you'd think I'd have this under control

Since the beginning of the year I have been trying to clean up stuff and get us off on the right foot.  Again.  I do this every year, and some things seem to stick, and some things last about 42.356789 seconds before I am like "screw dat!"  Being that it is now May and we are really no more noticeably "together" I am feeling a bit unsurprised but frustrated.

But since we are trying, very hard I might add, to get more organized and using the Dave Ramsey methodology in several elements of our lives I realized that our filing system had grown out of hand.  Sigh, again.

I did this post a while back about how I had finally stopped being an idiot and started employing my organization filing system from my teaching days at home.  Why it took so long, I will never really know.  But the system itself works fabulously.

I just got lazy.

See, its like this, I get the mail on the way home from getting the Meatball from school.  School's let out time coincides precisely with Beans melt down if he hasn't gotten a nap time.  So by the time I stumble in the door holding the backpack (diaper bag), the mail, my keys, usually a water bottle or two, and a screaming flailing toddler in stage 3 of 4 for tantrums ... well the mail generally gets set on the kitchen table.  The kitchen table is a crap magnet like no other.  In our lazies we make piles and get to them about once a week, sometimes.  Bottom line, I had a plastic drawer in a rolling thing from Walmart that I just stuffed full of "to file later" stuff and then I could roll it out of view when people where coming over.

Trouble was the to-file-laters never got filed later.

None of it was stuff that we needed to DO anything with, we had that done.  It was just stuff we had to store JIC we ever do happen to need it.  So after a few months of just sticking it all in that drawer ...

There was all of that paper and then the whole back half of the table is a temporary greenhouse for our impending backyard garden.  A ridiculous mess indeed.  I will admit to being mildly embarrassed to post that.

So I dove in.  Sorted everything by company or thing (bank statements, health insurance, copies of paid internet company bill, etc.) then put them in chronological order in their piles.  Then I paper clipped the piles so that they were organized for the eventual filing.  I didn't want my piles to get messed up while I did the next step.

Then I cleaned out the existing files.  I should have done this first, but the file cabinet was in direct view of a happily playing Beans, its not broke don't fix it, man.  So I went out of logical order and cleaned out the files after I had cleaned out and organized the stuff to-be-filed.  By this point I felt responsible for the death of like half a forest and had a list of things I wanted to go "paperless" on because this is both nuts and stupid.

Then I reviewed my file names and categories.  While I don't need to give you a list of all my files, because that would be pointless and a bit too much info for my comfort, I will tell you that I divide them into color categories for ease.

Blue has everything certification, degree, or certificate related.  Most of them are mine, but we each have a few.

Purple has anything that is like a manual, directions or warranties   Kid stuff has it's own file.

Green has everything money related.  This includes bills, bank statements, etc.

Yellow is for the kiddos.  This is includes anything like school documentation (enrollment, report cards  and important keepsake stuff I haven't done anything else with.  Our dogs info is in there too, everything vet related and micro-chipping for example.  I also use yellow as a catch-all, so there are also blank cards and holiday cards in there too.

Pink is medical or emergency in nature.  I have "safe" files for the kids, things I pray to never use that I can post separately with their finger prints and current pictures in here.  Each of us also has a file for medical documentation, prescriptions and what not.

Lastly is Grey, and this has anything legal in it.  We also use grey for CYA (cover your ass) stuff, so if we are in the process of purchasing something or dealing with anything shady we keep documentation here JIC we ever need it.

Our most used files -- for things like monthly bills -- are the easiest to access, the rest are filed in a way that made sense to me by category (i.e. we each have our own medical files and they are all four together).  Then I made my labels and stuck those bad boys on the files, in some cases right over the old labels because stickers are awesome like that.

End of the day I was sick of paper, had a lot of trash, and felt better.  I am instituting another la purga in our household, and it only seems fair that I start it because its going to make everyone miserable.  As the mom, I find that is like 60% of my job description most days.

