Organizing Archives • Page 12 of 14 • New Nostalgia

HOME/ Homemaking/ Natural Products/ Organizing

Organizing And Storing My Spices

I found these little glass containers at a garage sale about a year ago for a couple of bucks. I pictured them organized, labeled, full of different spices in beautiful earthy colors, all lined up along the top of my stove. They HAVE been lined up along the top of my stove, but sitting empty, collecting dust, and looking sad.

The last 2 days were spent spring cleaning my kitchen. IT IS SO CLEAN and I AM SO HAPPY! My mother- in- law helped finish it up, for which I was so grateful– I’ll have before and after pics coming up soon.

You would not believe the difference in my floor tile grout…I think I forgot the grout is supposed to be cream because it been closer to mocha (can you tell I’m trying to make the color of dirt sound a bit more appealing??:))

Because I was spring cleaning, I knew I had to tackle my spices, and I’m very happy with how they turned out. I put the spices that I use most often in the jars, the rest of the spices I have on a small, double-decker lazy susan in the cupboard right next to the stove.

I have said this before in another post, but if you can find a store that has bulk bins full of spices, (where you can help yourself to whatever amount you need, and are charged by weight), then, by all means, DO IT!

Most health food stores have this option. I can’t tell you what a difference using fresh spices has made in my cooking and baking. It is very economical, and I can buy smaller amounts of spices that I do not use very often, so they won’t sit around forever, getting stale.

I don’t know about you, but having a clean kitchen and organized spices makes me wanna bake, so I’m off to search my recipes to see what I can make!

Amazon Links:
Lazy Susan
Empty Glass Spice Jars
My Favorite Label Maker

HOME/ Natural Products/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Spring Cleaning #2-Sunroom

Spring cleaning–its a love hate thing for me. Don’t like doing it, but LOVE the results. So far, I have finished my Living Room and my Sunroom. The Living Room took me 4 hours (one hour of that was fixing my vacuum, grr) and the Sunroom took about 2 1/2. Not a fast process. 2 rooms down, 10 to go!!

I bought the ebook, “Spring Cleaning For Normal People” at Simple Mom, for $7.00. One tip in the book that has been super helpful is her suggestion of taking everything out of the room (not heavy furniture), and putting it in a central location before you start cleaning. Not only does this get it all out of the way for deep cleaning, but as you put each piece back, you have a minute to think about whether it is something that is useful or beautiful, and if you want to keep it or not. Thanks to this tip, I have eliminated a ton of stuff! It also gives you a chance to focus in on each object to deep clean it, too, before putting it back in its place.

{great tip– pile stuff in a central location}

{eww. nasty, dirty window sill}

{this window marker has been there since my husbands birthday…his birthday was in February!}

This is how I cleaned my sunroom:
~piled everything in the center
~used broom to reach high for cobwebs in corners and windows
~used broom to brush off loose dirt on window sills
~filled bucket with water/vinegar (1/2 & 1/2)
~wiped down doors
~wiped down window sills/frames
~wiped down all walls
~wiped down floor trim
~used a Mr. Clean eraser to get rid of scuff marks on doors and trim
~cleaned windows inside
~cleaned windows outside
~got frustrated because I couldn’t reach 3 windows on the outside without a ladder
~marveled at how bright the room looked with clean windows
~put back decor that didn’t touch the floor, cleaning them and eliminating as I went
~moved objects that did touch the floor from the middle of the room so I could…
~…sweep!
~mopped (twice…it was nasty)
~sat in the swing, sighed and smiled

{ahhh, much better!}

{what my kids like to do in the sunroom}

{my youngest walked in and said, “Wow, mom, you painted??”:}

This is the type of hook I used to hang the scooters. 2 per scooter. The ones I used are rubber coated and white. They have worked well.

