"Organize One Thing Wednesday" Bare Bones.

I hate to be discriminatory, but I gotta do it.  If you're a boy and you're reading this post (dad), then you need to leave.  Also, if you're a relative or just generally uncomfortable talking about an issue that's a little more personal, you should probably skip out on this post too.  I'd love for you to come back tomorrow when I post something a little more appropriate, but for the time being....toodle-oo.  Seriously, go right now.  No boys allowed from here on out. 
Alright ladies.  This "Organize One Thing Wednesday,"  I want to talk about an area of organizing that's not usually covered.  Your "unmentionables" drawer.  Undergarments.  Underoos.  Skiivies.  "Unda-wares."  I don't know about you guys, but this particular drawer in my house was a daggone hot mess.  My morning routine involved lots of digging and moving items around to find what I needed.  And that just is not acceptable.  Because I love you guys, I'm going to show you the before picture:

Hot mess, right?  I told you.  The amount of items in this drawer were out of control.  Bras that fit me in high school, old underoos that didn't fit anymore or I didn't feel comfortable in (So I wear granny panties now...don't judge).  Nightgowns.  Slips.  Shape wear.  Ridiculous!  So I rolled up my sleeves and dove in (not literally.  that's gross.)  I got rid of the items I don't wear anymore and reorganized the ones that I do.  I picked up some drawer dividers at my local Wally World.  I weeded and folded and organized.  After:

I can breathe again.  It's not a hassle every single morning.  I pick out my undergarments and I move on.  Amazing what organizing a single drawer can do to shorten your morning routine and make you feel better about your day.  Because if you start your morning unorganized, what's that say about the rest of your day?  So, go forth and conquer your underwear! 

Organize One Thing meets Penny Pinching

This post is going to be pulling double duty today!  It's a "Organize One Thing Wednesday" meets "Penny Pinching Summer" kind of post (yes, I know summer is almost over, but you can learn financial tips any time of the year). 

I am a FREAK when it comes to organizing my checkbook.  I don't see how people balance their checkbooks only once a month when their bank statement comes in the mail.  I'm signed up for online banking and I check my account and balance my checkbook EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  I need to know how much is in my account every day...down to the penny.  To further cement my OCD status when it comes to my checkbook, I color code everything that's written down.  Yep.  Color coded.

Breakdown:

Green is bills.  Medical, credit cards, house payments, utilities, etc.  This is the stuff that has to be paid, before anything else.  On payday, I sit down and make sure all the greens are taken care of first.

Orange is gas purchases.  Since we live in Bardstown and I'm driving to Etown, I like to easily see how much I'm spending per month in gas.  Makes budgeting so much easier.

Pink is deposits.  Paychecks, cash deposits, etc.  Helps me be able to add up what's coming in.

Blue is necessities.  Grocery trips, medicines, clothes for Avery, clothes for me or Marty (that are needed, not just a splurge), etc. 

Yellow is my least favorite.  It's unnecessary purchases.  Trips through the drive through, that cute pair of shoes I wanted, but didn't need.  Those kinds of things.  It's more of a motivator when I look in my checkbook and see 5 yellow highlighted purchases.  I feel guilty for throwing that much money away and vow to do better. 

I know, I know.  I'm OCD.  At least I'm admitting it, right?  It sure makes me feel better and makes balancing the checkbook and making my budget so much easier.....and more colorful. :)

Organize One Thing Wednesdays Gets Chilly!

There is nowhere in my house that disorganization drives me more crazy than in my kitchen.  I'm constantly looking for new ways to organize my pantry, under the kitchen sink, cabinets....and the fridge.  I was wasting so much food because my refrigerator was so ridiculously unorganized.  I had no idea what food I had in there on a day-to-day basis.  A fridge organizational overall commenced!  Afters:

"The Dairy Shelf" is where I keep all my dairy products (except a gallon of milk).  The cream cheeses, shredded cheeses, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese (geez, cheese overload!!), butter and buttermilk all reside here.  A cheap dollar store basket helps me corral all those shredded cheese bags that are too wimpy to stand or stack on their own.

