365 Photos Day 31

31/365

Paying bills. And being grateful that we are able to pay everything easily with (some) money left over, unlike when we were first married and having to decide between paying a bill and eating.

365 Photos Day 30

30/365

Today was spent searching for the perfect storage containers for computer software. I haven’t a clue whether or not any of these will work as I completely forgot to measure the size of the CD cases before I set out.

But, at least they look nice.

365 Photos Day 29

29/365

I spent most of my day cleaning my husband’s home office, with the help of the Kid. There’s still a small bookcase to be gone through, and some things that need relocated down to The Basement of Doom, but pretty much, it’s good to go.

I like the challenge of bringing order to chaos; it’s one of my many talents.

But this room almost bested me. Almost.

This was a before picture from earlier this week. This is NOT how it looks now.

365 Photos Day 28

28/365

I love these doorknobs and backer plates. They’re on all our first floor interior doors.

When we built this house, we wanted it to look like an old house that’s been updated. Like one of our Grandma’s had left it to us, and we just remodeled it a bit.

I think the attention to the small details is what gives this new house character. I insisted on having push-button lightswitches on the first floor, because we had that in various rooms in the old house (the electrician said, “Can’t find any.” I said, “Give me an afternoon, the Internet, and my Visa.”).

We’ve heard from many people that our house looks like it’s been here for over a hundred years, which is exactly what we were aiming for.

21 Days to Getting Organized Day 21

I'm kind of sad that this challenge has come to an end...but happy that there'll be weekly challenges to keep me going. The house is definitely improved (except for a couple of rooms, to be dealt with soon) and I'm more at peace. I've also enjoyed visiting other people's blogs and seeing how they're doing. :)

Day #21 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (You pick!)

The "you pick" option always momentarily paralyzes me. I have to think about which spot needs it the most, which spot will give me the biggest improvement, which spot will be the PERFECT spot to do. However, I also remember the FLYLady saying of "You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?" which reminds me to just pick a spot and go.

That said, I really was looking forward to cleaning out my husband's office on Thursday night.

Here's what it looks like:





But he had to work on some things for the Knights of Columbus, so couldn't until the weekend. Well, dang.

So, I came back to my office, and looked around. And saw this pile by my desk:



I'd cleaned the rest of my office on Day 9, but had ignored this corner, because well, it was all CONTAINED, right?

But after having a nice clean desktop and office for a couple of weeks, this pile HAD TO GO.

So, with my normal supervisory crew in place, I started:



To start with I had 5 stuffed to the limit magazine holders, 2 binders, a big file folder, 1 big ziploc of house stuff, and a partridge in a pear tree. (OK, no partridge or a pear tree, but not for lack of trying).

I started with the magazine holder I stuff as much as I can into it put house project ideas I've sketched out on post-its, my lovely collection of paint chips, and other relevant house ideas in.



I sorted through it all, piece by piece. And recycled most of it



Here's the after(it's the black holder), with Izzy waking up long enough to come check things out:




Then I moved on to my library book-buying holders, where I put publisher's catalogs, notes to myself about good books, and various library related magazines.



And, recycled most of those as well.

Here's what is left from all I started with:



I decided to put the binders with my other library stuff, so it's all in one place, and put the remaining magazine holders under the table to create less visual clutter for me.



And then I put the pile of recycling in the bins:



Done! Now my whole office is clean! Yay!

While I was sorting things out, the top of my desk was crazy messy. I've become so used to having a cleaned off desk that it was really bothering me. Thank you, Toni, for hosting this awesome challenge. It's exactly what the house (and me) needed. :)



Since I'm done with this challenge, I get to say:

365 Photos Day 27

27/365

It’s time to do some collection development…I now have money in the library’s book/materials budget. So now I’m going through all my notes and dog-eared catalogs to see what’s on the must-have list this year.

It’s a grand time of year.

365 Photos Day 26

26/365

Cheerios: Not just for breakfast.

In fact, I’d hazard a guess that I’ve eaten more bowls of Cheerios than actual real meals in my lifetime. They’re definitely an all-purpose food.

Can’t decide what to eat? No problem. Have some Cheerios. Pressed for time? No problem. Have some Cheerios. Don’t want to have to do lots of dishes afterward? No problem. Have some Cheerios.