29 Day Organizational Challenge: Progress Update 2 {#29DOC}

Posted in Goals, House and Home by teamtradermom

If you don’t know what the heck the 29 DOC is, you can catch up by reading here and here.

Now, 2 weeks in to the challenge, it’s time for another update.

We actually got a TON done over the weekend. In fact, I’m nearly done!

As a reminder, here is a BEFORE shot:

And here are my goals for this project:

1. Simplify so that the room looks less cluttered

2. Use vertical space better

3. Unify color scheme with dining room so that the 2 rooms complement each other

4. Visually separate the 2 rooms while still allowing for easy movement between them

5. Keep costs down – try to use what we have first before buying

Last week we de-cluttered, bought some new canvas storage bins and some new ottomans to use for seating and storage.

This week we re-arranged, organized, re-labeled and decorated.

It was a job that took the whole family. I wanted to put in a new bookshelf (well, new to this room. It’s a shelving unit we already had from the old house that was just sitting in the basement here), hang up some valances I had ordered weeks ago that finally arrived, re-arrange the remaining furniture and toys and re-label the canvas bins. To do all this, we first had to move out a bunch of stuff.

Most of it ended up on the dining room table.

CJ got to work drilling holes in the shelving unit. We wanted to attach it to the wall to make sure Isabella couldn’t pull it over.

Isabella helped too by trying on Daddy’s safety glasses.

Once the shelf was installed, the books were moved over and we started hanging the curtains.

Then it was a matter of moving stuff around until it looked right to me. There was no real process for this part, just trial and error.

Here are the bins with their new labels.

These canvas bins don’t have a slot to put a label so previously I had taped one on. I didn’t really like how that looked though and it didn’t stick real well so I needed something else. I got the idea to make labels out of scrapbook paper and tie them to the handle from another blogger participating in the challenge. I love how they turned out! Oh, and not only did I write what goes in each one, I also put stickers of the items so that Isabella knows (since she can’t read yet)

The white stacking bins are a new addition to the room. They were previously used in Isabella’s old bedroom for clothes because her closet was so small. She didn’t need them in her new room so I repurposed them down here! I added the yellow and blue paper to the front to make them more decorative and fun and then attached tags similar to those on the canvas bins, for consistency.

Now for the big reveal!

I am really loving how it turned out!

The new corner shelf adds the height I wanted while also utilizing valuable space. The new bins fit in with the color scheme of the dining room to make the 2 rooms more cohesive. And the valances add that extra pop of color that also helps tie the playroom to the dining room! I also love that I was able to use items we already had so I didn’t have to go spend a lot of money! Having the labels on the bins is really working well too and makes clean up a breeze!

We are ever so close to being done!

After living with it for a week, there are a few tweaks I want to make. The books on the corner shelf need some help as right now they’re kind of stuffed on there. There are still many bigger toys sitting out that make it look messy. Not sure yet what to do with those. I also want to add some decorative items to the top shelves of the corner unit, to make it “prettier”, along with a rug for the floor.

I’m really happy that we’ve come so far so fast though. Definitely feels like we’re over the hump and what remains is simply touch ups.

I’ll be back next Friday with another update!

11Feb2012

Treasures

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

I’ve never had a full set of dishes or china. When CJ and I got married, we registered for china but only got 1 place setting. To buy the rest would have been way out of our budget and at the time we didn’t have a need so we took the one place setting back and used the money for other necessities. So, for the 5 years we’ve been married, we’ve been using a mish-mash of dishes. Some were CJ’s from his bachelor days (white with gray stripes and polka dots) and some were from my bachelorette days (white with blue and yellow flowers). Neither were really true to our tastes but buying all new dishes just never made it to the top of the list.

The other day my mom called and asked if I wanted their wedding china. My mom has been using my great-grandma’s china all these years and so theirs had been sitting in boxes. I figured, why not? At the time I didn’t put much thought in to how we would use them – or even if we would. But I figured it was another heirloom from my parents so it would be worth it for that.

