While the Masters Away .....

My husband is one of those guys that loves golf. He plays, reads and dreams about it more than he would like to admit. He fulfilled one of his childhood dreams a couple of years ago when he and his buddies made the trip to California and played Pebble Beach.

In a few days another golf dream will be checked off his bucket list ..... He is going to the Masters! Not as a player (wink, wink) but as a giddy, grown man in the viewers gallery.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am very jealous happy for him. But with five little ones at home, his travels leave me the sole 'doer' of everything around here! Ugh! I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

We have had plenty of time to prepare, but we are one of those 'fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants' type families ..... everything last minute, rushed, grab and dash ..... but man, we make a great team and always pull through. Notorious for saying, "someday we'll get it together", or "next time we'll prepare ahead of time ".....

However, here we are again, down to the wire and scrambling to get things done. This time is a little different as I personally have a lot more on my plate. My blog and my Etsy shop are starting to take off (YEAH!!!) but it eats up a huge portion of my time. So to make room for everything in my schedule, the boy's schedules and taking on my husband's portion of household chores and errands for the week, I needed a plan.

 

• Started with a quick clean up of the house. Everything in it's place makes stressful times and tight schedules run so much smoother. 

• Got out my dry erase markers and headed to the family calendar. Added in the tasks that were usually my husband's but now on my plate. For example: taking boys to swimming lessons, Taekwondo, and parent/teacher meetings. 

• Headed to the grocer to stock the fridge so I didn't have to run out through the week ..... huge time crusher!  I also like to wash most produce, chop and store in Ziploc bags so they are ready to use when needed.

• I prepared multiple meals in advance so that we can eat healthy on the go, without much effort. Some of these include roast chicken, turkey meatballs, root veggies, and a crock-pot soup.

• Switched lunch box prep to an evening chore to save time in the morning. The boys like to help with food prep, so after grocery shopping they pre-packaged all the dry snacks for me. :-)

• Finished all laundry and put away in closets. A system that really works for us is picking outfits for the entire week of school. We bought large clothes pins at the Dollarama to attach the bottoms and top to the hanger so there is no confusion. There have been many chaotic mornings where someone is running around looking for socks. So this system came from necessity. It also helps to keep me on top of the laundry and starts each week on an organized note.

• My husband always packs his own luggage. I just make sure his laundry is done and pick up some new travel-sized products. I must say, my eyes were more green than usual when he packed shorts and sunscreen! We are still hovering around freezing here in Nova Scotia, so shorts season is still another month or more away.

After this hefty weekend of preparation, we are more ready than we have ever been. There is still a lot to do, but I feel more confident that I can handle it all on my own. Just some tightening up of schedules and trying to add in some fun here and there will be key.

I also got away this afternoon for a few hours just to have some time to myself. With the hectic schedule ahead, it was something my husband and I felt was important. Most of you won't be surprised to hear that I strolled the aisles of Michael's, gathered some wreath materials and spent a couple of hours in my workshop. That's my kind of Mommy time!

Does anyone else have a golf addict living amongst them? Do you prepare ahead for everything or mostly wing it like myself? Who is cheering for Mike Weir this year at the Masters? Yes, he is Canadian and we love him! 

Cheers!

Art Supplies Toolbox

Good morning! Just an itty bitty post today about something that I am extremely excited about! Sometimes it's the littlest things that have the biggest impact .....

Like a sunny spot for my lazy kitty ..... ahhhh ..... Spring is in the air!

My boys love to colour, cut and paste. Most days, my dining table is used for crafting rather than eating, although there have been times when they could not resist tasting the glue or play-doh ..... but that's another story!

So, I was browsing my local Winners store when I spied this divided gardeners toolbox. I love anything garden inspired, but this was not going to be toting gardening tools. Nope, not this time, I was thinking craft supplies!

I kind of surprised myself with the colour choice.  I have never been a "blue" girl, maybe because growing up in a house of all girls and we loved our Hollie Hobbies and Strawberry Shortcake decor. But with all of the grey making it's way into my house lately, blue is a perfect complimentary colour. 

