I accomplished something!!
After my confession about the depths of my laziness, I decided to actually do something useful. Did I do the dishes or laundry, or any of those menial tasks that will just need to be done again tomorrow? Nope. I reorganized our files for the new year. Exciting? Not in the slightest. Useful? Definitely.
I had a stack of papers about four or five inches high that I had been ignoring. I wanted to go through that stack and get rid of what I could and then file the rest. Our files are set up divided by the year, so now that it’s technically 2012 (my brain still thinks it’s 2010), I needed to move the 2011 files out, and create new folders for the 2012 stuff. I even created a few new categories which should help to keep us more organized.
For any filing system, you need to create files that make sense to you. If you want one called “Electronics” for info on your computer, cell phone, toaster, etc, or an individual one for each of those items, it’s up to you. Organize these things so that you can find them again easily. If you are using someone else’s filing system, you’ll never know where things need to go or can be found. Think to yourself “Where would I logically look for this if I needed it?”, then put it there. If you want to keep all the info on your kitchen appliances in the kitchen, do so, then you’ll always know where it is if you need it.
I keep all of our paper junk in a small filing cabinet in one drawer. I have a file for paid bills, pets, me medical, Hubby medical, pay stubs, and so on. For items that I probably won’t need to look at again, like the bills that have been paid, I just stuff them all in one folder. For things I may need to reference, like the maintenance records for each of our cars, I keep them separate so I can get to the correct info quickly.
In general, you should keep financial information for 7 years: that is how far back the IRS can ask you for records. You should keep health info forever, and I plan on keeping the information for big purchases, like our new stove, as long as we have the item. Do you actually need access to most of this? Probably not. I keep the current year’s info easily available, then store the rest (clearly labeled, of course) under a bunch of crap in a closet. It’s heavy, and I doubt I’ll need it, but you never know. Before I store everything, I try to minimize what is being stored.
As I pulled out each 2011 file, I sorted through it to see if there were things that could be shredded. I eventually recycled about 5 inches of paper, with just a tiny bit of stuff that needs to be shredded. The file folders for 2011 were blue, and the 2012 ones are orange (that seems to be my color this year). I pull and store the entire file, rather than letting everything mix together.
To originally get everything as organized as it is took probably 2-3 hours last year. This year? Maybe 30 minutes at the most, plus another 10 to deal with the stack of crap I’d been ignoring. One piece of advice I have is to make an “Info” or “Other” file. Everyone has little bits of things, like a list of the AFI top 100 movies, that they want to keep, but don’t really fit into another category. At the end of the year decide if you still want this stuff. I removed more than half the stuff in mine, but kept the important things, like the chinese food menu. Having a place for all those random bits of paper keeps them from stacking up around the house.
I also set up a 3 tiered in-box for myself. The sections are “New Mail” (anything I haven’t looked at yet), “Bills to Pay”, and “To Do”. This is right next to the file drawer, so when I sort through the new mail I can file directly anything that needs to be put away. I’m hoping to minimize our incoming paper this year, but that’s not really up to me that much. Now, on my wave of self-congratulations, I’m going to have a snack and maybe play a video game.
Clever round-up
I’m sure you’ve probably noticed that lately I’ve been slacking off. This is not exclusive to the blog, either. I’ve been successfully ignoring chores, work, maintenance, and pretty much anything that requires more than two brain cells. Whether this is due to the cold, lack of sleep, or a bunch of hilday video game releases we may never know. Basically, I’m being lazy and I don’t care.
Part of my laziness had led me to browsing through DIY ideas on pinterest waaay too much. I found a few ideas that I decided to try.
First up, hold your chargers in place with these binder clips. That seems like a great idea. I put this one in place on the book shelf I use as a bedside table. Unfortunately, my phone charger is pretty thin, and slips out of the clip a lot.
It also has to be on the front of the shelf, but would be more convenient in the back. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this arrangement in place. I might instead run the wire though the black part of a smaller binder clip, and then tack it to the wall. Or I might take a nap. Who can tell?
