usually eat at this table, and re-set it after the meal is over.  Do you leave place settings up in your house?  What are some of your husband’s cleaning priorities?  Also, major thanks to Katie at Bower Power for the table setting inspiration!