AT's January Cure: Living room refresh

Alright, can I ask you something? Am I the only one who's had  30-seconds tasks on her to do list for five years? Seriously. Today we finished something that took 30 seconds. And we've been meaning to do that ever since we moved here, actually I think we meant to do it in the old house. 

So, yeah, I'm still working on AT's January Cure. In fact, we've been tackling so many of the little things, and the larger projects we just didn't get around to.  Or didn't do because, frankly, sitting on the couch with some cookies and hot tea is way more fun after a long week than causing a giant mess in your house by cleaning, purging and rearranging.

And it does make a mess. Funny, but for me cleaning and purging always makes a mess. Yes, technically there is the outbox for that, but somehow stuff just ends up all over the house, waiting to be returned to its original place, waiting to be found a home for or waiting to be dealt with in some other way.

Like that huge white drawer full of DVDs that has been sitting in my living room since last week -  removed from the TV chest that we've removed and waiting for us to digitalize the DVDs. Or the stuff from the outbox that we've been putting up for sale. Not to mention the two large laundry baskets full of magazines that I am slowly making my way through.

I hate that. Isn't organizing meant to make your house nice and clean? Sigh. Guess it'll take another couple of days until the last things are put away / recycled / sold.

But let's look at what we did get done:

8. Keep Yourself on Track: Get a Get-Together Together

Uhm, well. Not really doing this one. We have a birthday coming up at the end of the month, and while we did use the Cure last year to prep for a party, this year we've decided to just send the kids off to the grandparents and enjoy a nice weekend for two. Much better reward for all that hard work if you ask me!

9. The Clutter Filter: Create a Landing Strip

Still working on this one. We've rearranged a few things in the hallway and I did add a wooden bowl we had to throw in keys and such, but I need to take a trip to Ikea to buy some wall organizer I can use for storing brushes, lipstick and other accessories for getting out the door quickly in the morning.

10. Unplug for an Evening: Try a Media Fast

Instead of getting out my laptop, I went through stacks of old magazines last week. The result? A big stack of magazines ready to be recycled and not much done in terms of blogging, editing photos or starting the 2014 edition of my annual photo book. Not sure I like this. I think I do need the time when the kids are in bed to be creative - well, as creative as my brain allows me to once it's half-asleep from a long workday. But you know what I mean. What I did find is that it actually makes sense to close the laptop once I find myself mindlessly browsing Pinterest or worse, shopping for things we do not really need might urgently need at some point in the future. Once my brain refuses to wake up, I might just as well go to bed. Revolutionary, I know.

11. The Halfway Point!: Project Progress

Not the most productive of days, but I did some prep work for the big living room rearranging all week, so maybe that counts... ahem. 

12. Weekend Chores: Flowers, Bedroom Cleaning & Wardrobe Organizing

Lots of progress over the weekend. Not on the bedroom though, mind you. But hey, if you can get your significant other to help you with that goal project you've been meaning to do, you're not gonna go and clean out your closet instead, are you? Didn't think so. Besides, my closet will get it's semi-annual clean-out when it gets a tad warmer and I can pull my Spring wardrobe out and sell all things I am not delighted to see again plus all things that didn't get worn all winter long. 

Only bedroom progress was cleaning out my sock drawer and doing the regular weekly dusting / vacuuming / mopping. 

But, folks, we did go from this:

To this:

And all just with rearranging and purging. We got rid of a ton of things, including the already mentioned magazines, lots of technical equipment, DVDs, CDs and countless other things that were just there because they had a place.

Do you have that, too? Things that live in your house simply for no other reason than that there is space on the shelf for them and they are still good? We had plenty of these things.

Now, we have a lot more space and only those things left that we really need. The only things we bought were two guitar holders and a large canvas of one of my photos. Everything else we already had somewhere (such as the lampshade and lamp or the four white ramekins that from the kitchen clean out the week before). Sunday we went for a walk with the kids and got some branches that sit in a vase and yesterday we put up the canvas that came in the mail. 

I'm still sitting here with a big grin, happy over the fact that we got it done. Looks so much nicer now, I have no idea why we didn't do it in the first place.

13. Less Mess & Stress: Getting Your Paperwork & Files Organized

Ugh. That was my otherwise free Monday morning. It was ugly. And I don't really want to talk about it. Still some things left to organize, but overall just surprised that something you do regularly can take so much longer if you decide to really do it, I mean, not just putting all the new papers on top of the old ones (which are neatly organized, mind you), but really go through ALL of it and decide if you really, really need to save it.

14. Worth It: Clear Up Cord Clutter

Busy workweek. Still had it from Monday. So. No. Didn't clean up any cord clutter whatsoever. Although, not true, stuck one visible extension cord back where it belongs. I did, however, remind my dearest that there are still cord-related things on his to do list... ahem. 

15. Declutter & Organize: Bathroom Cabinets Cleanout

That took half an hour while dinner was cooking and it was so good to get done. I should've taken a photo of what I tossed, some really amusing things in there. Heart-shaped hair clips, anyone? Elastics that no longer have any relation to their name anymore? Self-tanning body lotion from I-have-no-recollection-of-ever-buying-let-alone-using-that? Ahhh, that is the Cure at it's best. Quick decisions, easy disposal (hello, garbage bin) and instant gratification. Check!