If you have a larger chord, like for an iPhone, this is how you would set this up. Clip the binder clip in place, then squeeze the base of the wire part like so:
It will pop out so you can thread the wire through, and the end of the chord should keep it in place.
Since mine is so small, I added this tiny binder clip to keep it from falling back though. Again, I’m not sure how great this is.
There is one other semi-clever thing I’ve been able to manage in my hibernating-brain state. We were at Home Depot and I wanted a coil cleaner for my fridge. As you know, we have a tiny herd of animals in my house constantly parading around and dropping hair everywhere. The fridge, Horatio, sucks all this crap up underneath himself where it’s impossible to clean. Well Home Depot didn’t have a coil cleaner, but they had this:
It’s a lint trap cleaner! At one point I have attempted to clean my lint trap out with chopsticks (and I did a fairly good job), but I was disproportionately excited to know this thing exists. It was about $5. This is what happened when I cleaned out the lint trap:
I won’t even show you what I pulled out from under the fridge. I don’t want to leave you burdened with the image of my dryer lint, so here’s something both adorable, and descriptive of my mental faculties (and also from pinterest. They should really be paying me for all this).
Mail Holder
I am a huge fan of Netflix. I know they’ve had issues recently with changing the name, price hikes, etc, but so far I still love them. There are a ridiculous amount of movies I want to watch that they have, and it makes checking the mail fun again. Unfortunately, those red envelopes are always getting buried under junk mail on the coffee table, so I wanted them to have their own special place where they won’t get lost.
The materials I used are a light bulb box, because it was made of really sturdy cardboard, left over paint, and a post card. I found the original idea that inspired this on pinterest using a cereal box.
First, trim the top of your box to look like this:
I used a nail to punch two holes at the top to hang it from.
I painted it blue, and let it dry overnight. I wanted to use this postcard to decorate the box, but I don’t necessarily want it on there permanently. I have these tiny plastic picture mounters that I used.
You can barely see it, but they are little plastic triangles that fit over the corner of your photo or postcard, and are sticky on the back. I put one each on the upper right and lower left corners, lined up the post card, and stuck it to the box. I then added the mounters to the other two corners.
I tacked it to the wall near the TV so my movies are always visible, and conveniently located for enjoyment.
My new Netflix box is hanging next to this set of framed movie monster postcards, and they look great together.
Bathroom Deep Clean
This is a continuation of what I was calling Deep Clean Week, but has turned into Deep Clean Eternity. Our bathroom has been shamefully disorganized since the day we moved in. We just gradually tossed things into the cabinets as we unpacked them. The other day I got thoroughly sick of it, and pulled everything out of the cabinets. Here’s a before picture:
This is a picture, without the flash, to show how dark the cabinets are on the inside. This drives me nuts, and makes it much harder to find things. I had some extra Killz paint laying around, so I decided to paint the inside of the cabinets white. I took everything out of all the cabinets, wiped them down with a dry cloth, then with a damp cloth. Once the surfaces were dry, I coated everything with white.
Here’s the after for this cabinet. It makes quite a difference light-wise, and looks so much cleaner.
So pretty! (If you ignore the dirty carpet. I vacuumed immediately after this).
The cabinets weren’t really the only issue. Of course, once I pulled everything out of the cabinets there was clutter everywhere, but the counter was already pretty cluttered:
It’s frightening, I know. I even opened all the drawers, emptied them, and vacuumed them out. There was unidentifiable dirt from the previous home owners in there I had to get rid of. It’s bad enough they chose to carpet the bathroom, I don’t need their spilled baby powder and what-not getting my stuff dirty.
Once everything was organized and put away, I cleaned the mirror and counter, and even the toilet! I won’t show you a picture of that, even though it was pretty spectacular.
I took everything that was in our bathroom and sorted it into groups: dental, lotions, bath stuff (like body wash and bath crystals), medical (everything from first aid to cold medicine), sun (sun screen and aloe gel), hair care, face stuff (scrubs and peels and other girlie things), make up, eye stuff (contacts and glasses), vitamins, and travel stuff (travel size things).
