Addiction to Yarn Organization

January 29, 2016January 27, 201613 Comments

Everyone, I have a confession to make. Now, it may come as a surprise, but I have an addiction. I know, I know…shocking. But, it has finally come time to admit to my addiction.

I am addicted to buying yarn.

I know! I know! It’s horrible. But, it is time to come clean and admit to my mistake.

But, I like the feeling of knitting a scarf and finishing it and feeling good about it. Feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride as I have a scarf finished.

But it has come to this.

It has become very disorganized to the point where I didn’t know which scarves are done and what type of yarn it is. The scarves were becoming tangled together and I wasn’t too happy with it.

I also kept all of the tags from the yarn and just kept them in a bag. Unfortunately, it was hard to know which brand and color belong to which yarn when they are all just laying in a pile.

Also, you know the Banksy box that I have with all of my extra yarn? Yeah…the zipper is breaking…

So, I got started by using this crate that I made at the Do It Herself workshop at Home Depot. It should probably be used as a wine crate or something more useful, but I decided that it is perfect for yarn. Here is the before I fill it with yarn.

And here it is the after I have filled it with yarn.

Much more organized than the yarn just hanging out in the plastic tote. I can now see what yarn I have and what brand and style it is. It’s so perfect!

I also decided to create a yarn book. I wrote down all the brands, style, and color of each yarn. I also cut a small piece of each yarn so that way I knew which yarn went with each brand. So, here is my yarn book!

It is so perfect. I can now see what I have and which yarns I have knitted into scarves. Hooray!

I also took all of my scarves and put their tags with them. I had to go back and look up some of the names to see if I could find which color went with which style. But in the end, I was able to put them back in the plastic tote to store them.

And not only are they organize, but the box is now labeled as well.

So now it is all organized!

It looks so much better! I am so happy with how this got so organized and how it looks. I now know where all my yarn is and what scarves are done. Hooray!

Well…I am so glad that I was able to open up about my addiction. Now, how many people think I should be on ‘My Strange Addiction’?

Organization for the New Year

December 28, 2015December 27, 2015Leave a comment

Wow! Christmas is over! Can you believe it!? We had a wonderful family day on Thursday, just the four of us. On Christmas Day, we spent the morning at the animal shelter helping out and then spent the rest of the day with my husband’s family. On Saturday, we went to my parents for the afternoon and evening. I got to spend time with my 2 favorite great-nieces (Hi girls!!). I had so much fun playing with them and reading books with them. The 3 year old was so excited about one of her presents, she actually squealed! So fun to have little ones around again!

But now, back to reality. Time to get organized! At least this is when I usually tackle it. I leave my Christmas decor up until New Years Day, so I have these few day to get all my paperwork in order. My husband and I already went through our files of documents, such as warrenties, policies and receipts. Now on to my overstuffed cupboard! See all those papers piled there? Yeah…I have my work cut out for me.

Once I get the papers separated, they will go into these binders. I know most things are on the internet and Pinterest now, but sometimes I just like to sit and go through a book of ideas. I guess I am old fashioned that way. I have a binder for crafts, travel, recipes and parties, and decorating.

I have these fancy schmancy dividers!! I am just so fancy like that!

Ugh! This is what I pulled out of the cupboard and a few other random places. I divide it up by categories as best as I can. I have a few pieces of chocolate to help me get through! We do what we have to do!!

Now it looks even worse, but I have gone through it and divided it up into categories and placed the papers that go into each binder, together.

I pull out each binder, 3-hole punch the paper and then place it into the correct spot. This year I really went through the old stuff and cleaned it out. Anything outdated, or I know I will never do or try, or it’s just not my style anymore, got thrown into this huge pile on the floor. Hello recycle!

So my binders are all updated and placed back in the cupboard. It really feels good to get that done.

One last tip to show you. If you have pets, which we have several of (ahem), keeping a pet medical file is a huge help. I used to have to go through the file cabinet to find when they last had shots or other information, but then a fellow dog person in 4-H showed me this wonderful idea. Take a 3-ring binder and divide it up by each animal. Hole punch each paper that goes with that animal and put it behind their name. Ta-da! No more searching. I have all the vaccine information, micro-chip numbers, any meds they take, all at my fingertips.

Here is the front. Duke is no longer with us and I have to add Scamp and Rozy.

Here is Ezzy’s section. Behind her picture are all her medical records, starting from when we got her through today.

Even the micro-chip records are in here. Putting in a plug for micro-chips. Get it done!!! It helped us find Chica once when she was lost.

So there you have it! Just a couple of tips to help you get organized for 2016! I hope you all have a safe and happy new year!

Corner News September 25, 2015

September 25, 2015September 24, 20155 Comments

It’s Friday!!! What a week it has been! I am so ready for a weekend! Last weekend, my poor Ezzy was sick and I ended up taking her to the emergency vet. We had to wait awhile, since she wasn’t high priority. After the vet ‘talked’ with her, she said she should have come in much sooner, because Ezzy was such a sad case. She was like her own martyr. 😦 This is how she was while waiting. She is much better now though. Thanks for asking!

This is what I read while waiting in the vet office. What an awesome dog magazine! They also have a cat one. This had so much great information and fun stories.