So papers and files are purged ... for now ... where will I go next?

No seriously, where?! Anyone?

its a passing phase

Productivity comes in cycles for me.  Sometimes I have like zero ambition, and that can even be an ambitious estimate, while others I seem to be a bit obsessed.

I have to make the most out of the obsessed times because they are usually short lived and often followed by stretches of lazy lostness.  Yes, I make one fabulous housewife.

At any rate, I've been more productive than usual.  I am referring to my in-person-life here because my blogging alter ego has been pretty much worthless lately.  In so doing, I have also developed an abnormally large sense of self confidence, which I figure will either translate to shit getting done or a whole lot of writing material.  I call it a win-win either way.

I have heard that in order to be really truly accountable you have to tell people what your goals are.  If you don't share them, then you never really need to admit you failed.  I usually have no problem castigating myself over my own failures, but what the heck, lets make a list here and see how I do with the public thing:

I have birthdays, summer, and in-law visits on my horizon ... I gotta get crap done ...

(in no particular order)

1. Clean ceiling fans, because I rarely have them off and notice how dirty they are
2. Organize the growing box pathetically labeled "pictures and keepsakes"
3. Finish the 11 year old's baby book *hangs head in shame*
4. Clean house thoroughly closer to visits, not halfsies clean
5. Finish the "measure the kids" ruler thingy that has been half-done for like a year and a half
6. Clean out Meatball's closet
7. Clean out the Bean's closet
8. Clean out toys ... purge the hell outta toys ...
9. Make a Goodwill and/or consignment shop run to ditch some crap
10. Make my kitchen cabinets look less blah
11. Make my/our bedroom not be the one with the door always closed in shame
12. Do something with the bathroom walls, b-o-r-i-n-g!
13. What are we doing for the Beans' birthday?
14. Hair cut, its pathetic and been like a year since I did that
15. Garage -- make the parts that are my problem look less like a bomb test site
16. Garage -- urge and support Paul Bunyan to deal with the rest of the garage
17. The backyard will only be a livable space for a couple months, make it look nice for them
18. Make my Command Center wall so I can at least appear organized!
19. Shave the dog.  Yes, I said that.
20. Come up with an item # 20 because you can't have a list of 19 things!!!

There, that is a start.  I have no real hope of accomplishing all of that in the ridiculously short time frame I am giving myself ... which is like 2 weeks ... but let's see what we can do, eh?

Insanity will commence in 5, 4, 3, 2 ... aren't you glad you don't live here? ... and 1 ...

the !@#$% chore sticks, done!

Okie dokie, so these chore sticks that never seem to get done and just hover in my semi conscious demanding I finish them with the intoxicating promise of being helpful ... yeah, I want them done.  I have mentally attached the completion of these sticks to the success and smooth running of this household, so I am feeling a smidgy desperate.

So I gave you the massive list of chores, and I showed you how to make the sticks, and how to take a really ugly picnic utensils basket and make it be something you'd actually want in your home.  So now, how to use it!

Here is the gist of it:

There is the section for the chores not being used this week.

Then there is the section for the regular chores that are always expected and never a commission.  This is the daily stuff that Meatball has to do every day.  We don't think that he should be paid to take care of his basic responsibilities and contributions to the house.

Then there is the section for the 20 chores that are available this week for commission.

I will put the chores in on Sunday and they will remain there all week.  We do not control Meatball on when he does the chores, when and how many are entirely up to him.  There are only 20 chores here per week because he can only earn a maximum weekly commission of $5.  This doesn't sound like much (as far as chore numbers) but with Meatball's other responsibilities -- his daily non-commission chores, school, sports, being a kid -- it really is pushing it for him to hit all 20.  At least, we think it will be.  Obviously we will adjust as needed, and I know that during school breaks we will have to develop a plan of some sort.

