File Drawer Cleanout.....

and subsequent Study Disaster!!

So as promised, I emptied 4 legal file drawers (2 sets of 2 metal drawers) this past weekend. They have been with me since college and have only been emptied a few times. Matt will tell you (in choice words, I'm sure!) how heavy and awful they are to move because I refused to empty them.

They currently reside, stacked, in the guestroom - but now that they are emptied out, they will be moving to the basement so Matt can use them as storage for his stuff. My (awesome!) brother got us a free 4 drawer black metal file cabinet a few years back and it now resides in the study closet for storage.

ok. Enough chit-chat. Here are the photos of the disaster:

 Behind Pooh and Piglet is the growing stack of Goodwill items...... yes, it has been restarted since Saturday when I dropped off 2 large bags.

Yes, it has even spilled over into the hallway a bit. Oh my goodness! But I have started the clean-up:

 All the black boxes that I haven't been using are being assembled and will be labeled so I can find everything once they find their homes on the bookcase.

 Here is the first box with extra pens, sharpies of various sizes, stickie notes and extra tape.

 These 2 pics (above and below) are a peek into how we keep our finances organized. Each year, we have an accordian file. Each pocket is labeled with various bills - ie mortgage, electric, cable, cell phone, medical, home insurance and taxes, etc. Once the bills are paid, they are marked PAID in red and filed. At the end of the year, the file is closed up and stored for the 3 - 7 years recc by tax proffessionals. I will also note, that all tax info for the year, gets put in a file and gets added to the front of the folder once complete.

My New Fav Toy!

mmmmm! I know this makes me a bit crazy - but we've already established that I love to have a clean house. Not like crazy clean, but clean. So anything that makes it cleaner without having to change what I do already, is a HUGE plus for me!

Please meet my new favorite toy - my Bissell Healthy Home vaccuum cleaner:

Oh, how I looooooooove it! It is replacing our older Bissell which I also loved, but this one has more suction power, a better HEPA filter, you have the option of turning off the brush when doing hardwood floors and the coolest hose I've seen in a long time!

Also, since I'm sharing funny things....... Reese has been moving his bed around while he's home during the day. I've been moving it back when I get home. He always moves it to in front of the sliding glass doors.... But tonight, he moved it in front of Matt's tray table. Even after we had moved onto other things, he stayed there. In the middle of the living room floor. On his bed.

 I love my big goober of a dog! :)

Basement Cleanout Progress

Due to the Christmas and basement media storage clean-up, I've also been working on general basement clean-up. I've filled 2 trash bags, about half a dozen boxes have been sent to recycling!  I thought you might enjoy seeing some in-progress pictures.

More boxes that I hope to consolidate and clear out. BUT in order to do that, we need to get some storage unit or drawers into the basement for Matt to put things away. Which means, I need to clean out my personal crap from the drawers in my study and the guestroom. (This Saturdays' project!!)

I did pull everything off the 1 shelf unit we do have in the basement. Turns out it had become a dumping ground for all kinds of stuff that didn't belong in the basement (kitchen glasses, mixing bowls) OR was just in the wrong spot (xmas gifts, ornaments, trays, halloween costumes, etc). I put everything back on, fancy glassware and serving items on the very top, crockpot, spare tea kettle, pie basket on the next shelf down. Below that (middle shelf?) went paper goods, leftover Halloween Pixie Sticks - yes I still have a TON leftover! - and a few future gifts that shall remain nameless! (I pick things up when I see them a lot of times - it's how I get my b-day and xmas shopping done over the course of the year)

Stack of luggage and duffel bags and spare bags. This might get pared down a little bit more, but probably not right now.

New stack of, not 1 but now 2, rubbermaid containers for halloween costumes(!?!) on top of which is a paper box I need to go through..... It was never unpacked and says "Master Bath" on it. hmmm. Then a small clear container of fabric and supplies and then a bigger plastic bin with table cloths, cloth napkins and place mats. On the very top are wreaths for the front door and a witch hat that wouldn't fit in the halloween bin without being truly crushed.
I still have more to do, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction and I'm loving the progress!!

