My Organizing Weekend

Ok, I've finally been able to sit down and write this post! And it's long.

Saturday David and I went over to our friends "the K's" house to help them with some honey do's. Like I said in Monday's post: My Intentions they are expecting baby #2 soon and had several projects that really needed to be done.

First up was their garage. Back in June the four of us spent an entire day cleaning, purging and organizing their garage. These are the original before pics.

Ok, here's the original after pics.

Well, like most families when winter hits you don't go in the garage much, things don't always get put back where they go because it's cold and Christmas brings more stuff and old gets put in the garage. So we ended up with a messy garage again but with the bones of the organization still intact. The organization was still working for them but we just needed to tweek a few things.
Here's the newest before.

It didn't take us very long to get the garage back in shape a couple of hours really. The guys had a car load of recycling and Goodwill to take, stuff needing to go in the attic, items to be returned and general clean up.

Here's the after.

They can now breathe better when coming home after work.

Next up was the kitchen.

Their kitchen has good storage but it just needed to be purged and a few adjustments to where some stuff was.

After spending the last year gradually working our way through their house getting it organized, we've realized that using baskets for wayward items worked great for them. So, we used baskets for several things: tupperware, sippy cups/kiddo cups, lidded cups, bottles & accessories and snack items.

I was a bad blogger and didn't take before pics of the cabinets BUT, I did get a before on the areas before adding the baskets.

Here's the tupperware cabinet:

We purged a ton of tupperware and this is what's left. However tupperware has a bad habbit of spilling over, lids being lost or shoved to the back. There is a ton of space in the cabinet but it was hard to get to the stuff in the back. So, here's what we did.

We went to Dollar Tree and picked up a bunch of baskets that would work for each area. This cabinet had room for 4 of these baskets on the top shelf. We only needed 3 though, we separated the snack sized from the bigger sizes and labeled the baskets to help remember. This is so awesome because they can just pull out a basket to get to everything they need. And they can utilize the back space because they can pull the front basket out to get to the back one.

Next the cup cabinet:

In this cabinet they like the lidded cups and kiddo cups as well as lunch boxes and koozies. This cabinet also has tons of room but things would end up pushed to the back and hidden.

Here's the after:

We had room for 4 of the big baskets on the top shelf, but again only needed 3. The bottom shelf has 2 baskets for lunch boxes/coolers and a small one for koozies. AND has tons of extra space left over!

Now I didn't get a before of the bottles (I thought I had) but here's the after.

We relocated them from another part of the kitchen, in anticipation for their upcoming use. They are right next to the plates, bowls and general cups. But this will keep them from tipping over in the cabinet and from falling down everytime the door is opened. We also loved the colors and they will make Mrs. K happy to look at them!

We were very pleased with the results, we sent 3 trash bags full of kitchen stuff to Goodwill.

We found a lot more space in the cabinets than we thought they had. And we made it a bit more user friendly.

I wanted to share this with you to show you how we organized in a way that works for "the K's". Hopefully this will help others in their efforts.

I absolutely LOVED doing this! I get so energized when I do projects like this and I want to keep doing more!

I'd love to offer tips and help if anyone is interested, just leave me a comment.

WIWW #6

What I Wore Wednesday is brought to you by The Pleated Poppie link up. Where we post what cute things we wore during the week to inspire other mom's to get out of those jammies/sweats and get dressed and share our creativity!

My Target Special Outfit

Cardigan, Blue lace tank & White Tee- Target

Blue necklace- Dustee's

Jeans -Kohl's

Red Flats- DSW

Green Cardigan- Target

Grey Tee- Gap from Goodwill (the most comfy tee ever!)

Turq lace cami- Maurice's

Blue Necklace- Dustee's

Jeans- Kohl's

Black Flats- Famous Footwear

Cardigan- Target

Green Tank- Old Navy

Jeans- Kohl's

Black Flats- Famous Footwear

My Intentions

Well, I had this post I was going to post this morning only I haven't written it yet.
This weekend we helped our best friends aka "the K's" do some projects around their house. They are expecting baby #2 soon and we are trying to help them get their house ready. We've been moving furniture around, cleaning out rooms, purging and organizing.
We spent the majority of Saturday helping them and then visited with the inlaws that evening. Then daylight savings and getting to bed late anyway, church, errands and just taking care of my home and family; my blog post just didn't get written.
I want to go into more detail about the K's home organization/purge extravaganza but not today. I also have some more pics to take.
So all of this to say I will expound on this project later this week and for today I have other things to take care of.

Organizing and Some Tips

I haven't talked much on here about organizing. But it is one of my passions! Organizing and decor go hand in hand (in my opinion). They have the ability to compliment each other, which is why I love them both.

Yesterday, I was feeling sluggish and thought that if I organized one of my closets it would get me motivated to clean the house. I didn't get much cleaning done but did do some organizing.

Now, I'm a very organized person. I routinely organize my home and I can tell you what is in every cabinet, drawer and closet in my home. And I can tell you where about 97% of our stuff can be found. I'm not saying this to brag, just to tell you how I am.

I love to organize, I love the order of items, I love knowing there is a home for everything. For me to feel calm and peaceful in my home I need this order.

There are times that certain areas get messed up and need some reorganization, or areas that I've worked on before but it just isn't working. During the winter/Christmas time a few areas in our home get hit: the garage, the office closet and my china/decorating closet.

The garage gets messed up because it's cold out there in the winter and we don't always put stuff back or we've ended up with some large items that need to be dealt with and they live in the garage till spring.