Each stick is worth twenty-five cents.  This may sound steep, but Meatball is 11 and we didn't want him to have a max earning of $2.  When the Beans is older and he starts getting chores the amount per stick will be much less and will grow with him.

The very last section on the basket is the "done" section, which is divided into two parts.

One is for the daily non-commission ones, the other for the weekly commission ones.  This makes it easier on Meatball to start each day by grabbing yesterday's done dailies and just putting them in the section he still is working on.  When they mix together it takes longer, which means he just skips it and defeats the whole dang point.

Oh and the container that Meatball insisted that he needed because four sections in the basket wasn't enough?

We have no use for it currently, so it is just sitting behind the chore basket with the "I'm Bored" sticks ... which I don't think I ever posted about either ... I will get on that.  So here it is at a glace, I didn't bother to label the dog kennel or my Scentsy warmer, but I think you get the idear!

So, now they're done, is my house clean and organized yet?  Am I hoping for too much?

child labor and commissions

I have been feeling particularly down and failurey as a homemaker lately.  Perhaps it is the constant state of disarray the house is in, or perhaps it is the constant state of disarray the house is in, but it has left me craving simplicity and order like Thin Mints during PMS (thank the gods that Thin Mints are nut free, I would have had to throw myself in front of a bus).

I wanted to start off with a list of just household chores, that everyone can do.  Myself, the kids, and the husband.  But kept getting stuck on laundry and toilets, and how much I'd like to never deal with either, and couldn't think past them.

So I click on over to Pintercrack just certain there will be a treasure trove of helpful lists and ideas.  Instead I find about a million "chores that burn 100 calories," ways to attach mops to crawling children's clothes, and a whole lot a jokes about chores and marital congress being directly proportional.

Did you hear that Paul Bunyan?

At any rate, it seems Pintercrack is telling me that my only hope for an organized clean home is child labor or 30 minutes of mini golf.

Aaaaand a clean home is seeming even more hopeless over here.

Then I remembered my stellar yet never fully utilized chore sticks.  Remember these?  Beautimous, but not like I really finished posting about them, right?  Well that was kind of a premonition of what was to come because I was totally a bad ass at putting the chore sticks out for Meatball ... for like three weeks.  Then he had to remind me for like another three weeks.  Then he, unsurprisingly, stopped.

So I am Resurrecting them!  Because, well, I want a clean house and Pintercrack made it clear child labor was the way to go!  Oh, and they were a poop ton of work to complete so I'd rather them be used!

So picking up where that last post left off I have purdy painted sticks and a basket.  I also have a short list of  100 chores already established (what was I searching for on Pintercrack for again?  Oh ... yeah, that's right. Something I already have.  Lovely.)

The list can be found at the bottom of this post, and it is quite comprehensive.  Feel free to pin the crack outta dat!

So then I decide, because it makes sense and because I am on a huge Dave Ramsey kick right now (in the Snowball stage and we are rollin' that muthah!) that allowance is now commission.  Meatball hasn't actually collected an allowance in a while, so he is down for anything that gets him paid again.

So the price is twenty-five cents a stick with a weekly cap of $5 as the most he could possibly earn for the time being.  If you are wondering why on earth we'd cap his chore earning/doing capacity it is simple -- he'd forgo sleep.  At any rate  between school, sports and kidness he really can only fit an additional 20 chores max in there anyway.  His usual chores (dishes, bed making, dog poo, etc) are non-commission because they are part of being a family member.  Especially the dog poo one, mama no wanna.

Tomorrow I will tell you about how we use it -- what are all those sections of the basket for anyway?! -- and what payday will look and feel like for the Meatball.

Clean organized house?  Instituting child labor and hope to have it soon!

So here is the list, 109 things including the "Freebies" which are there so that if Meatball has to pull chores at random he may get lucky.  Without the Freebies there are a total of 100 chores.  


