Back to School ... Weekly Clothes Organized

Since I work from home I have the luxury of clocking out and helping the kids in the morning to get ready for school.  Which is great but I have one who doesn't like to get up and one who wants me to do everything for him.  So getting dressed can be a pain.  I came across a weekly clothing organized on The Gunny Sack.  This was super easy and the boys loved picking out their own clothes and shoes to match of course!  I must say day one went pretty smooth using this!

What you need:

Organizer (I found one at Target for 6 openings)

Card Stock or Printed Fabric & Felt

Printer

Glue Gun

Self Lamination Pockets (business card size) - Optional

Foam - Optional

I hung up on the back of the boys door until we get their closet fixed.  I didn't use the printed fabric and felt like she did since I know how rough my boys are.  I found these really cool self adhesive lamination pockets that I cut the daily labels into.  I made a little ledge from foam to be glued to the organizer.  I'm a glue gun girl and glued it all together :).

Easy Peasy!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Organizing My Photos with My Memories Software (Also a Giveaway)

We end out this week of organizing with getting my pictures in order.  As you all know I love taking pictures heck I have a camera in the kitchen to take pictures of food to post here (Yes I'm a little obsessive).  The only downside of all the pictures is the storage space on my camera stick or when I do download them they then sit on my computer.  Once upon a time I was an avid scrapbook-er   You know the old school time where I would cut up my own paper, glue it and spend hours putting together a book.  Once I spent 8 hours straight putting together a book for one for my best friends (I wonder if she still has it?).   Well then kids happened and my love of anything requiring peace and quiet went out the door well that is if it for me that is!

For years I have admired the digi scraps I have seen by others on places like Myspace (oh yes I went that far back ... come on people it was the before of FB get with the times).  Now with work and the kids I didn't think I had time to do this, I was wrong it is actually very easy to do.  You download the software (heck I can do that), then you can either buy or YES there are FREE layouts that you can download, then here is the hard part pick the picture you want to add to the layout!  YUP so simple, now it took me a little bit how to figure out how to get the layouts and play around with them in the program but once you get the hang of it, it's a snap to do!

My Photos are no longer going to be stacking up!!

image source

So now my drawer of misc photos can actually be put into fun layouts that I can easily print at home or send to Walmart to print.  THEN I can actually put those pictures in the scrapbooks that are taking up dust in the closet.  Yes the same ones my husband keeps threatening to throw out unless I use!  Hold onto your big girl panties dude soon they will be filled up and then displayed in our home!

As you have seen I haven't done a lot of reviews or giveaways lately.  I take them very serious and think if I'm going to put my name on something I am going to give my all to it and that means taking the time to test the product and spend a good amount of time writing my post.  This usually takes me several hours so I only will take on something I know I really want to try and have the time to check out.  

My Memory Suite was very kind and offered me their software to try out.  The download only took about 10 minutes and then I was ready to play with the layouts and add my photos.   

Here are a few pages I made to show off, I will have to do some more with the photos I have and then I have great Christmas Gifts!!  Oh yes I'm all about the photo Christmas gifts.  Here you go time to WIN, you can win the software ($39.97 value).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For you who don't win you can use a $10 off coupon for the software:

USE CODE: STMMMS19426

Have a great weekend!  I hope you enjoyed my week of organization!

Organizing Shirt Drawers

My next place I tackled was the organizing the kids shirt drawers.  The boys go to a private Faith based school so we have uniforms.  I use to fold the shirts but then the boys would not like the top color and rumble threw the drawer and I would end up with shirt balls all over again!  I was checking out Pinterest the other day and found this great site that talked about how to make more space in the drawers.  I tired it and bam my problem solved the boys can now easily see the colors and now can just grab one and we are done!!  

Darkroom and Dearly put together these easy steps:

1. Lay out your shirt with the print facing up.
2. Fold the shirt in half length-wise, print still facing up.
3. Fold in your sleeves (this takes an extra fold with long-sleeved shirts)
4. Fold your shirt in half width-wise, with the sleeves tucked inside the fold.
5. Fold one more time width-wise.
6. Stack shirts in rows in your drawer with the patterned fold at the top.

Tada Done!  There is me doing it step by step with the boys uniform shirts!

This was another easy one to do and now when I do laundry it folds up easily and right back into the drawer!  I must say it has saved me a ton of time and I don't hear the "MOM I can't find the color I want" :).

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Organizing my Cupcake Cups

As you know I love to bake and cook and I organized the pantry to make it easy to find my baking needs, but I still had a drawer that holds my misc decorating items.  Is this drawer is my cupcake cups.  Sadly they never go back into the plastic cup they came in they just go in the drawer.  Each time I go to make cupcakes I end up throwing away a few that got smooched in the drawer.  I saw on pinterest and idea to put them in a spaghetti container! So on the search I went to find a cool container, I hit up Ross and Marshall's and ended up finding this really cool one.  The only bad thing is it is not clear see threw, so I took my handy label gun and put a label on it and I was good to go!