Little did I know what treasures would await me.

I finally unpacked the boxes today (there were 2). In it was a full (and I mean full) set of china that they got when first married (40 years ago).

This isn’t even all of it. There are matching tea cups and saucers too that I didn’t get out because I know we wouldn’t use those. I couldn’t even believe how much there was. 2 platters? A gravy boat? The cool part is that the pattern on the dishes is very close to what CJ and I had registered for way back when. I guess it was meant to be!

Oh and that cloth you see is a pillow case that my grandma cross-stitched for me many moons ago. Somehow it got left behind when I moved out of my parent’s house years ago so my mom tucked it in with the china for me. That was a lovely surprise!

It’s hard to see there but it has my name sewn in it, along with the flowers.

But wait, there’s more!

I also found a few other dishes from a different china set.

I called my mom and it turns out these are remnants of a set her grandmother had. My mom has the tea cups and saucers that go with it and thought that was all there was. She had forgotten about the additional pieces tucked away. There were 5 plates, that lid pictured above and a couple other small bowls. I get to keep those too and will get half of the cups when my parents die (my sister will get the other half). I’ll probably put them in our china hutch once we haul it up from the basement (any strong guys out there want to volunteer to help us do that?)

On top of that, I also found these in the box:

My mom has no idea where they came from. Probably from either her mom or grandma. As fate would have it, they exactly match the platter I bought on clearance at Target just the other day, which perfectly matches the colors of our dining room!

I love happy accidents!

After unpacking those 2 treasure chests of goodies, I emptied out our dishes cabinet and filled up a box for Goodwill of the mixed up stuff we had. The china was washed and put in the cupboards for every day use. I decided to do that, instead of keeping them stored away, because I want to appreciate them every day. What good does it do to have china if it doesn’t get used? Besides this gives us a full set of matching dishes, which makes me feel really grown up!

Isn’t it pretty?

(The multi-colored bowls are for Isabella or when we need something that isn’t breakable.)

I’m so excited for all my great finds today. I love that not only do we have a full matching set of dishes now but that they are heirlooms from my parents. I also love the pieces I found of my great-grandmas and the mystery blue cream and sugar jars. Such an unexpected treat for a Saturday!

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And I didn’t Even Staple my Finger

Thrifty

9Feb2012

29 Day Organizational Challenge: Progress Update {#29DOC}

Posted in Goals, House and Home by teamtradermom

This has been harder than I thought. For those of you just tuning in, I decided at the beginning of the month to take part in a 29 day challenge (over the month of February) to get ONE “problem” room in the house organized once and for all.

I picked Isabella’s playroom. It’s the first room you see when you walk in the front door and I want it to look nice. Play rooms by their very nature tend to be dens of insanity. But given the location of ours, it needed to have some order to it.

Here is a before pic.

Ok granted, I took that pic on a particularly bad day after she’d been playing hard. Still, it needs help, wouldn’t you agree?

Before I got started, I made a list of goals for this project. You can’t start unless you know what you really want to do, right? It’s too overwhelming otherwise.

Here are my goals:

1. Simplify so that the room looks less cluttered

Seems counterintuitive with a kid’s room. Isabella has a million toys and they’re all small and easily lost. But we’re really trying to keep the junk to a minimum and regularly cull through it to get rid of or put away things she’s not playing with anymore.

2. Use vertical space better

Kids are short. Therefore, their stuff is low to the ground. I get that. But it also breaks up the room into 2 distinct halves – the top and bottom. Most rooms have a nice medley of short and tall things so that it’s one unified space. The playroom doesn’t. So I need to figure out how to go “up” while still keeping everything accessible.

3. Unify color scheme with dining room so that the 2 rooms complement each other

My thought when buying all the pink and green stuff originally was that Isabella is a little girl and should therefore have things in pretty, girly colors. That works ok for her bedroom, which is all hers. But in a room like this, which everyone will see and also has to “share space” with the dining room, we need more visual cohesion. Besides, the toys themselves will keep it plenty colorful.