This post is linked to:

Saturday Night Specials @ Funky Junk Interiors

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch

It’s So Very Creative @ It’s So Very Cheri

The DIY Showoff Parade @ The DIY Showoff

Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple

Making The World Cuter Mondays @ Making The World Cuter

Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo’s Sweet Stuff

Bragfest Boardwalk @ Bobbypins Boardwalk

Works For Me Wednesdays @ We Are That Family

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Tackle It Tuesday @ 5 Minute Mom

FAMILY/ HOME/ Natural Products/ Organizing

Spring Cleaning #1

photo attribution

Well, I have given up the idea of someone else spring cleaning my home, (I offered on facebook to trade hair/nail/waxing services in exchange for a spring clean, and it was met with little interest-I guess no one else wants to spring clean, either!!:)) Kathy, my mother-in-law, encouraged me to do a little at a time and enjoy the good feeling it will bring as I get it done. I like that advice and I’m going to take it! For some reason when it comes to spring cleaning, I want it all done at once, which paralyzes me!! I have a pretty clear calendar this week, so I will do a bit at a time and let you know how it goes!

I found this awesome ebook “Spring Cleaning for Normal People “ at Simple Mom, and bought it for $7.00. It was worth every penny! She has a way of breaking spring cleaning down into manageable steps, and gives great tips which makes it much less overwhelming. Last week she had a spring cleaning series on her blog that was very inspirational, you can click here to check it out.

1st Step: Decluttering

From Tsh @ Simple Mom:
Does every item in your home make your family happy? Does the item add to your home, your life, your family? Of if you were truly honest, would you say it’s more of a burden?
If it’s a burden in any way, get rid of it. It’s not worth the valuable real estate between your four walls.

“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”-19th century architect William Morris

This is what I will do today. I will start this spring cleaning week by going from room to room and getting rid of anything that does not fit in the above quote. (and sneaking it to the Goodwill before my girls get home!!:))
I plan on using my mornings this week to spring clean, then in the afternoons, do something I enjoy (gardening, cooking, reading). If I set aside a full days to clean, I will get bored, burn out, and give up. I can handle the mornings knowing I will get to do something more enjoyable in the afternoon! Here goes..wish me luck!
*do you spring clean each year? is motivation as hard for you as it is for me? do you have a system? got any tips for me??

ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ HOME/ Organizing

Organizing My Storage Closet

Tomorrow is Anti-Procrastination Tuesday here at New Nostalgia! (I’ll be putting the MckLinky up in a couple hours.) I’m excited to share with you something I have been procrastinating on way too long–cleaning out our storage closet! It was so bad that I was getting scared to open the door..

Oh, boy.

I started by pulling everything out of the closet…that is when it got really scary!!

I had to remind myself that it gets bad before it gets better!

I sorted things into 3 bins–“give away” “put away” “donate”

I also made sure I had a trash bag handy.

I wanted to use the new open space for our rolling craft supply carts.

I used the other half of the closet for oversized toys that did not fit nicely

in my daughters room.

I used the back corner to store winter coats, bins of photos that need sorting,

and a hanging divider for shoes that my girls need to grow into.

Look! I can shut the door ALL THE WAY! Yippee!!

Thank for the motivation! Thanks for participating in “AP Tuesdays!”
I hope to “see” you there tomorrow!!

FAMILY/ HOME/ Kids/Family/ Organizing/ Parenting

A White Board For Chores

I made a chore chart with “the power of 3” in mind, and loved how it worked! The one thing I didn’t love about it is that it wasted post it notes!

I’m all about simple and buying as little as possible, so a chore chart that would need a trip to the store every few months did not quite fit. Enter, the white board!

I’ve been wanting a white board hung in our home in a prominent place for awhile now. My great friend, Sharon, visited and told me that she has one. She uses it for chores and said it worked wonderfully, and that is when I knew I needed one, too!

{My oldest checking off her chores, (she was horrified that

I was going to post this pic b/c of her messy ponytail:)

I keep the markers in a bowl on the bookshelf.}

I am a bit too moody for a super structured, pre-printed chore chart, never knowing until that day what I want the girls to help with. I love that I can quickly jot down what I would like them to do so when they come home from school, they can glance at the board and know exactly what they have to do before they can play.

{I don’t have a Leah, but wanted you to see how cute a name looks

when these two stickers are combined, and as you know, I like to keep my girls names private}

Because the white board is in my dining room for all to see, it was important to me that it looked nice. I liked the black frame on this one! I wanted to do something fun with their names, so I bought these letter stickers at Micheal’s. I wanted to back them with something, and was happy to find these round silver tag stickers in the next aisle, knowing they would work well as a “frame” for the letters. (The white board is from Micheal’s, but I’ve seen them a bit cheaper at Target.)

