Day 5: First Impressions/Dirty Floors/Heard a Snap

I started writing this post yesterday, with the following beginning:

Our entryways aren't really ready for decor yet, but they did need a good cleaning.

One of the problems we addressed was buying a second entry mat. We had one, but we have 2 doors now (unlike at a condo) and people were coming in both so the back door ended up being really wet and muddy and gross. We bought a second mat identical to the other one we had so that so much dirt wouldn't be getting tracked onto the floor in the back landing.

Things have changed:

We need to find a shoe solution for our back hall. There isn't anywhere to put shoes, and since it's winter and they're wet and drippy we don't want to carry them across the house.

Yesterday I went to travel downstairs to our bathroom and tripped on a shoe, fell, heard a snap...and one very swollen ankle later I was in the emergency room. It's soft tissue damage but they're still reviewing the x-rays to make sure it's all good. For now I have to stay off of it for at least 3 days and keep icing it. Really fun when our bathroom is a very treacherous journey away! 

Boy Meets World marathon for the win.

Anyway...

The other big thing that we did was reorganize our front hall closet. I have a winter jacket problem. I didn't realize I had so many until we moved actually...I think somehow I buy them when they're on a good deal but they take a long time to wear out so I still have 8 year old jackets that are perfectly good but I don't really wear. I organized all of our items in some baskets at the top. The big basket on the left is all scarves...ah I also have a scarf problem. The right hand big basket is plastic grocery bags, and the 3 in the middle are my mitts/hats, Philip's mitts/hats, and the "!" is some lightbulbs, bug spray, random things like that. I don't have a picture and I'm unable to get to my house right now to take one, so you'll just have to envision it!

On the side we also have a hanging organizer where we put some of our extra shoes, with the rest of the shoes below on the shoe rack. Next to that are the games, which will hopefully at some point find a new home but this works for now.

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging the next couple of days, I'm pretty much stuck on the couch and actually staying at my parents right now because they have a main floor bathroom, so I won't be able to get pictures more or less clean/organize anything properly. Hopefully I'll be back on my feet soon!

Day 4: Be Prepared/Take Inventory/Does Everyone Else Have Hand-me-Down Cleaning Supplies?

So you've survived a week of Reclaim 2013 (technically it's only been 3 days...and I haven't really survived...but who's counting). Great job! Last week was hard for me, some of those tasks were a bit intense (ugh cleaning out the fridge), but I think this week will be a bit better because not every area covered is a problem area. I think I might have heavily weighted the front of the month with items that I knew were plaguing me with my procrastination.

As you might have noticed...Day 3 didn't happen. I had big plans to conquer my kitchen cupboards on Saturday but with Philip working in the bathroom with a friend and creating a lot of messy dust and debris all through the house, it didn't make sense to take clean dishes out into the mess. Sunday we were out all day for Super Bowl fun and came home to a bit of a catastrophe related to the bathroom renovation...so this weekend was just not having it. Instead of trying to power through that today and then move on, I'm going to go ahead and save Day 3: Kitchen Cupboards for the Catch Up Day later in the month and just move right along to Day 4: Cleaning Supplies today. 

As you start organizing areas of your home, you'll want some cleaning supplies handy. Use today to go through your cleaning inventory to make sure you have the goods you need to get 'er done.

If you need the extra motivation..."Be Prepared" from the Lion King is definitely intimidating enough to warrant grabbing your cleaning supplies and doing a quick run through.

I haven't bought a lot of my own cleaning supplies actually, because when we moved into our condo Philip's Oma's supplies were mostly still there...and there was a plethora of them. I keep a basket under my sink, as well as one in the broom closet - and try to segregate items into categories as best I can - the main reason for this is that my two baskets don't fit together in the broom closet or under the kitchen sink...so two locations it is! That might change as we renovate things up, but for now it works. I'll admit I don't use half of this stuff though, so today's the day to get rid of whatever is never going to get used, or at least keep it somewhere else so it isn't getting in my way (I don't want to waste good products!).


