Organized Skin Care

I am still very busy with back to school shopping.  I am not accomplishing much else right now, but we are getting closer to done with each passing day.

The awesome thing about writing a blog is you can just share what you're up to, and this week it is shopping and preparing for school and fall routine.

We bought a big haul of skin care and cosmetics today.

In the above picture you will see Yves Rocher, all natural and botanical, made in France skin care and cosmetic products.  There is 2 full sets of skin care, one for Mom (me) and one for my daughter (Samantha).

I have been very stubborn over my life with regards to skin care.  I strongly object to the high prices of skin care regimes.  I reason in my mind that, to some extent, skin is skin, and if I can wash my body with soap and use a basic moisturizer, why does the skin on my face need something crazy expensive?  I wonder what ratio of the scientifically advanced ingredients are in those products?

I do have to concede that the skin on my face does feel different than the skin on my arms, legs, or feet, and perhaps it does warrant some additional care...

I have used basic soap and water with a plain moisture lotion for most of my life.  Every once in a while I try a skin care program for a while, but I just tend towards what is simple and affordable.  I don't tend to stick with any one thing.  

Maybe this is a new start?  I hope every time!

The fall season and some current, new breakouts on my face have prompted a time for change. 

The skin care I bought was VERY affordable.  The face washes and toners and moisture creams were all on sale for half price and CHEAPER than your local drugstore products on sale.   In fact, all of the beauty products I bought were on sale for half price or even less than half price.   I am pretty sure that Yves Rocher is a global company, and you can probably find one local or order on-line. 

What I love about these products is that they are pure botanical products made in France with organic farming.  This means "without the use of fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.  Only the use of natural insecticides and fungicides and maintenance by hand or mechanical means are authorized. No chemical weed control is carried out." (quoted from Yves Rocher catalogue 2012)  Please note, I have no sponsorship from Yves Rocher, I am simply highlighting a product I found and I am excited about. 

What we bought: 

So my sweet daughter and I each got a face wash.  She is trying the refreshing gel wash and I am trying the hydrating cleansing milk. 

I come from the generation that uses a toner if you are actually adhering to a skin care regime, so of course we bought a toner each too.  The toner is to further rinse away traces of the face wash and freshen the pores of your skin and tighten them.  This is to make you ready for the moisturizer.

The final step is the moisturizer.  I am sure there are special eye creams, etc, but for someone as stubborn about affordable skin care as myself, getting the basic 3 steps in place is more than enough.

Did I mention that this stuff smells AMAZING! AND IT'S SOOOOO AFFORDABLE!  A BIG QUALIFIER FOR ME! 

After we had selected the face care, I was in serious need of some cosmetic upgrades. The supply just needs freshening once in a while.!

 I am going to do a future blog entry to re-organize of my make-up box.  I use a make-up box (plastic container) not a make-up bag.   Maybe later this week. 

 In any event, I got the mascara, eyeshadow and lip gloss for half price and even more than half price.  There isn't a hubby around that can object to this kind of economical shopping!

Length building mascara, mauve tinted lip gloss, plum coloured nail polish. (for feet only, nothing lasts on a natural nail that I have found, so I just keep my fingernails au' naturel. ) 

Beige/neutral shades of eyeshadow.  

The secret to good make-up is to look natural.  Your guy doesn't want you to look caked with make-up.  Check any magazine article or ask any guy, and they like a natural beauty.  The French women aim for a look that tricks you into thinking the just look that good naturally!  Hence, the natural shades of eyeshadow.  The French women of the world have a long time practice at fashion and beauty.  Google the ways of French women beauty and style.  I think you'll be inspired! 

And...finally....I fell sucker to an up-sale at the cash counter.   These are facial wash cloths for those nights when you are just waaaaaaaaay too tired to give a care if you wash your face before bed or not.  And once again, they were just under half price.  I couldn't resist!  

That is the end of the skin care and make-up shopping spree for back to school and back to fall work.

I'll let you know in a few months if I am sticking to this routine and if I can still find the products or others on sale.  

Do you have an organized skin care regime? 

