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!

Sewing Supplies Organized

I have been working on my bedroom closet this week. 

Yesterday I tackled the big job of removing everything from there that should not be.
Then I painted, stenciled and but everything back so nicely in the closet.  My shoes all in little home made shoe racks up top, clothes hanging on the bar, and storage containers below to hold purses, and some beauty stuff that my bathroom can't store.

Here is the closet all finished, yesterday.

I was still left with all the things to find a new home for.  

Once, quite a while ago, I decided it would be a great idea to add my sewing supplies in here because we have very limited storage space and I was trying to be practical.  All it did was leave my closet packed to the door!  I have not enjoyed my closet for a while, until now. :-) 

Here is the huge pile of stuff I had to clean up that was in the closet.  My husband can't believe I managed to squeeze everything into that little closet.

Aaaahhhh!  

Please don't be scared away because I have shown this to you!  

It's an organizing project after all.  Remember, sometimes we have to make a bit of a mess in order to clean things up and make new systems and routines.

I had a couple of boxes of baby photos and baby stuff in this stack, my wedding gown and an old green snow suit, and the rest was ALL SEWING FABRIC AND SUPPLIES!

I know, it's too much.  I have found some really great sales over the years and I have gathered quite a collection.  It's value is worth quite a bit all together, so I decided I really want to keep this and use it up making new clothes.   

Off to the store for some storage containers.

I bought 4 bins.  1 to hold the wedding dress and snow suit, and the rest to sort fabric.

Here is the first box with patterns, thread and cutting mats and various sewing notions.

Here is the next box, full with large chunks of fabric for bigger projects.  These fabrics can make jackets, dresses and suits.  

The last box is a LOT of fabric, all well suited for dress shirts, fun tops, skirts etc.  

I'm proud to say, here is my scary stack reduced to 4 plastic storage containers and the 2 cardboard boxes of baby memoirs.

Here is the bag of donation items that came out of that stack.

And finally, there was some fabric scraps that were just garbage, and some cardboard boxes, so this project did produce a bag of trash and a bag of recycle.

There it is!  When you clean out a closet or other space like it in your home, you sometimes end up with a stack of stuff that isn't garbage, but it needs a new home.  I didn't do this all in one day.  I got my closet in order first, and then I tackled the stack.  It took some good, honest time to finish this, but the pay off is there in full.  The boxes will be stored in the garage, and now my closet is just for closet things.  Hooray!

Thanks for reading.

Cassie