So I opted for the blue, but this was also available in a cream, red and green for those of you out there looking! :-)

So we cleared the table and starting sorting the boxes of "stuff." I enlisted some help to test all the markers, and we threw out about half! Same with the pencil crayons, anything too short was tossed as well as the crayons.

We chose the kids favorite type of markers and put the remaining in a Ziploc bag to replenish the craft tote as necessary. The dividers keep everything neat and tidy. Each section having a purpose; one for charcoal pencils, crayons, pencil crayons, markers and scissor/rulers/tape. For some reason, we are always looking for the tape!

Having fewer items to dig through, keeps crafting more organized and fun!

And how cute is the chalkboard front?

I really like having this big handle on it too, so we can easily move it to the sideboard when it's time for supper.

Great little organizing project for under $20! And it only took a few minutes for the boys to gather round, pull out their colouring books and try out the new craft box.

Does anyone else having art supplies taking over their home? How do you keep it all organized?

Cheers!

Halfway Point for Lent Purge Project

So here we are, March 7th, halfway through Lent (for some denominations) and thought it would be a good time to check in and give a progress report. Progress has been made! Check this out!

Now I picked the front of our garage to stock pile the items we are getting rid of as I thought it would be easier to move at the end of this 40 day project. Open up the doors and have a garage sale, load up the truck for a garbage dump trip or donation drop off. We haven't quite decided at this point what will happen to it all, probably a combination of the three. But for now I am just happy to have it out of my house! (happy dance! happy dance!)

Filling a bag per day has been a challenge, but in the end it will all work out. To tell you the truth, some days are just too crazy around here. I definitely have to be in the right mood to plow through a closet and see results. On the other hand, there have been days when I can't stop! I've made it to the halfway point and so far I am ahead of the game, so I'm not going to fret too much ..... maybe on Day 39 when I'm riffling through my husband's underwear drawer praying to find a holey pair! But for now, we're good.

In this pic, you are seeing;

25 boxes

7 garbage bags

3 pcs. of furniture

odds & ends (not in boxes/bags)

and 3 bags (partially full)

We have also had 2 garbage days since Day 1, so I have also purged 3 bags of garbage and 6 bags of recycling! Feels good people, feels good!

So are you keeping up with me? Surpassing me? Right on target? There is still time!

We need to cut back on the excess in our lives and Spring is a great time to start. Even if you are reading this for the first time, join in and start your own purge project TODAY! So much stress, time and energy is soaked up by the clutter we keep in our homes. If it was all taken away, would it really matter? I'm sure that my children would say 'yes', and sacrifice themselves for the piles of Lego in their toyroom, but I know you would think differently.

Let's get ourselves and homes in order!

20 more days = 20 more bags to go!

You can do it!

Becca

Dirty Little Secrets ..... Ribbon

Well, here we are starting off another week. Mondays seem to come around so quickly, or is it that the weekends pass to quickly? Whatever the case, we have a busy schedule ahead as we tackle more purging projects for Lent, squeeze in workouts for our February Pledge to Run, and prepare for company arriving on the weekend. Let's hope for good health and sunshine to get us through.

The purging process has been hugely successful around here. I have been getting through a lot of dark, dreary spaces that otherwise I would have been avoiding. Sadly, one of those spaces is my craft room. It is in the basement, shared with seasonal storage and a lazy cat. But I have plans to create something special down there ..... once I find the floor. Boxes and boxes have already left for the donation pile in the garage, but there is still so much to go.

Although I have been trying to leave organizational projects until the purge project is complete, there is something that needed my immediate attention. 

So I guess it is now time for another installment of my Dirty Little Secrets.

Pssst! ..... I have a secret ..... a dirty, little secret .....

RIBBON! RIBBON! RIBBON! RIBBON! RIBBON!

I seriously looooovvve ribbon. As you can see, there is quite an assortment but most are Christmas themed. I love to decorate my holiday trees with ribbon, and I usually change my colours/theme each year, so that leaves a lot of discards. Plus, making wreaths for a living lends itself very easily to developing a slight ribbon addiction. Enough said, I have a problem. 