Medicine? Well, that doesn't live in my bathroom, because really, medicine shouldn't live in bathrooms. There are two wall-mounted cabinets with locks for that, one for kids, one for adults with the contents sorted by illness. Yeah, could've sorted through that, too. But really, it was time for dinner and as I said, it doesn't live in my bathroom... ahem.

16. Lightening Up: Declutter Media Collections

Does tossing all those magazines and CDs over the weekend count here? 

17. Weekend Chores: Flowers, Outbox, Living Room & Lighting

With last weekend, we don't really have much left to do here. I already did add a table lamp, and while I would love to replace the floor lamp by my couch that makes me squint at magazines trying to decipher text, it's not in the budget right now and also will depend on the new couch I'll eventually get (been saying that for two years now.). So for now, it stays. Emptying the outbox is always my least favorite part, it seems to take forever and requires so may trips to drop off things, ugh. But this time I am really going to face it and get all things out of the house by  next week!

My favorite part is the energy the Cure sets free. I find myself constantly decluttering things and sorting as I go, no matter if they are assignments or not, on my list or not. And I am still hopeful that this year I can really sort through most parts of the house before Summer comes. 

So that was it for me - how has it been going for you? What's your most favorite part and what parts do you loathe?

AT's January Cure: The kitchen. And then some.

You know that feeling when you’re totally exhausted, but still glad? That was me Sunday night. I knew the kitchen cleaning and organizing task that is part of AT’s January Cure would be quite a bit of work, but I had no idea it was going to be this bad. I mean, I do believe that I have a fairly organized kitchen, after all, organizing drawers is something I’d do for fun (believe it or not), only to keep opening that drawer, smile at the nicely organized contents and close it again. Yes, that is something I like.

And yet, that kitchen task took me all weekend, and more. But let’s start with the beginning of the week.

Monday: get a fresh perspective

The theory is you sit in a spot for 10 minutes that you never sit in, and try to get a new perspective on a room. Ideally that makes you think of ways to improve the flow of a room or change that one thing that’s always been bugging you but you never really knew why.

I sat in the open door to my tiny entry, trying to figure out a way to make the flow of kids coming in with dirty shows, winter jackets, hat, scarves and school backpacks fit better into that little space. We had made some changes over the weekend as part of the floor cleaning task (LINK!!!), such as bringing in a stepstool leftover from the bathroom for little brother to sit on and take his shoes off. Still, that space feels cluttered and cramped. Well, actually it IS cluttered and cramped, because it’s just too small for four people and their stuff. I knew that when the floor plans of the house were being finalized, and yet I rather wanted some extra space in my kitchen and not in my entry.

We already keep extra coats, shoes and accessories tucked away in a nearby closet and have (labelled!) baskets for the kids’ hats and such, but still. But what I came up with is this:

-          that room really, really needs to be painted. And this time it’ll be painted white.

-          the coatrack holding the boys’ jackets needs to be hung higher – after all, we’ve lived here for close to five years and the kids have obviously grown a lot

-          I need to rethink the placement of that large mirror. I love it, but across from our coatrack it seems to visually double the coats. I will try to find another place for it and put a large-scale photograph in its place in an attempt to calm and widen the space

-          as already on my list (LINK!!!), I really need to find a new way to store those things like hairbrush and lipstick, preferably close to a smaller mirror

-          I need to remove as many things as possible from that room!

I also used my free morning on Monday to get a headstart on the kitchen and cleaned out the candy cabinet. I have absolutely no idea where all that stuff came from. It feels like I clean that out every month or so, and within no time at all it gets so cramped that the door will hardly close. This time, I had no mercy and threw a ton of stuff out, including all the cheap Halloween candy. I kept just as much as I can easily let my kids eat without having to worry, and I will have to have yet another serious talk with the grandparents about the sheer amount of sweets they bring. Two tiny bags with a kid-sized handful of gummybears are plenty, no need to buy the XXL bag for each boy. I mean, I found gummybears that were actually expired! And my kids love gummybears, but they can’t eat half a bag each day. Ugh. Such a waste.

Tuesday: Set up an outbox

That one was easy – put a large box into my storage closet. Done. Already added a few things to it. The weekend’s kitchen cleanout resulted in a separate outbox that we’ve put into the basement together with all the other things there that are waiting to be donated.

A lot of things that I purged also simply went into recycling or got dumped. Chipped bowls, expired foods and that gigantic surplus of chocolate.

Wednesday: Pick a project to cross off your list

Not quite sure about this one. I’d love to do some major living room re-arranging to make it less cramped and win back some wall space for floating shelves and ideally some large-scale art. But we’ll have to see how the month goes, and with half the family being sick last week, I called the living room project a bonus and focused on crossing a few of the kitchen things off my list while working on it over the weekend anyway.

