Posts Tagged With: home organization

ready for porch life

Ever notice how everything is straight chaos while you’re trying to organize?
YBW and I spent the majority of Saturday on the porch. Bringing out the rugs, furniture, and cushion storage containers. Putting together new outdoor dining furniture.

The breeze was chilly, but it was warm in the sun. You can see the abandoned hoodie on the chair.
We moved all that cardboard to a sunny spot in the yard and asked Thing G to come out and break it down.
Because the winter was rather mild, most of the herbs are coming back. I need to get more basil and lavender, but all the peppermint, cat nip, thyme, and lemon balm is growing like gangbusters! (In case you’re wondering, yes, these herbs do help deter mosquitos.)

We rearranged a few times before we got it right, but were pleased with where we landed.
So much so that we made cocktails and a late lunch/early dinner about four o’clock and ate at our new table on the porch!

We went over to the construction site Sunday morning and walked around in the townhouse unit that’s like ours will be. YBW spent time looking at where to put some sort of chase in which to connect future solar panels on the roof with the electrical system. I was all about furniture placement.
We had our cameras with us and planned to visit a park and walking trails, just to get out of the house. But as we were leaving the new houses, it began to rain. No sense walking around the park in the rain, so we headed home. We drove right out of the rain in one county and into a warm sunny day in the next.

I picked up Meredith’s book and plopped myself on the porch all afternoon until it got windy and rainy and I had to come inside.

The maple tree helicopters are flying about. The oak trees haven’t yet dropped their weird little wormy-pollen-things. I’m waiting to set up the fountain until after that mess. I missed the water sounds as I sat out there, but I’ll be patient, I hate cleaning oak tree pollen out of the fountain.
I’m ready for porch life, y’all!

Of course it’s pouring and windy with mad storms on this Monday morning.
But I’ll be patient because I’ve got all spring…and summer…and fall to spend on that porch. And when the world opens back up, I’ll invite loads of folks to share in my porch life!

Categories: me | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

might as well do something productive

In David’s comment on my opportunity post, he suggested I make a list. I loved it!
I mean, duh!
I’m the freaking List Lady, and it never occurred to me to make a list?!?

So here’s what’s funny, I didn’t actually make a list…
Yet!

What I did do was pull nearly everything out of my closet.

Y’all see my Nats World Series hoodie right there? Makes me so dang happy!

Anyway…
I put back only what I truly believe I’ll wear this spring and summer.

I’ll definitely wear all of this.
(Well, not the boots, sweaters, and hoodies, but they have to be somewhere, right?)


There are some dresses starting with the black khaki and white stripes and ending the solid blue one next to the navy floral one that are questionable. I’m going to give them a chance to prove themselves between now and my birthday and if they don’t, they’re out.
That’s valuable real estate.


I even purged shoes.
What you can’t see in this photo is that there are six pairs of Chucks on the bottom shelf. There were ten.
You can also see when I find a shoe I dig, I get it in different colors. Those Sam Edelman Felica ballet flats and Greta sandals are absolute faves! And I bought them all during a huge 4th of July BOGO sale!!


Here’s what’s going away…though I’m not sure any place is accepting donations right now.

I sent pics in the group chat with the girls.
Thing 1 said: Wow!
Thing 2 said: That looks amazing!
I said: Y’all!! It FEELS amazing!

I made that closet my bitch!
And(!!!) In between, and after two conference calls, YBW pressure washed the porch today in anticipation of me prepping out porch life.
I feel accomplished and content.
His shoes are soaked but he’s satisfied with his work.

Look at us using this opportunity presented to us!
I’m going to pour us some wine.
Y’all be good now, ya hear?

Categories: around the house, me | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Y’all want to know a secret?

Y’all want to know a secret?
About certain things, I’m lazy as f**k.

When YBW said to me, “You need to capitalize on some sort of ‘floor based’ dressing system.” after I finished laughing, I knew it was time to do something.
Interestingly enough that something was rat myself out to y’all, not put away the laundry.
I love that he was remarking in such a way as to not shame me. He kind of just called it like he saw it and we both laughed. LOTS! I appreciate that he didn’t shame me. I appreciate that he accepts this particular quirk, even though it’s ridiculous.

It would be easy for me to make excuses.
Busy busy.
YBW’s mom died, I’m planning, etc.
YBW’s birthday.
My birthday.
But y’all, it’s not those things. Truthfully, I have no excuse.

I love to wash, dry, and especially fold laundry.
But the putting away?

Meh. I simply cannot be bothered.
Makes no sense, especially with my mad organizational skills.

