Craft Room Today

Last month I won a 2 hour consultation with a professional organizer Donna Yanoshik. You can view her website here. She came by this month and in those 2 hours she managed to make my room usable again.

This is what you see when you open up my door.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

She rotated my sewing desk and added my light. Removed the paper storage unit above iris carts which we gave to the kids for their school projects.

My desk I can now see the counter tops.

My computer area is now usable again. Do still need to purge the paper stackable racks.

My books were donated to the library. My sizzex, light table, cutting boards are all stored here.



My closet closed. The table in the middle of the room is for the kids to create.

When you open the right door of the closet you will see all my Stampin' Up punches hanging on the door.

Inside the rest of the closet you will see my Stampin' Up papers, embellishments and stuff that I kept for the kids to use while making cards and other crafts.

Craft Room Progress

Wow it's been a while since I have posted. I actually forgot I had this blog. You see, I tend to go back and with the fly lady program. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I turn to it. Back in October I started to tackle my craft room. Didn't get very far but I did manage to retrieve my sewing machine so I could now sew again. I used to quilt. Never made any clothing before but did attempt to make 2 dresses for the girls for easter. My mom was amazed that I made them. It didn't take me very long either. I used fabrics from my quilting time. The only thing I had to buy was elastic thread for like $3. It took me only about 2 hours to make each one. You can get the pattern here.


Anyway, my craft room was still a total disaster area. In January, I sent out a shout out for help through the MOMS Club. I needed someone to come in and help me purge. A great friend came by one afternoon and we tackled this mess while the kids were in school. Of course, we didn't get very far and had so much more to accomplish.

This is what we were dealing with. I'm embarrassed to show you but you need to see this in order to appreciate what it now looks like. I had papers, books, rubber stamps you name it all scattered across counter tops and floors.

My closet looked like this.

My desk! Where in the world is the counter top?

My completed scrapbooks, computer desk

Rubber stamps. I managed to purge a lot and sold some at splitcoast. Still need to upload some to ebay.

This is what you saw when you opened up the door.


Purged all those rubber stamps on the floor. Gave some to school, sold some and kept some.

My ribbons on to top of my sewing area. Under more rubber stamps needing purging.



My goal was to have a nice looking room for where I can sew, make cards, use my computer and yes invite the kids in to create as well.

This is what I donated to the kids school. It's filled with punches, papers, stickers, craft supplies.


Have to go feed the kids. Will post another Craft Room entry later today to show you what the room now looks like.

Laundry Room Again

Bet you thought I left the face of the earth. I've been so busy lately with the kids school, girls scouts and MOMS Club stuff that I haven't had time to do any flying. Today, I decided to stay home instead of running errands while the kids were in school. My 3 hours was spent purging, sorting and filing the two piles under my in boxes. These are the boxes I have been putting in ripped out pages from magazines, printed up recipes and professional photos that just have no home.

Here's the before photo:
Here is a photo of work in progress. I sat at the kitchen table and sorted all the papers into piles before filing them in my file box. I had tons of recipes I'd like to try one day, photographs that I now have in albums and craft ideas for the children are now filed away in the file box.

Photo after. I moved my husband's sock basket down. This left room on the top to put Justin's laundry basket that is waiting for cleaned clothes on top. I still need to do the pile under the blue basket. It has magazines that need to be read, coupons that need to be clipped and supermarket fliers that need to be used for planning. Any ideas on what to do with cd's that I no longer listen to? That's in the mini basket on the top. Probably need to upload them to itunes and toss them so I could use the basket for something else.

At least I got something accomplished today.

Craft Room Revisited

Anxiety is what I feel like when I open up my craft room door. Yes, this is what you see. It's a total room of clutter. Well, I start my sewing class today and the first step is to find your sewing machine. Do you see it in this mess? It's there straight ahead on the top next to my stamp pad turner. My goal today was to clean out the corner near the window and make that my sewing table. So for 2 hours I cleaned out that spot.

This is the before photo: I know I'm embarrassed to share these but you must see the difference an hour made.

This is the photo right when you step into my office. Papers are scattered all over the floor. Why do I need to keep all this scrap paper. First thing I tossed in the trash was that.

Unfortunately, my computer desk I wasn't able to get to. This is what it still looks like.

Okay, back to the corner of the room where I want my sewing machine. Oh, now you can see the sewing machine there next to my ink pad turn about. It's collecting dust for the past couple of years. Time to get the dust bunnies off you. To the left is the table I plan on using to sew. But before I could put my sewing machine there I need to clean not only on top of the table but underneath as well. I moved all that paper to the other side of the room. I moved all my stampin up stamp pads to my closet and put all my photos away. When the kids came home from school I attempted to get all my stickers sorted into draws by color. Only got that half done.
Tada.... I now have a clean corner for sewing. Sorry can't show you the other side of the room as it's now a total mess. This will take me another couple of hours to clean it all up. Baby Steps Baby Steps.

Girls - Summer/Winter Clean Out

It's starting to get cold here. My girls were putting on tank tops and I would make them go back to their room to change. So Friday when they were in school I spent my 3 hours of alone time cleaning out their draws wearing my cordless headset. I did both the girls room and my son's room. Unfortunately, I only remembered to take photos of the girls progress.

This is the before photo. This is what the draws looked like before I even started. Yes, this is the way I saw it when I walked into their room. Sometimes they forget to close their draws which really drives me crazy.

I took out all their clothes. I did a draw at a time. Take everything out and then put everything back in. Checking for sizes as I went. All 4's went into a bag to give to their cousin. All 5's I kept. If they were summer clothes I took them out and put them in a box. If they were winter they went back into their draw.