Thursday: Prep artwork for framing and display

I was really lucky that my three workdays had light loads in terms of The Cure. For this one I decided to do it the other way around – not pick a piece of art to frame, but a frame that needs some new piece of art. Specifically the large ABC poster in the kids’ bathroom. It’s this lovely print by enna  and while I still think it’s beautiful, they simply have outgrown it. I still do love the dark wooden frame though, so last week I went through my photos from the last vacation at the beach and picked one. Actually took me until this week to finally get the measurements of the frame, decide whether I want the photo with or without a mat and order it. But it’s done and should be ready in time for hanging it as one of the next Cure assignments.

Friday – Sunday: Flowers, kitchen organizing and cleaning, make a meal

Nothing better to start your Friday than clean out the fridge and freezer, right? Well, at least the kids were at school so I could make a giant mess out of my kitchen, barely managing to clean it all up before I had to run out of the door to pick them up cleaning it all up, having a nice cup of tea and waiting for them at school. Ha. The upside was that little brother and I went for a nice and relaxed grocery shopping trip later that afternoon (and yes, if you usually deal with two kids arguing and racing their shopping carts around the aisles, taking just one of them shopping is actually nice and relaxed). He chose some red tulips for our weekly flowers, and we bought some chicken for making a citrusy grilled chicken Saturday.

I felt pretty good with the worst kitchen offenders already dealt with and flowers on my table. I should have known that if it takes me quite some time Monday to clean out one cabinet and all Friday morning to do the fridge, the rest of the kitchen wouldn’t exactly be a piece of cake either.

And let’s just say it wasn’t. By Saturday night I had at least dealt with all the food cabinets, plus those two drawers holding my baking pans, measuring cups and waffle irons (why, yes, I have two. One for waffles and one for ice cream cones. Not that I have ever made ice cream cones yet, mind you. Guess that is on my list for 2014, or else that thing will have a place reserved in next year’s outbox!) that had been driving me crazy for ages. But it was late, dinner was on the grill and the kids were tired.

Ah, right, that is why everything seemed to take even longer. Kids. Two of them. Having demands like wanting drinks, food and mommy to find that tiny little flashlight that belongs to one of those Playmobil figurines. Somehow I have a feeling this Cure thing would be easier if you could just keep working without interruptions, until late at night if you have to and then collapse onto the couch and order a pizza, oh, and sleep in the next morning. Well, no such luck. That reminded me why I don’t usually do weekend projects like this one and try to break tasks into chunks that I can finish off while they are at school and I am off work...

In the end we did get it done though, and although I am sure my men all think I am nuts and rolled their eyes here and there, they did let me work and even took the time to appropriately admire my work.

So this is what we ended up with for the outbox. I found a couple more things, such as a pair of fruit knives. Who on earth needs fruit knives?! I asked my mom when she came in, but she insisted that “people used to have them”. Right. And what for? “Well, for when you want to cut an apple of so”. Hmmm, when I want to cut an apple I use a real knife and cutting board, thank you very much. But what else is she going to say, she was the one who bought that stuff. I was going to add them to the outbox and took them out of their WMF package (yes, they were still in their original box, and made it through two moves. Go figure.) to see what they look like – turns out they look precisely like miniature versions of my regular WMF cutlery. So into the kids cutlery drawer they went, at least now they have knives sharp enough to cut their chicken themselves. Just another one of those why didn’t I think of that earlier moments.

Anyone else having these moments during The Cure? I find it has several effects:

-          these lightbulb moments where it finally dawns on you that an unbelievably simple solution for something that has been bugging you for ages is staring right in your face, and has been all along. You just didn’t see it.

-          you actually take those five minutes it really takes to clean up little messes instead of planning to add it to your to do list for five times before you actually do add it, and then postponing it another five times before you get around to it. So instead of wasting a lot of time and thought on “I have to remember to purge that battery drawer”, I took the box holding the batteries out yesterday, put all the dead ones into a recycling bag and organized the rest by battery, rechargeable and those teeny tiny special sizes. Then actually found and recharged three and put them into little brother’s flashlight, that has been sitting on my kitchen windowsill for ages, missing batteries. Amazing how simple things can be.

-          making plans. I can’t help it, even after making my master house list last week, I keep seeing things and adding to the list. I have a feeling, this Cure will take me longer than January... Much longer.

-          finally crossing off things you meant to do forever. Some of them never even made it on my list because I keep forgetting them. Am I the only one who finds that she forgot thing on her initial project list? Maybe I should have taken more time to write that one... Anyhow, funny thing is even though you have your plate full with assignments, you somehow manage to cross things off here and there, simply because it raises your awareness of the things that work and don’t work in your home. And I guess that is what The Cure really is about.

So we’ll see how this week goes, should be ok. Next week I am not so sure, it’s a busy one workwise and some of the assignments will take an hour or two (or more...). You know, paper clutter, bathroom cabinets and such.

This weekend’s assignment will be bedroom organization. Since I do my wardrobe twice a year anyway but usually more towards February or March when I can put the winter stuff away, there won’t be much to do. Maybe I’ll do a quick sock drawer makeover, but my overall plan is to try and get the living room changes underway. Since that involves quite some furniture moving as well as hanging the TV on the wall, I don’t really want to do that on my own.

What are your plans for the weekend? And what is your goal project for The Cure?