I don't even want to think about all of the money that I've wasted on produce that rotted or went bad before we had a chance to eat it.  I would make the effort to buy healthy fruits and veggies and throw them in the crisper drawer, still in their little produce bags, to be forgotten about forever.   Problem was, when they were still in the bags, it was hard to see what was in there..."Is that a green pepper or a granny smith apple??"  So I bought some more dollar store baskets and started putting the veggies in the bottom drawer and fruits in the top so I could easily identify what we had on hand.

If I buy veggies for the purpose of adding them as toppings on salads or sandwiches, I slice them up as soon as I get home.  I slice my green peppers into strips.  I cut one tomato into slices for sandwiches and dice the other for tacos and salads.  I cut celery sticks into hand-held pieces for snacking and lunch sides.  After I'm done cutting, I put the veggies into Tupperware containers.  This makes it SO easy in the morning when I'm making lunch.  If I want a ham sandwich with green peppers and tomatoes, I open the Tupperware container and throw 'em on.  Before, I would have to get the tomato out, find a knife, cut it up, add it to the sandwich, wrap the tomato back up, add the tomato to the sandwich, put it back in the fridge.  Time-waster in the morning--and I need every free second I can get during my morning routine.  Time wasters are NOT allowed. 
I've also started putting my bagged lettuce into a sealed container that can easily be taken out and made into a fresh salad or be added as a topping.  I know it's no different than grabbing the bag out of the fridge, but this way, I have the container on a shelf at eye level and it helps me remember that I have lettuce in the fridge that can be used.  I've cut down on some MAJOR lettuce wasting by doing this. 
All of the lunch meats are on a shelf together for easy grabbage.  Tortillas in the "meat" drawer because they're a funky shape and I just wanted them out of the way :)

And voila.  You have yourself an organized, but not obsessively so, fridge.  It makes things so much easier when lunch and dinner prepping and has actually helped me eat healthier.  I still have some ideas out there, like place mats or Press and Seal paper to help prevent spills and make an easier clean-up if one were to happen.  What's your fridge look like?  Organized bliss or crazy chaos??

Planning to Organize

Wednesday--it's time to organize just one thing in my life to make it a little less cluttered.  Today, I'm focusing on my planner.  Every year, I buy the same kind of planner from Wal-Mart.  Same brand, just a different pattern every year:

Studio C, by Carolina Pad.  It's the size of a standard school notebook with spaces big enough to write all your things in day-by-day.  I hate monthly calendars.  I can't fit all my stuff into a tiny box! 
My day job is working as a legislative assistant for my dad, who serves as a Kentucky State Senator.  When I took the job, one of the requirements is to keep up with his schedule.  Which can get hectic, especially this time of year.  Parades every weekend, fundraisers, picnics, etc.  Needless to say, "my" calendar has filled up with my dad's appointments.  In the beginning, I tried keeping our things separate by highlighting things in a different color.  Dad's stuff was green, my stuff was pink, blogging stuff was blue.  And it worked.....for a little while.  Until the green began to take over the days. 

See the green?  That's dad's stuff.  Just dad's stuff.  And it always grows.  It starts as one or two things and ends up being several things a day.  It just gets confusing for me.  I'm the type that writes EVERYTHING down.  If I need to put chicken in the fridge to thaw out for tomorrow's dinner, it needs to be written down on a to-do list, or I'll forget it.  Make fun of me, if you will, but dad's calendar wasn't leaving enough room for my obsessive step-by-step calendar for everyday.  Enter the Dollar General store.  Enter a "student" planner for $2.