You might have noticed that I never said I don't make efforts to take care of my skin.  In fact, I am the one who blogged about the glories of all over body moisturizer!   Skin care is important, I am just super stubborn that it should be affordable!

Steps to an organized skin care regime: 

1. Determine your skin type.  Are you a normal type? Dry? Oily? Combination?

2. Select any reasonable routine you will adhere to with consistency. Reasonable includes affordable and matched to your skin type.  I am definitely a combination skin type. 

3. Buy the products that will support that plan.  Take some time and shop around.  Find a sale or find the company that is right for you.  Between organic and affordable, I found a company that seems right to me right now with Yves Rocher. 

4. Take careful care of your skin.  Adhere to a skin care regime.  Start with something simple (like I do! LOL!) and... the most powerful skin care regime is the one you will stick to!  Feel free to check out the products by Yves Rocher,  they feel smooth and light, and while some of their products are full price, I was able to find a great sale, and I bet you can too.  They have a back to school sale on right now that will set you up nicely.

Anyways, Thanks for reading as we have our very busy week in preparations for back to school.

Go make your skin care for your and your family part of your back to school preparations, and before you know it, you'll have Organized Skin Care!

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

I'm linked up with:

Back to School Check In

I don't really have much new to blog about because quite honestly I am focused on preparing for back to school.  That is what is being organized in my life right now.  My kids!

It's time to check in on the status of Back to School Shopping.

Have you been using the shopping list?  Or did you customize one of your own?
If you need a shopping check list you can use this one for free.  Click Here.

This list is fairly generic, but reminds you of important tasks such as having banking items in place, and gathering the basic supplies before the start of school.

My kids don't need everything on this list.  They each have enough tops and hoodies to get through a week with no difficulty.  For our house, it was jean shopping and shoe shopping.

My son and daughter each have 2 new pairs of jeans, and a belt for jeans.

We have purchased school paper, pens, erasers, already have pencils.

We were given some binders from a friend for free and they are awesome quality!

My daughter got a pair of shoes she was really hoping for.   Check out the funky green laces we added! It makes a Mom's heart happy when we can bless our kids with some extras.

We still need a pair of shoes for the boy, and a calculator, and some banking items.  My goal is to have ALL of this done by the end of Friday night.  I don't want to fight crowds in the stores on the weekend, and I want to plan some quality time with the family.

So if my blogging entries are light this week, it is due to a strong focus on events at home for school.

If you haven't started your back to school shopping yet, I encourage you to beat the crowds and get it ready now.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

Organized Freezer

Did your Mom used to send you to the freezer as a kid to find the vegetables or some other item?
Did you used to turn the bags and boxes of frozen stuff over again and again and still could not find the sought after food?

Did you have to go back to your Mom and say "Mom, I can't find it."  Then she would tell you to go look again.  Mom's efforts to have us learn some initiative and problem solving skills such as "look again" if you haven't found something often ended up with her getting cross that we can't find it.  She probably thought I wasn't trying very hard.  LOL!

This scenario always ended in my Mom going to the freezer, irritated with me, and by then I had tumbled the contents of the freezer so much that the very item I couldn't see had been tumbled to the top of the pile.  Mom would grab the bag of strawberries for dessert right off the top of the pile and say "HERE IT IS!"   I would walk away feeling sheepish that I couldn't find it, and Mom found it first try.

I don't think there were as many baskets and sorting products on the market back then for families to organize their freezers with.  I can say this with confidence because anyone I share this story with laughs a knowing laugh and has a similar story of their own.

Today there are numerous products on the market to organize with and many of them are very inexpensive thanks to the good ol' dollar stores.

Here is my freezer with a simple, basic system of baskets that can stack on top of each other.
I had a tough time with the photos and lighting so I apologize that the pictures aren't the best quality.
(I also need to de-frost the freezer.  It's an older model and it resides in our garage.  The heat of summer has caused a build up of frost on the edges.) 

As you can see the baskets make it very easy to move the contents around and quickly locate what you want.  These were dollar store baskets I have owned for a while now.  They were approximately $1.50 each. That makes this freezer solution $9 + tax.  Not too expensive and makes the freezer a pleasant place to visit. 