Happy organizing,

Swenja

AT's January Cure: Starting with a list

Every time AT starts one of their cures, I get excited. Like a fresh start, a clean beginning. I have to admit, last year's Kitchen Cure threw me off (I mean come on, take everything out of your kitchen cabinets, wipe down, sort and put back on say a regular Tuesday night after work and while the kids are waiting for dinner? Sorry, just not happening in my house), but I do love the concept of The Cure.

I did the January Cure last year, at least most of it. And the 20/20 cure the year before. Funny thing is, that even when you don't manage to complete every single assignment - it always gives you a new look at your surroundings. You start really seeing those piles of clutter. The little things you meant to fix - weeks ago. Months ago. The projects that didn't get done all the way. The things that sit somewhere because you don't really know where they belong and they've sat there so long that you start to not see them anymore.

The things you've been avoiding.

Day 1: And that was assignment one of the current January Cure: make a project list. Oh, and my list is long. (It also occurred to me that I need to update my home projects list on this blog. Oops.) Then focus on the few things you want to do for January. So, here we go:

Kitchen

• clear off and declutter the windowsill, where unidentified plastic kid objects go to collect dust and ultimately die. Also, make pesto to use up that less than good looking basil and replace it with some rosemary. 
• clear off counters as much as possible and try to find new homes in cabinets for some of the things
• declutter oils and vinegars
• use up excess food from the holidays
• clean garbage drawer under the sink

Living room

• get rid of TV unit and one of the cubby units. Turn the other two cubby units on their sides (they're similar to the Expedit), hang TV above one of them
• rethink frames currently on the walls and make plans for new art
• declutter kids craft materials 
• declutter kids games and sell the ones we no longer use

Office

• Sort through bin with recycling stuff I keep for the kids to craft with
• Go through and file papers (ugh)
• Declutter fabric, find new home for fabric scraps

Kids room

• start looking for new art for little brother's room
• sort through toys and sell baby toys (mostly done over the holidays)
• hang the guitar shelf that little brother and daddy made for big brother for Christmas
• get big brother his own craft supplies, now that he and I sorted through every single drawer in his desk

Kids bath

• start looking for new art replacing the babyish ABC poster, keeping the lovely frame

Entry

• find a new wreath for our door
• paint!
• wash the rugs
• finally get those mysterious stains off the tiles that have been there forever
• declutter shelves
• start looking for new art
• source better way to keep brush, lipstick, kids detangled and other quick-out-the-door essentials nearby but not in plain sight (needs to be wall-mounted)
• install new hooks for keys

Day 2. So this is where we're at for the weekend assignment:

Buy Flowers: did that while shopping on Friday. Got paperwhites again, and finally put my three tiny helleborus plants back outside today, nestled in a planter by the front door. 

Vacuum the rugs and clean ALL the floors: Two kids, two cats = I vacuum every day, at least downstairs. The floors in this house are dust bunny and crumb magnets. As for the mop, well, thanks to a very lovely migraine, this still didn't get done today and will have to wait until Sunday. No better day to mop all your floors than Sunday, right? At least I washed the bath mats already. 

Stock up on good green cleaners: We use mostly green cleaners, but not all. I haven't found a floor cleaner that does not leave streaks other than the one I use, and that is not green. But what has made a  difference to me is generally decluttering my cleaning products and just using some basics, most of them green, instead of all sorts of harsh and specialized cleaners. I did, however, use this as an excuse to browse the cleaner isle in the local drugstore for ten minutes and getting a new, green, lavender cleaner to use on the kitchen, kids bathroom etc. We'll see.

Anyone else doing the January Cure? 

March home projects update

March was not my most productive month when you look at getting home projects done. Starting the month off with little brother’s birthday party and a changed work schedule, that didn’t leave too much energy for organization projects. Then came the gorgeous weather and we went out every day practicing with little brother’s training bike. Anyhow. Here’s what I did get done.

Find a space for remaining craft supplies like those recycling items I keep for crafting. I got one of those metal Ikea buckets with a lid which fits quite a few items. Still not all of them though. Sigh.

I actually ended up using some of the recycling stuff for storing my stamps. These plastic trays usually hold those tiny tomatoes. Now they're home to old and new stamps.

Get a cork board as photography backdrop. My sweet husband did that one for me. One side is painted white, and the other he painted black using chalkboard paint. It’s fairly small so it stores easily when not in use but it’s great as an impromptu backdrop. Hopefully that should mean fewer photos with that green wallpaper in the back… we’ll see.

Get some more cork to make a pinboard. Well, this didn’t get done because I simply decided we won’t need it. Too many things around that little desk anyway. But I did cross it off the list.

Organize kid’s art and craft projects. Well, I wish I had really done that, but at least I do have a plan and a much better system now. I’m using a small drawer in my kitchen as a temporary storage space for them and try to remember to take photos of the boys with their artwork when they bring it home. It then goes upstairs to my office where I scan the rest and put the ones I want to keep in a simple folder. Now, the real work will be making a photo book of all their art, one for each kid. And I haven’t even started yet. Yikes.

Do a pantry challenge and clear some of the built-up groceries from the holidays. We did that here and there, trying to use up the stuff in the pantry (which is a kitchen cabinet btw) before buying something new. It’s not all done but significantly reduced. Now I need to do the same for my baking supplies...

