Ready to Send! (Mailing Kit)

With the cold weather firmly in place I've been working on organizing (or reorganizing) areas in our home.  One thing I've learned from the KonMari method is to keep things together in the area you use them.  My stash for mailing things was begging for help!

Because of space I organized up two areas.  The first was for letters.

We are forever looking for our address labels and/or stamps.  To put an end to that I sliced a small manila envelope down its long edge, then covered the whole thing (leaving open the slice, of course) with fancy duct tape for strength.  In this envelope is where address labels will be kept.  

A second smaller envelope was strengthened with tape to hold stamps.  This also goes into the larger envelope.  Good so far!

Then I turned my attention to the envelopes themselves.

On the right I put my envelopes of four sizes, plus the stamp holder.  The box on the left is my greeting cards and note cards~ quick to grab and use.

All that remained to be worked on were my supplies for mailing parcels.

I keep this area in the garage.  The bags are on a hanging pot rack I bought from a blacksmith friend.  There is no place in our home to use it, however it is perfect for this.  The bags contain: bubble wrap, bubble wrap sleeves, air bags, and 'peanuts'.  Below them are my stash of boxes.

I have both priority mail boxes (this woman can stuff a box full!) and non-postal boxes for other times.  Himself opens those misc boxes (shipments from Amazon, etc) so they lay flat.  I have about every size I could ever need.  

(Oh!  Did you know that you can go to the postal service web site and order Priority boxes and envelopes for free?  They ship them to you at no charge.  Or of course you can pick them up at any post office.)

So now when it is time to send something out... I'm ready for it!

Pull In Case of Electrical Emergency

We've had an instance lately where we needed to get our power turned off NOW.  And our set up at the breaker box wasn't the best in the world.  So I took care of the issues and I'll share them with you.

Our breaker box.

First, make sure the area around the box and leading up to the box are clear.  When sparks are flying is not the time to be moving junk!

Have a flash light with magnetic attachment on the box.  At the very least, you may be standing in the dark when you flip the breaker.

And you MUST have a key as to what each breaker controls.  (Of course in the fastest emergency you can throw the main to get the power off quickly).

Notice the numbers in front of each item on the list?  That is the breaker's designated number position so you can note what goes to what.

The numbers are impressed in the metal of the box.  However, it is really hard to see each number if you don't help it along.  See how on the bottom right you can't see any numbers but to the left you can?  That's because I took a fine pointed Sharpie and traced within the area of the impressed number.  (I finished marking after I took the photo).

Doing these few simple tasks might be a saving grace in an emergency!

Keeping My Teas Fresh

A while back I mentioned that I got my teas organized but I didn't say what I had done...

I keep them in a basket on the microwave... out of the way but quick to access.

I like to have choices.

Loose teas in particular come in boxes or cute tins that aren't the best for maintaining freshness.

Got this one when I was in Scotland.

I took a photo of the tin and printed it off.  Then I used the jar lid as a template to cut the photo to size to make a perfect label.

Not only do jars keep the tea fresh much longer, they are really pretty to look at!

I'm still looking for a perfect option for storing tea bags.  I'm thinking I may just have to drink down some of my stash and stuff bags into jars also.

Home Kits - The Computer

I'm leading another challenge on a FB group (A Creative and Simple Life) where each month we are going to put together a 'kit' to make our lives more simple.  

January was "Computer Kit".

The challenge started with an action... back up your files and download photos off of phones!  Himself and I each have a terabyte external hard drive to back up with.

The next thing after I backed up my drive was to make a 'kit' for computer related items.  A place to keep that hard drive, thumb drives, manual/discs that are needed, cleaning things, and so on.  

I decided to use this book case for my computer kit.  Earlier I had doodled on it to give it some style.  The outer pocket is perfect for holding my thumb drives.  It's easy to get to them.

Inside the case...

The left side holds both external drives perfectly.

The right side has a pouch where I put my USB light and as soon as I find it, my USB vacuum/blower tool.  Pockets behind the pouch have screen cleaner pads.

The kit will stay in a drawer near my computer, for easy use (to keep the computer clean and backed up) and easy grab in an emergency.

KonMari The Cloth

After spending several days doing the KonMari on our clothes and accessories, it was time to turn our attention of the rest of the 'cloth' category.  Just like with the clothing, Himself washed everything before we put it away.

Sheets and blankets.

Easy enough as we don't have a bunch.  Two sets of sheets for each bed, and one flannel set.  One extra blanket for winter use (we keep it cold in the winter months).  Two old blankets were discarded (each made a bag).

Done!

Next stop for the KonMari train was our towels and hot pads.

