Crawl space discoveries

Unlike Tuesday's post which I wrote from an 88 degree office, today's post comes from a comfortable 76 degree office. After over 72 hours without AC it finally got hooked back up today, which was a welcome relief. We could get our AC reinstalled because the patio installation also officially ended today when the workers returned to seal the concrete. The patio installation should have ended on Wednesday, but some Wednesday rain set us back another day. All in all, the process went much more smoothly than I anticipated, despite being without AC during a Washington area humid August. So, I'll share how we settled on a concrete patio and post some patio pics once we can walk on the patio and put our new furniture out there, which won't be for another week.

The patio installation and subsequent AC switch off meant that the lower level of our house has been the most refreshing level for the past few days, so I spent the better part of yesterday being productive in our crawl space. I should also add that since Sunday morning I had completely lost my voice, so I was looking for a talk-free activity to take on while sweating it out in our house. Fortunately, my voice return in full by Wednesday night, and the crawl space reorganization was a fun success by the end of the night as well. In the process of sorting through everything in there I came across some fun discoveries packed away inside the crawl space.

We are fortunate that the home's previous owners put in a door for a crawl space under our entryway stairs. We access the crawl space through a small door in our coat closet. (Apologies for the bad picture!)

The crawl space has been a great place to store those items we don't access all that often. Now that we are trying to reshuffle our house and use all our storage space to the max, it was time to take everything out of the crawl space, throw stuff out, consolidate boxes, and reorganize everything as it went back in so that we could hopefully double the amount of stuff housed in the crawl space. If all goes according to plan, we'll even be storing a table and chairs in there when we transform part of the living room into the office/play area. I'm so pleased with the amount of storage inside the crawl space. Here is the after shot; as usual I forgot to take a before shot. But there is definitely plenty of space to fill as this is only about 2/3 of the crawl space, and even this portion still has space to spare.

You might notice that right now, besides the obvious chair that is waiting for its three friends to join it shortly, there are a few plastic bins in there and one milk crate that rather clearly holds a slew of stuffed animals. About half of the contents of the crawl space in its current iteration are items saved from my childhood. One clear plastic box is my catch-all container for all Stephanie memorabilia, including yearbooks, letters, school papers, childhood art, awards, play and event programs, newspaper clippings, and other sentimental objects. The yellow plastic container closer to the front contains items I specifically saved for future children, including some clothes, dolls, toys, books, and dress-up items. I would like to point out that I started assembling these boxes when I was rather young; I started the memorabilia box when I was about 8 and the items for future children I started putting aside when I was about 10. This organizational bone has been strong and virtually innate.

Yesterday was the day when I thanked my 8-year-old self for my foresight in setting aside these items. I hadn't looked through them in years, so it was super exciting to dig through these two bins yesterday as I uncovered objects that I started looking at in a new light now that the time to pass along some items to my own children is getting closer. I'm only now starting to think more seriously about a design for the nursery, so those plans are still being drawn up, and we find out the baby's sex in a week and a half. But no matter what, I know that the nursery will be gender neutral and I'd like it to contain on display a few of my childhood items (and I'd love to get my hands on some of Matt's childhood items to throw into the mix).

So, without further ado, here are some favorites:

Sheep stuffed animal -- this boy sat on the tall dresser in my childhood room until I was about 15 and decided I had enough.

Snoopy music box -- This is most definitely from the 70s as it was my older brother's toy before I inherited it. The pop-up Snoopy has seen better days, but I guess that's part of the "charm," right?

Caterpillar pull toy -- I think I knew to save this one because my mom made such a big deal when I was younger about how this was a special imported wooden toy from somewhere like Germany. It's still pretty appropriately funky.

Bank and nightlight -- I am not the type to buy a baby piggy bank, but somehow I grew up with this weird little plastic "Baby's Nest Egg" bank. It looks like it's from 1955 instead of 1981, so I'm not really sure of its origins, but it's quite familiar to me as I would look at it daily on a shelf in my room. The doggie nightlight is also a familiar presence. I had (well, still have) a healthy fear of the dark, so this little guy burned bright every night of my childhood probably right until I left for college.

Wooden milk truck/tic-tac-toe game -- This is another one my mom said I should keep, so I did, and I'm glad I did. Wooden toys are so 2011, right?

I realize few, if any, of these items are intended for newborns, and I do not plan on turning them into my own kid's toys, at least until he/she is old enough to treat them well. But I like the visions that are floating through my head of these goodies decorating the nursery. So, thank you, 8-year-old Stephanie, for making this possible.

The closet shuffle: All filed away

Earlier this month I showed off phase one of the two-phase closet switch-a-roo, which involves emptying the contents of the office closet into the guest room closet to make way for baby. After my brief blogging hiatus (excused by the fact that I was in New York and then Buenos Aires....yep, more on that later) I am back to show you what I got done before I started jet-setting.