There wasn't really anything to get rid of here, but I did move some of my extra cleaning supplies to the laundry room. 

Here are my two cleaning baskets!

I use mostly a multipurpose cleaner for a lot of things like cleaning toilets, floors, anything really. I have some bathroom sprays that were hand-me-downs that I use on occasion, Windex for my table, mirrors, windows, that's mostly it! Here's a great resource if you aren't sure which cleaning supplies you should have though:

http://housekeeping.about.com/od/productreviews/a/cleaningsupply.htm

Tomorrow we'll be tackling entryways. Remember to comment and tell me about your organization progress or instagram your photos! 

Day 2: What I Dreaded Most/Winner for Most Procrastinated

I hope everyone's working on their junk drawers today! The weekend tasks are fridge/freezer and kitchen cupboards so in order to stay a day ahead for you guys, I'm on to Saturday's task of Fridge/Freezer. Maybe a month or two ago...and this is embarrassing...some ribs dripped in my fridge. No big thing, left one spot. Planned to wipe it up. Never did. Who knows what kind of spills are happening in there. So it's time to tackle it!

Since this weekend is fridge/freezer as well as kitchen cupboards (what was I thinking when I made that calendar?) I had to start out by catching up on some dish washing. Good to start with a clean slate! So I washed all of the dishes, cleared out all the clutter and wiped counters so that I had somewhere clean to put all of the clean dishes that were going to be coming out of my cupboards. Then it was time to get to work on that fridge.

1. Empty Fridge
I just emptied mine one shelf at a time, wiped it, and replaced the items. My fridge wasn't too cluttered as we don't buy that much stuff and we're pretty in control of what groceries are in there. If your fridge is crazier than ours though, do what you have to do. Just make sure to get rid of anything nasty hiding at the back! One thing I implemented last time I cleaned out the fridge (although I've slacked on it lately) is writing down the leftovers on thee fridge so that when I'm making Philip's lunch I know what's in there that I should use up before it goes bad.

I started on the bottom shelf, where I currently have 4 lbs of carrots and 2 lbs of parsnips...all from Christmas. I don't lie. My mom told me they can last a long time though, and they still look good, I will make it my mission to try and use them in the next week so they don't go to waste. Philip hates when I throw things out. Some things are certainly going to be thrown out in the making of this clean fridge though.

2. Wipe all shelves
3. Clear out expired/old food
The only things I really had to throw out were a 3 month old thing of guacamole (I don't even like guacomole so I'm not sure why we had this...) and some chicken leftovers from too long ago to deem okay to eat. Philip  hates throwing things out and I know he would have loved to still eat it, but sometimes for his health I have to throw things away when he's not home.

4. Put everything back in
5. Empty Freezer
6. Wipe out
7. Get rid of food we won't eat - donate, share with someone
8. Put everything back in
9. Lather, Rinse, Repeat with Deep Freeze

Mine only took a small chunk of time because we don't stock up on tons of groceries that we don't need, but in just this small amount of time my fridge  and freezer went from...

This blurry photo of our fridge adds to the terror effect of what was inside. 

To...

And that's that! Now on to the kitchen cupboards. I'm going to start tackling them now so we'll see if I get the post up today or else I might break rules and post on the weekend. Just wait and see! Hope you're having fun exploring your junk drawer, instagram or post your pics on Facebook!

Day 1: The Start of it All/My Organization Philosophy/Junk Drawer

Click to Enlarge

I had mentioned on Monday when I kick started this series that Friday would include Friday, Saturday & Sunday's tasks...that is just way too much because this first one is a big one for me and I really want to be able to focus on it. I figured I'd share this one day in advance so that everyone participating has some time to think on it and we can all get a bit of a head start too if we want to slack on the weekend (oh no - not finding loop holes already!). After taking the before pictures for all of these, I'm realizing how personal you're about to get with my house! Feel free to judge our mess, it's very judge-able. 

