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 ...

"Show Me Your Systems" said Shay (Kids Boxes)

Tuesday I showed you my wrapping paper system ... but, there's other boxes in my office closet. The Christmas decoration boxes, pretty self explanatory. Maybe I'll do a post about them next Christmas when I pull everything out. Maybe I'll forget ! We'll see ! *grins*

What I'm going to show you today are the pink and blue boxes. They hold lots of little treasures that I'm sure will be fun to go through when the kids are grown.

Are your kids like mine ? Do they do colorings and paintings and drawings and toilet roll crafts and cereal box crafts and you name it ... they do it ? Yeah, I thought so. What on earth is a mother to do with all of this stuff ? I have been keeping bits and pieces of what they do over the years. None of the cereal box crafts though ... too big ! My friend Kelli takes photos of those things and keeps the photos !! Brilliant idea !! I've done that with a few things ....

I have tried to limit myself to what I keep. That was harder when they were tiny. Every little thing they did, I wanted to keep. So ... I've got a good collection from their early years ! Now, I just keep things that they do a particularly good job on or that they are particularly proud of or it's something sweet that they've done, like this little beauty. Remember ??

Eventually, these things make it into the black notebooks you see in the photo below. Named, dated and filed in plastic sleeves in date order ... I'm behind a couple of years !! BUT ... that's ok. Because I just keep putting the ones I want to keep in the pink and blue boxes ! One of these days, I'll pull them out again and file them all and then start collecting again !!



They hold other things too. Here's Jono's box. In it, you'll find a small assortment of baby clothes and baby blankets of his that I want to keep. There's a few things grandma has made, like the library bag on the top there that he's outgrown ... Actually, she made the superman shirt and the blanket beneath the library bag too ! I just pulled those three things out of his room the other day.

There are letters from his cousins. (and other family members) Awards he's won at soccer ... once they come off his wall ... they go in the box ! Stuff like that. Eventually I'll put Mr. Bear in there too. That's his teddy bear that he's slept with since he was old enough to have stuffed toys in his crib !



Alia's box is the same ... but in her's there's also a little box with jewelry that she wore as an infant. One day I'll give it to her but not while she's bound to break or lose it !

Oh yeah, both of their boxes have a dummy ( pacifier ). Little sunglasses. You know, just the little stuff that you can't bear to throw away. Memories of the short period of time that they were babies !

Jono has started losing teeth, they will go in his box too, wrapped up in tissues like this ...

Is that gross ? To keep teeth ? I have my wisdom teeth and I think they are really cool ! I wish I had all my teeth.

I might end this post here. I'm pretty tired today. Rory and I stayed up til 11:30 last night *SHOCK HORROR* to watch the first two episodes of 24. Don't know why they do that ... show the first two at once ... maybe it's to suck you in ! Not that they need to do that ... if it's got Jack Bauer in it, I'll watch it !! Seriously, he's the only character that's been in EVERY season.

We rode bikes to and from school today, I worked out at the gym, I worked as well ... accomplished a lot which I was happy about ... and now I'm thinking "can't someone else cook dinner ?" Unfortunately, Rory won't be home tonight 'til after dinner so it's all on me ! Oh well ... my bread maker is making the dough for the Focaccia bread as I type, and I'm just making a simple dinner ... Trina's chicken casserole ... minimal effort for a yummy yummy meal !

I'm pretty sure I said I was going to end this post ....

Doing so. Now.

"Show Me Your Systems" said Shay (Office Bookshelf 2)

Welcome back !
If you missed yesterday's post, I'm photographing my organizing systems for my best friend Shay.

Remember this shelf ?

I'm going to open up the three boxes and show you what's inside.



The top box has receipts.
I don't know about you, but as soon as I throw a receipt away, I need it !!
Keeping them in this plastic shoe box until it's full and
THEN throwing them away has cut down on that tremendously !



The second box was empty and when I was scanning lots of photos into facebook,
it became a catch all so they didn't get lost or have drinks spilled on them before I could get
them put back into their appropriate boxes.



And the big box.
Beads.

Here's what it looks like with just the lid taken off.



And I'll pull everything out so you can see what all is in there.
Like I said yesterday ... I like to have craft activities together.
When I have the yen to do some craft, I'm not searching all over creation to find everything I need ... ultimately using the time I had to craft in a search and rescue mission !!



This beading board is quite handy.
And I'm able to store wires and what not in it ...



My box of beads.



And some bead how to books ... they live on the bottom of the box.



All in one place.

Handy !

PS ... come back tomorrow. I have a stinky story to tell you !

"Show Me Your Systems" said Shay (Office Bookshelf)

This is Shay and Shawn. In a photo I "borrowed" from Shawn's facebook.
But ... I TOOK this photo of them so I'm figuring it's ok for me to "borrow" it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Aren't they cute ?

I don't know that I've introduced you to Shay before.
I'm sure you've heard me talk about her and if you've been to my food blog,
you'll know that she inspires me to try (and introduces me to) a plethora of new recipes.
Don't you just love that word ? Plethora.

I do.

Love the word.

Plethora.

Sheesh ... have I lost you already ?