First draw on left: Dance/Gymnastics. I put in 2 baskets as that's all I had but will need to get another basket at dollar store to put the gymnastics stuff in. Naomi does Dance and has advanced to the purple class so to the left is her dance basket. In the middle is the tights the girls share. To the right is Victoria's Gymnastics outfits.

2nd Draw on left: All shirts with long sleeves. I tried to sort them by color. Pinks all together, blues, red and dark colors, purples and then whites. I know that my kids will probably distroy this but that's how I have it set up for now.

Bottom draw on left: All pants. I tried to put all legging type pants in one pile and jeans in another pile. Since my girls share their cloths I put everything together.

Back to the top draw on the right: Luckily I already had the baskets in this draw. Socks, undies and more tights.

Middle draw on right: All skirts. This draw is a bit broken so I put the skorts in here. The girls love to wear skirts which are really shorts so I put them in here so they can wear them but really wouldn't like them to wear them since it's getting cold. Again this draw was sorted by color. We had a lot of pink so pink is in the middle. The skirts to the left are purples and the ones to the right were brown and orange.

Last but not least here is the bottom draw on the right. PJ's. After I pulled out all the 4's we were left with just a few items and most of them is summer. So it looks like I need to get them some pjs. Does anyone know a sale somewhere? Nanny are you reading this?

Here are the summer cloths. The smaller box is size 5. These will be put away until next summer. The bigger box is size 6 clothes. Both summer and winter. These were given to us from our cousins or friends. These will be put away until they are wearing that size.

Hello cousin Amanda. Here's a bag for you the next time we see you.


As for my son. I took out all his clothes as well. I gave to his cousin 4 big bags of size 4. We are left with lots of 5's. Small amount of summer 5's and no 6's. If he grows we have nothing to wear. Anyone have donations size 6's? Will be looking at sales in the next couple of months in those sizes.

Cleanout is accomplished!
In summary we need the following:
Girls: Coats, tights and pjs size 5
Boys: Coat and anything size 6

Kitchen - Zone 2

Are we in the kitchen again. Told you I always wind up in the kitchen and hardly ever get to any other room. While the kids were in school I decided to do a mission. The mission was to look up. What do you see? Well, I looked above my refrigerator. This is what I saw.

What is up there? I found lots of tools (hammer, screw drivers, nails), light bulbs, bags of candy from a party, beads that the kids can't play with unless supervised, my cordless headset, bingo games, eye glasses, and garbage. I even found some money (coins) which I added to the kids allowance basket. Not to mention a lot of DUST!!!!!!! See photo below. Gross!

After about 1/2 hour I was able to get rid of everything except my cordless headset. So now this is what you see. Tools were moved to the garage. Light bulbs moved to bathroom closet and toys moved to the toy shelf. It's off for a much needed nap.

Coupon Shopping

Everything. You can save lots of money just by clipping and using coupons. I love to save money. I am an avid coupon clipper and shopper. I save from $25 to $110 a week just by using coupons and planning. I used to have the newspaper delivered each week and spending $12 on the paper only to clip out like 4 coupons per week and tossing the rest of the newspaper in the garbage. It was producing more recyclable garbage then it was saving money so I canceled my service.

So where do I get my coupons?

I now use my $12 to purchase coupons that I can actually use for the month. When I purchase coupons I normally purchase 4 or more depending on what the product is as most stores will allow 4 coupons at a time. I never pay full price for the following items: laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, tooth paste, shampoo, maxi pads, and cereal to name just a few items.

There are 2 places that I frequent for my coupon shopping.

1. Coupon Clippers: There is a minimum purchase of $3 before shipping and handling so I order $4 worth at least once a month. Shipping is fast. They also have a facebook account so you can become a member and they will send out updates when there is new coupons available.

2. The Coupon Carry Out: There is no minimum purchase. They send you e-mails when they update their incoming coupons. Shipping is fast and great customer service.

Other sources I sometimes use to get coupons are EBAY, I search google for printable coupons, I swap with friends and I also go to the library for their coupon swaps. Check your local library to see if they have any service like this.

Coupon Swaps at libraries. How they work is you bring in all your unwanted coupons. As I clip out my coupons I clip out everything on Sunday. I make 2 piles. One to give away and one to save and file in my coupon box. I put the give away into a zip lock back and I carry it in my pocketbook until I get a chance to get to the library to give them away. I drop them off and then I sit and collect the coupons that I can use. In the summer it was quite difficult to do the coupon swaps at the library with the kids but now that they are in school I hope to get to the other libraries as well.

Sunday is the day I do my bill paying so I also include going through my mail and clipping out coupons. I also look at the flyers for the upcoming week. I look at the sales and I try to match my coupons with what is on sale for that week. When it is a good deal I will purchase 4 items of the same thing stockpiling my pantry items. I also take advantage of the buy $30 get $ back deals. Sometimes they can be really worthwhile especially if you can reduce that $30 by using coupons.

I also participate over at ebates. Every time I shop I go to that website and then click on the store I want to shop at. Each time I shop I earn money back just for shopping. Each store has a different percentage that you can earn back. It's amazing. So far this year I have earned $100. The money gets directly deposited into my paypal account quarterly which I then roll over and use to purchase my coupons. Join by going to the ebates link above and I will earn referral fee.

Your local supermarket may even have online specials. Shoprite has a family program where you earn points just for using your price plus card. I have earned $2 coupons back for this. I also buy coke and I participate in the coke reward program by entering the number from the cap. I have earned free magazine subscriptions this way plus free subway cards just for entering the numbers. When I was using diapers I earned tons of stuff from pampers.com as well.