Outside of the house. With the warm weather we’ve been spending time on this one, obviously. Most items are still work in progress, but we did clean up the sandbox and got some new mulch for the surrounding area. And ordering new plants is way up there on my to do list. For a week now actually, but let’s just not talk about that.

Pancake days or why we're finally doing meal planning

Meal planning. It's something I always wanted to do but never managed to stick with. I'd sit there on Sunday afternoons with a stack of cookbooks and a calendar and it took forever to decide what to make when. Ugh.

Then Project Organize Your Entire Life  came along. What started out as a funny post became a huge project Steph is doing over at Modern Parents Messy Kids. Now, I don't have the time or brain capacity right now to really join in, but I can't help but follow this.

Changing workdays, preschool lunch days and pretty much all the rest of the schedule might not be the ideal time to try and implement additional schedule changes. Or maybe it's the perfect time. Because it's all changing anyway and with three workdays I need to get much more organized. I used to do long days on Mondays and Thursdays, and those were kind of exception days where everything was different from normal for a day. Now it's shorter days Tuesday through Thursday, and that means much more regularity. Which is a good thing.

But back to meal planning. A while ago, my kids became obsessed with my mom's pancakes. They'd ask her for pancakes everday, until we finally decided that Tuesday is pancake day. Now they get all excited about Tuesdays and don't really argue about having pancakes any other day. Oh, maybe I should mention that pancakes (we're talking German ones here, thin, big German pancakes with lots of apples in them) are considered lunch, or sometimes even dinner for a certain picky 3-year-old.

The success of the pancake Tuesdays got me thinking. What if I didn't have to come up with meals for the entire week, each and every week, but rather assign certain days based on what fits our schedule and then just pick a recipe that goes with it?

You see, I tend to do too many things at once. And somehow multitasking at my age is not such a brilliant idea. Given too many choices, my brain refuses to focus and spends lots of precious time considering alternatives. It's like Starbucks. It takes me forever to order something because there are too many choices, so I usually order the same thing over and over again, but it doesn't feel right. Ask me if I want regular coffee or decaf and I can decide in a nanosecond. Ask me what blend and what size and all those other choices and I'm lost.

So, my solution to meal planning is as simple as that: limit choices. You could also say assign themes to certain days (if you've seen my kids' birthday parties you know I like themes). Which now looks like this:

Mondays: Asian.
I'm home so I potentially have more time to cook and a quick grocery run for milk and bread after the weekend is likely anyway, means I can pick up meat or any missing fresh veggies. Also, the organic meat section at the store in the next city is usually stocked for the weekend, so we buy then. Asian can mean anything from stir-fry chicken dishes to Asian pasta salad to Thai curry shrimp or vegetarian dishes. But it makes it much, much easier for me to pick a recipe. It also means I can cook more rice if needed sometime later in the week.

Tuesdays: Pancakes. And Leftovers.
Cooking over the weekend and on Mondays usually means leftovers, so this is the perfect day to clear out the fridge and have an easy dinner for the first workday this week. If we don't have leftovers, we have sandwhiches, or maybe a soup on cold days. The kids usually have their pancakes when they come home from preschool, mostly because little brother doesn't eat much at preschool lunch and is starving (and cranky!) by then. My mom makes an extra pancake that I save for the next day.


Wednesdays: Fish.
Yeah I know, it supposed to be fish on Fridays. But Fridays have always been our pizza days, because that's when my dad comes over for dinner. I do my weekly grocery trip on my way home on Wednesdays, so I can get something fresh here if needed. This can be as simple as grilled with with salad and bread (or leftover rice from Mondays) in the summer, or more substantial like pasta with fish and broccoli (my kids love that). I also have slightly more time to cook because little brother is at my in-laws and comes home with my husband. Much easier to cook with a five-year-old around instead of a three-year-old. Mostly. Should the picky little one not like dinner, there's always the leftover pancake (genius, isn't it?)


Thursdays: Potatos/Eggs
I'm usually tired by now. Time for something simple like a frittata.

Fridays: Pizza and/or BBQ
We've had this tradition for quite a while, and aside from the Pancake Tuesdays, this is one of those things that made me realize strict schedules can also be a good thing. You just need to call them traditions. My kids know that Fridays we pick up grandpa, and he usually brings the pizza dough and some of those toy-filled chocolate eggs that mommy doesn't buy. So we make pizza together, big brother rolling out his own dough. Little brother doesn't eat pizza (!), but since I'm off on Fridays, I usually cook a large pot of pasta for lunch and little brother has leftover pasta. I wouldn't survive without always having some leftover plain pasta in my fridge! In the summer we often throw something on the grill and grandpa's pizza dough becomes Italian bread while the lunch pasta turns into pasta salad. Fine with me.

Saturdays: Meat day
Now, we do have meat during the week, as in chicken stir-fries and such, but this is the official meat day. You know, like when you ask your man what he wants for dinner and the reply is "Steak!". Not steak with mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots. No, just steak. So this is the day. We put a chicken in the clay pot in winter, throw a steak on the grill in summer or simply make fajitas. Yep, this meal plan is flexible. Oh, and if we're home, this is the day for something sweet for lunch, like oven pancakes, clafoutis, pudding... Yum.

