Organizing Store Rewards Cards

Part of being a smart shopper requires that I have quite a few store reward cards.  My wallet was overflowing with these pieces of plastic - then pinterest inspiration stepped in.  Someone shared the idea of hole punching the cards and putting them all on a key ring.  Now all of the cards are contained in one spot and aren't taking up space in my wallet.  It's the little things!

Snacks, Freezers & Coffee

I thought you all would be happy to know that I finally made these. . .

and I loved them :)  I did 1/2 honey and 1/2 agave nectar and they are excellent.  Perfect snack when I forget to eat. (though this never happens) Anyways, make these!


I also made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies this weekend and I realized I've never shared the recipe, so I'll share that sometime tomorrow.


In other exciting events, I organized my freezer.  Moving from a side by side fridge to a regular fridge has been an adjustment.  I got some Pinterest inspiration a few weeks ago on organizing your freezer, so I did it! :)

I know it doesn't look that different, but it allows me to store all of my frozen veggies/fruits in one container and all of my meat in other container.  I especially like the meat container, as meat packaging always freaks me out a bit and I'm a bit OCD about what it touches.  This way all of it is contained in one plastic container and my OCD self can breathe easier. It's the little things!

There is a lovely coffee shop near our house now that we've been studying at once or twice a week.  It's a nice change of scenery and supports a great cause.  The coffee shop is called Land of a Thousand Hills and their mission is to bring reconciliation to the people of Rwanda.  


Plus, they serve coffee like this - what's not to love?

This might go down as the most random post ever.  This is my life right now, random and ever changing.  I'm learning to love it!

Making Life Work

In this current stage of life I am involved in helping my husband run his business and I work about 30 hours a week for a software company.  In addition to these two jobs, I am a full-time student, a part-time blogger, and a volunteer at church.  As you can well imagine, life is fun and it takes a lot of planning to get everything accomplished.  Here are some things I do to make my life work:

Write a to-do list: - It is very important to prioritize and list out what you feel needs to be accomplished each day, week or month.  I have daily lists, weekend list, weekly lists, and even monthly lists.  This may sound overwhelming, but it frees up brain space because I know I will not forget anything.  Having a dedicated notebook or planner for your to- do lists will help keep you organized.  A hundred sticky notes on your fridge will not de-stress you.  When writing my to-do list I also take note of items I’ll need on different days. If I need to pickup dry cleaning, I put the dry cleaning ticket in my planner.  If I need to go to the grocery store, I put my list and coupons in an envelope in my planner.

Create a schedule – Some people groan at this because they think that it will be just one more added pressure to their already hectic life!  Take your to-do list and break it down into your schedule. When you write that schedule, you will realize that you are not superwoman and you have to weed out some tasks.  Is it more important to sleep at night or to finish dusting the house?   The dusting can always wait. J  It is liberating to walk past a messy bedroom and know that you have “clean bedroom” at 2 PM.  It prevents distraction and encourages productivity!

Plan for leftovers – When life gets busy, the first thing that most of us start to skip is cooking at home. Unfortunately, this can dramatically affect our budget quickly, because eating out is not cheap or healthy!  When I cook, I plan for leftovers.  When I make spaghetti, I cook enough ground beef to use for dinner and to freeze for a future dinner.  If I make rice, I make enough rice for two meals and just plan to make two rice based dinners.  When I make a pot of soup, I will make a double batch and freeze the second half for a few weeks out.   This cooking ahead principal takes no additional time, but it allows me to have a freezer full of options for days that just don’t allow for kitchen time.

Talk and work – I try to save up my personal phone calls for the part of my day that I tackle household chores.  I put a headset on and catch up with friends while I clean the kitchen, fold the laundry, straighten up the house, or wipe down the bathrooms.  This allows me make time for my friends and keep my house in order!

Learn to say no – this one is hard for me and my husband.  We both love to help people and to spend time with people, so “no” has been a hard lesson to learn.  But it’s very important to realize that we are all human in 24 hr day constraints and there is only so much that we can do! Release yourself to say no sometimes!

I found this quote a few months ago and it resonates with this stage of my life, “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”  Our life won’t always be this busy, but during this season it has been a necessity and thankfully we have tackled it with the grace of God!