4. Visually separate the 2 rooms while still allowing for easy movement between them

This seems counter to #3 but it’s not. On the one hand, we want the rooms to work well together because visually, your eye will see them both at the same time. However, we also want to show that they are 2 rooms with different purposes. Another bonus to this is that it keeps Isabella’s stuff corralled so that it doesn’t take over the whole house.

5. Keep costs down – try to use what we have first before buying

This is a biggie. I could go crazy and buy all new furniture to “do it up right”, but who can afford that? So instead I’m going to try and use what we have. If I have to buy something, I’ll look for sale/clearance items. Gotta watch the pennies!

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

I went through everything and made 3 piles: keep, toss, and donate. The keep items were then split in to 2 groups: keep in the playroom or store in the basement for future rotation or the next kid.

Next, the bins had to be changed up, per goal # 3. The green and pink wouldn’t work with a blue/white/gold dining room. I originally thought of painting or dying the bins a different color but decided against it. First of all, the bins are flexible so paint would have ended up cracking and peeling off (even fabric paint). Dye might have worked but I didn’t think the colors would end up looking very “true” since the base color of the bins was green and pink (as opposed to white). So, I bought some new ones on sale at Target for $6 each. I think they look better than doctored up ones would have. Besides, now I can use the green and pink ones in Isabella’s bedroom (which will be an upcoming project).

And for fun, here’s the pic Samson photo-bombed.

The pink shelf will be moved upstairs into Isabella’s room eventually, when we’re ready to switch things around. The pink hippo bin will go with it.

From there, I looked at what we could do to consolidate the items in the bins. Up until now, they didn’t have a particular purpose other than as “boxes for stuff”. I devoted 2 of them to the Mega Bloks (which allowed us to get rid of the extra bags we had sitting atop the bookshelf) and the other two were split between balls and toys. I added labels so that we’d remember which was which.

To help with goals #1 and 4, we bought an ottoman set.

But Sarah, I thought you weren’t going to spend a lot of money? You’ve just mentioned 2 sets of things that you bought! I know, I know, but hear me out. The ottomans were a set of 3, on sale, and I had a coupon, so we were able to get all 3 for $85. If we had bought them at full price, it would have cost us almost $200. PLUS, since the ottomans all double as storage units, we were able to move Isabella’s stuffed animals in to them and get rid of the tupperware toy box (that has now been moved to the basement and repurposed for storage). By adding the 3 ottomans, we have additional seating, storage, a visual separation between the 2 rooms and were able to get rid of another box that just wasn’t working.

Newly freed up space where the old toy box was.

No more big and bulky bags of blocks.

I have several more ideas and projects to do before the room is done. I’m super excited to see how they work and to share them as I go! So far I’m happy with the accomplishments. I’m the kind of person who wants it all done RIGHT NOW! I have to keep telling myself to take baby steps…it’ll all get done eventually.

Stay tuned!

27Dec2011

Accomplished

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, House and Home by teamtradermom

I love me a good to do list. This is for 2 reasons.

It outlines my tasks and helps clear my head
It feels so amazing to cross things off and see what you’re getting done

Yesterday was one of those days.

First of all, let me just say how nice it was to have the day AFTER Christmas off. That extra day really helped get things reset and back to normal before starting work again.

Boy did we take advantage! Originally we considered using the day to catch a movie or something but that would involve a baby-sitter (we feel Isabella is too young yet for movies, even the kids ones). Plus, that would take valuables hours away from the many tasks that have been piling up. Owning a house – and particularly having just moved – means no end to chores, fixes, repairs, remodels, etc. So we opted to stay home and get stuff done.