So again, I'm in the basement, so sorry for the poor lighting/pictures, but this gives you an idea of what I'm dealing with.

I took out all the full rolls and stored them on this metal rack for now. Then I grabbed a container for all the bits and pieces left over from projects. I just can't get rid of them, so I'll need to address that later on. Then I started untangling the huge balls of beautiful ribbons and wound them onto left over spools.

A few years ago, I had made these giant bows for my family room Christmas tree ..... Yikes! I have since moved on, but there are at least a dozen of them with approximately 3 yards of ribbon each.  I'm sure I can find another project for this ribbon, so I decided to disassemble them.

Instead of adding to the odds and ends pile, I ironed the ribbon and rolled it onto scraps of cardboard. I marked the end with the measurements for quick reference. It makes the ribbon more useful, neater and easier to store.

So for now, I have it all sorted and up on a shelf rather than scattered and tangled in bins. But I will have to revisit my ribbon section for deeper organization at a later date. I have visions of something like this that I found on Sew Woodsy.

http://sewwoodsy.com/2012/11/craft-room-tour.html

But right now, it's crazy busy wreath season around here, so it will have to go on my dream list.

Does anyone else get slightly giddy when strolling the ribbon aisles? Do you have a super-duper idea for storing tidbits and ends of ribbon? Let me know!

Have a great day!

Purging Pointers to Get You Started!

I like to talk myself through things, literally. If you were to walk into my house at any point during the day, you would think I was entertaining a few people. Nope, just me, myself and I.  It's like getting psyched-up before the big game, adrenaline pumping, crowd cheering you on!  Some of my best ideas have been discovered while talking with myself ..... So, whatever works!

Well, this morning I needed a good pep talk as it was Day 1 of Lent and my household purge. It is always hard for me to get started on big projects. So I thought I would share a couple of pointers that I discovered during this process to help you get started as well. 

----- Pick a really overflowing spot that has been driving you crazy!  Something easy in content, like plastic shopping bags or that mountain of towels in your linen closet. You want to fill a bag quickly to get you revved up and eager to do more. Don't start with something sentimental, like photos or kids possessions,  or anything time consuming like office papers.

For example, I started in our library as it is the drop-all spot of our home. It lies between the common area and bedroom area of our home, so it piles up with things going to either zone.  Such as laundry, odds and ends from reno projects and this ......

Those are two blow-up mattresses that have been in the corner of my library for a few weeks now. We had family visiting so the little ones used them to bunk in with their cousins. However, we discovered that both mattresses had slow leaks when the kids woke up flat on the floor in the morning. Oops!  I grabbed two more beds for the next evening but these two damaged ones ended up here ..... and never moved.  I kept telling myself that I was going to patch them when I had some extra time ..... yeah right! That's not going to happen ..... So they were the first items in the garbage bag. Good-Bye! And they were sizable, so the two of them took up more than half of the bag.

----- Check your local waste collection bylaws. Halfway through my morning of purging, I realized that I was putting a lot of recyclables and garbage in with my donations. I figure the last thing we want to do at the end of this project is to backtrack through 40 bags and separate it all!

 

So I grabbed a clear bag for  garbage,  blue for recycling and black for donation (as that is what our local waste management requires.) And I don't know about you, but our collection laws are strict. We have officers that do random spot checks curbside, tag bags that do not pass inspection and even fine homeowners. So not only do we want to avoid these penalties, but we also want to help the charity workers who sort through our donations and of course our environment.

----- Make lists as you go. I have been using an exercise book to keep my purge project halfway organized. It keeps me on track and although I don't follow it strictly, it is nice to have guidelines when your mojo starts to dwindle.

I made a list of target areas in the house that I need to tackle and I continually add to it as I go along.

I am a procrastinator and find lists keep me on target. I would be tempted to stop purging and paint my linen closet if I thought it needed a fresh coat. But now I just write it down in the margins for a later time. Also,  when I purge an item that I want to sell instead of donate, I'll take note of the item, plus a price and certain details such as it comes with a manual or extra parts. These side notes help immensely later on.