Sundays: Pasta
I love pasta. My kids love pasta. I could do seven pasta days, and sometimes I almost do, with stir-fried noodles, pasta with fish and pasta salads. Sundays is also the most flexible day because there is absolutely nothing on the calendar. We might be out for a day trip and do a quick pasta dish when home, or we might be home all day and cook bolognese sauce and lasagna which takes all afternoon. If we're having lunch at home, we usually let the kids have their beloved junk food, a.k.a. fish sticks, french fries and the like.

And that's it. Makes for much less argueing. So far we've only been doing this for three weeks, so I can't say anything about if we'll stick with this long term. It's also not set in stone, but it's a good guideline and makes choosing recipes and making grocery lists much easier.

What about you? Are you meal planning?

Swenja

Too little space or too many glasses?

I wish I could tell you that I was really making progress on my home projects list this month. Instead, I'm finally getting around to posting about some of the progress I made last month. Oh well.

You see, I inherited what feels like a ton of glasses, vases, dishes and other stuff from my grandma, and my mom also gave me quite a bit of hers when she moved years ago. And of course I had to buy my own when I got my first apartment. Then we moved into the house, I had a new baby and a lot of things got shoved into this one little, innocent cabinet in my living room:

Yep, about a year or two ago I took some gift wrap and used that to hide the mess inside. Want to see why?

So, I took everything out. Sorted through the vases and votive candle holders. Put all the little decoration bits and pieces into a box. And dragged all the remaining glasses in the kitchen.

Which then looked like this.

Taking a deep breath (and some more migraine medication), I took everything out there, too. Now this is only part of the mess, mind you.

I don't know about you, but I had two sets of wineglasses. You know, one for daily use and one for good.  Those were the ones in the living room cabinet. The ones that got pulled out for Christmas. Until there was too much of a mess in the cabinet to even bother pulling them out (you don't want to be hit on the head by a tower of boxes, votive holder and vases crashing on you on Christmas Eve, after all).

This was something I had thought a lot about (yep, I sit around and think about sets of wineglasses. Only to go and complain that I have too much to do. Hmmmm...). I mean, really, why would you need two sets? One you love and one you use? What about simply using the one you love? Now that's a novel concept. They're still not the world's most perfect wineglass, but I bought them ages ago and while they don't have the ideal shape, I love them for their detailed stem.

The everyday ones I didn't even buy. I got them as a Christmas gift from my in-laws, because you could get them at some store for points that you get every time you purchase something there. They're a good brand (Rosenthal), they're heavy, one was chipped already when it came out of the box and, well, I never really loved them. Out they went (to a box sitting in my basement donation pile).

Now that I got rid of everything I don't use or love (can you tell I've been reading Jules' blog?!) I actually have space in my glass door kitchen cabinets for these beauties here:

Little cocktail picks from my mom and grandmother. Nobody's ever going to use them again, but I put them in a glass at the very top shelf (the one I need a chair to reach) and it makes me smile to be able to look at them everyday.

Too pretty to be hidden in a disastrous living room cabinet if you ask me!

Just like these. I have five of them, and they're proudly on display now. And who knows, next Christmas when I do my cranberry vanilla liqueur again, I might just pull them out.

So this is what the living room cabinet looks like now. The top shelf is actually where our laptops live these days, and I need another shelf to be put in there so they don't get crowded.  But it's much, much better.

Kitchen china cabinet. Luckily I always only had one set of dishes (if you don't count those giant boxes of my grandma's in the basement). I had cheap Ikea ones when I started out, but for our first real apartment we got a set of plain and simple but good white dishes, and that's all we ever use. They don't get scratched and over the years only three plates have broken (I keep forgetting to replace them). It's pretty, has clean lines and goes with pretty much everything.

Kitchen glassware cabinet. Much more organized now AND it contains all my good wineglasses and my everyday water glasses (I don't own good ones. I have boys.).

Not much progress on the list this month, but hey, I did some more last month so I could spend March adjusting to my new work schedule. Once the weather gets better, we'll likely tackle some of the outdoor projects.

What about you? Do you have dishes that get pulled out only for special occasions? Or do you use your "good" china and glasses everyday?

Linking up with Jules' William Morris Project today. Yay!

Cheers,
Swenja

February home projects update: on eating frogs

February was a very busy month.

You see, next month I will change my office days from two to three. I won't increase my hours so that basically means more time with my kids as I get to pick them up from preschool in the afternoon instead of coming home at (or past) dinnertime. But it also means more time spent commuting and getting up before the crack of dawn. And it means a lot less time for projects of any kind, be it organizing, photography, sewing, party preparations or blogging.

So what does a crazy list-maker do? Prepare herself and make a list of what really, really needs to get done and then try to cross as many things off that list before March.

So February was a very busy month.

While reading a chapter or two in Tsh's 52 bites book I came across the concept of eating frogs. Frogs are those things on your list you don't really want to deal with, the ones you keep putting off. Eat your frog first thing and you'll feel much more productive. Sounded good. So instead of tackling my photography goals or start working on my annual family photo book, I tackled the things that I've been dreading and that really are best done in bigger chunks of time. A lot of them from my home projects list.