I didn’t actually write out a list, which is unusual for me, but I was checking one off in my head. Here’s everything I got done:

2 loads of laundry folded and put away
First floor vacuumed
Dishes washed and put away (by hand and dishwasher)
Pictures hung in the master bedroom
2 pictures hung in the living room
After Christmas shopping done at Lowe’s
Isabella’s kitchen set put together*
Christmas presents put away
Goodwill items donated*
Basement cleaned up and some organization started**

CJ got a whole bunch of other stuff done too, from his own list.

Boy did it feel good! I went to bed last night exhausted yet satisfied.

Switching gears a bit. I’m not going to write a whole Christmas re-cap post this year because frankly, I’m ready to move on. I love the holidays and we had an awesome weekend, but I’d rather leave it be and quietly go forth with my week. It’s one of those things that you build up for a whole month and then when it’s over, it’s time to just let it go and stop retelling it.

One thing I will share is that this year we got Isabella involved in culling through her toys. Before we even brought one gift from Grandma’s into the house or opened many of her Santa gifts, we had her sit with us in the play room and decide which toys she would keep, which ones would be put away for a while (i.e. take out of the rotation and bring back in 6 months from now when we needed something “new”) and which would be given away to “other kids and babies and ladies and guys” (as she says it).

I thought it would be hard for her to understand and that we’d have to grab toys out of her clutched little hands but it didn’t go that way at all. She was cool with giving some of them away. She even went with us to Goodwill yesterday and watched daddy take the bags of stuff in. She asked where daddy was taking her toys and I reminded her about other kids who needed them. She said, “And babies and ladies and guys.” Yes, them too.

With a herd of toys either gone or relegated to the basement, her playroom had much more room for her new toys, like the kitchen set. It looked so nice and neat and open last night I almost wept. I know it won’t last – especially with my tornado Father-in-law coming over today – but it sure looked good for a day!

Another project that was started today was the basement. That one wasn’t even on my to do list – it was a total accident. See, last week I started working out again. Some of my gear is still packed away, and we don’t have the TV set up in the basement yet, so I’ve been forced to do either the elliptical while reading a magazine or free weight moves (using fitness cards from magazines). Well I finished my magazine this morning before my time was up on the elliptical and I CANNOT use a machine without either reading material or TV to watch. So I had to find other cardio. I looked around the basement – which has basically been the dumping grounds for everything else in the house that we don’t know what to do with – and decided I might as well work on organizing it.

So I moved furniture (including the elliptical which before was tucked back in a dark corner and now is near another wall, under some light), went through boxes, picked up toys, and basically started figuring out where things should go and how to keep it somewhat tidy while still being in limbo.

I got so much done and was moving and using muscles the whole time. Not too exciting but I felt great about it! Plan to do that again tomorrow and every day thereafter until we have a gym membership (which could be sooner rather than later)!

I have a whole slew of other projects to get done but those will have to wait for another day and another post.

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A Blank Canvas

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

So the inspection on our new house took place on Thursday. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the previous residents had moved out already and the place was totally empty.

Yippee!! Funny how a small thing like that can be such a big deal. At first it wouldn’t see so momentous but it is. First of all, we no longer have to worry about inconveniencing them when we want to drop by or need to take measurements or whatever. AND most importantly, it now feels more like ours. With all the rooms empty, we can visualize what we will do with them and the possibilities are endless.

I took some pics of the house while we were there so you can see what we have to work with. Part of me was scared that it wouldn’t be as nice as I remembered or that we’d find something awful. But no such thing happened. In fact, it was even better than we had remembered!

I was trying to get a pic of the house with the SOLD sign but was parked in the middle of the street and had to hurry. You can kind of sort of see it there, front and center, from the side. Still pretty as a picture though!

Here’s what you see when you first walk in (well try to picture it without the step ladder…). Stairs on your left (along with a coat closet), kitchen straight ahead, living room and dining room to the right.

OK so it just looks like a big empty room. But the back part is the dining room (under the light) and the front part is the living room (which really starts on the far right of this picture, where the baseboards run out of the frame).

If you walk straight in from the front door, and keep going, you’ll walk right in to the kitchen. Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic because the inspector had his stuff all over it and I forgot to take one when we left. But it still looks a lot like this, only without the table.