----- Keep a tally of how many bags of garbage and recycling you send to the road each week from this purge project. The paper and packaging is all stuff that has been kicked out of the house. But I cannot hang on to garbage for end results! So a tally will do just fine.

I hope everyone is having as much success as I am through this process. It has been so rewarding to see that donation pile grow each and every day! Let me know how you are making out!

Cheers!

40 Days to Cut the Clutter!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and I am preparing our family for 40 days of purging clutter from our home.

I am always filling bags of random things and dropping them off at our local charities. But our home is now in need of a major overhaul and thought this would be the perfect time of year to do so. It's a good experiment (especially for the kids) to see how much stuff accumulates in our home that we don't really need. 

As most modern day families, we live in excess. I am struggling on a day to day basis to keep the house tidy, but am always defeated by piles of clutter. We have moved numerous times in our 10 years together, and with each move comes more stuff. We also have five children, and with each child comes even more stuff. Toys, clothes, books, school work, gifts, decorative pieces, dishes, sports equipment, seasonal decor ..... the list goes on and on and on .....

Well, today is the beginning of the end to that nonsense! 

I have compiled a chart of target areas throughout the house that need a good cleaning out.  

Each day our goal is one bag. One bag to donate, sell, toss ..... just out of the house!

By the end of the 40 days, we will have a total of 40 bags of STUFF out of our home. Hooray!

I have cleared a large area in our garage to house the bags until the end of Lent. I hope this visual will benefit our entire family and serve as a reminder to keep our future purchases to a minimum. Learning to live with less is something that I preach constantly to our children. Now I will have proof that it can be done!

Is anyone up for this challenge? 

Now I understand that we are all busy and a big project like this takes time. However, I truly believe that if we dedicate the time now, it will save us time in the future with everyday life. Clutter is stagnant, wasteful and stressful. This cleanse is needed in most homes to allow more airflow, creativity and happiness.

Let's get our homes in order and shed the burden of clutter!

So, get yourself to Walmart and grab a box of heavy duty garbage bags ..... how convenient that they come in boxes of 40!!!   Pick a spot and start!  It does take time to get in a rhythm, but once you do, it is empowering! And if you get on a roll, don't stop because your bag is full, open a new one and keep going!!!

Spring cleaning will be so much easier this year!

Happy Bag-Filling! 

Check in and let me know how you are doing!

Cheers!

Scheduling Time for LIFE

Well, here we are...Day 1 of my February Pledge to Run Daily! It is 5am and I am up planning my day to include my run. It will take some adjustments in my schedule, but I am truly looking forward to it! 

When I first started brainstorming this pledge, I became fully aware of how chaotic my daily schedule had become. No wonder there was no room for daily exercise! I was exhausted from running in circles all day, from one task to the next with lists upon lists of things still left to be done. Constantly frustrated and unfulfilled. 

I was reminded of my sister when she had her second child and made the decision to stay at home to raise her family. And while to some this sounds ideal, the endless days of cleaning, cooking, and changing diapers, was a HUGE change for her. She would call and ask, "how do you do it?"....."don't you get bored?" I remember telling her to treat her job as a stay-at-home Mom the same as being a career woman outside of the home. Start each morning with the same routine as if you were leaving for work; hop up, shower, dress, eat breakfast and write your to-do list. (TIP: Always wear a pretty pair of earrings and a squirt of your favorite perfume...it makes you feel special and ready to tackle the day!) With each task you accomplish, cross it off, same as you would at your office. Schedule appointments for yourself, it may not be with business executives, but with play-dates or the doctors office.  

Make your job important and it will be!  

Well, it must have worked, as she now has four beautiful children and is loving life!

 

So taking my own advice, I opened my trusty "LIFE" binder to a clean page and wrote a list of all the things I had done since my feet hit the floor that morning. I continued to do this until bedtime... and then the next day ...and the next day. It lays open on my kitchen counter (where I spend most of my day) so I don't forget to log what I have accomplished.

First thing in the morning, the sun is bright = poor photos. But you get the idea! 

From the first hour of tracking my day, I knew this was just what I needed to get into gear!

TIP: Use bright fun coloured pens to track your activities...it makes work seem a little more fun!