Meatball’s Room (YELLOW)
1. Laundry
2. Feed/water turtle
3. Dust all surfaces
4. Windex all glass
5. Make your bed
6. Vacuum
7. Change bedding
8. Clean out closet
9. Organize your toys
10. Freebie

Meatball’s Bathroom (HOT PINK)
11. Scrub toilet
12. Scrub bathtub/shower
13. Empty garbage
14. Shake rug
15. Sweep floor
16. Swiffer floor
17. Mop floor
18. Wash sink
19. Freebie

The Garage and Laundry Area (GREY)
20. Empty garage garbage
21. Sweep garage
22. Vacuum washer area rug
23. Wipe down washer and drier
24. Wash mom’s vehicle
25. Empty Mom’s vehicle garbage
26. Wash flat interior surfaces of Mom’s car
27. Check Mom’s oil
28. Check Mom’s antifreeze
29. Check Dad’s tire pressure
30. Empty Dad’s garbage
31. Wash flat interior surfaces of Dad’s truck
32. Wash Dad’s windows
33. Vacuum Dad’s Truck
34. Wash Dad’s truck
35. Freebie

General Cleaning (ORANGE)
36. Wash baseboards in hallway
37. Wash baseboards in beds/bath
38. Wash baseboards in kitchen/dining
39. Wash walls in the kitchen/dining area
40. Wash walls in the hallway
41. Wash walls bed/bath
42. Dust all picture frames
43. Vacuum all carpet
44. Wipe up bathroom when done
45. Sweep all tile
46. Sweep all wood
47. Swiffer all tile
48. Swiffer all wood
49. Mop all tile
50. Mop all wood
51. Wash all light plates
52. Windex all glass
53. Clean all windows
54. Freebie

Kitchen (TEAL)
55. Load/unload dishwasher
56. Empty recycling bin
57. Feed dogs AM
58. Feed dogs PM
59. Empty garbage
60. Wipe down oven
61. Wipe down stove top
62. Wipe down chairs
63. Wipe down microwave
64. Wipe down cabinet exteriors
65. Wipe table
66. Mop kitchen
67. Wipe down dishwasher
68. Wipe down juicer
69. Wipe down refrigerator
70. Wipe counters
71. Sweep kitchen
72. Sweep eating area
73. Dust eating area
74. Dust kitchen blinds
75. Swiffer kitchen
76. Swiffer eating area
77. Clean sink
78. Freebie

Outside (GREEN)
79. Pick up dog poop
80. Sweep patio
81. Wash patio furniture
82. Wash the “park” and “truck”
83. Water plants
84. Mow backyard
85. Weed the backyard
86. Weed front yard
87. Weed garden
88. Freebie

Living Room (BLUE)
89. Swiffer
90. Sweep
91. Empty garbage
92. Wipe down furniture
93. Organize/clean up toys
94. Vacuum rug
95. Dust knick knacks
96. Mop wood
97. Dust flat surfaces
98. Vacuum the shelves*
99. Freebie

Adult Bathroom (MAROON)
100. Scrub bath/shower
101. Windex mirror
102. Mop floor
103. Empty garbage
104. Sweep floor
105. Shake rug
106. Scrub toilet
107. Wash sink
108. Freebie
109. Freebie

* Yes, it does say vacuum shelves.  Trust me, it works better than dusting.

yeah, I'd kill for that

Obviously as the name of the series suggests, this is about the most basic emotion and driving force in human nature.  Jealousy.  On Pintercrack, in magazines, catalogs, on TV and in movies we are constantly shown these utterly awesome places. But in reality we have normal ones. Talk about let downs. Sometimes these awesome spaces serve to inspire us, motivating us to do something utterly bad ass with our otherwise normalcy.  However, no amount of aqua chevron stripes can alter square footage or make an incredible bay window appear out of no where.  So to open this series I am rockin' the honesty factor to the highest degree with laundry rooms.

