Home Maid Simple

Tag: organize

  • List Plan It

    Get Organized with List Plan It

    Do you love lists? I do. Unfortunately I tend to make a list and forget it, or continuously add to it, never getting anything crossed off. I also always feel like I’m forgetting something on my list, and that’s not helpful if you’re list isn’t complete.
    Today I found this great website! ListPlanIt.com has Hundreds of Lists to Put Your World in Order.  Browsing through all their different lists would take all day!  They’ve got Back to School Planners, Christmas lists, cleaning lists, gardening lists, moving lists, and hundreds more! If you’re a list lover, you’ll want to check out this website!
    They even have eplanners! From baby to meals, school memories to travel planners. You can even make your own Custom Pages!  For a 1 year membership, it only costs $20 just to be able to print any lists you want!  Want more than that? for $30/year you can download the lists to your computer!
    I really think this is going to become a great tool in my home organization.

  • Yard Sale Find and halfway in 10 tasks in 10 days challenge

    Yard Sale Find and halfway in 10 tasks in 10 days challenge

    We spent a little time yard saleing today.  We found one that was advertising some free items, and good prices.  So off we went.  We got some really great deals.  Today we found
    • Half a can of purple interior paint – FREE
    • Summer Dresses for myself – $4 for 3
    • 4 movies – $1
    • a brand new computer mouse (ours went on the fritz this week) – $2
    • some tools (Mark picked these up, not really sure what they are for) – FREE
    • a sleeping bag – $1 
    • a basket – .25
    Total spent was $8.25 
    The sleeping bag will be perfect for our Princess R next week while we’re in Yellowstone. I know I can find something to do with the purple paint for the other Princess’. I think if there is enough I’ll paint over the blue squares in Princess C’s room.  The basket however, was my most exciting find today! Sounds weird probably, but it was the perfect size for what I needed for my magazines!
    So now instead of sitting under the table in a large box, they are neatly organized and easy to get to.  Cross this off my 10 tasks in 10 days challenge.
    Yesterday was the halfway mark for this challenge hosted by Cha Cha at Sit Relax and Read.  On Wednesday I posted some pictures of what I had already accomplished, but let’s just take a look back at that list HERE, and see just how much has been crossed off.
    1. Organize Kids Rooms and toys
    2. Price and change out old light switches. Mark had already priced them apparently, and we’ll have to put this little project on hold until we get back from our trip.
    3. Fix curtains. I’ve started this one, but I still need to fix the epic fail.
    4. Set up Craft and Sewing table so it can be used YAY. I’ve even started using it to put a puzzle together. Something I’ve sorely missed doing, but am finding it a tad frustrating with little hands wanting to “help”
    5. Organize around Computer Desk
    6. Paint Accent Wall in Master Bedroom
    7. Organize laundry Area
    I can actually use this area for the laundry now, and we can get in and out of the renovating cold storage room much easier.
    8. Find and hang large mirror
    9. Finish Christmas Stocking – I plan on taking it to Yellowstone next week, since I won’t be able to get anything else done while there.
    10. Help Princess R paint a picture and hang family art
    11. Plant Okra
    12. Hang Mark’s hats
    Mark made this coat rack, and we decided it would look great for hanging his hats. And it does. Although the yellow one is mine, we will get the rest of his hats up there (there’s a good amount).
    13. Create a better place for the magazines – see above!
    14. Start Cloth Diapering – we did it and we stopped it. Unfortunately Princess R got a bad rash from them, and they just didn’t fit properly. It would’ve saved us tons of money though if it had worked.
    15. Wash Windows
    16. Organize and decorate counter between dining and family room.
    I must say I am pleasantly surprised that I already have 8 things done.  I don’t feel like I got that much done, but I did! A lot of the other items on the list are halfway done, so I’m almost there.  Good thing too, since I won’t be home for the last few days of this challenge.  
  • Family Room

    Family Room

    I’ve been focusing on the Family Room this past week.  It’s the room we spend most of our time as a family in, so I focused and pushed myself to get it completed.

    Walking into the family room from the kitchen

    From the back of the room, if you were to walk in from the back yard. As you may notice, I still haven’t fixed my epic FAIL of the curtains.

    This was a fun project! Eventually we are going to build shelves in this closet, but I needed a quick fix for all the movies (we may have too many).  The hanging shelves are from IKEA.  I couldn’t just put the movies on the shelves though, otherwise it folded in on itself, and the movies wouldn’t stand up. So I grabbed some boxes (we had plenty from the move) and did some measuring and cutting. They fit in nice and tight, and it gives the movies a sturdier shelf.

