Organize Me Monday: Studio Tour

Organizing.  It's my thing!  Well, it's one of my things.  One of my favorite things!  It may sound weird, but taking an unorganized space and making it organized energizes me like few other things do!  Taking an organized space and making it more organized is pretty great too!

Recently we had our kitchen remodeled.  Prior to that happening, I had kitchen appliances stored all over the place.  One cupboard in particular, near the front door, was full of appliances.  Well, now that all of the appliances fit in the kitchen (!!),  I had an empty cupboard which I have been working to make into storage for my art and craft goodies! Today I finished that little endeavor and I thought I'd show you!

I have made two videos to share with you today.  You'll have to excuse the segments where everything goes blurry ... that's my lack-of-videography-know-how making itself known! Clearly, I need some practice! 

The first video is a tour of my "studio".  We don't have room in this house for me to set up a whole room as a studio unless I want that room to be the garage ... and I don't.  Initially, I  set up a section of the family room where I could work and that has sort of oozed around the corner ... which works perfectly now that the bread-maker and mix master are in the kitchen where they belong! 

The second video is showing you the inside of my art and craft cupboard ... how it is organized and looking inside a couple of the boxes. 

I mentioned in the first video that I was doing The Documented Life Project in 2016.  I did the second half of 2014, and a self-modified version in 2015 ... I'm hoping to complete an entire year of actual DLP this year!  Do any of you participate in this fun project?  I'd love to follow along with you!  Let me know where I can! I'll probably post some photos on my TrèsBonn Instagram and Facebook pages but mostly I think I'll share my weekly pages here on the blog ...

Processing ... On Paper.

 

Does your life ever feel like the photo above?
It was an accidental photo, I didn't even know I had taken it until the other day.
But my life totally feels like that sometimes.
Like I'm just hanging on for dear life so I don't go flying off this spinning planet!!

There are a few things I find helpful when it does start to feel like this.
Or even ... before this, but to keep me from getting to this.
That is where I am now.  Feeling like if I don't get
things under control, it will all start to spin!

I'm am external processor.
I need to talk to process.  But sometimes
I can't.  I don't have a large group of people I feel
comfortable 'processing' with.  In fact, it's quite a small, very
select group containing less than a handful of people.

Sure, there are levels of processing. And if we're talking about what I'm going to cook for dinner,
I'm probably happy to chat to a stranger in the supermarket.

I have found, over the years, though, that with lots of things, I can 'process' my
thoughts on paper just as well as in a conversation.  It's almost like I need
to hear (or see) my thoughts to before I can decide if they make
sense.   If you are an external processor, you may know
what I'm talking about.  

Here's what one of my "processing" lists looks like.
It's simple.  Nothing complicated.
But so helpful. 

My next step is to put those thoughts on to a schedule.
I don't want to "fit" these things into my day, I want them to be priority. 
Having that in my mind helps as I go about looking at what other things take up my
time and thinking about if they should be cut back on or eliminated all together.

Household Tip ~ A long long cord ...

One thing that has always driven me crazy is having to unplug the vacuum cleaner and plug it in somewhere else.  Crazy ?  Maybe, but it bugs me.  Or, maybe I should say, it used to bug me. A few years ago I came up with this very simple solution ...

An extension cord. A long long extension cord. I plug it into a socket at the centre of the house and then I can vacuum the entire house without ever having to unplug !  Seriously, this makes me so happy.

This extension cord is NOT EVER USED FOR ANYTHING ELSE !  It stays plugged into the vacuum cleaner cord and I never have to go searching for it when I need to vacuum. 

{soap and toothpaste no more]

i think i've mentioned already how well our charts are working

i'm not here to mention that again

i'm here for something else

a change

this is how the sink in the main bathroom looked every day up until a week ago

we have tried many things to get the kids to remember to wipe the sink

nothing has worked

until now

seriously, i can't believe how easy it was

the kids charts only go for three weeks

about a week ago it was time to print new ones

i simply added 'wipe sink' to the chart

alia in the morning

jono before bed

easy



so stinkin' easy

they do it every time

and the sink shines !

ok ... that's a stretch ...

but it is free of soap and toothpaste

and that is enough

more than enough !!

**

speaking of kids and chores ...

i wrote a two part series a while back sharing my thoughts on the subject ...

...........

if you're interested, the two black and whites of my dad as a kid are linked to those posts

as for me ... i'm heading to bed

i'm future dating this to be posted tomorrow while we are at a wedding

and then spending the weekend with grandma and grandad

a happy weekend to you all

i hope it's

great

!!