 

It is the same idea as tracking what you eat. Until you start logging your intake, you are unaware of how many calories you are actually consuming. So not only did this daily task tracker show me what I accomplished throughout the day, it also showed me what I failed to accomplish. 

The second day I started by reviewing the previous day to see what took a lot of time, what I didn't have room for, and why I never had my afternoon snack!  Schedule it in people, coffee breaks too! So I slightly rearranged a few things, and the next day the same and so on. I am hoping by the end of two weeks I will have a pretty tight, working schedule. 

It is amazing what you can find by reviewing this data. How much time opens up that you thought never existed. I even found an extra 15 minutes to do a Sudoku puzzle! Today, I have opened up the time-slot of 11-11:45 am (when the baby naps) to hit the treadmill. And even though I will not be running for the allotted 45 mins (ha!ha!) I plan on warming up immensely before I start and using the remainder of the time peeling myself off of the floor! 

Is anyone else starting a fitness routine? Trying to find time in your schedule? A stay-at-home Mom who needs time for a coffee break?!!!

Check back tomorrow for the first entry in my Running Log! 

Just for fun.....I did a close-up on this grasshead that my Oliver made for me at his school. It is a constant source of smiles and inspiration. Not only is he fun, but it was made for me with love. 

TIP: Keep things that make you smile close to where you work. 

Cheers!

 

Dirty Little Secrets ..... Magazines

Good Monday Morning! Hope you had a great weekend! We finished up a couple projects around the house. It is still pretty cold here in Cape Breton, so we didn't venture very far from home. That's okay, lot's to do inside this time of year...as you will see from the pics that follow.

Pssst! ..... I have a secret ..... a dirty, little secret .....

I, Rebecca, am a magazine hoarder. There, I said it. I admit I have a problem. Isn't that the first step? Now I know that this may not appear on the next episode of Hoarding on TLC, but it has always been a problem for me, and I would like to take the necessary steps to correct it once and for all. 

In this new home we have smaller rooms than our previous home, so editing the clutter contents to make it work has been an ongoing process. We are still getting settled and trying to figure things out, but emptying boxes (yes, we are still unpacking!) and finding the right place for your favorite things is very gratifying. 

So, onto the project!

I started with collecting all the magazines throughout the house. The basket in the living room, the stack on my bedside and yes, even the one potty-side...come on! I know you have one too!

As soon as I started, I knew it was going to be a tough process...parting with my babies...so I decided not to open the covers.....kind of like how i like to look away while i'm getting a shot.....easier to look away and not get too involved with the details, quick and easy like a band-aid. So, I quickly sorted piles according to title.

After the first box was empty, I used it as the TOSS box. It certainly got easier as I went along. 

TOSS!!!

I then went back and tossed entire titles of mags that I haven't looked at in ages. And after owning and renovating five homes over the years, I have collected too many dated Kitchen and Bath mags...so I decided to set a date of 2010 as the cut-off, anything previous went in the TOSS pile. This made it a lot easier to make quick decisions. Before long, I had made a huge dent in this mess.

Then came the hard part. My favs. I have a couple right now, and over the years that has changed. But I have always been a Better Homes & Gardens girl. It covers everything I am interested in: home, garden, family, food, decor. Not one, single page goes unturned. Also, there is Style at Home...love, love, loooove! Over the years, I have had lots of subscriptions and have ended a few as my tastes have changed. I find that has cut down on my stash immensely. So that is a biggie, stop your clutter at the door!  So for these titles,  I stayed true to my year rule and tossed everything before 2010....so hard....One mag that I have fallen out of love with is Architectural Digest, so I just kept the current year and purged the rest. 

I found these cute little magazine holders at the dollar store...couldn't resist them for the price! 

Magazine Holders - 2 for $1.25

This bookshelf was just hanging around, poor guy hasn't found a home yet, so I adjusted it to house my mags for now. Will most likely change, but for now, it gets stuff out of boxes and off the floor.

