i heart organization {mail station}

We've lived in our house for 11.5 years now. And I'm embarrassed to admit that we've never had a mail station that works for us. Until now. A couple of weeks ago, I ran across this blog post and her set-up finally made sense for our space. We don't have a nice big entry to set things down in. It's a split entry and every wall either has a door on it or one that opens up to it. So, everyday when the mail comes in, a decision has to be made. Bring the bills down to the desk, or go upstairs and hug the kids (and wife) first. Thankfully hugs are always first. ;) So that means the mail gets set in any one of 10 different places. And often it's right in the middle of where I'm making dinner.

I had never been able to find a sorter/holder/box thingy that I liked or was big enough to hold our stuff. So, can you beleive I chose to have this mess around me instead of at least buying something that wasn't "perfect" in the meantime? What was I thinking? It was so easy to let things pile up, because that was easier than trying to find a place for everything, when there really wasn't a place for anything. Yet.

Exhibit A



Even that high shelf isn't high enough anymore to keep things away from the kids.

And when company comes over, I usually resort to dropping all the junk into grocery bags and putting them in my bedroom because we don't even have room for junk drawers. Yeah, not so pretty. These two bags are still in there. That's next weeks task to get though. It's mostly kid stuff (coloring books, etc...) that gets moved from the table, to the hutch when it's time to clear the table off for a meal. Three. Times. A. Day. I know! If we could just stop eating around here, my problems would be solved, right?



A couple of days ago, I went to Target and was able to find just what I needed to get this look. A little canvas covered black box. Pretty basic and non-descript. Perfect! I also found the same file folders and cute clipboard. I'll be painting that rooster hutch (and garbage bin) this summer too. I am SO over roosters. Can I get an Amen?



I've got big plans for this wall too. Would love to add cabinetry, including a tall 18" wide pantry cabinet on the right. It would perfectly cover up that ugly intercom and store the garbage bin and broom perfectly. Then a 30" wide base and upper cabinet to it's left. I'm just giddy about the prospect of having two, dare I say "junk" drawers right there and cabinets up top for kids crafty stuff. Next, we'd match our granite counters and add a white subway tile backsplash and paint the walls yellow. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Anyone have a magic wand I can wave?

So here she is again. Look at how organized this box of files makes me look.



Here's a list of my folder names, in case you wanted to know...

bills to pay
budget (our envelope system is in here)
coupons
receipts - to enter (into the checkbook)
receipts - entered (that we need to save)
TaDa!
taxes
to file
church
school
compassion (international)
doctor (all those well-check papers I take so long to put away)
netflix (so tired of those discs and envelopes getting lost)
paper (just printer paper for the kids to use, we never seem to have enough)
misc (so far I haven't needed to use this one since there's a space for everything now)

I've got a clipboard in the back, with my grocery list on it (now that our fridge is no longer magnetic). And behind that goes any newspapers yet to be read. In the front of the bin is my address book, envelopes, checkbook and pens. But I really should add a file for "mailing supplies" to keep the stamps and envelopes in.

And while I was at Target, I couldn't resist these cuties. Isn't this roll of giftwrap fun? I think I need to go back for more. And I can't wait to fill up these little bags with goodies for Valentine's day.

What I'm loving today.

Just popping in to say that I stumbled upon this over at The Inspired Room last week and just now took a break to read it. I so wish I had seen this in August 2009, when it was written. It was totally for me. Ok, maybe it was written for you too, but it was mostly for me. ;)

It's a post titled ~ Four Daily Routines: How I Keep My house "Clean Enough". Doesn't that just sound great? I already do two of her steps and will start doing the other two immediately. It makes perfect sense now. So much so, I'm kicking myself for not figuring this out before. I've made up elaborate cleaning schedules in the past and honestly it's impossible to keep up with. I have a little black box that is happily sitting on top of the fridge covered in about an inch worth of dust. It just can't be done with 3 (sometimes 5) kids at home all day. It will be ready for me in a few years, but for now it's shelved.