Mostly I’ll hang up dresses, skirts, sweaters. But everything else just kind of sits there until I get around to putting it away. And sometimes, that takes longer than one might imagine.

But now that YBW called me out, I have two choices.
1) Put away the laundry like a proper human
2) Be stubborn as f**k and let that shit sit there
Y’all check back in to see which I chose.

Who knows?
Perhaps I’ll actually come up with some new ‘floor based’ system that works for me. (Even I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.)

I’m curious.
What’s your guilty secret when it comes to the way you keep your home?
Let me know in the comments.
And if you’re not as lazy as I am, please make up something. Help a girl out, so I’m not over here feeling like a complete and total loser. K? Thanks!

Categories: around the house | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

if you give a girl a shelf

Y’all know I’m a sucker for an around-the-house project. And with this unpredictable weather we’ve been having, icy days close school even though the ice turns to rain, which means I’ve had some time on my hands.
So…I decided to paint and add another shelf in the laundry room (closet?).

Years ago, YBW put up a shelf and hanging bar. But recently I realized how underutilized is the vertical space in there and decided we needed a second shelf.

And just like with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, another shelf needs cute and practical storage bins, and while I’m at it, might as well paint. And I might need some fun laundry signs to go over the door…and so on…and so on.
Until at last…

Tada!

Cute, right?

Tuesday after school I got to painting.

Two good coats of Waterscape by Sherwin Williams (SW6470) and I rocked it!

Of course I had to do one last load of laundry before I could get started.

Y’all, that was one sad coat of builder grade paint up in there and the walls just soaked in the new paint.

Tuesday evening just after nine, we got the email that county schools would be closed Wednesday. Hot damn! That meant I could sleep in and finish all my laundry room work without interruption!
The drill/screw gun and I are total BFFLs. Up went the old shelf brackets. Up went the new shelf brackets. Boom! Shelves went up. Great washable storage bins on the shelves and lastly, hang the dryer shelf on the wall.

Two days of my time + approximately $60 = a gorgeously organized and functional place to perform my absolute favorite household chore.
Yassssss!
It’s good to be me.

Categories: me | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

list lady

You may not know this, but I’m the list makingest girl you ever saw. I make lists for pretty much everything. So much so that when my girls were little, Sundance and Thing 1 gave me the name “List Lady” and it’s been one I’m thrilled to have.
I make lists because I’m a visual learner. I make lists because I like to see the tasks in front of me, however large or small. I make lists because I enjoy crossing things off lists.
There is something deeply satisfying about drawing a line through words on a list once the task is complete.

Most folks create some sort of list of things they intend to accomplish. Most folks call this a “to do” list.
Not me.
No no no.
When I create a list of things I set out to accomplish, it begins with “DO IT!!”
I do this to remind myself that if I want to do it badly enough to write it down, I’m not going to pussyfoot around about it.
The caps and two exclamation points might look mean, or even bossy. They’re not. When I write it, I’m more excited than I am barking orders. I’m excited to create a list of things I need to do. While I may not be super excited about doing some of them…I’m always excited to write things down.

I wrote my latest list early on the first day of this new year. A thought popped into my head and quickly turned into a list of things I wanted to get done.

What I love most about this list is that I was able to cross off so many things that very first day. It took probably less than an hour to knock out the organization of those cabinets. And y’all, I felt So. Dang. Good. about it when I was finished!

Now, I’m still in the process of working on that list, but I started a second one. It’s cool with me that I’ve got two lists going simultaneously. This second list was born from the wretched below freezing weather we’ve been sitting with and will continue to sit with for the foreseeable future. The cold weather make me want to make make delicious and nutritious deeply warm comfort food.

Yesterday I made both chili and chicken and dumplings. We ate the chili for dinner and I packed up the leftovers into two 32 oz plastic carry out soup containers. five containers of chicken and dumplings and one of chili went into the big stand up freezer in the garage. One of each into the fridge in the kitchen.
This morning before school I put ham and navy beans into the slow cooker. I only had time to prep one slow cooker. But, tomorrow I’ll prep both, one for soup and one for stew. Friday before school, I’ll toss in everything for ropa vieja.
All through the deep freeze, I’ll have warm and delicious meals at the ready.
YUM!

I’m going to get back to my list now.
Stuff doesn’t organize itself you know.

Of course, as soon as I get everything crossed off these lists…I’ll be making a new one…
Who knows? Perhaps even before I get everything crossed off these.
List Lady strikes again!

Categories: me | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

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