So I followed a few rules and bent a few others, in my opinion there are always exceptions. It was a tough job,  but I am so happy with the results. Gaining access to them is a pleasure, and having them organized in a confined space will help me toss more freely in the future. As for these discarded bunch, I am relieved to bid thee farewell.

Fare thee well!!!

Don't forget to check your local recycling facilities for proper disposal. I have donated my magazines to our local hospital for waiting areas as well as my little guys school, for cut and paste projects.

Are you cleaning out the clutter this new year? I have lots of projects on the go...hoping to finish a few more in the coming weeks. Keep up the good work!

Cheers!

"Pick the best, Purge the rest!"

One of my favorite blogs theartofdoingstuff.com is posing the challenge of ridding yourself of 50 items. It doesn't matter if you choose a junk drawer, linen closet or garage, just 50 items. I started wandering through my house chanting, "fifty, fifty, fifty," looking for the perfect purge project to start off my new year. Well, let's be honest, I found many, many purge projects that could have blasted 50 out of the water! But I did stumble upon this one that I decided would perfectly fit the bill.

My ever-growing gift wrap collection.

After studying merchandising and working many of my days in a retail environment, I have accumulated a tonne of "merchandise".  I once managed a shop in downtown Halifax called The Paper Garden (Vancouver and Calgary shops called Watermark) which sold beautiful stationary, journals, notes, high-end pens and a variety of gift items. One of my favourite areas of the store was the gift wrap section where exquisite papers, ribbons and bags billowed from every corner. Needless to say, I acquired quite a collection and over the years it has continued to grow.

I love receiving giving gifts tied with pretty bows, but with 5 children, the number of gifts coming into my house has multiplied. My children go to at least half a dozen birthday parties a month and I still cannot make a dent in my stash. So now I must do the dirty deed of purging some of the less loved items. My Nana would be so upset with me right now!  She was one of those folks who would take FOREVER to unwrap her gifts so that she could save the paper and bows. She was an amazing lady, but her frugal ways existed long before the dollar store entered Canada and gift wrap became widely available, cheap and totally disposable.

So how does one tackle such a job?

Divide and conquer.

First, I emptied the boxes, divided the contents into piles of Tissue, Paper, Bags and Boxes. Then sub-divided those into occasions, such as birthday-kids, birthday-adult, baby, wedding, Christmas, and general. I then got rid of what wasn't in great condition or ugly no longer my style. Picked my favs from each pile and then did a second round. At this point I became very serious about how many items I actually needed. Being of a certain age, many of my friends are not having babies or getting married as often as in the past. So do I really need 20 baby-themed giftbags? No. So I picked a couple of the best and purged the rest...hey, that could another chant, 'pick the best and purge the rest!'

Anywho...

This was a very hard process for me as I have always been attached to "things", useful things.  I am becoming to realized as I force myself to do more of these clean-out projects, that most of these feelings come from guilt. That I have to finally admit that I made a mistake in purchasing too much stuff to begin with and in turn, have wasted money by now throwing it away. But I have also learned (being the salesperson that I am) that someone's junk is someone else's treasure. I have recovered money and pride from alot of my "mistakes" by reselling or donating through yardsales or Kijiji. Sometimes, just knowing that someone else can use it makes the process a lot easier.

So now, this is what I got rid of...

For the purpose of the fore-mentioned theartofdoingstuff.com purge challenge, count 'em.

rollwrap-1

boxes-4

winebags-9

minibags-3

small bags-11

large bags-32

giant bag-1

Total - 61 items!!!

I also had 100+ pieces of flat wrap/ends of rolls in that pile off to the side...SCORE!

And this is what I am left with....

So much more manageable and therefore more useful!

I also relocated the tissue and boxes into their own containers for ease of use. 

Gift Boxes

Wrapping Tissue

 

I am now working on a wrapping center to keep things more organized. Having a home for everything will help keep the contents under control...now I just need to address my slight addiction to ribbon! 

What about you? Does anyone out there have a wrapping center, an under-bed storage container, or a box/bag thrown in the closet? Do you have a problem purging items that are still considered "useful"? Or maybe you are like me, and just have an entire room shoved full of stuff...I call it my craft room, my husband calls it something totally different.

Cheers!