Let me start with...My Organization Philosophy.
My ideas on organization run about as deep as Phil Dunphy's Phil'sosophy's, but I do have one theory that I think makes some sense. If you're really bad at purging, start with your junk drawer. I find that when purging is not something that you naturally flock to, or you're having trouble getting a good start, starting with something that's easy to get rid of can really help get the momentum going. Philip isn't the best purger, so sometimes when we have to go through things I'll go through it first, and divide things into piles.
1) I'm pretty sure this is trash
2) I'm not sure about this at all
3) I think you want to keep these things
It makes it easier, because I get him to start with the trash pile, and by the time he has easily gone through that pile and confirmed that it's all garbage he's on a roll with getting rid of things and finds way more things in the maybe pile to get rid of than he might of if he'd started there and been unsure about the whole recycling things objective. 
It works that way for me with the junk drawer philosophy as well, usually there's some stuff in your junk drawer/basket/cupboard/etc. that is easy to get rid of - some old receipts, general garbage, things that don't belong there - and once you've done that it's easier to keep going. 

One more thing that I believe is important when organizing, and that I've tried to stress whenever I'm nagging Philip (he can vouch for this)...I hate to pick something up and then put it back down...only to deal with it again later. If you can choose a place for something right when you start going through it, it will save you a lot of time later. One example of this is Philip was cleaning out his top dresser drawer when he first moved out...it was his "junk drawer" which contained a lot of memorobilia that piled up throughout his youth, and just other random things. As we were going through it all he was telling me about each thing, and I thought he was putting it all into piles that were going to be of later use. Turned out, he was just putting everything down again arbitrarily, and so when he was done explaining each item to me, he had to start back over and actually do something with the items. If you can, take care of the item right when you're holding it, or at least put it in a pile that makes sense...no reason to have to go through everything twice, three times, or a dreadful four. 

This is why day one is the junk drawer.

Here are some instructions to follow if you aren't sure exactly what your objective should be (if you know exactly your end goal, feel free to follow your heart on this one, but each day I'll try to provide some instructions if that makes it easier). 

1. Identify the area of your house that is "the junk drawer" - for us we have a drawer in our kitchen, as well as a small basket in the cupboard above (we could probably do with just the basket like we did at the condo, but in the layout of our kitchen right now that drawer isn't really useful as anything else).

Our Junk Drawer.

The shelf above, which also collects random items.

The cupboard above holds our junk basket, which is just a miscellaneous items collector,
it also houses cookbooks and vases.  

Junk Basket items.

2. Empty it completely.

Empty shelf, basket, and drawer! Ready to be refilled!

Okay so I'll admit, after I emptied this all on to my kitchen table - see below - I gave up and wallowed and really didn't want to put it all back in...this is going to be a long month. However, I'm buckling down and continuing (this post has been written very sporadically - so at this point I'm sitting at the table with all the contents of the drawer/basket/shelf and avoiding doing more work). 

3. Wipe it out with a damp cloth - maybe some vinegar if it really needs freshening up. 

Back to business, I wiped out my cupboard with a damp paper towel, as well as the shelf and drawer. At this point I started hating this basket as a junk collector - does anyone think I can paint it? Not sure how that would work...but I wouldn't mind if it was white. I think when I put everything back I'll switch baskets to something I like more. Stay tuned...to like 2 items down because by then I have to figure this out. One thing that puzzled me in this stage was how many of those plastic price tag thingers were in the bottom of this drawer...I didn't find any price tags...just those little plastic things...does anyone know what I'm talking about? The little T-shaped plastics that hold the tag to the product?

Apparently Google didn't understand me either.

4. Go through everything you took out. This is arguably the most imporant (and maybe most fun in my mind) step. Do you need 35 pens in your kitchen drawer? Probably not, move some to your home office. Those old receipts? Make sure you file them in whatever way appropriate whether that's getting rid of them or entering them in some kind of expense worksheet. 