Our freezer has the meat on the left under the basket with the fun food for lunches when someone is home. 

In the middle is a box of hamburgers, also for a quick lunch.

On the right the bottom 2 baskets hold frozen veggies, and the top basket is some oven fries....again simple quick lunch food for kids home on summer holiday.

To the far right I keep my bread & buns.

Steps to an Organized Freezer: 
1. Measure the inside of your freezer to determine what sized storage containers will work best for you.
2. Purchase storage baskets or containers (try dollar store first) to contain items.
3. Store like items together so you know when you are running low.  i.e. meat items together, vegetables together, berries together, oven fries and convenience foods together.
4. Keep your freezer tidy, defrosted.
5. Be sure to rotate and use up food often to avoid freezer burnt items.

Note: This task takes only about 15 minutes to accomplish once you have the baskets in the house.  You'll wonder why you ever waited so long to make your freezer so easy to use!  ENJOY!

Thanks for reading,

Cassie

p.s. today I am linked up with the following blogs: 

http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/?cat=25

Mildew Laundry Tip

The stench overcame me as soon as I entered the laundry room.   It assaulted my senses!  I didn't even have the light on yet, and I knew something was wrong. 

Oh no!  I hate it when laundry is forgotten in the washer!

If you recall, earlier this week I confessed to being a bit off my routine as I am soaking up the last bits of space in the schedule at the end of summer, because when the fall season hits, I am a VERY busy girl.  Being off my routine a bit means things like laundry might get missed too.

I had a vague memory of asking my daughter to toss in a load of laundry about 2 days ago.  I guess I forgot it because I wasn't even the person to have put the load into the wash in the first place.
We have an old style top loading washing machine.  I love it.  It's actually a really great washer, but it also means that lid is not airtight, so I knew immediately that the wash was forgotten in there.

Check out this pic I found.  His face pretty much sums up how I felt too.  Ewwww!

I opened the lid to find the washer full of a load of dark laundry that was my kids.  Hence, my asking my daughter to add a load of her and her brother's clothes.  

I am not a laundress mavin.  Stain removal is not my forte.  In fact, laundry tips are one of the areas I look forward to swapping tips with other bloggers.  

So in the past, when faced with a mildewy smelling load of wash (I know, I know....how can I possibly forget the laundry in the washer, that's why I am writing the blog remember....it's about getting organized) the smelly wash would get a dose of Dettol, which is an antiseptic disinfectant.  It's a bit pricey, but it will work.  

I was presently out of Dettol.  What could I do?  I can't kill the germs with bleach, it would stain the clothes.

Now when you hear my solution...  if you are anywhere over the age of 40 or happen to have honed your laundry skills, this will be so obvious it will make you laugh.  Yet, I can laugh at myself, at least sometimes, and if I only stumbled upon this now, perhaps another reader will benefit from this information for their first time knowledge too.

Common household ammonia and hot water!  That's right.  It was so easy.

I re-washed the clothes with soap, hot water and common household ammonia.  It even says right on the bottle that it can be used in every load as a laundry booster. 

**NOTE: DO NOT EVER MIX AMMONIA WITH BLEACH.  IT WILL CAUSE HARMFUL AND DANGEROUS FUMES.

My load of laundry came out clean, and smelling only of the laundry soap.  There was no residual odor of the ammonia and the clothes are free of those smelly germs.  Hooray!

Here are the tips of the day:

1. DON'T  forget your laundry in the washer in the first place.  (ha ha)

2. IF you encounter forgotten laundry, use laundry soap, hot water and 250ml of ammonia to erase the mis-hap.

3. Ammonia can be used as a laundry booster any time, any load, just dont' mix it with bleach.

If you have any laundry tips, feel free to post comments and share what you know.

Have a great weekend.

Cassie

Today I linked up with these bloggers.

Menu Planner Page & Link Party

Thursdays are Link Party days.  
Scroll down to the end of today's entry and you can show me what you're up to share you blog here.

A nice splash of colour makes planning the meals for the week extra nice.
This page is pretty enough to print out and display in the kitchen so that any family member can know what's for dinner.