Confession time...not a single towel left the house.  In our home, there is no such thing as a discarded towel unless you can see through it!  Ratty towels become cat driers, car polishers, wet mess cleaner-uppers, etc, etc.  And having them available sparks great joy for me!  LOL

And so the upstairs cloth KonMari is finished.

Next stop...books.

KonMari Clothes - 20 Bags Gone

Let the KonMaring begin!

See?  It's in my planner so it had to happen!  

The first category is clothes.  So here we go.

Even tho I did a discarding in March, I apparently was not too serious.  Look at all that stuff!

As per the method, I pulled every. single. thing. out... out of the closet, out of the dresser, out of storage tubs.  The only thing that wasn't on that bed were the good winter coats because I couldn't find them (I did later on).

It took way longer than I thought - but was way easier.  I had thought ahead as to what I wanted as an outcome of this discarding.  I wanted clothes that fit.  There were a lot of things that were now too large for me, and only a few that I haven't come down to that size yet.  And I wanted them to fit a certain way.

So not only did I 'touch' every single piece of clothing, I tried them on.

It was exhausting.

But in the end, I discarded TWELVE bags of clothes.  Most will be sold as they are really good quality, a few went to Goodwill.

Then, although it's out of the KonMari order, I went through my accessories.

My able-bodied assistant lent her opinion.

I did not realize how much you loose in shoe size when you drop weight!  Some shoes wouldn't stay on my feet anymore.  More eBay items.

I went from 2 drawers of socks down to one.

Jewelry, only a few things were discarded.  I've been careful curating my jewelry collection.

Three bags from the accessory category are gone.

Now here's the GRAND thing... Himself agreed to KonMari his clothes too!!  Gone are the faded, the stretched out, the too short.  

He loves the fact that now everything in his closet and drawers looks good and fits.

In addition, he volunteered to wash everything we kept so it went back into the closet and drawers clean.  Poor man was washing for days!

We both agree it was so worth it.

To KonMari or Not To KonMari...

In March I wrote about the KonMari decluttering method and how I applied it to my closet.  (http://teri-gonewalkabout2.blogspot.com/2016/03/my-sorta-konmari-closet.html )

This summer I actually bought the book and read it.  Then I read it again.

In doing that it really started making sense to me (and I also realized that way too many of the usually negative reviews of the book were written by people who didn’t actually READ the book but rather skimmed it).  I also think there is a lot of culture bias/misunderstanding among readers/reviewers.  And finally, I think there is a whole lot of cattiness out there.

So...can an organizing method created by a young minimalist Japanese woman living in a Tokyo apartment work for a middle aged American woman who is visually stimulated traveler and creative person living on 5 acres in a 2300 sq foot house with a 2 car garage and a shed?

You bet I can KonMari!

There are several aspects I really like about the KonMari method.  First, she does not tell you how much to discard...only that you should discard things that don’t work for you any more (“spark joy”).  Reminds me of the of the popular William Morris quote: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  I like her thought that “we should be choosing what we want to KEEP, not what we want to get rid of”.

The ‘touch everything’ sorting method is brilliant.  You can’t breeze through and say “it’s all good” because after you’ve touched 50 shirts or 100 books it finally starts sinking in that you’ve got too much stuff.

She acknowledges that “the way each client puts it into practice will naturally differ because each individual is just as unique as the way he or she furnishes the house.”

Unique...that is how I will be doing the KonMari method.

Can’t wait to see how it works out...I’m starting today!

Become a Photo Journalist

I have always liked the idea of journaling.  But I am really miserable at keeping any sort of daily diary or doing one of those 'photo a day' challenges.

Oh well.

But then an idea came to me as I was working on a 'speed photo-scrapbook' of one of our trips.

I use these lovely albums from Home Goods for my travel albums.  They hold 500 photos... which comes out to 48 double page spreads.  Hmmm... there are 52 weeks in a year.  And I usually don't completely fill an album and have extra blank pages.

Eureka!

I could do a WEEKLY photo journal!

I keep the top left vertical pocket for my very simple journaling.  The other nine photo slots are for whatever I want to remember from that week.  I print my own photos but it would be easy to do a weekly download to your favorite photo lab.

The 4X6 pockets are also good for holding small memorabilia such as my number from my 5K and the blessed water cup from the half way point.  Just remember it can't be bulky because that will tear up the album so you might have to do some trimming or just use part of something.  I have included tickets, church bulletins, take-away menu sections, and so on.

I have plenty of extra blank pages so I can do 52 double page spreads.  You could also buy an extra album to use as a 'donor' for extra pages.

It is working very well for me.  I started my first one in January 2015 and made it all the way thru the year (which is a record for me).  Now in '16 it has become an easy habit.

