Monthly Archives: June 2012

The picture above is my magazine bin.   As you can see, it is splitting at the seams which means I may or may not have a slight magazine subscription addiction.  I find the magazine subscriptions for free on the Internet and this means we always have a wide variety of magazines to read around here (as well as the scorn of the letter carrier at the end/beginning of each month!).   I used to keep my magazines until I had a chance to read them all or cut out the articles that interested me.  I also intended to keep 2 of my favorite titles, Natural Home and Garden (full of environmently-friendly ideas that we’ll never actually aspire to around here as my husband and I are on different pages in that area) and Family Fun (I do get some of the best although usually ill-fated ideas from that one!) for reference forever.  Then I remembered, those magazines take up a lot of space and most everything I would ever want to refer back and see is usually on-line!   Those went promptly to the recycle bin (although I confess, it was HARD to dump my collection in there) a while back.

Since the bin fills up quickly and I don’t always have time to read the magazines, I needed a system.   Since I refer to myself as somewhat of a Flylady Flunky, I already knew her weekly routine involved purging magazines every Monday.  That was too often for me.  I decided to keep the magazines for the current month until the end of the current month.  This means that every last week of the month, I empty my magazine bin (confession:  my husband already emptied some of the bin pictured above in a fit of exasperation at its overflowing state last week.  If you have a system, make sure everyone knows your system!  It also helps to not let the last week of the current month become the last week of the current two months as may or may not have happened.).   

magazine bin contents sorted into piles

I did this yesterday and had 4 basic categories:  July and July/August magazines, June and May/June magazines, a straight to the recycle bin pile (mainly because I’ve been in the habit of putting our daily newspaper in the bin until we’ve all read it and sometimes I get lazy and end up with a few days of newspapers in there), and an always in the bin (reference items such as an small atlas and bird identification book)/what is that doing in the bin pile (Legos are alive and planning some kind of stealth mission to take over our house.  I’m sure of it since I find Legos in the oddest places including the bottom of my bin!).   Then, I got to ”work” and read through the June and May/June issues which means that I briefly flipped through any issues I’ve already read to see if I need to tear out any coupons (I found a free lotion sample in an issue yesterday!) before putting them in the recycle pile.   Then I flipped through the remaining magazines to see if anything really interested me and also made the harder call of admitting that if I hadn’t already read the magazine, I was most likely not going to read them the next month either (especially since I’d had 2 solid months to do so already!) and into the recycle pile they went.    I then had a lovely pile that was ready to recycle (and while I wish I was a good person who passed my magazines on, I’m not.  I need them out or they take over in crazy piles.  Recycling them is simple and works best around here):

Recycle Bin Ready

 Once I said my goodbyes to all the June issues and put them on the recycle path, I turned my attention to all the July and July/August issues (I think one was even an August!  I have never understood why magazines for the next month come so EARLY?).  Probably because I have issues that aren’t related to issues of magazines, I then put them in date order with the July issues in the front and the July/August issues in the back of the bin.  Sometimes I’ll put the issues I really want to read upfront as well (and some magazines like the Newsweek that come bimonthly really throw my system off!).  Then I put back the items that belong in the bin and it is all nice and organized for when I have a few minutes during the month of July to flip through a magazine.   Here’s a picture of my newly organized and magazine bin (note:  I also keep the grocery store flyers here until I’ve done our weekly shopping).

Neatly organized magazine bin with current issues only

Are you a magazine maven?  What’s your method for keeping the magazine madness at a minimum?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Also, let me know if you have any good suggestions where I might look for a new magazine bin…..

Posted by Jean in Uncategorized

I think that is the Boy Scout motto. I wasn’t a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout either so I’m not sure. Although, I do know that the best way to become prepared is to be caught unprepared.

That’s what happened recently when we all went fishing and J fell down and cut his finger. It was an “I NEED A BAND AID NOW!” kind of injury, the kind that only happens when you have no band aids (or sympathetic strangers with band aids) around. I dug through my husband’s glove box and managed to find a lone band aid out of the paper wrapping but still unused. We happened to have bottled water with us and so poured that one the cut amid much protest and once the bandage was secured all was well again. It would have been a long drive home without a bandage.