That is the heart with which this was designed.

To print your menu planner Click Here. 

I have also linked up today with My Repurposed Life blog.

Now it's time to link your blog.  

Crack in the Dam

Do you have a crack in your dam?

Look at this picture.  You can see the water spurting out quite dramatically.  Look again and see the big long crack in the concrete.  This crack wasn't always that size.

Here is a quote from Sandra Felton's book Smart Organizing:

"A dam holds back the water until a small hole appears.  That small hole is not going to remain small.  The flow of water will widen until the whole dam is ruined." 

By the time you see this much water spurting out, you have a problem on your hands.  

Fixing all the cracks in the dam of your life can become quite time consuming.  When we fall behind on our routines and organizing, we allow cracks to form in the dam.  If we don't take time to stop and repair the cracks, they will grow.  

A desk left messy at bedtime is a crack in the dam (I'm guilty...more than once!)  If the messy desk is not put back to rights, it fairly begs your family who might not yet have good tidy up habits in place to just put something down on the desk for now... and now it's a bigger mess. The crack in the dam grew.

This can then give way to lost papers (where are they in this stack?  I knew it was here somewhere...), and lost papers give way to things being late, and things being disorganized, etc.

If you are climbing your way through this mess, you might start to get overwhelmed, and leave the laundry in the dryer, or not tidy the kitchen.  

When we leave a crack in the dam, it provides room for that crack to grow, and pretty soon there's new cracks too.  

Why am I telling you this?  

To be honest...the last few days, there are cracks in my dam again.  This blog is about how ALL of us must organize things in our lives every day.  Sometimes we will have strong wins, and other times life will throw you curves that slow your progress.  Its about how we cope with the changes each day that will make the difference.

What causes cracks in the dam?

1. Laziness.  Yup!  It's for real.  Summer is pulling to a close and that back to school routine will start up again, which means I am guilty of yielding to the temptation to hit the snooze alarm right now while I only have myself to get out the door...and if I am hitting the snooze alarm, you gotta know that I am letting certain parts of the morning routine slip.  Bed made? check!  Dishwasher emptied?  No check!

2. Interruptions/Distractions.  Too many fun summer social events that run too late into the evening, extra visits with friends and family, a great summer read, a cool movie or a some awesome new skill you decided to learn.  The possibilities are endless.  If we are not conscious of the time honestly required for our routines, we might not respect the time needed to get them done.

3. Overwhelmed.  Sometimes cracks in the dam are caused by the sense of being overwhelmed.  You have the usual to do, and now cracks in the dam to fix.  Sometimes you tell yourself to just forget it and gear down for a bit and go to bed. 

What is the fix? 

We return to our core values and core competencies.  

Remember this one always...our values dictate our behaviour, not the other way around.  If we value caring for our families, ourselves, being organized to reduce stress and be free for the things we value pursuing...we find motivation to fix the cracks and work towards preventing new cracks.

Our core competencies are the skills in your daily routine you can do almost automatically.  Go back to your habits.  Try to complete the new habits you might have added that you want to do that improve your daily life. 

It's much harder to hit that snooze alarm when you think about the family you love and value and the good things you want to do with your life that you place high value on, and realize that an old habit like a snooze alarm will wreak havoc on parts of your day and undermine the people and things you love and value most.

Here is a reminder that you can stop the cracks in the dam, and diligently work towards preventing new ones.

You can do it!

Thanks for reading.

Cassie

Back to School Shopping Checklist

It's 2 weeks until the start of school in our area.   In Ontario, back to school occurs after the labour day long weekend, the last long weekend until Thanksgiving. (Wow...do you hear that? The fall season is going to be here soon!)

If you have not already started your back to school planning and shopping, now is the time to get things done.  If you live in an urban area, things sell out very quickly.  Those who leave their shopping to the last minute have trouble filling their list, and get stuck paying whatever price there is for what is left available.

I have made a nice, free printable checklist for back to school shopping.  This list includes all the basics we must remember and have in place.  I tried to provide a checklist that includes non-uniform and uniform wearing students.  Simply use the lists that apply to you.