If you aren't a steady journaler, this might be a good option for you.  (It would be a great idea to do for your kids!)

My (Sorta) KonMari Closet

I've been hearing so much about the KonMari decluttering and organizing method that I had to take a look at what it was all about.  In short (in case you're one of the few like me that isn't up on it), it is a decluttering method made popular by Marie Kondo.  It's being called the "Japanese Method"... "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up"... "Revolutionary"... and so on.

OK, whatever.  Let's see how it works.

Her first tenet/rule is that you only keep things that "spark joy" for you.  Ummmmm... right... You know, for some people EVERYTHING 'sparks joy'.  And there are quite a few things that don't spark joy that are kinda needed... like ye old toilet plunger.

But if you go middle of the road and use sense, that can be a good measuring mark.

Her next instruction is that you must declutter by 'type' not room.  For example, when you declutter books (which she says is the 2nd thing you must work on... clothes being first), you must bring ALL books to a central location.

That is so not going to happen in this 2 floor house.

Next principle is that you must physically touch each item and consider it.  That makes sense as it makes you actually think through the process.  Then after you've gone through things, everything must be put away in a permanent place all of its own.

Extremely little should be put in storage containers and you shouldn't buy any sort of organizing containers (tho she does use a lot of small boxes to keep things sorted).

There are parts that are not going to happen in this house... like thanking each item for its service to me, making sure things are put away in a method that makes the thing 'happy' and rested, getting rid of ALL paper, getting rid of any book you have not read yet, and so on.

But that being said, I gave her decluttering method a whirl with her first organizing area... clothes.

I've just recently committed to discovering and going towards my own signature style.  And my weight loss continues, so my clothes definitely need culling.

I pulled out all my clothes by type... winter jackets, sweaters, etc were first so I could prep them for summer storage.  I tried every single piece on and decided if it would be wearable next fall.  There were quite a few pieces that didn't fit well now... so they went into the eBay pile.  Then on to shirts... then slacks... and so on.

Although it has not been all that long since I did a culling, I was surprised at how many more things I let go of as I thought about "does it bring me joy".  Did it bring a smile to my face when I looked in the mirror?

I also put a limit on myself as to how many articles of 'work' clothing did I need to keep.  Those extras went straight into the trash since their sad condition is what landed them in the work category in the first place.

I've been using the 'upright' folding method for many years now, way before KonMari made it popular.  It works beautifully for drawers, tho I can't see it being used on a shelf area as some do.  Whatever works for you... right?

When it was all over, I had all sorts of extra space in both my closet and dresser.  I was able to rearrange how everything is organized to make it even easy to use.  Not bad for a few hours work.

Have you heard of this method?  If so, what do you think of it?

Recipe Chaos Under Control

Finally finished a chore that I have been putting off for way too long - sorting my recipes.

I pulled out this tub, which was FULL.  And this tub was the improvement!  I started out with the next size larger crammed full of recipes.

It's taken a long time to go through them.  They looked soooo good but I had to say to myself, "Are you seriously planning on making this?"  Some had too many ingredients, some had too many steps. 

And a few I had no idea why I had saved them!

First pile I tackled were my recipes from classes I've taken.  That pink card is my registration for my very first cooking class.  September 1983... bread baking.

I pulled the recipes that I really liked and tossed the rest.  Even with that the recipes I kept almost fill a 3 inch binder!

Lots of tabs so I don't have to hunt too much.

The next notebook has my international recipes.  It still needs some work as I want to organize it by tabs with the various countries of the recipes.

My last notebook has my canning recipes.  I'm going to decorate the other two notebooks like this one, using my photos.

For those recipes that I have clipped and pulled to try, I used two pretty accordion folders.  That was my biggest mess of sorting.  I strictly limited myself to no more than 12 clipped recipes per category.

I threw a lot away.

Here are the results.  My organized recipes on the bottom (the magazine holder is to catch class and clip recipes for putting away).  The top has the cookbooks that I use all the time, plus my recipe box.

Done!

Get Organized: Our Wee Pantry

One of those never-ending tasks (like laundry) is keeping the pantry organized.  Once again and for the last time, my two organizing challenges have lined up with "dining room" (which is basically where my pantry is located in my small eat-in kitchen) and "pantry".

An absolute mess.

The door racks weren't any better.

So everything came out.  Expiry dates were checked... and some things chucked.  A few items were moved to the food shelf downstairs (mostly duplicates).

Then everything was put back neatly, with some rearranging to make it more orderly.

BIG difference!

Linked at:

http://blog.maryorganizes.com/2016/01/week-3-dining-room-entries-91-day-declutter-challenge-2016/

http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2016/01/2016-home-organization-101-week-2-the-pantry.html