I can have all of my things in here....and color-coded.  Red is that night's dinner menu.  Dark blue is to-do things (laundry, put ground beef out to thaw, take Minnie Mouse doll back for return).  Green is appointments and events.  Light blue is blogging ideas.  This works.  I can have all of my stuff in one place and all dad's in another.  I'm not searching through the green highlights to see what I need to do that day.  I've organized one thing in my life today and it feels pretty darn good (and looks pretty good too). 

OOTW tackles the bathroom...

It's been a craaaaaaazy Wednesday (I feel like I'm saying that a lot!) but there's still organizing to be done! 
Last week, I took a break from organizing and promised to return with a project that would knock your socks off.  Well, it hasn't happened yet.  You know when you have an idea in your head but you can't find exactly what you're looking for?  That's my life right now.  I have this brilliant idea.  But no one else seems to support my idea because I have a particular item in mind that I cannot find.  Anywhere. 
So in the meantime, I'll show you a little organizing tip from my very own bathroom.  I love this idea because it's not only organized and functional, but it's pretty too.  We live in a pretty little house...ideal for a starter home...but it lacks MAJORLY in space.  Little cabinet space, little storage space, little counterspace.  Our master bathroom is no exception.  When we moved in, I literally had all of my crap strewn all over our countertop.  But with such little space, I couldn't figure out how to organize everything.  Until one day when I was at my parent's house.  And my mom was talking about having my Peepaw's old toolbox that he made in Ag Shop in high school.  It was like a light bulb going off.  And this idea was born:

No, my toolbox isn't my Peepaw's, unfortunately...but when I told my mom of my idea, she was on the hunt for me.  This beauty was found in my dad's shop.  I swiped it borrowed it and brought it straight home.  With a few old Mason jars, I have my very own, unique bathroom countertop storage.

The jars are perfect for holding our cotton balls, q-tips and toothbrushes.  There's another slot for my hand soap. 



I love organizing!  And finding a new home for old things!  Hope your Wednesdays are getting a little more organized! 

Organize One Thing...Interrupted.

I interrupt this regularly scheduled "Organize One Thing Wednesday" to bring you.......my kitchen. 

Holy party throw-up Batman.  Avery's 1st birthday party was this weekend and, as you can see, I'm still recovering.  Am I the only one that gets an after-huge-event hangover?  Not the alcohol kind, but the "I planned my rear off for months and spent the week of hot-gluing and decorating and obsessing over every single detail so now I feel like doing absolutely nothing but sit on my couch and watch the Olympics" kind.  I literally have done nothing domestically related since Saturday.  Well, that's a lie--I unloaded and reloaded my dishwasher....once.  And that was only because Avery needed clean bottles.  After her party, I told Marty to just dump everything in the kitchen one night and I would pick it up the next day.  Well, here it is, Wednesday already, and I've done nothing.  But my kitchen is starting to smell and Avery wants to rip up every bag that's laying in the floor.  Not to mention the fact that I want to have a panic attack every time I come into my home.  So, as much as I would love to share my organizing tip for the week, I've got to do a little personal home organizing of my own.  I promise though, next week's project is going to rock your socks off. :)

OOTW--bills, bills, bills!

I love Wednesdays.  It's quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week....because it's an excuse to look around my house, find what needs organizing and do it! 

This week, I'm tackling bills.  It's so easy for bills to get piled up or pushed aside and forgotten about until that dreaded "Payment Overdue" statement comes in the mail....or worse, when you notice a late fee tacked on to next month's bill.  When I was first on my own and had just a few bills to handle,  I was so overwhelmed.  How can you keep up with all of these due dates and amounts due and which bill to pay when??  And that was just the basic bills of a college student!  Then I grew up, got married, bought a house and found out what it REALLY meant to be in debt and have bills.  Marty and I have recently split accounts and bills for us each to handle.  It was a great way to keep up both accountable for where our money was going and it cut down on unnecessary "You spent HOW much??" kind of fights.   I thought I had it under control....until this month.  Marty, by the grace of God, has found a new job.  A new job that's going to bring a bigger paycheck (wahoo!).  But a bigger paycheck brings more opportunity for wasteful spending and little penny pinching.  So, to make a long story short, we're joining accounts again, under the stipulation that I am in charge of the bills.  Insert super organizational skills here!  To keep all of the bills, due dates and payments under control, I have corralled all of the monthly statements in this gorgeous binder:

Call me old-fashioned or not being earth-friendly, but I like having a paper statement in my hand every month that tells me exactly how much I owe and gives me the details of my charges.  Yes, I know I can go online and view all that information, but something about holding a physical piece of paper in my hands gives me a sense of satisfaction.  I have all of the statements separated by dividers and labels so I know where each bill is whenever I need to refer back to it. 

Now, this is my favorite part.  I made up a printable bill organizing checklist, so I can view all of our monthly expenses at once. 

I'm a visual person.  I won't believe that it's done until I see it written down and checked off.  I guess I'm a little OCD. 

Not only do I have the list of bills, but I also made a pretty list of when to pay which bills.  You see, when Marty starts this new job, our paychecks are going to be scattered throughout the entire month.  To keep me from paying too many bills out of one single paycheck, I have them scattered so we still have spending/saving money leftover.  This printable shows me EXACTLY when to pay which bill.  Super daggone helpful. 

P.S.  Both of these printables are free for you to take!  Print them off, make your own binder and revel in your organization!


Bills to Pay FREE printable! 

Organize One Thing Wednesday: Jewels on Display

It's Wednesday!  We're organizing!  Yipee!Today I'm tackling the mess that is your jewelry drawer.  I used to have one tiny drawer in my dresser that held ALL of my jewelry.  As my collection grew, I thought I might try to make it more organized by purchasing one of those small drawer sorters.  That corralled the problem...for a little while.  Soon, my earrings were everywhere, my bracelets were bungled and my necklaces were in knots.  And it drove me crazy.  Then, one day as I was going through pictures and items that were in my apartment in college, I came across a corkboard with ribbons that I hung pictures on.  You know the kind:

I really had nowhere to put it and thought it was a tad juvenile for our house, but I didn't want to throw it out.  And that's when it came to me.....jewelry holder!

Favorite part of my morning routine

Simple, a little eclectic and VERY effective.  All my jewelry in on display at once so I can see everything I have to choose from.  Because the board has a cork backing, it's easy to just push stud earrings into it and keep them in place.  For my drop, or "dangly" earrings, I just looped the back of the earring over one of the ribbons. 

Because no jewelry board would be complete without a Winnie the Pooh quote :)

When I first thought of this idea, I just had my earrings and brooches on the board.  I wasn't sure how to incorporate necklaces onto the board just yet.  Until I saw this idea on Pinterest (Not following me?  Check out my boards here!) :

Brilliant!  Shower curtain hooks on a towel rack to hold necklaces.  I knew that I had some shower curtain rings floating around my house somewhere from one of our wedding showers that were never used.  After locating the rings, I attached the clips to the bottom ribbons and hung my necklaces from each ring.  Problem solved. 

When I finished, I hung the board up in my bathroom where I do my morning routine.  Instead of walking back and forth from my old jewelry drawer in the dresser to the bathroom mirror, I'm right by the mirror so I can switch out earrings and necklaces with my outfit until I find what I think looks best.  Since implementing this organizing idea, my jewelry gets more wear because I can see everything in one place and I don't have to go digging for anything.  I love when organizing is functional AND pretty. :)  Have your own de-tangling jewelry solution?  Share it with me!  For the rest of you, go show your jewelry some organizing love. :) 