What are some things you do to save time?  

Organizing My Recipe Cabinet

It should not be a shock to anyone that stops by my blog that I love to cook.  I use many exclamation marks and over the top words such as scrumptious, yummy, delicious, irresistible, etc when the topic of food is at hand. With this love of recipes comes a bit of a quirk.  I want to try just about e-v-e-r-y recipe that  I s-e-e.  It creates an interesting problem since I find about five recipes a day that I want to try.  You see, the math doesn’t work in my favor.  I will die with a stack of recipes left to try.  Cold, hard, truth.

My recipe cabinet was getting to be a slight mess, so I came up with a plan.

Before The Makeover

Keep in mind, this is just my recipes books, the recipes I have printed off and the magazine clippings I have saved.  This does not include my ever growing bookmark page of recipes that I have saved to my computer.

I found a magazine holder and a small file box at Target, both were $3. I stacked all of my cooking magazines in the magazine holder. 

Then, I took my collection of recipes that I haven’t tried yet and I sorted them into categories, Pasta, Veggies, Bread, Entrees, Beverages, Desserts, etc.  I put the different categories into basic manila folders and placed them in the file box.  This way when I am looking for some inspiration in a certain area I can grab the folder and see what I have new to try. 

My system is this: Once I try a new recipe I either save it by typing it up into my word document recipe book or I rid my home of it by throwing it away.  Thus the "To Type" file you see in my file box.  This means the  recipe made the cut.  Every once in a while, I print off my collection of recipes and update the recipe binder that I keep in my kitchen.

After The Makeover

The lighting in my kitchen is terrible so please give me grace with these pictures. This organizing project was not glamorous, but it was fast and it works.

I am linking up at:

New and Improved Medicine/Vitamin Cabinet

A couple of weeks ago, Graphics Fairy posted this graphic:

find it here

I loved the vintage look of it and knew I wanted to use it for something.  Then I thought about the cabinet in my kitchen that stores my vitamins and medicine and I decided that this would be the perfect excuse motivation to get it organized!

Before:

I took these pictures really quickly, but you get the idea.  Mismatched colors, hard to find bottles, nothing pretty about it!

I found these boxes at Michaels for $2.50 a piece

Then, I opened the picture in Photoshop and added some words so I could make labels for my boxes. Next, I printed the labels on card stock.

Then, I simply used double-sided scrapbooking tape to attach the labels to the boxes.

Super easy and makes my cabinet look so much better!

 

Staying On Top Of Things

In the past I've found it fairly easy to keep my home clean and organized.  Over the last few months while working two jobs, taking four classes, volunteering at church, the holidays, friends and family, etc I have seriously lost  my touch! 


Ladaisi shared this picture with me yesterday:

http://pinterest.com/eileensideways/

What a wonderful way to make "a lot on a plate" look pretty. 

Anyways, in an effort to gain a little bit of order in  my home I am joining A Bowl Full of Lemon's Weekly Cleaning & Organizing Challenge.  She'll be posting a new challenge each Sunday evening for participants to link up to throughout the week.  Many of the items she has on her list, I have on my list too so I'm excited to get inspired.

Spring...errrr...Fall Cleaning!

Much to Caleb's dismay, the cleaning and organizing bug bit me this week.  I've decided my house needs a deep cleaning/over haul before the holidays begin, so it started yesterday!


My master bathroom and bedroom have been dusted, vacuumed, and the bedspread is at the cleaners.  I'm a little extreme when it comes to "deep cleaning" so this included things like vacuuming the blinds and lampshades, washing the bed skirt, and vacuuming BEHIND our massive king sized bed. That was fun! Overall, it wasn't bad and the result of a spic and span living area is great! Though Caleb did sweetly ask me last night if I would, "give him some warning next time." Believe it or not, he doesn't get quite as enthused as I get about organizing projects.

If you're in the organizing mood, just remember to start small. Even if it is cleaning out a kitchen drawer while the pasta boils.  Small victories are motivating!  Here are some of my small victories...

Before

 

After

Before

After

Before

After

Happy Organizing!