Like that small storage room / walk in closet, a.k.a. catch-all clutter magnet. I've cleaned this one out what feels like a zillion times after moving in not even three years ago. It always started to get messy again soon. That's a fairly sure sign that there simply is too much stuff in there, so no matter how you organize it or what storage bins you buy, it will get messy again.

Ironically, I did start by finally putting together the white storage boxes I got months ago. With some help, of course. 

Then I took a deep breath and dragged most of the closet's contents out. What bugged me most were the recycling stuff I kept in there for possible future craft project use (in a cabinet that I hadn't opened in weeks. Or months?), all the cleaning supplies that I purged before but that still looked cluttered sitting on an open shelf and the general lack of space to even walk in there.

So this time I was ruthless. All the cardboard boxes saved for mailing packages were tossed, other mailing stuff like padded envelopes and such was purged until it fit into a nice little white box. I kept 10% of the paper bags I had, and those are probably still too many. Then there was the bin where I keep things to be fixed. Broken toys and other household items. Some of them have been sitting in there for months. Apparently nobody was missing them enough to fix them, so most of that got tossed, too. I could keep going, but the bottomline is that I really tried to stick to that simple, number 1 decluttering rule: Love it, use it or lose it.

You know what happened? The rest of my house looked like a disaster zone. And the closet? Well, that one has empty bins now. I even took out one third of the shelves and will eventually replace the remaining ones with something that takes up less space. Not only can I walk in there now, I can also turn around and put things back where they belong.

I labelled all the boxes, drawers and cabinet doors, although I have to disappoint you: no scrapbook paper, fancy scalloped edge labels and not even a labelmaker. Nope, just some simple white paper cut into crooked pieces, the contents written on in my very own handwriting and stuck down with simple clear tape. Yeah, I know, I'm not going to win any make-it-cute awards here. But I don't care. Besides, I was busy getting rid of the recycling, donation boxes and other miscellaneous items no longer needed.

Ahhhhh. I can't even begin to tell you how great it feels.

So, on to the next frog: Kid's clothes.

Twice a year there's a local market where you can sell used clothing, and the great thing is that you don't have to stand there and sell your stuff, instead you get a number that you stick on your items together with a price and you bring it there the day before and pick it up after. It's only a very small fee and usually a lot of the stuff gets sold. I always wanted to do that but last Fall was the first time that I actually found the time to get it done. So now I try to make it a routine to sort through ALL of the kids' clothing before that date, purge what they've outgrown or simply don't wear, store what we're keeping for little brother and sort through the stuff previously stored to make sure he has the items that fit in his dresser. The remaining things directly go in the pile to be sold.

Again, I was ruthless and put everything in the sell pile that hardly gets worn. I know my mom and mother-in-law won't agree with me here, but I really, really don't think my kids need that many not-so-good longsleeves for messy projects. I have boys: every day is a messy project over here, really. And I don't buy designer stuff for them anyway. I also made lists of what they need. Luckily they always seem to have growth spurts right before I purge their stuff so it's easy to remove things that no longer fit and be strategic about buying new things. I'm getting much better at this, too, not replacing all the stuff I purged with new stuff right away (I'm entirely capable of that).

I also found two plain longsleeves in the pile of stuff that big brother had outgrown at age 3. He had hardly ever worn them, so I decided to pretty them up a bit for little brother, adding simple stamps I had on hand with my new fabric ink pad. I added circus stamps to the yellow one and a simple row of cars to the blue one. A five minute project and he loves wearing his "new" shirts.

Now I still have to get that mountain of clothes labelled for the market (unfortunately the labels weren't available yet when I did the sorting) and get the stuff over there, but that's ok.

My next frog actually deserves its own post, especially as this one is getting a bit long. So I'm just going to tell you that I sorted through that messy cabinet in the living room and also the glassware and dish cabinets in the kitchen.

As for the frogs, that was enough for a month. There are still things like paper pile sorting and doing taxes on my frog list. And I also did a lot of non-froggy things this month, such as preparing for little brother's birthday party, making lion costumes, tackling sewing projects and making more wreaths.

From my home projects list I also did some smaller things, such as decluttering my recipe binder and finally put up that one Expedit door add-on that had been sitting in that closet ever since we moved and now nicely conceals my far too rapidly growing fabric stack in my home office. Now I only have to find a way to automatically clean up the chaos on my desk after projects...

Next month I'll likely focus on small things. Tiny things. Nice things.

As effective as that frog eating thing is and as good as it feels to get it out of the way, it's also fairly exhausting. I don't know about you, but I get tired just writing about it.

What frogs did you eat lately? And what's the biggest frog still sitting on your list? Do tell me in the comments, I'd love to hear.

Happy organizing,
Swenja

Decluttering my recipe binder

I promised to tackle two project from my home projects list per month. This month I was actually quite busy but haven't really gotten around to posting about any of the bigger things I tackled. So I'm posting about something small instead: finally decluttering my recipe collection.

Not sure if this one here is helping or supervising.