I decided what went in each cabinet by deciding who would need it more; hair spray goes on my side, hair clippers go on Hubby’s. For things like lotion and bath salts, where there were multiples, I put the one with the least in it in front so I can use it up first. And just so everyone knows, I have plenty of lotion, body wash, and bath crystals, for probably the next 6 years. Please don’t buy me any more. Just give me cash. 
Here’s the final result! I got a couple cute pink bins at Goodwill for a buck each. If I need something I can just pull the whole bin out instead of having to dig around in the cabinet and knock things over. I’m glad I finally tackled this project. I’ve already finished off one of the containers of bath salts! But still, do not buy any for me.
I’m still cleaning
In spite of the fact that I have not posted anything even remotely “Deep Clean” related in awhile, I have actually continued to clean things. Yes, really. I mean, a little. So the other day, when I couldn’t jam anything else into the linen closet, I broke down and reorganized it. Here is a once-in-a-lifetime: a before picture of my mess. I know! This never happens!! Behold! THE CLOSET OF HORRORS!!
Tinkerbell decided to “help”.
I basically took everything out, folded it all properly, and separated everything into categories. It’s amazing how well stuff fits once it’s folded. I also put things we don’t need often, like beach towels, in the hard to reach places out of the way.
I did all this while rewatching old Friends episodes. Not too shabby!
Hang Stuff Up
I am just covered up with jewelry I love. I have filtered through and gotten rid of some, but the rest is mine, and I’m not sharing. One of the downfalls of jewelry is that we rarely get to see our own; when you’re wearing it, everyone sees it but you, and the rest of the time it’s in a jewelry box, purposely tangling itself up with all your other jewelry. Well, no more! I decided to make a necklace holder, not for charms since I already have one, but for necklaces and bracelets.
I went to Home Depot and bought a pretty piece of wood that was 6 feet long, 2 inches wide, and a half inch thick. It was about $3. I measured it into 1.5 foot segments. I also bought nails, which apprently only come in boxes of 18,000 nails. Fortunately, they were about $3 also, although it was slightly embarrassing asking if Home Depot had any “prettier” nails.
Fortunately, we have a saw, and I have Hubby who protects me from my own clumsiness. Now I have 4 short boards, and all my fingers! Hooray! I marked where I wanted holes drilled in the corners to hang these up:
You can see again, my sweet Hubby does quality work. I was literally headed outside to do this myself when he saw me with the power drill. He gave me his “disapproving look”, and said “Where are you going with that?” I said “Outside. I just need to drill holes in the corners”. He sighed and took it from me, and said something about accidentally drilling through my own hand, and how he didn’t have time to drive me to the hospital today, and then he did it in about 4 minutes.
So you can see I tried to do it myself; he just has more first-hand experience with my clumsiness than anyone else on the planet, other than me, and he prefers to prevent trouble before it starts. My brain seems to be in denial about the constant injuries I inflict on myself. And Hubby. And the pets, sometimes. And friends standing nearby.
I used a measuring tape to space my nails out evenly.
I space mine 1.5 inches apart. When measuring this out, take into account what you’ll be hanging on this rack. For necklaces, fairly close together is fine. For belts or purses, not only should you get longer nails, spacing them further apart makes them easier to use.
Look! I hammered a nail in! By myself! Because Hubby wasn’t home to protect me from myself. Let’s all pretend I didn’t smash a two fingers, then swear like a sailor. Let’s also pretend I hammered that nail in securely, and it didn’t fall out when I hammered the next one in, and this did NOT happen repeatedly, like a freaking cartoon.
Finally! Success! Although it took awhile to find an angle for the picture that wouldn’t show how horrifically crooked my nails are. They appear to be doing the wave.
I spray painted it glossy black to go with the frame it will be hanging next to. There are lots of design options, though, to make it match your style and tastes.
You could glue beer tops to the end of each nail!
