It's here!

Apple candles lit.

Starbucks fall drinks consumed.

Extra blankets pulled out.

Browns, oranges, and greens are being worn. 

Windows are shut.

Slippers are on.

Fall is here! 

(okay okay, I know it is not officially Fall but it sure feels like it!)

OH: Week 29

Organize Your Home: Week Twenty-nine

Organize Your Garage

Still working on catching up on these! I'll get there... 
I don't have a garage but here are the steps for those of you who do! 

Steps for this week's challenge:
1. Declutter Your Garage
2. Make a Plan For Your Garage Using Zones: car zone, workshop, storage zone, kids zone, etc.
3. Organize Items You're Keeping In Your Garage
4. Consider Garage Storage Solutions: hooks and pegs, shelves, storage cabinets, overhead storage, etc. 
5. Label and Inventory Your Garage Storage: free printable available here. 

My future garage would look something like this!

Labeled storage for the kids outdoor toys! 

{source}

Garden Center - with all those cabinets and drawers!

{source}

Ben's work space - I'm sure he would keep it organized too.. 

{source}

Back to School

Well...

Summer is officially over!

Back to school I go! 

Part 2

Last week I wrote about the closet cleaning/purging that occurred a few weeks ago. Two weeks ago Ben and I made a trip to IKEA. We have a running list of items we want from IKEA and Ben made the decision to start updating our bedroom. I was always in the mindset of... it is the room people don't see so we don't need to do anything to it.. WRONG! It is probably the most important room in our home. It is where you relax in the evening, the last thing you see and the first thing you see in the morning. The bedroom should be a place of relaxation and order. A while back we decided we will eventually turn our bedroom into a sea of greys, purples and white.. but here is the beginning stages of our bedroom redo.

We bought two new night stands for our bedroom. They sat in our office for a good portion of a week until I put them together one night when Ben was working. I rearranged the room, cleaned it and put it all back together before Ben got home!

Just a reminder of what our bedroom looked like..

Before

During

Putting together Ben's surprise! 

I first pulled everything out of the cabinets. There was a lot! Everything found a home except for a pile of Ben's things and our extra comforter. 

We crammed a lot in those cabinets! 

Everything in Ben's drawer. 

My drawer. 

My side is nearing completion! 

Love Love Love! 

Eventually we are getting matching lamps with purple lamp shades for our night stands. 

My tiny little drawer. Fits everything I needed! 

Half way! 

A sneak peak under our bed. Two long totes (filled with guest pillows) and Gregory resides here as well. I think Justin is going to be Gregory's new owner. 

Sneak peak at another bedroom project. Notice anything funny? Any guesses as to what we are doing with our head board? 

Here is a BIG hint! 

Ben's latest woodworking project. 

I got distracted... 

Hours later and here is where I am at with the room.

(pictures taken the next day)

Still trying to find a home for the comforter and cabinet. 

Small changes but that is more than we have done in this room so we are happy! 

It is the start to something great! 

(sorry for the delay in part 2.. school is starting tomorrow and life got crazy!)

Bedroom Redo!

We have been slowly working on different areas of our home and updating our furniture/decor. Our living room has made the most progress with almost all new furniture that has been bought in the last 13 months. Some furniture was painted when we moved in to fit better so overall our living room looks finished {of course it is not!} Our dining room has also seen a lot of change with Ben's homemade table and mirror. Our kitchen has had a different type of makeover as we continue to go through drawers and cabinets getting rid of things and reorganizing. Our bedroom is virtually untouched, except for buying a bed when we moved in, a lampshade and little rug.

I started dusting one day and then this happened....

We have two long totes under our bed. One has two guest pillows. The other has my off season clothes. Clothes should be in the closet and I was bound and determined to make them fit. Out came everything from under the bed and most things in the closet. 

I went through all my clothes again and got rid of enough to put all our clothes neatly into the closet. There is actually growing room! There was a time when I almost bought more hangers and now we have more hangers than we know what to do with! 

I refolded a lot of my clothes {Ben did his a few months back and they looked so much better than mine!} and put the remaining clothes back neatly in their place. I also pulled out everything on the floor to sweep and mop. 

The final product! Everything fits in our closet! Yeah! 

Part 2... tomorrow.... 

OH: Week 29

Organize Your Home: Week Twenty-Nine

Attic Organization

We do have an attic but it creeps me out so... none of our belongings are up in the attic. We do have a few things in the basement (I'll get to that soon) and nothing in the attic. I'll still share the information for this challenge.