The board has room for me to write a note of encouragement or a scripture verse for my girls. Love that!
It’s just all around one of my favorite things!

*stay tuned for a post on “Routine Charts” I just finished them up today, and combined with our chore board, things are gonna be flowin’ and easy goin’ around here!

ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ FAMILY/ HOME/ Organizing

Crossing Off My To-Do List

ahhhh…it feel so good to GET THINGS DONE!

Tomorrow is “Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays” link party here at New Nostalgia.

I REALLY hope that having this link party each week will continue to motivate me! I wrote a master “wanna get done” list 5 days ago, and IT IS ACTUALLY WORKING, I’m getting things done!! It is because I know I will have to write a post every week about what I have done, so thanks to you readers, I will no longer procrastinate.

Here are a few of the things on my to do list that I have crossed off:

~pay $2.10 to school for forgotten school lunch
ok, I know this sounds like a really easy one, and it was, but can you believe it took me over 2 months to “just do it”?? I didn’t use my personal goal of “when I think about it, just do it.” Thanks to tomorrow’s party, I did get it done. It took me all of 63 seconds to put some money in an envelope, mark it, and stick it in my daughters backpack for her to take to school.

~clean out trunk
My husband did this, sort of. Our car had a flat tire last week, so before he took it into the shop, he brought all the junk from the trunk into our sunroom. There was already a pile of stuff sitting there to be taken to goodwill, so our sunroom looked horrendous. That was enough to get me to deal with it and put it all away.

my sunroom last fall

~stuff to Goodwill
I’ve have had a pile of bags and a bin in my sunroom since Christmas. No joke. That stuff stared at me every time I left and every time I came back into my home. Our sunroom is the first impression that guests have of our home, and they have been greeted by a pile of stuff for 3 months now! The kicker…there is a Goodwill just blocks from our house-it took me less than 5 minutes to load it, drop it off, unload it and drive home. Why do I put this stuff off??

~ants in basement
Easy fix. I bought poison. I rarely do this, I hate pesticides! There are little discs you can buy that the ants will crawl in, get the “food,” take it back home, share it with their friends, and after their feast they all die.:( I needed to just do something, especially since I don’t know if these are carpenter ants we are dealing with! Next time, I am going to try my homemade laundry detergent. Seriously! I got a tip from a reader that sprinkling it around wards off pests, and since the ants were in the laundry room, it seems fitting?!?

~make homemade laundry detergent
Did it. I have a how- to post coming in the very near future!

~boogie study closet
“Boogie” is a term stolen from Flylady. It just means to move as quickly as you can and get it done, taking a quick break if needed, then right back into it. It was just a few months ago I did a whole study clean up, so it was a quick boogie and now it is back to being organized again!

~yearly physical appointment made
Done! I put the number into my online contacts so next time I have no excuse to procrastinate!

~organize papers in sorters on desk
This was the most helpful of all the “To-Do’s” that I did! I keep papers that need attention in these, so a week or so of no attention can really get me in trouble! Having this done made me feel so on top of things, I literally felt lighter when I was done. Guess I need to keep that one up every week, I may live longer..

~create Amazon store for the blog
I have wanted to do this for awhile. There are many times I talk about a product or ingredient, and a reader will ask where I got it or what I use. Now I can just put the product in my Amazon store. I can link up things I love and use, in case you would like to purchase them, too. The blessing of it is, if you purchase through my link, I will get a small percentage (this does not cost you any more) from Amazon, which in time might add up. I would love to be able to contribute financially to our family’s budget through this little love of mine called blog. You will be able to access the store in a week or two, I need to continue to add products I love to it..

~organize stickies
This is an online application that allows virtual, post- it- type notes on a computer desktop. I use it all the time to quickly type a thought or copy a link. The problem, they over took my desktop because I didn’t delete them! They are now organized, problem solved.

Not bad for 5 days! It barely made a dent in my list, but I’m not stressing. Baby steps.

I hope to see you all on tuesdays where we can chip away on our to-do’s together! Next time I may just highlight one thing and write about it, we’ll see. Come on by tomorrow! If you are a blogger, link up, if you are a reader, come check it out and feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to hear what you have been getting done or want to get done!