To print your shopping list per student Click Here.

Take the time now to get the hair cuts done, the shopping done, and the supplies in the house.  You'll be glad you did and when that holiday weekend comes, you can plan a quality family time instead of fighting the crowds in the stores.

You will be able to start the school year with your kids with things organized and ready to go.

Here's to great shopping with the kids!

Cassie

Organized Budget

It's Friday.  On Friday's I write my weekly menu for the following week so that Saturdays I can be in the store very early in the morning and get my shopping done.  In order to do this, I prefer to update my budget first.

Part of my weekly routine on Friday's includes a review of our family budget.
Today I am providing you a visual of what I do.  I am not presenting myself as an authority on money management in any way, I'm just sharing with you what I do as an ordinary girl.

This is a sample with fake amounts of money....I don't know anyone that raises a family on $440 per month in Canada, ha ha.

I also had this include typical budget categories while trying to make it fairly generic, and I removed others that are specific to my family.  This is just a sample to work from.  Read through the categories and scroll down below for more information.

Steps to an organized budget:

1. Create a budget. Each month, in Microsoft Excel, I create a budget.  I list what our regular income will be at the top, and include any government cheques and any additional income (i.e. we have a business we operate too)

2. Update all Expense Categories. I make sure the budget amount in each of the expense lines is correct.  If bank fees went up, or the price of gas went up, I adjust the amounts in that first column.

3. Make budget total and projected income balance. Check the total at the bottom of the first column of money.  Does it match the top where you have your projected income?  If not it's time to make some adjustments. You HAVE to make the total of your budget match the total of your projected income.

4. List in columns what you expect to spend each week. We have a weekly payroll deposit, which is quite convenient for managing a budget.  The next step is to list what funds you expect to spend each week.  You can see from this budget that groceries and gas occur each week, while most of our bills are due at the end of the month.

5. Leave unspent funds in a different colour. When I enter the funds into each week, I leave the text in orange.  

6. Update and review every week. Spent funds are black text, unspent funds are orange text.  Each Friday I go on-line and print out my bank statements for the week.  I review this against the budget.  When the assigned funds are spent, I switch the text to black.  If there was an unexpected expense, I add a new line and enter the amount in.  I usually make this text red so I can see where the hiccups in the budget were.

7. Add up unspent funds and compare against income to verify you are on track. Now once you are a week into the month's budget, add up the orange columns left and compare it against how many pay cheques you still have to come in.  You can know at ANY TIME you want to update this if you are running short or staying on track.  This system allows you to make adjustments any time of the month that you need to and any time you review your budget.  

This is just one way to organize a budget.  This does not cover yearly financial planning, that is a deeper matter.   This is just regular maintenance of a family budget.  This is how I do mine.  You could create a printable page, but I think this is best done on a computer as the updates are much easier to to.

Being organized creates order in our lives, reduces stress and frees us up to pursue the things we value the most.  I find that taking the time to update my budget each week keeps us on track and I can do my Saturday shopping with confidence, because I know what is going on with our money.

Happy planning and shopping!

Cassie

Dangerous Clutter

Why De-clutter? 
Think about it - it's your stuff....you or someone who loves you enough to give you a gift spent good, hard earned money on it.

Why De-clutter?

There are a variety of reasons to declutter.  Do you have a room somewhere that looks like this?

I found this picture on the internet, and I think it's either someone's basement or garage.  This sort of mess happens gradually because we end up with a dumping station where we put the things we don't know what else to do with "for now" and we tell ourselves we will clean this up later.  With the passage of time the stack grows and our sense of being overwhelmed grows too.  Soon, nobody wants to deal with the mess because it will take the entire weekend to make an improvement.

I am going to discuss today WHY we de-clutter, WHAT is the mindset behind clutter, HOW we feel when we de-clutter and the basics of the METHOD to decluttering.

First I have to point out that clutter can be dangerous.  Look again at that picture above.  You can't safely navigate your way across the room.  What if there was a fire and your cat got scared and hid amongst this mess?  You would have a problem.  In addition to this, our physical balance becomes less and less efficient with each year that we age (unless you are good about exercising) and you could easily loose your balance in a mess like this under ordinary circumstances and hurt yourself.