One of her steps is something she calls "cleaning frenzy." We do the same thing here but mine starts out "Honey, will you help me clean the whole house for just 20 minutes, like company's coming?" And then we work really fast, for a bit more than 20 minutes. I find it's easier to get help if there is a time limit on it. My cleaning style tends to be relative to whether we are having people over or not. And let's just say we don't entertain very often. *wink*

So, if you need a little boost getting this New Year started off on the right foot, go read this short and sweet post. You'll LOVE it!

Yes, I'm still participating in the 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge, but I'm already 2 days behind. I have my before photos taken and I put out 7 bags of stuff for donation this morning. Does that count? January really came at an inconvenient time this year. And thankfully I have a loaner sewing machine so I can stay on task with sample making, which is where all my organizing" time is going instead. Speaking of which, I've gotta get back at it...

But before I go, I know that posts without pics are pretty boring so here's one for ya. We got to watch these two deer hanging out in our woods for the better part of the day last week. Do you see them?

Recipe Organization

How do you store your favorite recipes? Are they hand written on recipe cards and stored in a box? Do you have ready access to all of your cookbooks and find yourself desperately trying to remember which book had that one recipe you need right this minute? Do you have a massive stack of recipes you've torn from magazines, just waiting to be organized? All of the above used to describe me.

Until, I started a recipe binder.



My version of recipe heaven.



Everything I need, right at my finger tips.



Gone are the gazillion cookbooks in the kitchen. I still have them of course, but now they are stored in a closet ready to be pulled out for inspiration when it's convenient.



Inside the front cover is a list of our top 30 meals. This list may change over time, but it's an easy scan when planning out a week or month worth of meals.



I took the time a while back to type up all of our favorite recipes. It includes the ones that I never want to loose. Things like the davinity and caramel corn my grandma used to make for us every Christmas. The book has grown a lot since then.



Tried and true recipes posted by blogging friends, that I can't wait to make. Because she uses the real stuff, ricotta, not cottage cheese. Love that!



Recipes from blogging giants that I can't wait to make. Because everything she makes is fabulous.



Recipes I've torn out of magazines. Some I've made a million times (l-o-v-e Hummingbird Cake)



Some that I have yet to try, from favorite restaurants.

{Hey, Rachel, does it taste like the real deal?}



There are recipes especially for the holidays (this is super tasty).



All conveniently placed in plastic sheet protectors which means they will withstand even the messiest of recipes. I pull out the ones I will need for the entire week, making getting food on the table even faster.



Here is a list of the tabs in my book: Beverages, Breakfast, Bread, Appetizers, Salad, Sides, Soups, Seafood, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Meatless, Desserts, Holiday, Birthday Cake Ideas.

The only thing I have left to do is add little colored coded tabs at the top for recipes that use ingredients like buttermilk, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and fresh herbs. You know, those ingredients that don't get fully used up by just one recipe. So you might as well find a few recipes to make within a couple of days to maximize your purchase.

I would love to hear your tips for storing recipes.

Happy 2010!

Though today, I wish I could go back in time about 10 years, when it was just the two of us in a tiny apartment with much, much less responsibility. When life was simpler (though it didn't feel like it at the time) and generally less expensive. When deciding what movie to see and where to eat were the toughest decisions we had to make. I suppose it will always feel like that. Life may never seem easier than it did 10 years prior, at any given moment. It just keeps getting more complicated, yet fulfilling, at the same time. Make sense?

David just got home from trying to pick up the Explorer. It was supposed to be a fun morning for him. Drop the truck off for new tires (that part not so fun, because we were expecting the $800 charge). A friend from work was coming to pick him up and drive them across the street to the mall, to see Avatar, then bring him back to pick up the truck. Boy was I surprised when I opened the front door (to let in light for the photo above) only to see the yellow courtesy van pull in to the drive, dropping him off. I immediately panicked and felt sick inside. He couldn't tell me fast enough (for my taste) what happened.