Organize One Thing Wednesdays {Thursday Edition!}

Since yesterday was an official holiday {Happy Birthday America!}, I didn't get to make my "Organize One Thing Wednesday" post yesterday......so let's just pretend, shall we? :) It's Wednesday again!  Time to organize just one thing to make your life easier.  Today, I'm tackling dinner time.  Since I've started my penny-pinching summer, I've been planning our dinners and making menus for the week.  I save money at the grocery because I know exactly what I need to get and I save time at home because I know that I have a meal plan for every night of the week.  As organized and as easy at this has made dinner time, there's still a little bit of tweaking that can be done to the meal time process.  I was making my weekly menu and posting it here on the blog.  So, on Monday night, I would have to get my phone or our iPad and refer back to the post to figure out what exactly I had listed to make that night.  Not only that, I had to go through the ingredient list and the pantry to gather all of the necessary items to make that dish.  Not horrible, but I saw the room for improvement.  And an idea was born.  Put all the ingredients that I needed for that night's dinner together in one place.  For this project, I'm using plastic bins (large sized are $2.50 each at Wal-Mart), index cards and binder rings. 

I got six baskets for each day of the week that I cook (on Sundays we always eat out with Marty's parents or go to my parent's house).  After I had the baskets, I labeled index cards with Monday-Friday. 

Starting with Monday, I wrote the name of the dish (and coordinating side dish) I was making on another index card.

Behind that, I wrote the ingredients that were still needed to complete the recipe (i.e.  making ranch burgers and I need ground beef, which is in the fridge thawing).  That way I would know what still needed to be grabbed out of the fridge, freezer or spice cabinet. 

If the recipe was a complicated one, or I felt like it would be one that I would make later on, I filled out a recipe card with the step by step directions.  Too many times I would have to refer back to the recipe on my Pinterest board or the link that I had provided in one of my "Supper Club" posts.  No more.  All of the directions are with the ingredients and I know exactly what to do. 
Once all of my cards were filled out, I punched a hole through each and put them on a binder ring, which I put around the basket.  Next, I filled each basket with the necessary pantry ingredients to make that recipe.  And voila!  Organized dinner preparation with little effort required.  It makes dinner time easier, quicker and more organized....not to mention how spiffy and neat it make my pantry look. 

Come back next Wednesday for more organizing tips!! 

Organize one thing Wednesdays

It's Wednesday.  It's the middle of the week.  You're tired of work and you're ticked because all that hard work and organizing and cleaning that you did Saturday and Sunday is disappearing.  Ladies and gentlemen, you have the "Hump Day Blues."  I get them BAD.  I work on cleaning during my weekend and get everything picked up and where I want it.  Monday comes, I go to work, come home, cook dinner, do some laundry, go through Avery's bedtime routine, spend some time with the husband, go to bed.  Tuesday comes, I repeat.  If I'm lucky, that'll be the only routine--but more often than not, wrenches are thrown into our weekday plans and we'll have church meeting or a softball game or a family birthday party.   During the week, my house is an all-out, war-zone, Hurricane Avery type mess.  Cleaning it all just seems like a daunting task that I'm not willing to take on.  That's why I'm introducing the "Organize One Thing Wednesdays."  I'm sure you've heard it from your Momma--Lord knows I have--that if you do one thing each night, you'll keep your house clean and organized.  I'm not even asking for that much.  Just implement one organizing solution in your home on Wednesday.  It'll be enough to make you feel calm and collected until you make it to that blessed Saturday when your house will be cleaned again.  I'll share my favorite organizing tips, tricks and pictures--whether it be from the Internet or from my very own household.  As always, share your ideas with me!  We'll keep our houses organized and calm from Sunday night all the way till Saturday morning.
For the first installment, I'm going to share my favorite blog with you:

Seriously addicted to this blog.  I could probably spend as much time reading through her posts as I could browsing Pinterest (that's A LOT).  She has fabulous ideas on how to organize almost everything in the home.  Not only that, she has tips on how to organize your life.  She has gorgeous free and custom printables from everything from personalized family binders to colorful children's chore charts.  I'm obsessed.  I want to be her.  Or have her come to my house and be my own personal organizer.  Browse her blog, get great ideas and I'll be back next Wednesday with an organizing tip from my very own house.  Clutter-free is the way to be! :)