Lost Thanksgiving Photos

While cleaning out my camera, I came across 3 photos that should have made it to the blog long ago - Thanksgiving.

It was a more casual meal this year, but tasty none-the-less!

These pics only show the soup and salad course, but the soup is my pumpkin squash bisque which I now make every year from scratch! And the salad is my all-time favorite baby spinach, cranberry with a raspberry vinaigrette!

We also had the usual baked sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey and gravy, creamed pearl onions, corn bread, homemade cranberry relish AND a few delish pies to top it off! OK! I have to stop thinking about food now and go finish my basement clean-up!

Putting away Christmas

In light of all my cleaning out, I thought it would only be fair to include the current mess that is the basement. I will hopefully be going through the different areas to clean things up, but first on the list is to clean up the Christmas decorations and put everything away back in its boxes.
This year, not having a tree, made decorating a bit easier, but also made unpacking decorations a bit messier since we weren't using all the boxes, I found myself digging through boxes to find what I wanted to use. ie, bigger mess in the end.

This is some of the mess - a Tree stand that we don't use anymore, but still is hanging around. So is the desk light sitting in it. The black box in front is an old tv that we've kept b/c it's easy to move around the house and it has a built in dvd and vcr in it. I know, I laugh sometimes looking at it too, but who can afford to upgrade all their old fav movies at once? And the chandy is a project. That, yes, I've had for a year now, and still haven't gotten around to, but it will get done this summer!

Here is the nice neat stack of Christmas tub, our wrapping paper box, 4 archival boxes with ornaments, the plastic bag has the holiday throw pillows and pay no attention to the blue box, trash can and red bag - they aren't Christmas boxes, but were used to even the load on the tub :)

Here's the second stack that has the nativity scene, window candles, Christmas dishes and my Christmas Star painting. I will be moving the holiday trays or putting them in a bag to keep them clean.

So the print of Providence Harbor is back above the mantle. The mini-trees will be staying until the spring when we can plant them in the yard. I honestly hadn't thought that part through all the way, but it's added greenery for the first floor..... I just really need to take the red bows off them!

Re-Org (Basement) Media Cabinet

This piece of furniture was one of our great finds that cost $0.00 as we got it from a neighbors family when our neighbor passed away. It's a great solid piece that will be with us for a long time (I'm sure) because even though it looks slightly dated, we have an eclectic style and its clean lines and good craftsmanship make it a perfect fit for us. It's been many things for us over the years, more recently a media cabinet for the basement although it still holds mostly kitchen type pieces and my mug collection.

 This is the right side after I've emptied it of the random stuff it was holding: candles, vases, our champagne glasses, etc.

 This is the left hand side of the cabinet - although you can also get an idea of the whole cabinet with the 4 doors in the picture below.

While I've taken all the stuff out of the cabinet now - see table below - I haven't figured out what is going to happen to everything yet. I will let you know when I figure it out :) Also, once I organize all the video game stuff that will be going INTO the media cabinet, I will take more photos so you can see everything.

In the meantime though.... it's all a work in progress!

Re-Org Under the Kitchen Sink

YIKES!!! once again, I dove straight into the project and forgot to take the before photo. Trust me when I say it was a mess though!

 Here is the after photo. I found a whole bunch of empty cleaning supply bottles and summer stuff like bug spray and plastic bags not in bag holder on the door (not shown in picture, but I LOVE it!)

I know this completely doesn't make sense in this post, but here is Reese enjoying his new dog bed. The previous one was cheap-o and from BJ's which wasn't wearing well. So it was replaced in the after x-mas sales at Beans. He has the same one, in a bigger size upstairs and loves it, so I thought it would be a good replacement! (See the toys to the right? Reese decided one day that his toy box was more fun to play with than his toys.... I'm currently searching for a replacement. Anyone have any suggestions?)