We just paid off the truck last August, so I guess this shouldn't surprise me. You're never truly done paying, right? But now a bill totaling $3500 (all 4 brakes replaced plus a ton of little things I've never heard of) was just added on top of the $1500 fridge we had to replace yesterday (we are without one until Thursday now) and the $300 vacuum we bought on Christmas Eve to replace our newly broken one. My head is spinning. Can I just say two words? NO SAVINGS! Yep, we are falling even more deeply down that slippery slope of credit cards and we hate it. Now our payments will be even higher, taking away from our already tight budget. How did we get here? Don't answer that. We know. It started 2 years ago with $5000 worth of dental bills for me. Not so fun. And it just spiraled downhill from there. I'm beginning to think we'll never have emergency savings and it's starting to feel like I should just let go of that dream of ever moving. It certainly won't be in 3 years like I had hoped.

Alright, enough of that melodrama. I hope your 2010 has started off much better than ours. And here's hoping we've got all the big stuff behind us for the year. Back to what this post was originally going to be about. Why I was opening my door to let in more light... Cleaning and organization were on my mind.

I'm not one for resolutions since I usually break them within two days. For instance, "spend less", that one has already been broken and now even more important at the same time. But in general I'm always striving to be a better steward of the resources God has blessed us with, to have a deeper relationship with my Savior, to be more thoughtful and kind to everyone I meet and especially those at home and to be more healthy.

One of the things I'm starting new this year is a Home Cleaning Schedule spelled out by Kate. I happened upon Kate's post through the blog of the sister of an old friend from Jr. High Church Youth Group who I found through facebook. Did you follow that? Julie wrote a beautiful post called a Modern-Day Footwashing which lead me to this great tool.

My hope is that this will be super easy-to-follow and will help me be a less-stressed out Mommy because of a messy house. I used to be a neat freak. Really, I was. Stop laughing! I read about Kate's system just yesterday and knew that it would be the answer to what I've been searching for, but just had no clue how to go about it. The whole keeping my house clean has alluded me since the girls started walking. Or perhaps I just gave up. It can be disheartening to be cleaning in one room only to find that another room has just been destroyed.

Not even 2 hours after reading about it, I was at Office Max picking up everything I needed to make my own box. I love it! And I'm so excited to get started on Monday. I still need to cover up the alphabet with the correct headings, but it's workable for now.

Here's what's on my cards. I'm a bit worried that the monthly category will each take more than 15 minutes a day, so I might need to break them down further. I also may have missed some things. But in theory my house should always be clean and ready for visitors. It used to be that we only really cleaned about an hour before Bible study, every other Thursday. And of course that was just the throw-everything-in-the-other-room kind of cleaning, run the vacuum, scrub the toilet, and wash some mirrors. Did I just admit that? I guess I'm just keeping it real today.

Anywho,here's my list...

Daily
quiet time/pray/read Bible
make our bed
empty/load dishwasher, run 1-2x
wash counters/highchair/table after every meal
sweep kitchen floor
1-2 loads of laundry washed and put away
pick up clutter/put away toys
empty sippy-cups from fridge at night

Weekly
Su clean-out fridge and freezers/meal plan
Su pay bills/file papers (David)
M grocery shop
M change/wash sheets
Tu dust all furniture upstairs
Tu wash all mirrors and glass door
Tu go through Awana/Cubbies books with girls
W wash bathroom counter/floor/baseboards/toilet
(while girls take a bath and Sam naps)
Th spot clean entry tiles
Th vacuum all carpet/rug
F wash kitchen chairs/floor

Monthly (one every other day)
dust all lampshades/ceiling fan/cobwebs/top of armoire (on a Tues)
clean top of fridge, small appliances, front of stainless fridge and dishwasher
clean washer and dryer/dust all downstairs
scrub shower/tub
wash one window, including blinds
spot clean carpets
organize/purge pantry
organize/purge front closet
organize/rotate toys in playroom
wash 2^nd bathroom rugs
clean out cars and get a car wash
clean oven/microwave
wash door handles and railings
wash leather furniture/vacuum under cushions (on a Thurs)

Annually
Jan call for air duct and dryer vent cleaning every other year
Mar wash everything above kitchen cabinets
Mar call for furnace inspection
Apr clean all ceiling mounted light fixtures
May wash outside windows
May/David fix broken sprinkler heads
May/David use leather cleaner on car interiors
June/David trim trees/bushes
July/David inspect and fix siding/trim
Sep call for furnace inspection
Sep wash outside windows
Oct rake leaves
Nov use leather cleaner on living room furniture