For the sake of literary impact lets start with the things I am tortured with on Pintercrack and in other forms of visual media.  This really started when I saw a pin about an amazing blog full of ideas for your home.  I started poking around and agreed, it is a great blog with lots of great ideas.  I follow it, and continue to explore.  Then I click on a section about "befores and afters" because I loooooove me some before and after posts!  But I am puzzled when I see a beautiful image of a washer and drier and a sink ...

Puzzled because the sink and counters and cabinets look like a kitchen, yet there is a washer and drier in there.  So I look back at the title, thinking perhaps I read something wrong and this lady lives in Europe where I know you will often find the washer in the kitchen ... no, she just has a gorgeous laundry room.

And that is when I become a bad person full of hate and envy.

But really, can you blame me?  I mean, these are the images I come across when I look for organization ideas for a laundry area ...

Ah yes ... note the windows letting in light so you don't feel trapped and enslaved ...

Tile floors, curtains, crown molding, how lovely.

So white and crisp!  Heavenly, am I right?

Ooooooo and here we have an island in a laundry room ... look forward to an upcoming IK4T post about kitchen islands ...

And here we have a huge amount of storage, square footage, with a nice dash of I-hate-you.

Now this image is nifty.  Have one of those closety type laundry spaces?  You still have more than I do.

And this?  Well, this is what I have.  Ladies and Gents, I give you the Domestic Rocket Surgeon's operating room as it pertains to clothing:

To be upfront, I live in a part if the country where basements are seen as an adorable nostalgic and completely unnecessary accessory and expense. Unfortunately, the builders of my home back in 1985 thought a designated laundry room space was equally worthless apparently. Yes, my washer and drier are in my garage.

My garage.

I know (at least here) that this is not hugely abnormal.  But please, understand, our garage is a multipurpose room.  It holds my car, our beer fridge, lots of storage, and is my husband's "workshop" too.  My laundry is often covered in sawdust.  I have to clean my laundry area often.  But it is never clean.

Where do you hang your clean clothes that cannot get dried in a drier?  Pintercrack says you could hang them here ...

... or here ...

or even here, with a bit of upcycling ...

But me?  Oh, my husband rigged me a clothes line that hangs right between my car and my storage section of the garage.  Here, bask in its beauty.

Mmhmm.  The angle of the photo suggests that my clothesline might be suspended from my handing tube lights that flicker all the murther fawking time, but that is not the case.  There is a hook the size of my head gouged into the popcorn ceiling on either end.

Oh and yes, if you run out of toilet paper you have to come out to the garage to get more.  On that note, lets take a look at some of the "laundry room storage" ideas Pintercrack has to offer us.

Hide all that unsightly stuff with a curtain! Poof, gone!

Have individual baskets for each member of your family so that they come and get their basket full of clean, folded goodies and put them away themselves (sorry, I nearly wet myself laughing at the idea of my boys actually putting their clothes away, like all the way away).  I categorically refuse to acknowledge the farmhouse style sink in that picture, the one I desperately wanted in my kitchen.

These laundry baskets roll.  And look at the pretty cupboards and counters.  Want to see mine?  Okay, here ya go ...

Why I keep all those vases I do not know.  

Why yes, that is James Dean playing pool, my Tide bottle, and a really expensive-heavy-as-a-baby-flashlight.

Well lets look at the pre- and post- laundry stuff.  What about soaking and cleaning, all the pre-treating you are supposed to do.  We have seen some enviable sinks but here is another one:

Vintage!  Oh, the character.  

My sink?  

Oh that's right, *smacks forehead* I don't HAVE one.  But I do have a soaking bucket, right between my washer and drier.

Try to contain your envy.

My "utility sink" or "laundry room sink" is my kitchen sink.  My folding area?  Um, the top of my giant dog kennel just inside my garage door.

*le sigh*

Ironing is something I do about, oh maybe, three times a year.  It depends, quite frankly, on the number of weddings and funerals we attend.  So a designated ironing space would be probably wasted on me, but since I am in such a goooooood mood, lets look at one comparison.