Probably supervising. What you see here is a fraction of my pile actually. I had a stuffed binder and lots and lots of loose printouts of recipes found online. All stuffed in a cabinet in the living room. So every time I was looking for something I either had to dig through the pile or just print another copy. Which explains why I had so many duplicates.

I took it all out and sorted by category. Revolutionary, I know.

And that was what I was left with. All the rest went into the recycling bin.

Now, I could have just been happy with this, post my pics and be done with it. And mind you, I sorted this two weeks ago. So what happened? Well, I didn't like the dividers.

Just let that sink in for a minute. I haven't crossed this off my list for two weeks now just because I didn't like the color of the dividers.

I think I read too many organizing blogs. Because really, I have a confession to make. I don't have white walls (gasp!), I don't scrapbook and I do not own a label maker. There you have it. Still I had this image in my head that I was supposed to add cute dividers and make it pretty, somehow.

I figured it would take minutes and some colorful paper. So today I finally managed to get around to it.

After two minutes I realized my plan wasn't working.

Remembering Rachel's post last week, I decided to do what I'm trying to do more often: just use what I have on hand and not try to make it perfect. I mean come on, it's a recipe binder. It's supposed to store recipes so I can find them and cook from them. And yeah, it helps if it's nice enough that I'll find a home for it in my kitchen and not stuff it in a living room cabinet.

But a couple colorful dividers with simple handwritten labels (stuck on by totally professional clear tape) and a cut out and stamped label as title (again stuck on using clear packing tape. Complete with creases. Oh well) is just about good enough.

So I went and reorganized some cookbooks and found this one here a new home on a kitchen shelf.
And that's it, crossed off my list and all done!

How far do you take your projects? When is good enough just good enough and when do you need perfect?

Cheers,
Swenja

Home projects list: January update

Recently I shared my home projects list with you. Still can't believe you guys managed to read through that. All the way. Amazing.

Well, I thought I should honor that and post and update today. Don't worry, I'm not going to post a giant list again with two things crossed off. I've updated the list and will share my progress only. Looking at what's done is much nicer anyway.

So here we go.

First up is my home office. My new Ikea Helmer units, that I got as a Christmas present from my mother in law, are now home to countless craft materials and I have three drawers dedicated to sewing supplies. Still no solution for the fabric stash, but we agreed we're focussing on the good things, right? Right. So the good news is I can now just turn on my sewing machine and have supplies like measuring tape, pins and thread within easy reach. Loooove it. Much nicer than having to drag it all out from the hallway closet!

One day I also grabbed a couple of nails and big brother's (!) wooden hammer and hung a few pieces above my desk. I'm sure there's a much more professional way of doing it, but at this point I prefer wooden hammers, eyeballing it and just getting it done to it sitting on my list any longer. I hung two of Heather's gorgeous cat prints , a small painting that my mom got as a gift when she was young and that somehow survived all those moves and purgings, a woven something that I liked the shape of but have forgotten where it came from or what it was supposed to be used for (some sort of packaging I suspect), and little brother's foot and hand prints that he did in Kindergarten. The I stuck two owl wall stickers that my love got me Christmas (we're talking 2010 here, mind you. They can be found here, btw) to one side of the shelf, stepped back and felt immensely pleased with myself.

On to the kids' rooms. Once I managed to get big brother's hammer and a box of nails out of the shed without being struck by a tower of stuff collapsing on me, I figured I could just as well make the most of it. So while the kids played peacefully (well, as peaceful as an almost-three-year-old will play without a nap), I scanned a few pages of little brother's favorite book. It's ancient - I remember reading this as a kid. My German readers might remember the little nameless boy who badly wants an elephant whom he will call Theodor? Anyhow, little brother helped me select the pages he liked best and we printed three double pages on one sheet of paper and framed it in a simple (and lightweight non-glass ) frame. Then we framed another two of Heather's cats and the boys helped me find the perfect spots above their beds for their new art.

While I was at it, I finally made simple templates one morning, printed them out, traced onto cardboard and wrapped red yarn leftover from Greta's wreath (you should've see me squeal, hop up and down and turn as red as the yarn when she posted that!) around them.

I've seen this on a blog. It looked great. One of those ideas you pin, bookmark and/or file because it looks simple enough to copy. Well, turns out I should have named my kids Oliver and Bruno maybe. But nothing that starts with an M or an H. Ugh. One of those things I should have thought through all the way. Because you can't just wrap these letters, no, you have to figure out a way to get to all sides and around all corners. Hmmm... In the end it worked out somehow. It's not perfect and far from something to post a tutorial about. BUT, you see, I've had the image of these letters wrapped in red yarn and hanging on the walls above their beds in my head for so long now that I didn't really care if they were perfect or not. They're red, the thick yarn is gorgeous and if you don't look closely they're cute. Oh, and I hung them by simply hammering a nail right through the cardboard. So professional.

So that's the update for January. Oh, and my sweet husband oiled the wooden countertops in the kitchen, so that can also be crossed off the list. Yay!

And no, I'm not counting how many more to go. But it felt soooo good to cross them off the list and I smile every time I look at the art above my desk or in the kids rooms.

Cheers,

Swenja