Some examples of things I found that didn't belong:

• A piece of hubba bubba gum - put this in my purse so that it will get eaten one day. Decided to eat it right now...mmm.
• Huge bag of change - no idea where this came from...took out the silver coins and left all the pennies in the bag because my mom registered for a We Create Change bag and is collecting pennies! I'd highly recommend registering for one of these! It's free, a good way to donate money, and pretty easy to do!
• 4 scotch tape dispensers - kept one for the junk drawer and moved the rest to the office supplies box.
• Some Bomber TBD Playoff tickets from last season...if only we'd made the playoffs - recycling!

5. Implement new organizational systems. Before you put everything back, look at what you have and if there are containers or dividers you can use to make things easier to get at.

I don't really have any extra containers handy right now - so I'm going to put a pin in this item, and save it for the "Repurpose Storage" day when we're almost done and I can see if there are extra containers around. One new organizational system involved getting rid of an old organizational system...no more basket! Everything fits in the drawer with room to spare.

6. Refill the drawer with the items you deemed "belong here". 

My drawer is almost empty, I moved all the office supplies out which made a big difference. All that is left in that department is one roll of scotch tape, some scissors, a calculator, pen and notepad. The other things in the drawer are stamps which I find handy there, a lighter because I have no idea where else it could go that would make sense, some coupons, matches, extra shoe laces, Halls, and a shoe shine sponge kit. Oh and some keys that I don't know what they belong to, I'll have to ask Philip and see if they are things we need or what we should do with them.

How you like them apples. That is a lot less stuff.

7. Close up that drawer and feel happy with the work you completed!

Loving this new less cluttered look. I don't even need to show the above cupboard because it looks the exact same, only doesn't have a junk basket anymore!

I decided to add was a piece of art in between the two yellow flower bowls, it should help us from piling things up there, and remind us to keep the space looking as beautiful as possible. I don't have anything there yet, but I'm going to make it my goal to get something before the "Repurpose Storage" day, which I set aside as a day to make sure I get all my supplies I need to make my storage systems better. 

Also just ignore the muffins on my microwave. Just made them this week and took them out to defrost! I pinned the recipe, so if you are interested in Almond Muffins filled with Jam take a gander on my Pinterest page!

8. Brag about your progress! Take a photo and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest so that the world can see it (make sure to tag me so I can check it out too!) Also in the comments, share the funniest thing that you found in your junk drawer - maybe you had an experience like I did with unpacking boxes a couple months ago. I'd probably say one of the weirdest things I found was the huge bag of pennies...not because pennies are strange...but because I literally had no idea they were in there. How could they have been missed? The drawer isn't THAT big. 

Saving Money Erryday

While the goal of this blog is to share home improvement projects and diy, most of you will know from the About Us page that I stay at home...which means that we can use every dollar we can find on the sidewalk.

I thought that it would be helpful to share some of the ways that we earn a bit of extra cash. 

Time is something that I do have, so I can fill out surveys like a champ. The site I've been a member of longest is e-rewards.com and through it I've earned already a couple of Starbucks gift cards. There are also Ipsos surveys, Cash Crate, Inbox Dollars, and countless other sites where you can fill out surveys to earn money or gift cards (some of these I only discovered this week - so don't hold me accountable if they aren't the best! I have been part of e-rewards for probably 5 years or more though and have received gift cards from them in the mail so I can definitely vouch for it). 

Another great thing that I discovered last week (my mom saw it on a local morning show), is Checkout51. It's an iPhone app (soon to come out for Android) which provides coupon offers each week. If you buy the products, you just have to take a picture of your receipt and your account gets credited. Once you've earned $20 you can request a cheque! I've been a member for one week, and already earned $2.50. 

Does anyone else have some great money saving tips? You've already learned about our budget, and so this is another little thing that I can do to earn us some free date nights - I do prefer gift cards because it seems less complicated (not as easily confused with income for tax purposes) and it gives us some date nights that don't hurt our wallet. 

Tomorrow I'll be sharing the first day of February - Junk Drawer - a day early so that's something to look forward to. Before starting the challenge, look over the calendar and make sure to make any changes you want, as well as get an idea of some of the improvements you'd like to make to the areas listed.