    This I just created today, after taking the top pictures. I removed the black table from the room, and pulled in the Princess’ table and chairs from outside. Then I grabbed my roll of Jute string, and made a place to hang their pictures. I just tied a knot on around a nail and hammered in flush to the wall (as flush as you can get. Then hung the pictures with paperclips. Eventually we’ll get some cute colored clothespins for hanging.  I wish I could cover up the airvent there, but I’m guessing it’s important, c’est la vie!
    I’m linking up to these great blog hops today!
       Crazy About My Baybah
  • Design Impasse

    Design Impasse

    Well, I’m stumped.  We’re not sure how to arrange our front room.  It’s a great space with awesome windows, but things just haven’t clicked yet for me.  Here’s what I’m working with

    The way we have it set up right now I like because it opens up the windows, allowing in that natural light.  I don’t like it because it makes the room look and feel smaller.
    We originally had the couch on the back wall there, with the chairs on either side facing in.  The problem with that is the couch pretty much covered the windows, and lef the room feeling unbalanced. 
    Any ideas for me? If this was your front room, what would you do?  I guess maybe I should start with getting all the stuff that doesn’t belong out. So much stuff!!
    On a different note – what do you think of this fan?
    Walking into the house this is the first thing I saw and fell in love with. It makes me happy!
  • Baby’s Room – DONE!

    Baby’s Room – DONE!

    I spent most of Wednesday working in the baby’s room to get it all organized and set up.  It is so nice to walk in there now and not feel cluttered!

    After we got the toys and books organized on the shelf, we added the vinyl flowers! We got these at a great price on amazon, and used a gift card earned through swagbucks
    Mark got her puzzle hung up in a perfect spot! The puzzle is a tradition we’ve done with each child. When we find out the gender, we buy a puzzle to put together and then frame.  Every family should have a tradition!
    And last was the closet.  I had to go through some boxes to find the 12 month clothes, but we found them.  Then I put the old clothes back in a box to store for another child.  I love this closet.  There’s just so much space perfect for organizing a small childs clothes.
    We still have one more picture to hang.  When Princess R was born Mark bought me this beautiful print of a mother holding a baby.  It always makes me think of Mary holding Christ.  It just fills me with peace and joy – similar to the feelings I get when I look in the eyes of my children.  However, middle of the night awakenings make it hard to feel that, so the picture really helps!
  • Cleaning up the Dumping grounds

    Cleaning up the Dumping grounds

    Everyone has one in their home.  If you don’t, please tell me the secret!  Our dumping ground takes flight and moves around a lot.  I’ll get one cleaned, and the next day it has just moved.  I need a war strategy to fight this!  But in the meantime, we’ll keep taking it one battle at a time.
    awww, that looks so much better!  The best part is, it really only took me about 10minutes.  Walking past it though, it felt daunting and like it would be a day long task.  I need to remember that things look worse than they really are.  Any bets on how long it will stay this way?
  • Princess’ Room

    Princess’ Room

    This is the room I was dreading!  But I finally made it in, and am pretty happy with the results!  I seem to have lost the before pictures, but take a look in your kids bedroom and I’m sure you can imagine what this looked like with 2 toddler girls living in it!

    Under the bed everything went in boxes and then were labeled.  We have blocks, trains, baby dolls, little dolls, and barbies 
    beds made and floor vacuumed! 
    toy drawers organized, but they still need labels – bottom has animals, middle has balls, and top is all the miscellaneous toys that don’t have a place. 
    books on the bookshelf, and dresser cleaned off. 
    shoes in a wonderful shoe rack from IKEA. large toys in closet, musical instruments out of reach! 
    Stuffed animals and only stuffed animals in the big bin.  Dresses gone through, and too small ones removed. 
    Fun kitchen play area!  I really like this area (although it’s hard for me to get in and clean) because it allows the Princess’ to pretend like they are really in their own kitchen, and their imagination flourishes!
    The last thing I did in here that is not visible go through all the girls clothes and boxes of clothes.  We put a box together for storage for Princess V, and then moved Princess V’s clothes to Princess C’s drawers, and then pulled out stored clothes for Princess V.  It was lots of work, and sometimes had to be redone (I had some “little” help).  But I am so excited for the organization in there.  Last night, lots of toys were all over the place again, but because everything had a place, clean up was 3x’s as fast as it has ever been before!!!
  • Household Management Binder

    Household Management Binder

    With the help from some friends and their favorite links, and a little google searching, I have created a Household Management Binder for our House.  
    The cover made with my Cricut!
    Daily to do lists
    Birthdays with monthly calendars behind it
    Chore Charts – one for each of us (mom, dad, Venice and Chloe)
    List of Bills, due dates, amounts, and paid
    Weekly meal planning followed by….
    A grocery shopping list
     
    If you have any ideas to add to my book, something you might have in yours, please leave a comment.  I rely on ideas of others to get me going!
     
    What would you put in a Household Management binder?