You could use tops from your favorite brand! Here I have several varieties of Shiner Bock. You could use all the same kind, or use only tops of similar colors, or whatever you like.
I don’t know about you, but I have buttons and pins galore at my place. You could glue some of those bad boys on there, or use ticky tac if you don’t want them on there permanently.
Here’s an idea of what this would look like with beer tops. You can see that they make the space between the nails rather small. If you were making this to hold ties, belts, scarves, or purses, you should probably space the nails out some.
Here it is, in all its sparkly glory! You can see I very cleverly hung bracelets on the left, so I still have access to the outlet.
Variations:
For kind of a country, quaint look, you could either leave the wood as is, or paint it white and sandpaper the edges a bit. You could glue buttons to the ends of the nails to “class it up”.
This one I completed as a necklace holder. I plan to make the others into a tie/belt holder for Hubby, a key/leash rack for the front door, and a scarf holder for the hall closet. For all of those I will space the nails out further than I did on this one. I definitely won’t decorate the nails on the key rack, since that will make it hard to get the keys on and off.
When you are making something like this for yourself, think about what your needs are, and plan accordingly. If you’re going to take the time to make something for yourself, you may as well make sure you’ll want to keep it. Don’t make something a specific way because you think you should, or because that’s what you’ve seen before. You can just get a piece of junk at Wal-mart if that’s your goal. Make something that will meet your needs, be nice to look at, and that you’ll be proud to show off to people.
Deep Clean with a Vengeance
So I bet you thought I gave up on Deep Clean Week, that I was going to simply wuss out and hope you forgot. That was my original plan.
But then I discovered that some people we know are moving to our area, and need a place to stay for a couple months. I offered the guest room and my craft room. Both are soon going to be occupied, so I have been cleaning like a mad woman. My plan now is to pull everything out of the craft room, sort through it diligently, get rid of things, and then store the remainder upstairs in our bedroom.
So far I have learned a few things:
1) It helps to start with “before” pictures. I totally neglected this, and now I only have “during” pictures, which mostly just show boxes and piles of chaos.
2) It’s a lot easier to store boxes in Hubby’s closet while he’s at work.
3) I am taking a hard look at my craft projects, and narrowing down which ones I want to bother completing. If a project starts to feel like homework rather than fun, decide if you want to dedicate your limited time to completing it, or if you’d rather work on something else. Do you even want to own the finished product? I put this half-finished denim quilt on freecycle, and 20 minutes later someone came to my house and got it, along with the denim to complete it.
4) I keep finding things I didn’t even know I had, which means I don’t need them, and won’t miss them.
5) It takes way more trips up and down the stairs than seems humanly possible, and I still don’t have amazing calves. I really should, by now.
6) The sound of cat, dog, and even ferret snores are insulting when you are exhausted from working so hard. You can see Mushroom at the bottom of this picture “helping”.
You can see I’ve made some progress; the closets are mostly empty.
The way all this stuff accumulates just shows that I have too many ideas and not enough time.
I have no idea where I will put all my Batman stuff, or my giant Jack Skellington. I also have several thing I’ve crafted over the years that I feel like I have to keep because I made them, but they’re not necessarily practical or useful anymore. That colorful disc at the bottom of the picture is a table top I decoupaged in college. The table has not been assembled since we moved here, but I can’t decide what to do with it. Let that be a lesson to you all: once you craft something, you maybe stuck with it, so make sure you work on projects you’ll want to keep around.
I found this in some of the yarn my Grandmother gave me, and I thought it was funny.
I also found this! I always wanted a parts price list for a Remington Pump Action Shotgun!
I’m very proud of myself, because this is all the yarn I had, and the container and sack on the left are both going to a better place.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. I have sorted through and discarded fabric, art supplies, construction paper, and scrapbooking stuff. Some of it has gone to friends, a huge pile will go to Goodwill, and a bit may go on eBay. I am exhausted from moving so much stuff, and I just want to chuck a ton of it. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we’re probably only halfway done, if that. Stay tuned for more progress reports, or to watch my descent into madness, whichever comes first.