Re-Org (Liv Rm) Media Center

Our Media Center is fairly large. We bought it in an effort to keep all electronics (cable box, blue-ray, vcr, surround sound, xbox, Wii, etc) for the TV inside it. It also has 3 drawers for storage. In this house we aren't really using all the space as most of the gaming 'stuff' went to the basement with the spare tv. The surround sound is also in the basement - not currently hooked up - so that creates more space as well. More space for random stuff to collect.....

(Yes, that is Bones on Netflix on the screen)

I don't think I've cleaned this out since we moved it. Sigh.

This is the left side cabinet before

 and after

 The right side of the cabinet before

 and after

 The bottom center drawer before

 and after (Reese's ThunderShirt is the only thing in the drawer now)

 The middle drawer before

 and after (two cords that are needed for charging the PS3 remote and TV alternate cable)

 The top drawer before

 and after (blue-ray player remote, Jordan's furniture box and all ppwrk for tv and electronics)

Whew! The media center had a TON more junk in it than I thought! Well, I s'pose that's what happens when you move in and just keep putting stuff in it for two years!

So what happened to all the stuff? All the gaming parts and extra cords went to the basement to be with their counterparts, the candles went into the candle box in the basement, the random 'stuff' went in to the trash, spare movies also went to the basement on the shelves down there.

Yes, if you haven't guessed yet, the basement is due for a HUGE clean-up. It will take more than 1 day. Hence the smaller projects that are filling up this week!

Re-Org the Laundry Closet

Our Laundry closet is in the second upstairs bathroom. Not my favorite place for it, but we aren't about to move it. So!
Here is the before photo. As you can see, not too bad, but clearly not using the plastic storage bin which is making the towels harder to reach and they are no longer sorted by size.

This is after I pulled everything down and then put back only the things that belonged there. I tried to keep everything on the front edge of the shelf both for the light to filter down through in the back of the closet, but also its easier to reach/ see items.

 All the towels were also sorted by size and folded. There were a few older towels that didn't make it back on the shelf and will be donated. The blue bag, for those wondering is out dry cleaning.

All in all it took me about 15 minutes and I managed to put a load of wash in too! But it will certainly be easier to keep things sorted going forward!

Re-Organizing the Front Hall Closet

As my 2012 To-Do List starts sinking in, and the Holiday Decorations move back to the basement for storage, I'm loving the 'clean' feeling of the house! So when I find a pocket or craziness (under the kitchen sink, the drawers in the media center, the laundry closet, the front hall closet) I want to fix it asap!

This first mini-project was the front hall closet. So quick in fact, that I forgot to take the before picture with the stuff everywhere and shoved coats, boots, dog food, etc.

The first thing I did was move all the spring coats to the outside edges of the closet so we aren't going through them every day and so there's room in the middle for larger winter coats. Then I took out all the misc items on the top shelf and sorted the hats from the gloves, mittens and scarves into 2 woven baskets. The baskets went back onto the shelf with my figure skates in their box. Then, I pulled out one boot tray and put it by the garage door. The second one stayed in the bottom of the closet with boots neatly stacked on it. Dog food was cleaned up and stands in the left side with rawhide bone treats at the back!

Quick and easy and MUCH better than before!

Office Decor

My cube isn't exciting. Most cubes aren't. So last spring, I decided to start wallpapering it. I know, a bit weird. And I should have taken pictures sooner since this paper change is the (counting in my head) 5th change. But, it never crossed my mind before. So, here we are. That being said, I find that it keeps my space brighter and a happier place to be! It also allows a touch of my personality to show through and a few co-workers have started decorating their cubes as well.

The paper is from Paper Source - one of my favorite paper stores!

This is 3 sheets - each time I have either 2 or 3 sheets depending upon the sheet size. I tape it to the metal bar across the top and then the pins for all my other notes help keep the rest smooth. Since this is red and silver and white I will most likely leave this paper up until March or so.