Category: Organization

It Feels Like Home

On By debweeksIn Organization, RV, Uncategorized4 Comments

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last few days. Our move from RV to RV has made things a bit hectic and I’m still trying to get everything sorted out, organized and put away. On top of that, we leave in a mere six days for our week-long cruise, so while I’m trying to find a place for everything and put everything in its place, I’m also trying to get everything together and ready for our much needed vacation.

The RV to RV move went well. We arrived at the dealership, did our walk-thru and a couple guys from the dealership helped us move everything over. We signed some more paperwork and then hubby headed to the RV park with the delivery driver. My job was paying for the additions to the RV and grabbing lunch for hubby and me.

When I arrived to the RV park, hubby, the delivery driver and our neighbor were standing on our site talking. Hogwarts (our new Oakmont) was sitting on the driveway. Apparently, they were waiting for me to tell them exactly where I wanted it positioned on our site.

After some discussion, the driver backed Hogwarts into our space and before we knew it, the leveling jacks were being lowered, hubby got the power going, the water connected and the black/gray tank hose set up. Then the fun began! It was time to start putting things away and very quickly I knew that we were going to need to pick up some things to get everything organized.

*Additional shelving would be needed in the cabinets to better utilize the space so I could all our canned and boxed foods away.

*Shelving would need to be added under the kitchen sink for putting away pots, pans and small kitchen appliances.

*The girl’s bunkroom was in desperate need of a small bookcase for their homeschool materials.

*Food for the dogs, which was once housed under the dinette seats in Georgette, needed a container.

*The coat closet, which is pretty much useless as a coat closet, needed shelving for the more useful purpose of storing things like cleaning products, tissues, and toilet paper.

*Cabinets above the sofa would need some containers for housing everything from paper plates to batteries.

I began making lists and taking measurements so we could start the organization process.

So far we’ve made one trip to IKEA and the girls now have a bookcase in their room, but the trip wasn’t nearly as successful as I had hoped. I have a feeling there will be a lot more trips to IKEA, Lowe’s, Home Depot and the Container Store in my future as I try desperately to get everything organized.

Once things are organized and put away, I will be taking pictures and sharing them here for all to see.

Overall though, we’re loving Hogwarts. Not only is the extra space nice, but it just feels like home.

Organization

On By debweeksIn Organization, RV1 Comment

There was a time in my life when I was fairly organized.  Never OCD organized, but there was some organization in my life and my home.  Somewhere along the way, organization flew out the window and I need it to fly right back in.

Lately, all I can think about is how important it is going to be to organize the RV.  Unlike my home with plenty of closets, cupboards and shelf space, the RV won’t have much and there isn’t a lot of room to add more.

Then the thought pops in my head – “If I can’t get this house organized, what makes me think I can get our RV organized”?

So now I’ve challenged myself to get my house cleaned and organized before the RV arrives.  Believe me, that’s a lofty goal folks.

A couple weeks ago, hubby and I got to work in the basement.  I began putting things in boxes to take to Goodwill.  Things that haven’t seen any other part of the house except the basement in years.  I have a table in the basement that if full of Christmas decorations.  Decorations that I haven’t used in years.

Why do I keep this stuff?

Oh yeah, I remember!  I have this tendency to convince myself that someday I may want it or use it again.

That’s crazy talk!!!!!!!!

It’s time to end the crazy and stop being lazy.

It’s time to remove the junk and get out of this funk.

It’s time to stop the mutter and de-clutter.

(The kids and I have been working on rhyming words quite a bit lately.  Can you tell?)

I am going to strive for more simplicity.

 

The last thing I want to do is continue cluttering up our lives to the point that I need to use all 7 days in the week to keep up with things.  I want to spend my weekends camping with no feelings of guilt about all the stuff there is to do at home.  I want to walk in the door from a fun weekend in the great outdoors to see a home and not all the stuff this home hides behind.

Because I don’t know exactly when the RV will take up residence in our driveway, I am giving myself 21 days.  I’ll call it the 21 Day Reduce and Simplify challenge.   My goal is to remove all those things in our home that are only here collecting dust or hiding in the back of the closet.  We must have a regular use for everything in our house, otherwise it needs to go.  (Don’t worry hubby, I have a regular use for you in our house 🙂 )

By April 1st, I want my focus to be on organizing the RV and spending our weekends camping and enjoying the great outdoors.

Ready, set, go!!!!

 

 

 

Should Have Known

On By debweeksIn Dreams, Homesteading, Kid Stuff, Organization4 Comments

When I was a little girl, the church we attended had a toy farm set.  I loved playing with those toys.  I would set up the fences, carefully place all the farm animals where they belonged and pretended to be the farmer.