My sister sent me a link about how clutter in drawers can be very dangerous and cause a fire.

To see the article Click Here. 

Why De-clutter?

There are a few reasons to de-clutter.

       1. For physical safety

       2. It holds us back mentally

       3. It takes up physical space.

A tremendous amount of our time can be spent each day navigating our way around the clutter we keep.  If your kitchen is packed with gadgets, pots, pans, dishes and things you aren't really using, you have to keep moving these around to get to what you do need.

If the basement, laundry room or garage is where you store all the things that don't have any other place to keep, you have to dig through the stacks every time you need something.  This all takes extra time, and it drags you down inside, and can be a safety issue.

What is the mindset behind clutter?

The mindset behind clutter is emotionally based caution.  We look at these things and there is a lot of emotional attachment our belongings.   We keep things for a variety of reasons.

       

       1. It was a gift and we feel obligated to keep it.

       2. We keep old things we want to give to our kids or grand kids one day.

       3. We spent SO MUCH MONEY on that stuff back in it's prime, and even though it's worth  

       virtually nothing now, we feel like we are throwing away our money to get rid of it.  Have you 

       ever bought a stereo or DVD player, and you spent good, good money on that, and even though 

       the technology is now too old to even hook up with your current system, you just have such    

       trouble letting it go?  This phenomenon can been found in most homes.

       4. We keep clothes we plan to loose weight and fit into again.

       5. We keep old school books, either because it's our personal writing, or they were expensive

       textbooks.

       6. We keep things that remind us of our past, or our kids past.

The challenge in facing our clutter mindset is to cherish our memories and be able to let the clutter go.  As much as our things remind us of our past, we can't go back in time, we can't live in the past, we can only be in the present.  

Have you ever stumbled upon an old box of things that were forgotten, and after you relish the memories for a few minutes you realize that you now have to manage these items again?

I want to challenge you to evaluate just how many sentimental things you need to keep?  Take the mental challenge to start de-cluttering your home and your life.

How does de-cluttering make us feel?

This is both the best and toughest part.

       1. You can feel emotionally torn.

       2. Then you feel free!

You are flexing mental muscles that are tough to flex when you face up to your clutter.  It takes a big person to face the clutter and make the decisions to let some of this stuff go.  

Once you move past the emotional angst of getting rid of something, you will discover you feel so free after it's gone.

Perhaps you have something that was given to you as a gift.  You don't really care for it, you don't really use it, but you just don't know how to face that person if they discover you got rid of the gift.  This is feeling obligated to keep something.  There is nothing wrong with moving that item out.  How do you do it?  You give it away or sell it, and if you are ever in a situation that the gift item comes up in conversation, you explain that you really appreciated the gift, but did not have enough storage space for the item, and you weren't using it, and you found someone that really wanted it, so you gave it to them to enjoy.

The same goes for our diet clothes, old books, expensive stereos no longer in use, etc.  You can decide to give these away or sell them so that someone else can enjoy these items, and you no longer have to manage them. 

ONLY YOU have to live in your house with your clutter or non-clutter.  You are free to keep or not keep as needed.  If it doesn't make you happy, or you need it, let it go.  

In return you will have new found space to see and easily manage what you do own, and really enjoy the things you decided to keep.  This reward is also YOURS ALONE. 

WHAT do you de-clutter?

This list is almost self explanatory.

       1. Things that you no longer want

       2. Things that you no longer need or use.

       3. Things you are keeping out of obligation.

We all have some sentimentals we keep.  I still have my wedding dress in a storage container, and my wedding bouquet flowers were dried and stored in a jar.  I have 2 boxes of my kids best baby clothes and pictures.  A few boxes doen't take up that much space.  MANY boxes does.  I let go of almost all the kid's childhood books, toys, strollers, wagons, etc. (I kept the kids though - LOL!)

The same with my things, I have a handful of things from my childhood that I have kept, but current things that I don't use are out the door! 