{charts}

it's happened ! finally !! they are doing it all on their own !!

my jono is 7 and my alia is 5. they have always been early risers. me, not so much. or not at all. my alarm goes off at 6:30 and i'm usually up by 7:00. the kids are up looooooong before me ! a couple of years ago, i had the brilliant idea to let the kids get their own breakfasts. it drove me nearly insane to be woken every morning (if you can call 5:00 morning and not the middle of the night !!) to "i'm hungry". i started by telling them they could have a piece of fruit when they got up. but, they'd have the fruit and then at 5:02 (still the middle of the night) i'd have a little person standing beside my bed saying "i'm hungry". so, i moved the cereal down low in the pantry, taught them how to pour it and the milk and voila ... they are no longer hungry and i am no longer waking up grumpy ! it's a win win for all involved !! but ... that has been happening for a couple of years now. what i'm talking about is the next step ... something i didn't know would happen this quickly !

i've recently set up a new home management station in our new house. i did it to help me keep everything in one place and to properly manage my cleaning (something i felt needed improving). i did up some charts ... a big one for me and a small one for each of the kids with daily things they need to do. their lists are the same except that one of them feeds the cat in the morning and the other feeds her at night.

before school they need to : make beds, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, feed the cat, and get their bags ready ... not forgetting to include their library books, home folders and lunch boxes. these have always been their responsibilities but many mornings we'd leave the house with beds unmade and more often than not teeth unbrushed.

my kids love ABC kids, the morning cartoons that play before school. my rule has always been they can watch it once they are totally ready for school. but ... it was always up to me to remember what needed to be done and remind them and check and on and on and on ...

things have been improving since i made the charts. they looooooooooooooove ticking things off. alia cannot read but jono and i helped her at first. now, i think she has the thing memorized because she knows where each item is and ticks them off properly. they come to me and say "mommy, can we put on ABC kids?" and where i used to have to ask if they had brushed their hair ? made their beds ? etc etc etc, i can just say "have you done your charts ?" it's been a great improvement.

but ...

yesterday morning (!!!) ...

i was in the shower and jono came to me and said "mommy, we've finished our charts, can we put on ABC kids ?" (!!!)

it's finally happened ... they've got ownership of what they need to do. responsibility is being learned. and this is one happy mommy !!

{home management}

My sister Ellie inspired me.
It's not the first time.
She has a tendency to be like that ... inspirational.

We were talking the other day about home management.
She has recently put some new systems into place that are working really well.

I'm not following the same systems as my schedule is different to hers.
But, listening to her enthusiasm inspired me to put my own systems into place.

We pack a lot into our lives.
Rory works full time.
He also plays futsal on two different teams.
I work part time
and spend half a day a week in a studio doing an art lesson.
We are both involved in music and missions at church.
Outside of school, Jono plays AFL and soccer.
Both kids take swimming lessons.

And that's just the stuff that's scheduled.

It's not too much.
We have plenty of time to relax
and enjoy being together.
We eat dinner together almost every night.
There are of course, exceptions.


BUT, what can happen, if I'm not careful is that I let the housework pile up
and then I spend an entire Saturday cleaning and that makes me grumpy !

There just had to be a better way ...

One of my biggest frustrations, when it comes to cleaning the house,
has been not knowing what my husband expects.
So ... first thing I did after talking to Ellie
( why did I not do this 12 years ago !? )
was have him tell me

EXACTLY

what his expectations are.

How often does he think the house needs to be vacuumed ?
How frequently do the sheets need to be changed ?

etc.

etc.

etc.

I thought his expectations were reasonable so I went with those.

I sat down and made a chart that lists all the cleaning and how often it needs to be done.
I added dates according to the frequency.
So ... this week, when I clean the toilet, I'll write the date it was done in the column for this week.
Make sense ?

I think it is going to be really good for me to be able to keep track of everything.
Also good for when Rory gets an inkling to help out, which he is very good at, to be able to
see what has been done and what needs to be done.



I also did a daily chart for each of the kids.



They love it.



I added the charts to the 'home management station' that I've been developing
on the inside of the pantry door.
It is the perfect location.
Seriously, how many times is a Mommy in and out of the pantry on any day of the week !?
I ALWAYS see it !!

I've got my calendar there.
The notes from the school.
Events, like a wedding we are going to in June ...
The menu.
And now ... the charts !

Can I tell you how much I love having everything in one place ?
I have always wanted some sort of 'home management system' but have never had a good spot for it.
I didn't want it on a wall somewhere where it looked 'junky'.
But, in the pantry ... with a door that closes.
Perfect, I tell you.
Just perfect.

So tell me ... do you have a system for getting everything done ?
Care to share ?
You can do it in the comments or post it on your blog.
If you do a post, be sure to let me know so I can come check it out ...