The office closet gets messed up because at Christmas time we pull the box holding all the wrapping supplies out of the shed and it goes in the office closet. We are very fortunate that the closets in our home are large and this one is about 5ft x 5ft. It also ends up the catch all when I need all the rooms to be picked up and clean. Unfortunately this closet is at the very corner of our home and not really insulated very well. So it ends up like the garage and we mostly stay out of it during the winter months.

My china/decor closet. I have a linen closet in our home that I turned into a place to store all my pretty stuff. This gets hit due to the holidays as well.

SO, anyway back to what I did!

I knew there were a few things I wanted to get rid of out of my china closet, so it got freshened up. After gettting it looking great I was still motivated to organize so I decided to talk the office closet.

Thankfully it was warm enough out that it wasn't freezing in the closet! Since David and I share the closet I could only work on my side (he'll have to do his side later). I have my older scrapbooks in there, office supplies, wrapping supplies and kids crafting supplies in there oh and my reference books too.



My side re-organized.

 I purged some books, and wrapping supplies and it made a huge difference! I moved some stuff around to make it look better too. I had a nice sized Goodwill pile when I was done! I always feel so good when I have a pile of stuff for Goodwill. It makes me feel lighter.

Last night we did some work on the garage. Mostly just putting some stuff back, sweeping and moving stuff around. We did a huge organizing on it last summer and it's working great for us so far.

I wanted to share a couple of tips if you are in need of some help.

First, you can't organize junk. There's no way around it, you have to start by purging. Ask yourself these questions: Do you use it? Do you love it? If it's a no, then it needs to go. If it's sentimental then start a memory box and store those items in there.

Second, you have to organize in a way that works for you and your family. Example, if you always come in the house through your garage and the coat closet it across the house and all the coats end up on the dinning room chairs then that doesn't work for you. Don't fight that the coats don't end up in the closet work with it. Hang hooks by the garage door, or whatever works in your home.

About a year ago I was helping my best friends work on their dinning room and since the garage door dumped them into the dinning room and kitchen all the mail, coats, purses, bags and misc ended up on the dinning room table and floor. And it was hard to walk in there without tripping on all the bags. So I suggested they get some baskets to go under a built in desk in the dinning room. They could have his and hers baskets (hers also got the diaper bag). They would contain any thing that needed to go to work the next day, and all bags and be neatly pushed under the desk.

This system worked great for them and it's now one of their favorite things! There was no sense in making everyone feel guilty because they didn't put the bags and such "where they are supposed to go". We just worked with how they live. We now use baskets in most of their organization in their home. It works great for them!

We are getting ready to tackle their kitchen, so I'll do my best to get some before and afters to show off.

If you need any help leave me a comment, I'd love help you!

WIWW #5

What I Wore Wednesday is brought to you by The Pleated Poppie link up. Where we post what cute things we wore during the week to inspire other mom's to get out of those jammies/sweats and get dressed and share our creativity!

Flats- Famous Footwear

Jeans-Kohl's

Green tank- JCP (another postpartum buy)

Navy Cardi- Gap

Flats-Famous Footwear

Jeans- Kohl's

Shirt-Goodwill (love that place!)

Black Heels-DSW

Jeans-Kohl's

Purple Tank- Target

White Jacket- Kohl's

Necklace- my design

I love this white jacket, it's a petite so it's the perfect length for my short torso and I love the way it looks!

Thanks for looking!

Pillow Shams

I finally got around to making the pillow shams for our master bedroom.
I found the fabric in the remnant pile. There was 3 yards left and that was just about the right amount. I hadn't figured the amount out before finding the fabric so I just took all 3 yards to be safe. I believe it's outdoor fabric, but you can't tell. It looks like upholstery fabric.

I wanted a colored fabric since my sheets are white (and I like that), so I needed a color to break up the white. I already have my headboard fabric which is a striped brown, turquoise, cream, green and the fabric for the shams is a solid turqoise color. So they go well together.

I just made a simple pillow cover and it didn't take me that long maybe 1 1/2 hours for all 3 (we have a king size bed with regular size pillows so we needed 3).

I debated over whether to have a decorative edge or not but in the end having enough fabric made the decision, no edge, just a simple cover.

I really like how they turned out! Here's a pic of them on the bed with the other throw pillows I made. The shams are practically the same color as the small DM pillow, but the pic isn't reflecting that.

I'm getting closer to finishing this room. I need to repaint the dresser and put knobs on it, it doesn't have any right now. And I need to make the headboard, and a few small things. But I'm pleased with the results and excited to show off the whole room when it's done!

Confessions of a Sugar-aholic

Hello, my name is Marixa and I'm addicted to sugar.

I finally came to this conclusion a few months ago. I would eat something sweet and then within a half hour I'd have a headache. When I started seeing the connection I knew I was addicted.

I've known for a while that I needed to do something about it but as with addictions it's not always easy.

Last week I was reading a blog post called Unexpected Benefits of a Whole Foods Diet and I was convicted and inspired to make a change. It was hurting me and I think my mood was being affected as well. It was time to stop this crazy cycle and take control of my health.

I have decided to start with giving up sugar (all forms of processed, not natural) for Lent.

Now, I've never given anything up for Lent and frankly I don't care for the whole Fat Tuesday thing. But, I want this to be a time to break the habit, and give my body plenty of time to get the sugar out of my system and honor my body and God with my eating habits.

I don't think (at least right now) that I could go forever without eating sugar, but I will need to be very careful about letting it back in my life. After all I'm addicted. I've noticed in the past that eating some after a while I then need more and now this is where I am.

I'm anxious to see how I feel in 7 weeks and look. I know this won't be easy but I'm going to do this. I have to, I feel like I'm poisoning my body.

So, I'm telling all you to help keep me accountable and if you have any words of wisdom, tips and tricks or encouragement it will be great appreciated!

And pray for my family as they live with me for a while!!!