Do you see I am not against sentimentalism? We are allowed to cherish our things of the past, but we have to be reasonable about how much we keep.  

If if helps to know....my family still has to tackle the mess in our garage.  This is our space to store things and we get it cleaned up and it gradually fills in again.  Now that I am discovering better processes around organizing and storage, I believe that this year we will defeat this monster in our lives! That will be a blog post with before and after pics one day.  

Remember, you get rid of clutter, create a storage system and then stick to a routine.  It will keep you on track.

Method of de-cluttering.

You are a smart person.  I am sure this part is easy to know.

       1. Speak very kind to yourself in your inner dialogue.  You are a good, smart, talented person who

       has tried to keep things and with time it has simply accumulated. 

       2. It will be a gradual process. Your clutter didn't happen overnight, and you aren't going to fix it in 

       a day either.  Be kind and patient with yourself as you do this process 1 space at a time.  Drawer by

       drawer, shelf by shelf, box by box.

       3. Each space you work on, divide items into what you will KEEP, TOSS or GIVE AWAY.

       4. Monitor you newly organized spaces.  If it looks like someone put things away sloppy, neaten it

       up again.  When something new comes home, be willing to let the old one go.  Ladies...sigh...this 

       would include our beloved sweater collections.  ha ha!

This is lots to think about.  Turn your thinking into action and I promis you that you will start to see the wins.  You will gradually de-clutter and organize one space at a time, one day at a time.

Go for it!

Happy de-cluttering!

Cassie

Laundry Room Makeover & Linky Party

At the bottom of the post you can join my link party.

I am currently looking for ideas to organize my laundry room.  Once I complete some of those other projects that I have on the go, I am hoping to tackle the LAUNDRY ROOM.

The key to a great laundry room is to have both function and form.
We have to sort out bulky bottles of detergents, large pieces of equipment, added storage space, and on top of all that, many of us have a very limited space to work with for the laundry room.

I thought I'd share some great websites and blogs I have found while working on my plan for my improved laundry room.   These demonstrate some really beautiful rooms, and many of them give you great ideas for making an organized laundry room a reality.

Here is 10 really great laundry rooms I found.

1. From the blog: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com   

Everyone just loves her organizing and decorating style.  I agree.  What's not to like!

To check out her laundry room Click Here. 

2.  From the blog: sandandsisal.com 

She has a nice fresh look to her laundry room, and I love how the shelves put her laundry products at fingertip access, right by the machines.
I also totally loves those shelves for the laundry baskets.  How smart!

To check out her laundry room some more Click Here. 

3. From the blog: beneathmyheart.net 

I really like that this laundry room is dealing with a smaller space and no window.  

I love the carpet and the bright fresh colours.

I also like how the cabinetry the found to install put everything neatly away and really pulled the room together.

Super bonus!  This project was done on a very tight budget.  We can all learn from this kind of creativity.

To see this laundry room Click Here.

4. From the blog: maillardvillemanor.com

Here is another smart laundryroom set up.

I love the dark colour washer and dryer in contrast to the bright white, and I just love that hanging bar right over the washer.  So convenient!

This laundry room was also done on a budget.  VERY IMPRESSIVE!

To see this laundry room Click Here.

5. From the blog: Cobblestonefarms.blogspot.ca

I like that this has the door to outside.  Sigh!  Beautiful isn't it!

I also like that the home owner did such a good job of keeping this in theme with the style of her home.

The space is very bright and pretty.

To see more of her laundry room Click Here. 

6. From the blog: houseofsmiths.com

I absolutely love this idea and the fact you can make it on your own.

If you are like me, you actually have an entire bag of socks that have lost their life partner, but this would be a great place to hang items you want to find the matching other for super quick!

Every time someone comes into the laundry room, this board is right there to remind you!

To see the instructions for this project Click Here. 

7. from the blog: pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.ca

This one I like that she was so honest about how her laundry space was usually a busy and kinda messy place.

I love the way she used a door mat to create art for the wall.  So smart!

I also like that she posted her budget and shopping resources.  

To see this laundry room makeover Click Here.