Oh handy that!  Put an ironing board on a little glidey slidey thingy and you can store it soooo easy.  Me?

Well my ironing board gets set up in my kitchen so I only have room to stand on one side of it because the other is smashed against the counter.  Oh and my iron, it seems to have bladder control issues.  I can't complain though.  The fear of electrocution makes ironing much more thrilling.


In fact, for as hideous as those picture may be, I spent a good ten minutes making it not look so atrocious that I could post it on the internet without being utterly humiliated.  I can live with mild humiliation, complete humiliation is different.  Yes, yes, those images you just giggled at or stared at with blank horror are the better, less embarrassing versions of my reality.

So on the list of things I want in my dream home one of the top ten items is surely a laundry room that is in the actual house!  And on the list of things I would kill for ... any of the laundry spaces pictured that aren't mine.

sometimes I pretend I am an adult

Sometimes, just to keep people who actually know me guessing, I like to pretend I am a responsible adult.  No seriously, I do.  It can't last terribly long, its a lot like holding your breath in that it gives you that awful panicky I-might-die-here-now feeling.  Sorta like the panic you get when you are falling asleep and suddenly, just as you drift pass reason you are certain you are falling down the pit of doom?  Its like that for me.  Adulthood is soooo over rated, my friends.

Anyway, just for giggles, I fake it sometimes.  Like when I need a reason to blog.  

So somewhere ... I honestly am not sure where ... I got this totally mature idea that you could color code your home files and be all efficient and stuff.  I had done this as a teacher (math lesson plans were filed as one color, language arts plans another, for example) but like so many of my brilliant teachy ideas they did not translate to home.  Like at all.  My classroom was uber organized, and cleaned out, and I was the picture of efficiency.  Home?  Well ... are you new here?

Anyway, I saw this idea where you could use the sticky return address labels and color code files to make your life ever so much easier somewhere.  I wish I could remember to link you to the original place.  

Dreading actually doing this one, knowing that I'd love the end result, but hate the poo out of the process, I bit the bullet.

Here is one example of a before image ...

Ghastly, I know.  To be honest, the whole four drawers of our adulthood looked just as horrible.  Papers sticking out at odd angles like they were trying to escape the hell resulting from a lack of a filing cabinet system.  Important papers were all bent up and lost, hidden behind warranties for 10 year old purchases long since Goodwilled. *shudder*

So I put on my big girl panties, borrowed my parents paper shredder and dove in.  Once files were cleaned out I created my color coding categories (ie green is financial) and got labeling.

I love not having to try to coax those stupid little tabs out of the plastic holders, the stickers are about a billion times easier to cope with and can be changed easily too.

The file cabinet overhaul made it so we can actually use our files a lot easier, and we wound up getting rid of tons of stuff we didn't need and had no idea we were still holding on to.

I have also been working on a "life binder" which I also found on Pintercrack.  Its a handy idea, keeping things all in one immediately accessible place.  It is still a bit of a work in progress, but I will share it with you when I am done too.

All this organizing stuff makes me feel so mature ... but then I remember who I am, so its okay.  

chore sticks, lazy girl style

I fell madly in love with the idea of chore sticks.  Not only would they be something tangible that could be moved around to indicate a job is done (something my tactile kiddo needs), but they could also be adorable. So I started off this saga with free printable ones I found online that are simply drool worthy.  The down side of these beauties?  I had like 5 made after 30 minutes.  Yeah, I am far too lazy and seeker-of-instant-gratification-y to be down with that.  It was also a couple days into summer and I was sick to death of our lack of schedule and organization and becoming wildly desperate.

Cue the paint and Sharpie fest.  Did I mention I have a thing for Sharpies?  Um, yeah.  Disappointed that I really could only use black and silver pens, I had some fun with the colors of paint.  I did these chore sticks in conjunction with my even more desperately needed "I'm bored" sticks.  More on those later though.

