OH: Week Twelve (Part 2)

I have truly completed this challenge so here is an update to 52 Weeks to an Organized Home: Organize Files in Your Home

Before:

Annoying blue crate that stuck out in a room filled with browns. 

Two REALLY full crates. One half filled with our paperwork and teacher files and another crate dedicated solely to teacher goodies (lesson plans, craft ideas, resources, articles, etc.) On the right is a desk organizer that I have been using to put papers that needed to be added to my teacher files (typically ideas pulled from magazines)

Steps I Completed For This Challenge:

1. Bring all the paperwork together.

2. Sort through every file, every pieces of paper. If I kept the paper it went back into the file but then I had a recycle pile and a shred pile. 

3. Erased old file titles from the old folders and put them away for future use. 

4. Flip-flopped the files that were in the two crates. Blue crate files now in the brown crate. 

5. Put all the newly acquired papers into the appropriate files. 

6. Put everything back! 

 During:

 After: 

It may not look like a big difference but my recycle bin is half full and I recycled a paper bag filled with shredded documents. There is room to navigate the files, before they were in there pretty tight. 

I put the brown file crate in the office and the blue one in the closet. The blue file folder is a bit obnoxious but it looks better than it did! 

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

OH: Week Twelve

I am far behind in the 52 Weeks to a More Organized Home. I kind of got discouraged when the last few weeks I already have accomplished the week's goals and add in extra busy weekends - well needless to say these challenges have been put on hold. But I am getting ready to get started again beginning with

Organize Your Home: Week 12

How to Organize Files in Your Home

Steps from this week's challenge:

1. Choose a Place and Storage Solution to Store your Home's Files

2. Create Your Home Filing System and Organize Files

3. Purge Some of Your Files Annually to Keep Paper Clutter From Taking Over

Here is a look at my paperwork system.

1. Choose a Place and Storage Solution

My place is in our office and my storage system is a plastic file crate.

We are in the process of finding a cheap file cabinet but I haven't found one I especially like yet.

(see the little blue crate, that's it!)

We also put our most important documents in a fire safe box. 

2. Create Your Home Filing System and Organize Files

Some examples of my file categories:

* Insurance 

* Automobile (separate file for each car, past/present)

*Banking Records

* Loan documents (one for Ben and one for myself)

* Vital documents (birth certificates, marriage license, passport, etc.)

* Monthly bills (organized per bill - energy, gas, etc.)

* Instruction Manuals

* Tax Paperwork (separated and labeled by year)

Make sure to leave space (and maybe even a few extra folders in the system) to grow!

3. Purge Some of Your Files Annually to Keep Paper Clutter From Taking Over

Take a good look at the files and shred items you no longer need. Every family's paperwork is unique to them so there is no perfect list of the items you should keep and the items you could purge. Items like utility bills and grocery receipts could be purged on an annual basis. I'd recommend keeping the last few months on those documents. 

This filing system has saved me so much time even though over the years I have put hours and hours into this system. When it came time to filing taxes Ben would ask me for information and I could pull out the information within 30 seconds! I highly recommend to everyone to take some time to further organize your paperwork! I will be purging and shredding today! 

Easy Easter Baskets

This year I made my first Easter baskets! I made two types but unfortunately didn't take too many pictures of the process! But here are two fun ideas for only a few dollars each! 

Target Basket

I bought these baskets in the dollar section at Target. 

At the same time I bought an eight pack of foam eggs (including 4 glittery ones!), also in the dollar section.

Using paint I already had I added a big A and E on each basket for their names and painted some flowers on the sides. 

I also shredded pink and white paper to add to the bottom of the baskets.

Then added in the eggs! 

My little friends love stickers so I bought a pack on clearance for a few dollars, wrote an Easter message in a plastic egg that I already had and added a chocolate butterfly (bought in a five pack at World Market)

Each Easter basket only cost about $3 and took about two hours (with drying time in between paint coats) to construct. 

Paper Baskets

This was an experiment. I had no template but just drew out a design. There are templates you could find on goggle to make this project easier! I folded the template in various directions making sure the template was as even as possible. I folded down flaps on two of the sides. 

It doesn't matter if your template is messy, it is only a template! Mine was all cut up and held together with tape!

I then traced the template on three different pieces of paper. Then taped the basket together using double sided sticky tape.

I then added a strip of paper for the handle with the scraps. 

I also added a little name tag with the scraps and tied it on with colorful ribbon!

My favorite part was filling the basket!!

Each basket had some green shredded paper in the bottom.

The finished baskets!

My dad got Twizzlers and snickers.

My mom got a notepad, thank you cards and chocolate butterflies.

Ben got Kool-Aide, Pringles and Snickers.

I forgot to share what I got from Ben! He blew our $4 Easter budget.. by quite a bit and surprised me with..

NEW TOMS!! It was an Easter/thanks for working so hard gift! I love them!! 