8. From the website: www.myhomeideas.com 

This Chic Yellow Laundry Room has a very nice use of space.

I love the colours, but what I love even more is the built in counter that created new workspace in a laundry room that would have limited work space otherwise.

Check this site out - there's lots of projects and ideas.

To see this and other projects Click Here.

9. From the Website HGTV

We have to include friends like HGTV (no sponsorship, really!) in a top 10 list.

This link has laundry rooms as creative and varied as our homes.

Some of them are so nice, you have to look twice to remind yourself its a laundry room!  WOW!

To see this and other laundry rooms Click Here. 

10.  from the blog: thingsthatinspire.com

Ok, she didn't actually display her laundry room yet either, but she made a really cool gallery of laundry rooms to look at too.

I posted the picture that has my most favourite idea.  I love those drying racks.

To ooh and ah at even more laundry rooms, Click Here.

Thanks for reading.  If you have any ideas you'd like to share with me as I plan my laundryroom, I'd love to hear what's working for you.  Please contact me, or add your link below. 

Here it is!  A Linky Party.  Add your link below.  I'd love to hear about your laundry room, or any organizing, home improvement project, or anything to do with family, faith, food, home, and improving our daily lives.

Daily Routine

Today I thought I'd share the daily task list I work from to keep my daily routine in place.
This list includes what I do in the mornings, after work time and before bed.

I do much of this electronically now, on my iCal, but now and then a printed page is good, and if nothing else it provides a visual of my routine.

I have created this document with 7 different coloured pages because that's just so much nicer than only one colour.  Enjoy!

To print your copy of the daily list Click Here.

Thanks for reading.

Cassie

Free Shopping List

Today is Saturday.  I have had a few busy days and have not had a chance to get to this little blog of mine here, but I am back today.

I try to get my weekly menu written into my computer calendar on Friday's so that on Saturday morning I can pretty near leap out of bed and hit the stores somewhere between 8:00am - 9:00am.  The strategy here is twofold, first I beat much of the crowds by getting an early start, and second I am usually done all my shopping before noon, which leaves the rest of the day to get onto other things!

I give myself that buffer of somewhere between 8:00am - 9:00 am because Saturday mornings are really my only day per week to sleep in.  So if I move a little slower on a given Saturday, I don't get upset with myself.

I create a shopping list that has my pretty blue and brown floral background from the blog.  You are free to print this out and use it.

One of the key parts of being organized is our systems and routines.  Saturday morning shopping is an important part of my weekly routine, and while I own a smartphone and a computer, I must say that I'm an old fashioned girl when it comes to shopping...nothing replaces the simple paper shopping list.

To print your copies of the shopping list click here

Happy Shopping!

Cassie

Busy Day

Good Morning all my friends in the blog world.

Just a quick note to say I took yesterday off completely, and today I am so busy caring for some things with the family.... this little blog of mine will have to wait.   I hope to have a nice post for you later today.  I really enjoy blogging, and I will be back soon.  I am sure you can understand, I must put my family first.

Thanks for checking in, and I'll be in touch later!

Cassie

The Stocking Solution

If my blog entries seem a bit sporadic this week, they just might be.  We are home on vacation this week and using the time to either relax or work on things around the house that sometimes wait because the pace of life is so busy.

I found a simple solution to the stocking problem we ladies have in our drawers.
Have you ever had the jumble of stockings (pantyhose) in your drawer?  They are a terrible thing to arrange.

The common, ordinary zip-loc bag to the rescue!  It's as low cost as you can get, and simple to use.
Here is my drawer with the stocking sorted into bags.  Look how easy it is to see how many pairs you have and locate the pair you want.

Here is a close up of a pair in the zip-loc bag.

Steps to an organized sock drawer:

1. Empty the contents of the drawer

2. Add shelf paper if you plan to.  ( I will be doing this at a later date) 

3. Get rid of all socks that are mis matched, worn out, or no longer in use.  Get rid of all stocking that have any snags or damage.

4. If you have a little sock organizer like I do, put the socks back into there and line up the rest so they are easy to find.

5. Bag the stockings that are no longer in their original package and line them up.

You are done.  Enjoy!