1. Get One or More Partners To Help With Attic Organizing: This is likely a big task for those who store items in the attic. You'll need someone to help moving things and since an attic may be a bit dangerous it is nice to have extra support.
2. Declutter Your Attic: Most of the items up there may have been forgotten. Time to find someone else to love them!
3. Categorize Items and Assess Where They Should Be Stored: Is the attic the best place to store the items or is there somewhere else that is better suited. 
4. Create Zones In Your Attic For Your Storage Categories: Think about what items you need most and put those closer to the attic entrance. 
5. Label and Inventory Your Attic Storage:  If you have items in containers, label them and put them in areas together. A free label can be found at the organizing website here.

Some day I hope my attic looks like this!!

This is a beautiful play room! Someday... my attic will look like this!! 

{source}

Bocce Ball

A bunch of Menominee High School Alumni {plus Ben} got together for an evening of delicious food, yummy drinks and fun games! 

We walked downtown for dinner at The Cottage Bar. Then continued the night with a rousing game of Bocce Ball. 

Justin

Ben

Chelsea

Tia

Lindsey

Jordan

Danny

Me

The beautiful ladies! 

The manly men!

The evening ended with an intense game of Killer Bunnies while everyone sipped some of Ben's homebrew beers and cider. 

A super fun night with some super fun people! 

Some of these guys haven't seen each other in 5 years. Funny how everyone slips back into friendship after so long apart. Thanks for the fun evening everyone! 

OH: Week 28

Organize Your Home: Week Twenty-Eight

Organize Photos

Whoa... I take A LOT of photos. And usually take multiple shots of one moment. This means I have tons of duplicates and because of my MASSIVE camera card I haven't taken any photos off my camera. (Terrible I know... if something went wrong goodbye memories of the last 8 months) This challenge will be a difficult and tedious one. But a very important one. I'm going to work hard on this one and will try to document what I've done along the way.

Steps recommended for this weeks' challenge:
1. Gather Loose Photos and Photo Albums From Around The House Into One Central Location
2. Sort Loose Photos Into Categories To Hole In Photo Storage Boxes
    a. Categorize Your Photos
    b. Declutter and Toss Certain Photos While You Sort, When Possible
    c. Label Dividers As Much As Possible
    d. Label The Outside Of Each Photo Box and Store Appropriately
3. Make Plans To Slowly Put Pictures Into Albums Or Scrapbooks From Boxes Over Time
4. Make Plans To Digitize Some or All Of Older Physical Photos (Optional)
5. Rotate and Add New Framed Photos Around Your Home
6. Properly Organize and Store Negatives and Slides
7. Organize Digital Photos and Back Them Up
8. Create Routines and Habits For How to Organize Photos from Now On

Alright.. let's get started.
1. Gather Loose Photos and Photo Albums From Around The House: I had some photos that didn't fit into the photo boxes I had. I went through them and put them into the photo boxes.

These were the random photos I had. 

2. a. Catergorize Photos: Mine are done by date and in photo boxes.
    b. Declutter and Toss: I got rid of more photos than I thought I would. I got rid of doubles, blurry photos, bad photos, etc. 
    c. Label Dividers: Most of my photos were sorted in chronological order and most were even labeled with the date of the event. 
    d. Label Box Outside: I haven't done this before and struggled remembering what box was for what year. A new label changed that! Each box got two address labels marked with what was inside. There was on label on the front and one on the side. 

Labeled by date. 

All of the photos after they have been decluttered and labeled. 

A close up of the label. 

3. Make Plans To Slowly Put Pictures Into Albums Or Scrapbooks From Boxes Over Time: I plan to scrapbook these photos and then start making photobooks online for the rest of the photos I haven't printed. 

4. Make Plans To Digitize Some or All Of Older Physical Photos (Optional): Almost all of my photos are already digitized. Except for photos from birth-middle school. I don't have plans of scanning them into my computer now. But maybe at some point just so I don't lose them. 
5. Rotate and Add New Framed Photos Around Your Home: I did that within the year. 
6. Properly Organize and Store Negatives and Slides: We don't have any. (yeah we are that young...)

7. Organize Digital Photos and Back Them Up: Phew... this one was intense! I'm still not done but I figured this was a good start! I spent quite a long time going through all the photos on my computer and organizing them by year and month. I also put them on my external hard drive. Photos safe! 

A big mess! I hadn't put pictures on my computer since January. Whoops! 

A closer look at the mess on my computer! So cluttered! 

SO MUCH BETTER!

I still need to go through the photos and delete the duplicates but this is a start. 

8. Create Routines and Habits For How to Organize Photos from Now On: For how many times I put my camera card in my computer I really need to start putting the photos on my computer on a bi-weekly basis! Let's see if I can do it! 

I'm still not done with photo organization but the rest will have to wait for another day. I've got some work to do! 