Ben looked for a HUGE Easter egg to stick them in but couldn't find one so in true Ben style he gave them to me a few days before Easter instead! :)

Easter Wrap-Up

Easter at our house was a fun one this year! Last year my parents visited us while we were in Sioux Falls and hid eggs all over our apartment! We were up until 11pm searching for the eggs after Ben came home from work! This year we were lucky enough to have my family here again for Easter! This Easter was egg-stra special (haha) because we spent it with both sides of the family, the Boye family, and the DeRuischers! We are so blessed!! 


A few weeks before Easter I spent some time preparing! I had a few craft nights and did crafty things while on long boring conference calls for my job! :) 

Easter Cards
Idea from here

I made some Easter Cards for the kids in our lives and my little cousins. 

Easter Baskets

I made an Easter basket for my dad, mom and Ben! (left to right)

My youngest friends, Addison and Erin, got a basket too!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a big Easter egg hunt at work with all our kids!

We celebrated Easter with the girls by giving them their baskets and taking them to the park. Inside their personalized baskets were foam Easter eggs, stickers to decorate their eggs, chocolate and an egg with a secret message inside!

Of course, we were spoiled too! My parents gave us (and Tia/Justin and Tia's brother and his friend!) an Easter basket filled with goodies! Ours included gummy worms, Cliff Bar Granola Bars, Snickers for Ben and Reese's Eggs for me and other yummy chocolate and candy! 

My brother, Justin, slept over on Saturday so we were able to spend Easter morning together before my parents and Justin went back to their respective homes. My mom hid plastic Easter eggs for us to find and I hid baskets. We spent some time laughing and eating candy (for breakfast!) before everyone left. Ben and I went to church then had lunch with this family! It was a blessed Easter!! 

Spring Break

My Spring Break was FABULOUS!

To break it down...
Friday - leave at 5:30am, stop to get bagels then drive to Menominee, surprise cousins and pick them up from school, chill with family
Saturday - family time, wedding in Wisconsin
Sunday - family time then trip back home
Monday-Wednesday - hung out with Lauren and the girls, worked on super secret projects, cleaned the house
Wednesday - dinner with pals, Jordan and Lindsey, got tattoo, parents came to town
Thursday - visited Lauren and the girls and took them to the park, lots of hanging out, Ben's parents came over and we made both sets of parents dinner
Friday - Justin came, bought a new truck, made the Pinterest recipe Salsa Chicken again and hung out
Saturday - Boye/Walk lunch, 3 in 1 surprise birthday party for my dad, brother and Tia's dad, more family time
Sunday - parents left, Justin left, Easter service, Raena's birthday party, major crash time when Ben and I sat around for hours.... 


There it is!! SUPER BUSY BUT WONDERFUL! Spent it with everyone we love dearly! Now here is the fun part.. pictures!

Overall, I did not take too many pictures. But I was too busy enjoying every second away from work and with my family to grab the camera! :)

Brief Date Night Jar Tutorial

The Date Night Jar I made in a previous post was quite simple and honestly I contemplated putting up this tutorial at all. But here it is! 

I looked at a few different places to get an idea that I liked. 

I liked this one because you could decide the price range for the date night. 

This was another fun one because you could use the couples wedding colors to decorate the jar. 

I choose to do a date night jar similar to the second one but still used the first one as inspiration. I grabbed a Mason jar from our kitchen (they are everywhere!)

Cut strips of colorful paper and added date ideas. I also googled "cheap date night ideas" and got some inspiration from there. Some date ideas included Iron Chef Challenge, geocaching, indoor picnic, lay under the stars and I also wrote, "Ben cooks" and "Carrie cooks" as a date night option! 

Then make a cover for the lid to explain the jars contents. Tape it on top!

Fold the strips of paper and toss them in the jar!

  

 I also made an instruction manual to better explain the Date Night jar. I encouraged the couple to pick one, two or three ideas if they so choose and to also include other couples on their date nights. Making this date night jar gave me some ideas and I am anxious to have some date nights with my hubby!

I also put this together.

Bought the frame and got the pictures from this flicker site.

Have fun!

I Do!

I love weddings! I love seeing the bride's hard work come together. I get emotional watching the bride walking down the aisle to her groom. I enjoy meeting their family and friends and partying the night away with them. I love the colors, food, dresses, dessert, and sounds of the day. This past Saturday was a special day. My dear friend got married and Ben and I were there to watch the union of two terrific people! 

Before their wedding day I got crafty.

Date Night Jar

A mason jar filled with ideas for a date night.

Some goodies for date night. 

Everything was individually wrapped with an explanation included. 

Inside was candy, popcorn, cookie dough mix, and candles. 

I also got the images online and made this picture frame for the couple. 

Easy, fun, and unique gifts!

And of course a wedding post would not be complete without a few pictures from the big day. 

Ben and I before the wedding. 

(I was laughing.. whoops)

The head table

Each table was labeled with a place and an explanation about the importance of the location. 

The BEAUTIFUL bride and a few elementary education pals.