So I started off with creating a list of chores that evil Mom and slave driver Dad expect done daily, weekly, and then all the other stuff we would like done that we think is kid safe (no changing lawnmower blades or checking the AC unit on the roof).  Then I put them into categories, color coded the categories, and hit Hobby Lobby for paint and craft sticks.

paint one side, then the other

let them dry

admire your pretty colors

write chores on sticks

figure out what to do next

Once I had them all made and written out I needed a system for actually using them.  I could have done separate cans, but I happened to have this horrible looking utensil holder from Hobby Lobby in a lovely shade of eye bleeding orange ... so the next part of the project was to make that not look hideous ... more to come ...

space time continuum bendies Part 2

Alrighty then, so I already posted about the itty bitty drawer that could have been hiding Hoffa and how this led me to have more faith in my odd abilities.  The particular odd ability with which we are focusing this post on: I apparently can bend the space time continuum and have located the fourth dimention.  Yes, yes, they don't call me Dr. DomesticRocket for nuthin'!

For so long I have bemoaned the shrinky dinkiness of my kitchen ... well my whole house really ... and to discover that I actually could really pack a butt ton of crap into these previously thought of as small spaces ... it was downright emotional for me.  But the problem with my pantry was that even if it happened to hold more than I thought it would, it was still wildly unorganized and downright frightening.  Truly.  Brace yourself, I have pictures.

I usually opened my pantry while it was in this state with one eye closed in case the open one was damaged so I would still have half my sight.  I also had my arms outstretched and one foot back for much the same reason.  It was scary to open because the crapalanche was always at threat level 10 and to add to that I could never find anything.  Seriously, I had no idea how much food was in there, and I was always feeling like a mad woman.  I know I have a can of tomato soup, I am sure I bought one last week, but where is it?!

So I started facing this nightmare by emptying the whole thing out.  I figured my kitchen table would be enough space for all of it ...

Yeah, that was three shelves worth.  Seriously.  At this point I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and also apologizing profusely to the pantry that I have spent the last three years calling various unflattering adjectives like "worthless" and "puny."  It became apparent to me that the problem was much more a ME issue rather than a structural one.  Clearly, I have no organization skills along with the absence of domestic ones.  But on the bright side, I can pack crap into a small space like a seasoned hoarder.

Long story short I got all of it out, cleaned it up, tossed the crap I knew I would never use or had expired (which was pretty shameful once I got to the stuff in the back) and condensed things where I could.  Then I had a marginally less large mess and a full garbage can.

Because I am all about being inspired by blogs I have spent a lot of time reading about the insanely organized Jenn at iheartOrganizing.  May I just say iheartJenn.  Seriously, I love this site and pray that merely reading it will give me better organizational skills via osmosis.  Since that hasn't been working I have decided to try to actually implement some stuff I have read and I gotta say, my inner teacher still wants to label everything.  Seriously, everything. I had some baskets/containers that I already intended to use, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough.  I made a quick run to the dollar store to purchase some containers so I have some uniformity to this beast and that led to this ...

Which meant I had eliminated this many boxes from my pantry.

And because I was having a total OCD spazzy organizing fit I noticed these cute baskets in the dollar section at Target and had another brilliant idea ... but I will save that bit of brilliance for another post.

For temporary labeling I used clear packing tape and wet erase pens.  It wasn't pretty, but it worked and cost me nothing upfront.  However Pintercrack has awakened a severe need for chalkboard coated surfaces because they look so danged cute when I pin 'em!  {I should note that as a teacher I absolutely detested chalk and chalkboards, a fact my husband points out every time I discuss covering any surface with chalkboard paint.} I found a recipe on Pintercrack for chalkboard paint, but I had an Amazon gift card and the contact paper was only $6.87 so I wanted semi-instant gratification.  Once the contact paper arrived (the next day) I busted out my Cricut and cut the shapes I wanted for everything.

That, and the final reveal will be in part three ...