Organization Challenge

Well my organization challenge is not starting out the best.  I made my list but as usual life has gotten in the way of my planning.  Guess thats why I don't plan that much, lol.  Anyhow I'm not going to dwell on that I"m moving forward.  I was going to start in my bedroom but the office demanded attention.  We were having major problems with our phone line and needed a technician to come work on the line.  Well I couldn't have him come out and look at the tangled mess that was border line health hazard.  Like always I forgot take a true before picture but here is a sample of the mess I had

So in an attempt to corral all those cords I took a shoe box and covered it with some contact shelf paper I had laying around. 

This is the final product, not perfect but it hopefully will keep all the dust, dirt and unknown objects from getting tangled. 

Please excuse my very worn and outdated vinyl floor that needs to be replaced.

While I was on a roll I also covered a bottom of a cereal box to add to the front of my silver ware drawer.  I was tired of things slipping under the drawer organizer and not being able to shut the drawer. 

Well happy organizing, let me know if you have taken on the challenge too.

Praise God for YOU!!!

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Office Redo/Organization - Part 2

     This is the second part of the office redo.  I finally finished the bulletin board, it seemed to be a bigger task than what I first thought.  I have a tendency to do that sometimes, sometimes its just hard to reign in all the ideas whirling around in my head.  And its so frustrating when something doesn't come out the way you have it pictured in your head.  I will have a tutorial on how I did it on Wednesday.  Starting this Wednesday I will be featuring Wednesday's Window, a redo of an old window that either I or another creative blogger has come up with.  You can email me or leave me a comment if you have a great idea to repurpose an old window or you have blogged about it. 
     Anyhow here is what my office looks like now, next on the list dealing with all the cords that seem to have multiplied and twisted themselves up.  That would mean crawling on the floor under the desk, unplugging everything, untangling, coming up with a better system and making sure I plug them all back where they should be.  I've read some great ideas out there in blog land but none that seem to solve my problem.  Like I told you before my office is off of my kitchen but it is also right where everyone comes in and out of the house by the back/side door.  So this means lots of dust and dirt so I need to come up with something to bring it up off the floor.  Anyhow that will be another day and another post. 

Made the butterflies out of cardstock and glued them to thumb tacks

To the right of the monitor is shelves that hold bills on the bottom

on the middle shelf I have our gardening journal and notebook with recipes I get off the internet

the top has thumb tacks , and oh the Off clip on thingy

To the right of the monitor is the thing that hold the cords to our ipods, camera, etc that I posted about before.

I found these notepad/mousepad at Michaels in the $1 isle

I thought perfect two birds with one stone

I can keep all my notes from all the great ideas I get in blogland

I made these a while ago and are hanging from the bottom of the window.  I used them to keep papers from school for each child. 

The window probably should have been hung a bit higher. I didn't want them to consume space on the bulletin board so I decided after I hung the window to put them on the bottom. But they are kind of hidded behind the monitor.

                                  

Praise God for YOU!!!

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Office Redo/Oganization - Part One

I have taken a couple online courses on organizing recently with Aby at Simplify 101. 
Which is totally against my nature but I need some things simplified in my life so I have more time to do the things that are important in life, like shopping and getting great creative ideas in blogland.  It seems that every day I find a new creative soul mate out there in blogland.  Its so awesome to see what creative minds are out there.  Anyhow back to the organizing thing.  One of the projects I conquered after finishing my second course was figuring out some sort of system for my office area.  This area is a desk just off my kitchen, which should technically be a breakfast nook but it just wasn't big enough for our entire family to sit there so the table just ended up being a catch all when we came in the door.  This office area also serves many purposes, its the home to our only computer, home bill paying, my husband's business paperwork and invoicing as well as all the other home/ business/school related activities.  So I needed a system that would stream lined since there are many things going on.  Here are a couple things that I did to stream line things a bit.  First thing on my list was the top drawer to the desk, it was impossible to find anything I needed, everything was just thrown in there and piled on top of each other.  I looked all around in stores for something that would help me organize all my things and being that I am cheap  I mean frugal I thought to myself I have got to have something around my house that I could repurpose and would work to hold the items that I needed on hand.  I went home and started scouring my house for unused containers that I hadn't thrown out yet in one of my decluttering sessions.  That's when my creative juices started to kick in and it started to get fun.  I find almost everything in my house but did purchase two boxes from the $1 isle in Michaels. 

1. bottom of a recipe box bought at Michaels - holds staples, and stamps for paperwork
2. cup that was sitting on my desk, all signed by my MOPS friends at convention - holds rubberbands and bandaids (I have to mention this is now empty... see post on minor set backs)
3. bottom to a facial cream container - holds paperclips
4.top to the facial cream container - holds thumb tacks
5. cardboard box that held stationary - now holds scissors, staples, tape, etc
6. was a wooden  box bought from Michaels - holds pens, pencils
stashed in the back is the box of checks and checkbook

All but a couple of things that have come up missing,  it still looks just like this today.  I am so proud of myself, I don't think I have ever kept anything this organized this long.  Each of the boxes I covered with scrapbook paper to give a clean uniform look. 

I also needed some place to keep the cord to my camera and ipod cords for our family.  Before there were about 20 unused misc. cords and we would have to untangle all of them to find the ones we wanted.  So I have a desk organizer on top of my desk that holds incoming and outgoing paperwork for our businesses.  I guess originally this little drawer was supposed to hold things like paperclips and what not but I thought it would work perfect for the cords if I wrapped them up. 

I am still training myself to clear the top of my desk every day.  Some days apparently I need extra training but for the most part the system seems to be working.  Everything in a place and everything in its place.  :) 

Now for the rest of the house... the journey continues. 

Praise God for YOU!!!

Read more: http://www.mylivesignature.com/wizard3_2.php##ixzz0miIcUbIS