Focus people. Focus.

Shay inspires me to do lots of things.
She and I spend hours talking on the phone ...
since I live in Australia and she lives in America.
She knows me better than most.
She listens and supports and encourages.

She is my book source.
Whenever I need to read a good book,
I just ask and she's always got a new one that I need to read !
She inspires me to be healthy.
Many years ago, she inspired me to think differently.
To question.
To really understand what I say and do ...

Hard to explain the impact this woman has had on my life in the 17 years I've known her.
Enormous. Gigantic. Immense. Gargantuan.

These words aren't big enough.

She is my dearest friend.

Anyway ... while I was hanging out with Shay in Colorado, she asked me to do her a favor.
Sure ... what ?
Photograph my "systems". How I organize things. And put it on my blog !
She and I are always complaining that the majority of organizing blogs don't have photos.
Some do ...
But it's frustrating to go to ones that don't !

So ... here, without further ado, is my first installment of ...




Just to let you know ... I didn't tidy anything up before I took these photos.
My objective in organizing is not to have a perfect looking house.
I'm more of a practical organizer.
The common areas where people visit with us are more decorative ... but we'll get to those areas.

In my office, it's all about practicality.
I'm in here a lot.
A LOT !
I need to be able to function.
To find things easily.
More importantly .. to be able to put things away easily.

Today's subject ...
The big bookshelf in the office.
May I just add that I put this bad boy together ... MYSELF !

Here's the overall view.
I had to take the photo laying on the floor to get the whole thing ...

Let's start from the top and move down ...
I do not like to waste space.
As you can see, I utilize every bit of it.

I love these cardboard boxes that the notebooks stand up in.
This one houses year books, old photo albums that I need to go through, DTS notes,
printed copies of my weekly letter ...




Plastic shoe boxes.
I've always loved them.
I have them full of different craft things.
It works because when I have each 'activity' sorted and at my fingertips when I feel like doing it.
My boxes are labeled but you can't read the labels in the photos
so I've added readable labels for you ...



Ok ... now onto the actual top shelf.
I've got those cardboard notebook holders there again.
They just keep everything neat.
You know ... if I pull out one of the notebooks, the others aren't falling over.
That drives me crazy.

These are photo album / scrapbooks.
Haven't worked on them for years.



I do have a few special bits and pieces in front of the photo albums
for decoration / memorabilia sake.



Next shelf down ... very messy at the moment.
This is where the practicality comes in.
I have lots of papers.
Bills, coloring things from the kids, recipes, birthday cards etc ...
Where does all that stuff live ?
Well, most of it has homes but there's no way I can put them all into their homes
straight away.
Filing trays. I love them. I use them LOTS.
They are my catch all.
I'll tell you what they trays have in them in a minute.

The boxes on this shelf ... I'm going to open them for you in the next post !
Won't that be exciting ??



Ok ..
The trays.
1. Rory has a tray. You know, he'll print stuff out and then I don't know what to do with it.
I put it in his tray. Mail that he's read and may want to look at again soon ... in his tray.

2. I have a tray of magazines/articles/etc that people have lent me ... so they don't get lost.

3. I have a tray of blank ruled paper.

4. I have a tray of lined notebooks.

5. I have a tray of white paper for the printer.

6. Things the kids have colored that I MIGHT want to keep but can't decide. They go in a tray until I do the filing and then I make the decision as to what stays and what goes.

7. I have a tray with loose recipes that eventually get put into my 'keeper' cookbook.

8. I have a tray of missions stuff. (a role we fill at our church)

9. Photo paper and some things I need to read. I am going to get rid of this tray though.

10. Personal filing.

11. Business filing. (bills)

12. Pending.

Phew ... that's a lot of trays.

I'll do my filing soon and show you what they usually look like.
They're not normally as full as they are now ... nor quite as messy !!

Standing up beside the trays is a cool craft book that Shay and Shawn gave Alia for Christmas.



Next shelf down.
Four black notebooks. These house the kids artwork that I do decide to save. So far, they have two each. The white notebook is bits and pieces (magazine/newspaper articles) that I want to keep. I will go through and cull them and some of them will eventually go into scrapbooks but for now they live there where I can easily find those things that I used to spend time going "now where did I put that thing ??"

The blue and purple containers have CD's with photos on them ...
and the white 'basket' has my mic for when I record songs using garage band.



Oops, I didn't label the boxes below. Ok ... the blue thing is my laminator.

The three small boxes are:
1. Rulers and Glues
2. Cutting Tools
3. Miscellaneous

The notebook and books in the middle are craft oriented.

Then there's my label maker. Every organizers dream toy !!
( a birthday present to me from Shay a few years ago !! )

The big boxes are :
1. Envelopes. I never buy envelopes. I save junk mail ones and put labels on them ...
2. Stickers. Yeah, I know ... it's a big box of stickers. I'll open it up and show it to you soon !



Phew ... almost there !

The bottom doors ...

One section holds all of our photos that are not in photo albums. One day ...



And this is miscellaneous office supplies, notebooks, folders, plastic sleeves ...



So ... there you go !!

Tomorrow I will open up three boxes for you and show you what's inside !