I had forgotten how many cabinets there are. Easily double what we have now. I don’t know where to begin to put all my stuff away. And the counter space! Mama mia! New details I noticed: there is a Lazy Susan cabinet in the corner (love!), the sink is deeper than average and NOT stainless steel (which is what we have now – they look pretty but are sure hard to keep clean), the countertops are a solid surface Corian, (which meant nothing to me. Apparently it’s meant to mimic the look of granite but is better because granite and some of the others stain really easily), and they left us a cutting board that matches the counter tops. Win!

That white door on the left goes to the basement. More to come on that later.

Just off the kitchen (to the left of where that photo ends) is the family room.

The fireplace is gas and that little white/black thing you sitting on the mantle is a remote control for it (the white part is a note they left themselves saying DO NOT PACK)! Who knew! I guess we can be sitting on the couch and just push a button to have a fire. Hells yeah! The ceiling fan is also remote controlled which is so nice. I HATE having to reach up on my tip toes to pull the stupid chains in our house now (and I always pull the wrong one and end up putting the fan speed on turbo when I really meant to turn on the light!).

By the way, the wall colors and trim are what I always wanted in our house but we never got around to doing. In fact, we (er, CJ) were going to paint it like that the week before it sold and ended up not having to! Another sign that it was meant to be!

On the other side of the kitchen is the door to the garage, a half bath and the laundry room.

Then we venture upstairs. Isabella had fun playing on the stairs, though she’s starting to learn that she can fall down them (since she’s done it 3 times).

No, she’s not in the process of rolling down. She was pretending to nap and asking me for a blanket. I didn’t have one so I laid on top of her and said I’d be her blanket. I was told that was wrong.

This is what you see when you get to the top of the stairs:

The master bedroom is on the left (double doors), another bedroom straight ahead (though that will probably be our guest room/office), and the kids’ bathroom to the right.

Looking down the hall to the right are the other 2 bedrooms and the “loft” at the end. I discovered all the rooms have cable outlets in them, even the loft – sweet!

Isabella has claimed this room. I think she likes it because of the pink/purple dots on the wall and the flower. I tried to peel one off and some paint started to come with it. Not sure if we’ll leave them or what but she seems to like it!

She had fun hiding in the closet too. Peek-a-boo!

The main bath has double sinks which will be great for when we have more than one kid. They won’t have to fight over sink/counter space. Yes I know she is touching the toilet seat. Don’t worry – I hosed her down with lye soap when we left.

Here’s the panorama of the master bathroom – double sinks and whirlpool tub on the left (Mickey is about to take a bath himself)…

then the shower and then the toilet, which I didn’t take a pic of. I think you all know what those look like. It’s not like this one is gold plated or anything.

And our walk in closet. It’s bigger than it looks in the pic, though not as big as one that we saw in another house. That one was literally as big as Isabella’s room. I die. But, that house didn’t have the other features we wanted so I gave up that closet for a house that has everything else.

View of the backyard from the upstairs rooms.

I like that the patio is curvy like that. Gives it some added interest.

Here’s the view from the top of the stairs, looking down to the front door.

I like the the steps have that one at the bottom that curves a bit. Gives it a spiral staircase feel and adds just that much interest to it.

Now we shall head to the basement.

Oooh…..aaaahh…Yeah ok so it’s not that exciting. But it is big and full of potential! Plus Isabella loved running around in it!

The back of the house and North side of our backyard.

And the southwest side.

There you have it! Our new house, ripe and ready for us to move in! Oh, by the way, the inspector only found one thing that needs to be fixed so we’re good to go after that! Everything seems to be falling in to place. We are scared that the other shoe is going to drop one of these days – can it really be this easy? But then we remind ourselves it wasn’t easy. We had to search and search for this house.

As we were leaving (on our way to dinner for spaghetti) Isabella looked up at me and said, “I like this place mommy.”

That’s all I need to know.