This is a simple and easy one to do, All you need:

Glass Spaghetti Container

Loose Cupcake Cups

Label (if you like to label like I do)

Group your cupcake cups together and put in the container.  Add a label if you are on the OCD side like me!

Don't let this happen to your Cupcake Cups

How to Steps:

Here is what you need and the completed project!

Happy Wednesday!  Hope you all have a great day!  I don't ever speak my political views here, but I just had to say that I was sadden last night and had a very heavy heart.  I was listening to a Christian Station this am and the announcer reminded me of Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths. So what I needed to hear and just had to share and get that off my chest, ok no more political talk :).

Now to Organize the Laundry Soap

On my organizing whirl wind of the house, I tackled the laundry room cupboard above my washer and dryer.  I was looking threw pintrest the other day and found an idea I loved.  Putting your laundry soap in a fancy glass container with a spout to make it look more elegant.  Now I found this idea on Your Little Birdie's site, she used her homemade laundry soap which I believe is probably thinner then the brand I used.  I found this container I bought also leaked :( so back to Target I went and got a different one.   You can also adjust the rubber part on the back of the spout to let it flow better.  This is a simple idea but I really love this look when I open my cupboard.

What you need:

Glass Container with Spout (Target, Hobby World etc)

Laundry Soap (Homemade may be the best since it won't be as thick)

Clean your glass container and add the laundry soap.  You can let it drain and then into the recycler went the laundry soap container.  Next time I may even try to make my own laundry (don't worry I'll show it when I'm done).

Happy Tuesday!  I have a few more fun organization things to come!

Organizing the Junk Drawer

I've been on a kick to organize my life, feeling a little bit of out sorts and need to get everything in order to feel back to normal.  I started with my pantry and that turned out GREAT.  AND to the person who commented it would only last 2 weeks, I'm here to say it is still organized and functioning just perfect!  Next on my list to do was my junk drawer.  You know the drawer that somehow collects everything from pens to pieces of gum and maybe a piece of candy once sucked on by a little one who didn't want to be caught and threw it in there not to be caught ... What that never happens at your house?

I wanted to find a drawer organizer and found one perfect size and price at Ross.  It even came with very cool little stickers for each compartment.  Since my drawer was full of junk it didn't match all of these stickers but still it helped for some of them.

On to the drawer, I emptied it out, threw out things we really didn't need and then whipped it clean.  Added the drawer organizer and then filled up the compartments.  The organizer had two drawers a small one that slides on top that saves space and makes it easy to fit it all in the drawer.  I would so recommend do this, I love to open this drawer now.  No more open real quick shove something in and then shutting it quick before something pops out at me.

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a safe weekend!

Pantry Make-Over!

This weekend I was on a mission to clean up the pantry.  It has been getting worse and worse, and my darn house elf has gone on leave with no return date ... lol just playing.  I also had been given the task of cleaning out my cupboard above my stove, Rick is going to rip it down to open up my kitchen to the dinning room.  So my mission went from cleaning the pantry to clearing out the cupboard at the same time.  I had one big black bag of donating items, and 4 bags of garbage and outdated items!  I also had 2 bags of recycling that cleared up a lot of room!  I must say it is a relief to have the space organized.

Here is my cupboard above the island (please forgive the mess on the island, that is next on my list to clean up).

After a few hours I have the pantry cleaned up.  I took a few Rubbermaid bins to organize my cooking supplies (cake pans etc).  I took 3 Ikea Blue bins to put my craft supplies, cupcake decorating supplies and birthday party supplies.  The rest of my baking items went into (flour, sugar etc) went into Rubbermaid bins.  Thankfully every Black Friday Fred Meyers has them 1/2 off, I'll stock up again this year.  It turned out great, several hours but well worth it!

Yikes I'm almost embarrassed on how that looked ... lol

Sticking to a Resolution

Well I gave up with resolutions I don’t seem to follow threw with some things. So why not something I NEED to do and won’t end up with me in tears laying on the bed trying to pull on a pair of pants … well I digress!

I tackled my spice rack that drives me insane.  The more cooking I do the more I rely on my spices.  Every day I’m pulling down all these bottles to get just the right spice and of course each time it’s in the back!  I saw some great ideas on Pinterest but my cupboards are older and I couldn’t do the cool idea with the magnet paint and hang the spices on the door.  So I went on a search of what I can do!

I then hit my favorite store Winco with their amazing bulk section they have great spice bottles for like 79 cents!  I then had Rick’s label gun and went to town transferring my spices to the new bottles and labeling them.  I then went OCD and put them in alphabetic order and put them in my new Christmas Present to myself the Swivel Store Spice Rack at Bed Bath & Beyond for $19.99 and used my 20% off coupon!!  I need to go back for one more rack, I’m just waiting for my next coupon to come in the mail.  I want to do all my baking stuff like the sugars and other decorating items I have.

Check out my mess to HEAVEN!

My year is getting off to a good start!  Now to tackle my spare room and get it ready for the boys to have separate rooms!!  Do you have a practical new years resolution?