Summer is a time when we are on the go a lot and often need things like band aids, hand sanitizer, and the like. I don’t like carrying all that in my purse because it tends to spill plus I’m on a small purse kick so no room. I decided it was time to make a just in case carry along for when we are on the go. I used to carry first aid kits in the vehicles but over time they became a box of burn cream and dried out alcohol prep pads. Perhaps, we should all write letters to the makers of such kits…please include more band aids and less alcohol prep pads (What is the purpose of those things?).

I decided to make my own kit. I thought about what we need most often when out and about on adventures such as visiting parks, fishing, and hiking. All I needed was a bag.   

This bag begged for a purpose so I gave it one!

Next, I needed to decide what to include in the bag.  I decided on the following:

band aids, hand sanitizer, insect repellent, sunscreen stick, antiseptic spray, and wet ones.

Now, it stays in the car and we are a little more prepared than we were previously. I still need to make a second kit though. Hopefully, I’ll accomplish that before the day comes when we need a band aid and the kit is in the vehicle that we aren’t using. Do you carry any type of first aid kit when on the go? Can you think of anything I should add to our kit?

Posted by Jean in Uncategorized

I’m participating in the Organizing Life Challenge over at Jordy Liz Blogs and the assignment was to organize a shelf.  Oddly, we don’t have that many open shelves in our home but a certain hall closet shelf has been getting on my nerves for a while.

Mostly things just get tossed up there.  One day in frustration, my husband gathered all the gloves, hats, and scarves and threw them in a tub.  I appreciated the effort but couldn’t stand it that the lid wasn’t shut.  Then, we started keeping the kids’ sports gear up there and while it was nice to have it all in one place (no more looking under every piece of furniture in the house for a missing shin guard!), having it fall on my head before every sports’ practice and game wasn’t doing much for my overall satisfaction with that system.  There were also a few items that we weren’t really sure where else to put (I seem to have a rather large collection of items that I don’t know where they should go and not just on this shelf.  Is that just me?).  This is how the shelf looked:

Honestly, I have a lot of other shelves that are a lot worse but I wanted a simple project for today and this shelf has been bugging me for quite a while.   First, I took everything out.   I went through our rather large collection of gloves, hats, and scarves to see if I could clear out some space and make the lid on the tub close.   I found 2 hats and one pair of gloves that needed to go.  Everything else needed to stay.  Our weather varies in the Midwest!  I did find that by rolling the scarves instead of folding them, they fit better and the lid would close!  I also took out some large, thick gloves meant for very cold days to house elsewhere.  I housed a few random items elsewhere (you can’t even see them in the picture above they were so buried!) to make additional room.

The garden flags were bothering me as the plastic they are stored in slips and anything placed on top of them then slips (and usually falls on my head!).   I don’t have a lot of the flags but I wanted better storage for them.  I decided to think outside the box or rather the bag when it came to how to store them.  Then, I remembered my file folders! 

I love my pretty file folders!

I wondered if I could fold the flags and file them by season in the folders…..

Folded flags fit perfectly in file folders!

I made four folders for all our flags (one for each season).  I slid them in the shelf in seasonal order beside the tub of gloves, hats, and scarves (the lid closes now!).  On top of the glove container, I placed the rain ponchos (I really do not know why we have these!).  I put the air pump beside that.  Then I repurposed a Duplo blocks box with missing lid into a container for all the sports gear.  Of course, I couldn’t help myself and so I labeled it all.

Organized at last!

 Of course, now I can hear the rest of the closet calling out for organization!  What is in your hall closet?  Is it organized? 

Posted by Jean in Uncategorized

I’m participating in the Organizing Life Challenge at Jordy Liz blogs and this week’s challenge was a tough one! 

Organize a catch-all spot!  Talk about too many choices.  I’ve spent most of last the week (and the weekend) considering…..clearing a catch-all spot.  Ironically, I actually do have a basket for car keys (not that they always end up there), a system for our incoming mail (junk straight to the recycle bin, bills to the organizer on the side of the refrigerator, and magazines to the basket), and lack kitchen counter space (stuff can’t pile up where the dishes already sit.  No comment on whether said dishes are clean or dirty.).  It almost sounds as if our house is free of the clutter-filled catch-all caches, doesn’t it?   Shall I present exhibit A?  Behold the computer desk!