I have also been going through my clothes, pulling everything out of my closet, one type of clothing at a time. First the shirts, then pants, then skirts and so on. I ask myself if I really like this or will wear it. If the answer is ‘eh’, it goes. This is my ‘to go’ pile. I do have to be in the right mood though. I can be awfully sentimental. Next up, jewelry!

It feels really good to clean things out and to know that what is left is stuff I really like and looks and feels good to wear.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I will be back on Monday with my Fall Home Tour, so stop by!

Why Can’t I Find My Hammer?

August 24, 2015August 24, 201516 Comments

Why can’t I ever seem to find my hammer/screwdriver/nails when I want them? Because my cupboard where I keep them is always a mess! I have tried different organizing methods, but nothing really seemed to work. My last attempt was some fabric boxes with jars inside, but the tools never seemed to find their way back into the right spot. I would find the hammer off to the side or the screwdrivers at the bottom of the box. Here is the jumbled mess:

I also had some hanging on the door in a shoe organizer. This didn’t work well either. The small screwdrivers made holes in the bottom of the pocket and the glue leaked and pieces were stuck to the bottom.

I removed everything from the cupboard first and threw some things away and moved others to the workshop. I kept just the things I use the most inside the house. I remembered that Haley had reorganized her closet and had taken down a piece of slat-board.

I measured how tall the cupboard was and then Lauren cut the board into 3 pieces.

I placed the pieces into the cupboard, one on the side and two along the back. I then went in search of some hooks. I ~~stole~~ borrowed one with hooks for screwdrivers from my husbands workshop. The rest of the hooks I had from Haley. Now I just had to figure out the best way to organize it.

It’s not perfect, but I am hoping it is just temporary. My husbands job site is redoing some of the buildings and I put in a request for the old lockers. I am keeping my fingers crossed! They will go in my laundry room and these tools will be one of the things stored in there.

Here it is! So much better! Each tool has a hook so it has a place to go. I hung a few little boxes and bags of things too. There are still a few jars holding the little things.

I even managed to get all the pieces off the door.The glue has its own jar so nothing else will get stuck!

That’s it! Nothing fancy, but hopefully it will stay a little neater and it will be easier to find what I need when I need it. Do you have a special way to keep your tools organized? I’m always looking for ideas!

Guest Post: Declutter 101: Strategies to Cut Clutter

July 23, 2015July 25, 20154 Comments

We have a guest today! Say hello to Anna Aamone! She owns a small cleaning company in Kensington, London and has some great tips to cut clutter. As you know, Lauren and I have posted a few organization and clutter busting stories too. So if you struggle with clutter in your home, here are some good basic ideas to help you get started on cleaning up!

Anna: Clutter is a serious problem, which could make you and your family feel very uncomfortable while living in your own home. The lack of good organization and time are usually the main reasons for the appearing of this problem, which over time could affect seriously your life. However, you can easily avoid the complications by adopting the great strategies we will present to you in this article. There are some basic things you need to know, which will certainly make a difference. No matter how cluttered your home is right now, we can promise you that thanks to our effective strategies, you will solve this unpleasant problem before you know it.

If you ask your friends, you will notice that each of them has his/her own way of coping with the clutter at home. The most important thing is to choose a strategy that works for you and which you will be able to follow. Remember that you will probably need at least a couple of hours to put everything in order, so better start planning early. Except time, you will have to be more organized and concentrated, otherwise you won’t be able to achieve the results that you want. You may even have to change some of your habits, but we can assure you that it will be all for the best in the end. Here are some strategies you could try:

• Make a weekly schedule – You will be amazed how fast you will solve the problem with the clutter with nothing more but good organization. Instead of wondering how you will be able to declutter the whole house for a day, you can save yourself a lot of troubles by spending a couple of hours every day in cleaning and organizing of the rooms. This is a great strategy because it prevents the accumulation of unnecessary things in the different premises of your place. Since you know best how much free time you have, you can create your weekly schedule any way you like.

• Don’t leave today’s work for tomorrow – Simple habits, like deciding to go through the pile with mail later for example, could be responsible for the mess in your home. That is why we advise you not to leave today’s work for tomorrow. No matter how busy you are, try to spare a couple of minutes of your time to sort through the mail today. The same applies to all of your other tasks for the day, like the cleaning of the wardrobe, the organizing of the kitchen cabinets and others.

• Divide and conquer – No matter how hard you try, however, it is not always possible to declutter your entire home in one day. In order to speed things up, you can purchase 3 empty boxes. One of them you can use to store the things that you want to keep after the decluttering. The second one you can use for the things that you could donate or give away and you can leave the third one for the stuff you plan to toss out. This is a simple sorting system that will save you time and will allow you to maintain your home always organised. You can go through every room of your place with the boxes and when you finish cleaning, you can decide what to do with the things you’ve collected.

You will see that it will be a lot easier to avoid the mess with the previously mentioned strategies. They may look simple, but we can assure you that they really work and you will achieve great results from the beginning. Don’t wait any longer, but start decluttering your home right now.

<a href=”http://www.cleantoperfection.co.uk/end-of-tenancy-cleaning-w8-kensington/“>TenancyCleaning Kensington</a>

Thank you Anna, for all your great tips! Hope everyone has a great rest of your week!