To Prove My House Isn't Always Clean....

I talk a lot about organization, a lot. I am passionate about this topic. I truly feel that an organized and clutter free home is a stress-free home. Ben feels the same. We both try hard to keep up on housework but there are some weeks that we are SO BUSY we can't do it! Sadly almost all of this mess is mine... thankfully by the end of a Saturday this was all cleaned up! This was one of the first weeks of the summer program and I was definitely in over my head! 

Without further ado ... my messy house..

My office space.. papers everywhere! Organized, yes, but looks so messy! 

The Dining Room became a dumping ground for Science materials, clothes and files. (Look I didn't even push in my chair!)

You can tell Ben wasn't as busy, the dishes were done! (That is usually his duty). I literally threw clothes everywhere. I put on some music and finally cleaned up after a long week! 

I brought so much junk from work home to go through, organize and bring back to school. It was crazy! And again... more clothes!! 

Sadly.. our house usually looks like this {well not this bad...} by Thursday afternoon but by Saturday afternoon it is back to normal! What can I say.. we are busy people! It's understandable.. except for the clothes all over. There is no excuse for that... I was apparently feeling quite lazy! :)

OH: Week 27

Organize Your Home: Week Twenty-Seven

Organize Pet Supplies

I am jumping around a bit. I am over a month behind in these challenges and a few will take me some time to complete. I am going to work hard to catch up in the next two weeks. I skipped ahead to a challenge I do not have to complete. Organizing Pet Supplies! But for those of you who do have pets.... time to get organizing. I also want to keep this as a record to reference when we do have pets! :) 

Steps for this weeks challenge:

1. Declutter Your Pet Supplies

2. Organize Your Pet Supplies Into Categories (for example: food/bowls, toys, grooming supplies, etc.)

3. Create A Pet Food Storage Area

4. Pet Toys Storage and Organization

5. Organize Miscellaneous Pet Supplies (pet medications, leashes, collars, grooming tools, etc.)

6. Organize Paperwork and Medical Information About Your Pets

When the time comes and we are able to adopt a dog (or two!) I'd love to be this organized! 

Love the chalkboard to write notes regarding your pets, the place to hang the leashes and of course a picture frame of your beloved family member!

For $50 from Meijer this is a nice {simple} option! 

Place for food and a place for other pet goodies. 

Not as pretty but at least it keeps many pet supplies in one location. This wouldn't look bad in a garage or back entryway. 

Beautiful Soul

Our dear friend, Lauren, has 3 younger siblings. The 2nd oldest Meghan, has been mentioned a couple times on our blog because she is a cancer survivor.

I mentioned her here and here but her battle with cancer took place before I started this blog. I had only met Meghan twice before I found out that she had bone cancer. I took the news quite hard. My friendship with Lauren was growing so I felt extra connected to Meghan and after losing my Uncle, cancer was a sensitive topic for me. 

Meghan is an inspiration - not because she survived cancer but HOW she survived. Her complete trust in God at such a young age inspired me to grow closer to Him. About a week ago Meghan received the surprise of her life when Rob Bliss secretly worked with Meghan's school and others to create a two-story tall volleyball court on Lake Michigan to celebrate her! 

Grab some tissues and check out this beautiful video of a beautiful young woman. If you are interested check out the scholarship page at the bottom to support Meghan's dream of becoming a children's nurse. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMZiWeSHE8

The college fund has been started here: http://gogetfunding.com/project/meghan-s-scholarship-fundraiser

Thanks for reading! I'm so excited to see what God has in store for Meghan! 

Date Night

I don't cook. I mean I do... just not often. I don't get home until 6:00pm most nights and Ben gets home a few hours earlier. For this reason Ben has taken on the role of family cook! Ben is a great cook! He can look at what is in the kitchen and make some random meal without referring to a recipe. Every time he whips up something it. is. delicious. I on the other hand am not as adventurous. I stick to the same recipes/meals so it really is ideal that Ben cooks. Occasionally Ben gets into a project so I make dinner instead of tearing him away from the project. 

Ben started cooking one night (about a month ago) but got distracted with cleaning his car. I took over and finished the meal and had everything laid out for him. He was surprised to see I took over and was even more surprised when he saw I grabbed a few beers out of the fridge. 

On the menu:

Lake Superior White Fish with Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Red Skinned Potatoes drizzled in EVOO and random spices (pepper, garlic, cumin, etc.)

Beans from our 2011 garden. 

Berry Weiss Beer

I can't forget to mention the beautiful flower we picked up at the Farmer's Market. 

After dinner we got back to our crazy lives but it was nice to just sit and relax for 20 minutes. We've been so busy that if we do get to eat a meal together it is usually a super fast one.