A new Brain

It's that time of year, time to get a new planner! Years ago I started getting a new planner around the start of school. This one has the rest of 2011 and all of 2012.And I LOVE it! I got a Life Planner, a total splurge!  The cover was customized with my name and my blog name, because really, a planner is about all the moments between waking and sleep. :)

The inside pages are beautiful, each month a new color theme, including tabs! Of course I still have my trusty to-do list, something that I always write on extra paper so I can take just that with me if I need to instead of my entire brain. :) Life is always so orderly with a new planner.

One Mega May Goal completed

This weekend was supposed to be all about painting the ceiling and remaining walls but that isn't happening yet. :)

Instead I tackled our linen closet and ended bagging up a TON of pillows, old down comforters and a massive feather bed all for the trash. Now before you get all over me about donating them, seriously, NO ONE would want these. I don't even know why I was holding on to them.

At one point the upstairs hallway was stacked with the pile of pillows I pulled out of our tiny closet, 9 of them!! Why? I just keep asking myself that. So I tossed the gross ones, the ripped ones, the uncomfortable ones, and had the guys each pick one pillow for me to store in the closet for future use. I then promptly shoved those "to keep" pillows into a vacuum seal bag with a dryer sheet and stored them away. Yay!

I also took the time to go through all our towels and set aside all the ripped, frayed or stained towels to donate to the Animal Shelter. I would like to slowly switch all our towels over to All White. We are hard on towels and stains are inevitable, so being able to bleach them would be awesome. I figure as we wear out a towel I can just replace it with a new white one from Costco.

I have one non-white weakness though, Pool Towels! These I love to have in the brightest craziest patterns. I saw one at Target a couple months ago that was of goldfish, I still wish I had snagged it up. :)

So one measly mega May Goal down, tons more to go!

Beware MEGA Organization Forthcoming

This entire post is going to give you a panic attack if you don't like clutter, mess, piles, or LOTS of stuff. You have been fore warned. :)

One of the things that I wanted to tackle in my April goals was organizing my office closet. When Alex and I swapped rooms around the holidays I was more focused on making his room presentable not to mention live-able so everything that moved to my office pretty much was just piled and stacked up. The closet was a wasteland that I only entered if it was absolutely necessary.

This lovely little corner use to be five times worse. This table held all my scrap booking stuff that I sold a couple weekends ago. I filled my entire car with stuff so you can imagine how much more was stacked there. Steve the hedgie has been hanging out on this table, just because I have no room on the floor. You can also see proof that I have commandeered all laundry baskets to act as storage baskets.

Turning to you right you would see this messy pile of stuff all most completely blocking my bookcases, there are a couple blankets for the dogs to lay on and Alex's old TV waiting for a listing on Craig's list.

Here is where all the magic happens, my desk! It is messy and full because I don't spend much time here organizing because I am busy plowing through the final four weeks of school. I have big plans for this area.

And now I bless with you a floor shot of the closet pit, ummm that pile is about 2-3 feet tall. No Joke, I have a lot of stuff.

Which brings me to my mental conversation I had with myself as I purged and organized and tried to place like with like... I have come to the conclusion that I am not a Hoarder, I can get rid of things, I don't have to mull each item over to decide if I want to part with it. BUT after I do let it go, I think about those items, specifically, and wish that I had some of it back. That longing alone was enough to scare me into ruthlessness when it came to purging and throwing stuff away. I need to get to the point where minimal is perfect, not empty.

I want each item in my home to have a purpose, a need, be functioning, be beautiful, and kept because it meets a need. Not because we just happen to have it. Ruthlessness I say!

An hour and a half later I have a clean floor in front my bookcases...

The table is gone and I have brought out my yarns and project bags and moved my work bookcase over to the empty wall. yes, there is still major organizing to do, but everything is at least not blocked and stored with it's partners, so I can chunk it all out in small bites over the rest of the month, instead of in one nightmare day.

My desk is a wee bit better, at least the garbage bag underneath it is gone, it had been sitting there since the room swap, MONTHS!

And now for your semi viewing pleasure, the closet. I muscled in the banquet table where things are grouped together and will easily be able to be sorted through one basket/box at a time. I also rearranged the shelves and will pare it all down to a simple system of neat storage instead of the hodgepodge of random storage solutions.

Beware, more organizing is to come through the rest of the month, but in small batches that will hopefully garner huge results.

I am pleased!

A Recipe Collection

I have been reorganizing the pantry over the last couple of days. It got way out of control during Alex's birthday weekend, I have no idea how that happened. This time I focused on the appliances side of the pantry. I have been culling out what we don't need, like two extra crock pots, and what we haven't used.

One thing that took up a lot of prime real estate in our pantry is my cook book collection. Which I use, but only a fraction of the library itself. Slowly I have been moving my most used cook books out to the hutch in our dining nook. Yesterday I moved it all out there, removing the books that I never use.

Here is the space, three shelves of books. A handful used much more than others. I am going to pay attention to the books that I am not using, and weed them out, because really what use are they.

My top shelf: The Cooking with Jamie book is a new acquisition from Christmas. Gotta love the Brits! Which moves me onto the Nigella books, every single one is well used and loved.

My Second Shelf:Front and Center, the cooking bible, The Better Homes Big Red Book. Seriously, any new cook starting out needs this book. They update every couple of years to current food trends. My moms has Salisbury steak in it. :) The illustrated Cookbook is a great resource for HOW to cut, chop and work in my kitchen. It's ancient and there are plenty of newer versions out there. But really who wants to pay $75 for a reference book. The Nourishing traditions book on the far right is a FABULOUS resource for how to make anything and everything from scratch. She is hardcore against processed foods and believes in a protein and fat loving diet, but if the Apocalypse every happens, I will know how to make ranch dressing from scratch.

My third Shelf: Joie de Vivre is not only a great introduction to French cooking but a joy to read. Of course everyone should have the spiral of Crockpot meals. But my favorite thing on this shelf is the Cooks Illustrated magazine for American Classics. Best magazine I have ever bought, that issue alone is amazing!

And inside the cabinet on the left I have my pile of magazines and Everyday foods. Plus my recently rebuild recipe folder. Previously this pile was messy, rarely used and had print outs of various recipes all over the place. I sat down and filed all paper recipes into paper protectors and put them in the binder. Eventually I will go through the magazines and rip out and file the recipes I want.

While weeding out books I stumbled across this Vegetarian cookbook that I had forgotten all about. I snagged it from my mom probably 16 years ago. It is so 70's, but full of great veggie recipes.

The TOC is awesome, really you can make so much just veggie. And with a whole chapter devoted to Cheese, I knew I needed to keep this book around.

But this final paragraph in the introduction had me laughing my ass off. You know a cook book is from the 70's when there is open pot references and even food recommendations for munchies.

Ready for January 1st

I have a love affair with planners. I have used Day Planners, Franklin Coveys, Outlook, Palms, spiral bound notebooks, and student planners. But two years ago I found my ultimate planner. A planner that lets me track all our individual schedules with room for the house schedule and meal plans. It still has a to-do list and plenty of room for notes. And above all other things it isn't as big as a text book. The Busy Body Book is the adult version of my favorite student planner. They have revamped it over the year,made it come chic and savvy, not so hokey, but the basic structure is there, which is what I want. Plus their customer service is the best!

Each year I refurbish the cover, using the ultimate in papers, Basic Grey. For some reason 2008's cover seems better then the current one. Or maybe I have just been staring at that bird for a whole year and I am ready for some new visual goods.