motivating post on a perfect pantry

 Every so often I just like to  gawk at  the organizing projects of others. It's kind of like watching an exercise show...while sitting and not doing. The link is to the Idea Room, a favorite blog.

Click HERE to see the whole post.

#1 Buckets

As I write this I am stuck at the Vancouver BC airport. Looks like I will be able to get to Seattle and then sleep on a bench somewhere till morning, then hop a flight to Salt Lake in the morning and then on to Atlanta in a couple of days. So.....I will be blogging since I have my laptop with me.....and a ton of Canadian candy. Ya that'll be an interesting dinner.

I wish I had a photo of the colored plastic buckets or dishpans that I used when the kids were growing up.

I found this photo online that has the same idea. It's super pixelated though.

I put a tall open shelf in the laundry area  and put in one "bucket" for each child (6) and one for my husband and me and one for loose socks. They were labelled with their names but the colors were better identifiers.

The kids were responsible for getting their laundry down to me and separating into the "whites, colors and towels" hampers that I had. If they didn't bring them down their laundry didn't get done. (I was real big on natural consequences". )

When the laundry was done I folded everything and placed in their buckets. They were responsible for getting them back to their rooms. It worked well when they were little. Once they turned 12, they were given new privileges and new responsibilities and doing their own laundry was one of them.

The socks bucket was for loose socks. I would call the clothes dryer the "great Burmuda rectangle"because pairs of socks would go in but then some vanished. Every once in a while I'd put the bucket in front of someone watching tv and said "here, match these up"

I loved my Buckets system!

Blogs FOR you !

I have been keeping a -just for me- blog for awhile to save interior and exterior design ideas...like this mirror on mirror photo.

 I've blogged about this idea before but I think it's worthy of another mention because I think it's such a great way to keep track of web photos and ideas that you want to have access to and not forget about.  (thanks to Penny for expanding my mind with this idea).  I've named this private blog "In my dreams" for obvious reasons.

The great thing about blogs is that they are searchable data bases, easy to use, accessible from any computer and FREE.  I have 5 or 6 blogs at present. One for my recipes, one for quotes, one that is more family oriented and a couple others to keep track of other info and ideas. Ya I'm a saver but at least blogs don't take up space!!

Does your fridge look like this before photo??

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I love a great motivating picture

Here's the after...

and the story HERE

you want to know how to save a lot of money?

I just read an interesting TIME blog article  click here  about a large group of women who did something that I did last year - BUY NO NEW CLOTHES for yourself for one whole year.

 I had always wanted to challenge myself to do this and last year I did it!  I didn't buy a thing for myself. It occurred partly out of the shock and awe of the economic nose dive.  I just didn't feel like spending any money and my closet was too full anyway from days of shopping out of boredom at times.   So I dove into this new project.  I got organized, rearranged my clothes into FAMILIES, and would shop in my own closet. It wasn't as hard as I thought and I felt a little noble about this little accomplishment.  

I agree with Coco Chanel: Have a minimum of clothing but it should all be very good quality and I would add...at half price!

I have a new goal...

 A few years ago, my computer crashed, along with all my digital (and scanned) photos. It made me sick to my stomach. It was expensive but I hired someone to get my files back. Since then I have been trting to decide the best way to store my photos and not keep 6000 + on my computer (its just so handy though..)

I had decided that  the easiest and cheapest way is just to make your own CD/DVD/s of everything. Several of my techno mac geek design friends did it this way also. (I would also like a cyberspace backup but I don't want to depend on that totally.)

I found this photo today of how one organized mom (from Real Simple) stores her digital photos. A great photo always motivates me. So.....this is how I want my photo storage to be/look like!

She color codes the disks ; blue= trips,  yellow, parties etc.  I wouldn't get crazy here. I think I'll just date them and list the contents. I do like how she divides the years with empty disks sitting vertical instead of horizontal though.   I LOVE this!

inspiring desk top organizing

organizing birthday cards

I have used a dutch birthday calendar for years. There are no years on it, only days. It hangs on the back of my bathroom door (that's the obligatory place where all true Dutchies put them)  and a box that birthday cards go into to lay in wait, but I now put it all together in this BIRTHDAY BINDER. It is divided by months and a couple of occasions at the back. Plastic page protectors go behind  each month (to hold said cards) and a month at a glance list of birthdays and anniversaries goes right behind each tab.  I love it.

...another great Martha Stewart idea

Closet organization - Idea for scarves and belts

If I had a wall in my closet, I would do this....what a great new use for towel rods! Add hooks to the rod for belts. Visible and accessible! Love it.

Organizing - Quick trip pill box

A great use for an old contact case!

New use for old eyeglass case...

your backdoor brain

great system for "out the door "reminders

Around the blog and back

I found a new blog I like.   It's called Organizing Life.
Photos motivate me more than text. I can see at a glance what she did and I love it.

One idea leads to another...

So, remember the post about the best recipe book ever?...my cyber recipe book? Well I got to thinking the other day about the whole free searchable data base thing. (I really love my cyber recipe book by the way!)   So, I was straightening up a little work area I have in the family room. I like to be in there when family is there but I also like to get paper-y projects done, so I sit at a little work table and fiddle away.

I was looking at a project that had been waiting for me to get to it for a long time. It was just sitting there taking up valuable real estate in my shelf.

I have a really long and jam packed "quote file"; one of several actually. (This photo here is generic). I'm an obsessive collector of thoughts and ideas and sometimes its tricky to find them immediately.  I don't remember how I was going to organize it originally, but it dawned on me that I could save all this on my own "Quote blog" that is just for my use and then chuck the index cards. It's a no brainer project that's perfect to work on when the guys are watching some shoot em up tv show that I don't care about watching. 

It's searchable, so in the search box, I type "simplify, or faith, or style etc, and all the posts that I've tagged with that label pop right up.

Now I'm wondering what other "just for me" blog I can do next. Any ideas??