Thank YOU, my readers. Without you, I would be getting nothing done!:)

This post is linked to:
“Works For Me Wednesdays”
“Show and Tell” @ Blue Cricket Designs

ANTI-PROCRASTINATION/ FAMILY/ HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying

My Anti-Procrastination List-It’s A Doozie!

As most of you know, I tend to procrastinate on things. I’ve had some success in this area, but I want more! I have found in the past that lists and accountability both work for me, which makes me very excited about “Anti-procrastination Tuesdays.” If you read my “Anti-procrastination Tuesdays” post, you know that I will be doing a weekly link party (starting this tuesday, March 9th) where we can all share what we tend to procrastinate on, and what we have accomplished each week.

I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish, and have been jotting things down as they come to my mind. I have come up with quite a list, which honestly is quite overwhelming to see how long it is! I have to keep reminding myself that one step at a time is the way to go, and that I won’t be alone, because I am hoping you will join me on tuesdays to GET THINGS DONE!

Below is the list I have together so far. I’m sure there is more that I am missing, but this is more than enough of a start! I thought sharing it with you would be a great way to be held accountable, and very convenient for me to have a running list of goals I want to reach on our tuesdays together. I will cross things off as I accomplish them and also add new things, then share the highlights at “Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays” party.

Parenting:

chore charts for the girls, remade

make a master chore list

print and hang a list of ideas kids can do when I hear “I’m bored!”

faith box for family prayer requests

continue ongoing birds and bees conversation with my girls:)

girls to write thank- you’s more regularly

discuss allowance with Todd

year round Joshua Tree

new ideas for family devotions
“power of 3 chart”
routine charts made

People:

“get in touch with regularly” list

have grandparents for brunch

have women’s Bible study group social in our home

keep up on emails, twitter, facebook, texts and phone messages-get a strategy

General:

find lost library book

pay school $2.10 for forgotten lunch

whiten teeth

workout

clean out trunk

buy bolt for bike

go through family wardrobe

bring out spring/ summer clothes

pack up winter clothes

get rid of ants in basement-ew

put pics in frames and hang them up

decorate for spring

make laundry detergent

read a book a month (ongoing)

white board hung up

mirrors hung up

laundry under control

sort my clothes

take stuff to goodwill

make exercise a regular part of my week-ugh.
plan lil’ ones bday party

Reorganize:

storage area in basement

craft closet

‘boogie’ study closet

  Appointments:

dentist

yearly physical

allergist

eye doctor

Papers and Lists:

organize paper in sorters on desk

reorganize filing cabinet

Binders:

print recipes used regularly, put in binder

revamp emergency numbers/instructions binder

menu plans

print organized addresses; put in binder

make binder for magazine articles

Computer:

computer safety family contract.

delete unwanted facebook emails

organize bookmarks on computer

organize stickies

add to kid sites

put addresses in mac online address book

learn how to make an imovie

birthdays into ical

groups and smart groups in address book

organize itunes

explore smart playlist, make some new ones

order guinea pig food and hay online to have delivered regularly
videos to dvds 

organize reader, make “daily reads”folder

organize starred items in reader

organize my tweet deck

get more familiar with twitter

Cleaning:

wash windows

clean grout on tile floor

clean behind stove/refrig

clean all ceiling fans

clean all light fixtures

clean mini blinds

clean shutters/windowsills

vacuum furniture

Blogging:

create Amazon store

review some products

do a give-away

Projects:

paint laundry room 

paint bathroom

Photos:

delete unwanted photos

back up photos onto cds

print photos

label photos

Outside:

read up on gardening

call community gardens to reserve spot

In The Kitchen:

make homemade tortillas

try making homemade yogurt

make/freeze some make ahead meals

Circus Ponies Online Notebook: (it is an online, virtual binder)

make craft notebook

make recipe notebook

organize poetry notebook

make hairstylist notebook

make womens ministry notebook

list of books to read

make inspirational journal on notebook for blog ideas

Whew!! Good thing there is no deadline to most of these things (ok.. maybe the ants:))

Do you plan on joining in on “Anti-procrastination” Tuesdays? I’d love to have ya!

If so and you are a blogger, feel free to get my button from the sidebar to invite others to come.

This post is linked to:
Works For Me Wednesdays @Rocks In My Dryer

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