Guess I should have known that one day I would want my own farm with real live farm animals-)

Today the girls and I purged toys and got everything organized.  Lili really likes having things in her life somewhat organized as do I.  As I was putting all the toy animals into a canvass box and into the cubby, I shared the story of how much I loved playing with the toy farm animals as a little girl.

My little farmer in the making said, “I want my own toy farm to play with.”  I told her to put it on her Christmas list.  Although if  truth be told, I’m kind of excited about the possibility of playing farm with the girls as I continue to dream about one day having my own farm.

 

 

Back in Business

On By debweeksIn Homeschool, Motivation, Organization, Projects, Weather, YogaLeave a comment

After a couple of days of some wonderful tinctures made by my friend Katie at The Garden Fairy Apothecary, I am feeling considerably better.  Last time I started using her tinctures at the first sign of getting sick and didn’t get sick at all.  This time I waited too long, but with hours of taking my first dose of Echinacea and her Cold and Flu tincture, I was starting to feel better.  I know not everyone is convinced herbal remedies work, but I am quite sure they worked for me.

Now that I’m back in business, it’s time to get caught up on some things.

Yesterday, we had a nice spring-like day, so I put on my jacket, grabbed my rake and headed outside.  Part of our yard is fenced off, primarily for the dogs and it was quite a mess from a winter of neglect.  I began raking and cleaning, then decided to spread some grass seed over some bare parts of the yard.  As I was throwing the grass seed, I realized that little to none of it may actually grow.  After all, dogs run and do their business in this yard, but not typically where it’s all dirt or in this case, mud.  It was worth a try and I’m hopeful that some pretty green grass will begin to change all the brown and black bare spots into a pretty green pasture of new grass.  If not, I’ll move on to plan B.

Last night we got a little rain, which I’m sure the grass seed loved.  Today we’ve had clouds and cool temperatures all day, so the girls and I headed to the basement and began tackling that mess.  The basement had become our rec, play and homeschool area, but I discovered that I really didn’t enjoy homeschooling the girls in the basement.  It was great space, but it’s not the bright and cheery area I wanted to create.  Eventually, I began homeschooling the girls in the kitchen and then we made our way to the dining room.  There is a sliding glass door that gives us tons of natural light and the table provides us ample space to do our work.  I have since brought the bookcases upstairs so their books and supplies can be put away instead of taking up space on the table or countertops.  Other bookshelves were put in each of the girls rooms and all their reading books are now at their fingertips.

I still have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do in the basement, but it will go back to being just a rec and playroom, with lots of room to run off energy on snowy, cold and/or rainy days.  It will also be a great place for me to spread out my mat for some yoga.

Apparently, being sick provided me time to focus on all the things I wasn’t getting done.  I have a better picture of what needs to be done and I’m motivated to get moving on things.  Guess something good came out of a couple of days of down time.

 

 

Project 1

On By debweeksIn Changes, Home, Organization, Remodel2 Comments

I had hoped to get the first project on my long to-do list completed yesterday with before and after pictures posted, but obviously that didn’t happen. The room I started working on was taking longer than expected, so I decided to switch gears at the end of the week and tackled the master bath closet.  After all, it’s a small closet and shouldn’t take long to clean.

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Ah, but the joke was on me.

After cleaning off the first shelf, this is what my bathroom counter looked like.

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Seriously, this was only one shelf and there were four more shelves to go!!!

How did I manage to accumulate so much stuff?  Various bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotions, and body sprays.   An old set of hot rollers (does anyone still use hot rollers in their hair?).  I found bottles of stuff that were 6 years past their expiration date.  Really?  It’s been 6 years since I cleaned this closet?  My how time flies when you out buying more stuff for your little bathroom closet.  Guess we’ve done our part to support the economy 🙂

One of the big  goals on my to-do list is to rid our lives of excess and that certainly happened with Project 1.   Three garbage bags full of excess has been tossed from our lives and it feels really good.

After emptying the entire closet, which filled two large Rubbermaid containers and took up half my bathroom floor, I pulled out all the shelves, lightly sanded and painted them.  Another to-do item crossed of my list and it only took me 17 years 🙂

Then it was time to paint the closet, which was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint and the closet really does look better.

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Finally time to put things away and re-claim my bathroom.  No more stacking stuff on top of stuff.  No more clutter and unused shelf space.  Amazing!!

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For a matter-of-fact, all my cleaning products are lined up along the front of the shelf.  There is absolutely nothing else but empty shelf space behind those bottles and that feels good.

Project 1 completed!!!!

Now onto to Project 2 . . . .