Sadly, this space where I spend quite a bit (some may say too much) time has become the catch-all.   We all use this space so it becomes a wasteland of miscellaneous items….papers without a place, scribbled passwords for computer games, notes I make when working on family research,  toys, cell phones, and dust.   The first thing I do when cleaning and organizing catch-all space is clear it completely.  I move all the clutter to a different location and anything that goes in the trash to THAT location.  Am I the only one who finds papers that seemed extremely important at the time about a month later and realizes they are trash?  While I have no problem with the mail, school papers and event flyers are my nemesis.   It was very easy to simply remove all the clutter from this space.    

 Of course, the clutter would continue to carve out new space on the desk unless I could develop an organizing system for it all.   A lot of the clutter aside from being “important” trash happened to belong elsewhere.  Attempted organization + procrastination x no system for dealing with the rest of the family’s belongings (you know they don’t have clutter; they only have belongings…that are of course, never where they belong!) = catch all clutter chaos!   Time to develop a system.

First order of business, sort the large pile (should I confess that on more than one occasion, it moved from the desk to the bed and back to the desk so we could sleep?) into smaller  piles (Yes, you CAN organize clutter!).    I ended up with fourteen (yes, fourteen!) categories that were placed on the bed around a mammoth pile of laundry.   Then, I took a second look at the categories and started condensing (also my 11 year old son spied his “pile” and whisked it away before anything could happen to it).    I managed to condense it down to 11 categories:  library books (Speed Cleaning 101 is on my reading list!), household management, items that need to be put away downstairs (photos and kids’ artwork), school papers that pertain to 2012-2013, a small pile of miscellaneous comprised of a Kansas City Chiefs’ spiral notebook, Lego valentines from last year, and a cut-out of Flat Stanley (Huh?),  business documents, family research notes, writing materials (so really that category only contained a brochure for a nature center I want to review on Trip Advisor), Club Nintendo and Lego documents to enter into the computer, and some PTA papers.   Most of the items just needed to return to their homes after their lengthy vacation on top of our computer desk.   Then, it was time for the fun part!   Time to put my pretty file folders to use!  I ended up with these lovely files (yes, I did alphabetize them for the photo…couldn’t help myself!) all ready to be tucked in the desk drawer and hopefully, used as a tool to keep the desk top clear and clutter free.  

My pretty file folders!

Inside the desk drawer instead of on top of the desk!

 And at last, a lovely cleared off desk……

Now the comes the true challenge to see if it can stay that way!

Posted by Jean in Uncategorized

The boys began swim lessons today.  We had to leave the house at about 8:45a.m.  That’s about 15 minutes later than the bus comes during the school year so that shouldn’t be so hard.  Of course, I had everything gathered and right by the door so we could just go. 

Or maybe our morning really went like this:

Everyone was up by 7:30a.m. (No comments about who the last one out of bed may or may have been.).The video games called.  They answered.   I took a quick shower and instructed each of the kids to do the same.  Yes, they took showers before they went swimming.   Swimsuits were put on and towels found with ease.  They slurped up their cereal..  Almost ready to walk out the door and then it happened.  The Case of the Missing Crocs presented.  Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him?  The rest of my morning was spent looking under beds, in closets, behind doors, and under other random furniture.  Finally, on a whim, I checked the backyard.  The Crocs were sitting under the swing set and they were covered in mud!    Thankfully, I had time to hose the mud off the shoes before we had to leave.  Remarkably, we left only a couple minutes and arrived on time.

Tonight is a double event night with one kid’s soccer game overlapping with the other kid’s baseball practice.  Thankfully, we do have a bit of out the door organization in place for those events.  Soccer shirts, shorts, and socks are kept in one dresser drawer.  All sports shoes (cleats) are kept on the top shelf of the hall closet (I’m hoping to have them in a bin, eventually.  For now they are just thrown in there but they are in a location!).  Going out the door to those events should go somewhat smooth.  

Starting tomorrow, we will have an out the door organized system for swim lessons.  Number one item that will have a location:  Shoes!

What’s your method for getting out the door organized?

Posted by Jean in Uncategorized