The main project I had to tackle during the closet shift process was to develop a new filing system. The old accordion filing system had gotten out of hand, and with a baby on the way I figured we could use a little more filing space anyway for our growing family. So when I left off the whole project looked like this. Now the office closet is empty except for one or two lingering small items, and the guest room closet is well fitted. Here's the guest room closet today:

I went through most of its contents in the previous post, so I won't bore you with those details again, but I will say that I went through all my crafting items (does it make me sound lame when I say all my crafting items? Yes, most likely) that I've been using/collecting since my early childhood. I threw out items like the dried up paint from when I was 10 years old and some busted pens that have been lingering since early high school. I separated out items that are great for kids to use for crafts -- googly eyes, pipe cleaners, sequins -- from those items that I use on a semi-regular basis -- craft glue, ribbon, stamps, paper punches...mostly items for making cards -- and stowed the kid-friendly craft items in a plastic bin in the office closet. The other plastic craft bin you can see on the middle shelf of the guest room closet. So, I consolidated, and I planned ahead for toddler years when some kid crafting supplies will be handy, which I realize is all quite far away but at least I know what I've got on hand and it's not taking up much space.

But back to the bigger issue: filing. You may have spied my filing solution at the bottom of the closet. Yup, a plastic two-drawer filing cabinet. I had mentioned how Craigslist would be the best place for the two-drawer wooden filing cabinet I was seeking, and that would have been true if I had been glued to Craigslist every second of every day. The reality, though, is that I was looking to spend $50 or less, I had very specific file cabinet dimensions I was seeking, and every time I found an ideal file cabinet and I'd email the seller, they'd reply that it had just been sold and they needed to take down the ad.

So, after a few weeks of that, I decided while at Target to give the cheap plastic bin a try. I was shocked when I whipped out my mini-measuring tape, which I now keep in my purse-within-a-purse in my bag, and I discovered that this little Target item fit my odd dimensions exactly. And it cost $24. I'll take it. Then I hopped over to Office Depot where I spent $25 for hanging file folders. Then I got cranking with the label maker.

If you have super vision and excellent screen resolution, you might be able to tell that the filing system is divided into Family Files and Receipts and Manuals, which is not too far off from the original system in the accordion folders.

Let's start with the Family Files. I get red folders, Matt gets blue folders, and green folders are designated for those items that we share. Here's what I came up with:

One red and one blue folder for each:

• Identity -- crucial documents (maybe we'll transfer these to a fire-safe? Anyone do this?)
• Education -- this was by far the most fun to sort out. Yes, we have our college transcripts, which are at times comforting and at times troubling, but a few years ago my mother gave me a stack of items she'd saved from my childhood, including every single elementary school 4th quarter report card (my teachers like me!) and even my kindergarten entrance form, which indicates that at almost exactly five years old I weighed 38 pounds.
• Employment --track our raises, or lack thereof. Also keep up with important items for teachers, like having an up-to-date teaching license (details, details).
• Retirement -- If I keep going, I can retire in 2033 (though this will likely change). Booyah.
• Medical
• Dental
• Pregnancy -- I discovered that with so many doctor's appointments, I already have a lot of paperwork, and I know it will only expand. So I decided to separate out these documents from my regular medical files. Plus it gives me a place to house things like ultrasound pics (or the ultrasound DVD we got last month -- insane!) until I have a baby book or something or other that will house them more permanently. I guess there's only one red folder in this category.

Dogs -- all their medical records, county dog license registrations, obedience school certificates, etc. These guys wound up in a blue folder because that's what I had left, but it might also be fitting after Matt's recent comment that he hopes he can love our future child as much as he loves the dogs.

Green folders:

• Banking
• Taxes -- one folder each for this year's taxes, last year's taxes, and archived taxes. For some reason I hadn't been keeping a separate filing space for this year's taxes, and it was getting more complicated at tax time. This new system allows me to easily file away receipts and those little W2s and mortgage insurance statements when they arrive in the winter. This is one my "Duh" moments.
• Investments
• Current credit cards
• Old credit cards -- After a little snag five years back when we were getting credit reports in preparation for buying our house and I discovered that my name was affiliated with a card I didn't have, I've been keeping paperwork for the credit cards we close so that when the next big purchase comes up I'll have all the evidence easily accessible.
• Car/home insurance
• Car titles
• Car maintenance records

Now, on to the Receipts and Manuals section. This one was easier to arrange, thanks to the work I did a year and a half ago during a tremendous amount of snow. Using the leftover red and blue folders, here's what I came up with:

I arranged these folders based on frequency of use. The categories are as follows:

• Home services -- All the receipts for home repairs and routine maintenance.
• Home improvement -- Because some of this we've done ourselves, like the kitchen backsplash, and some of this we've relied on professionals to do the job, this is a mixture of materials receipts, design booklets, building plans and the like. I don't think this is something you hand over to the new home's owners, but it is a nice record of all the work we've done ourselves or had done by others.
• Kitchen large appliances
• Kitchen small appliances
• Appliances -- other -- I've noticed that most appliances are in the kitchen, but there are a few, like the Dyson and the washer and dryer, that needed to fit into a separate category. And thank goodness for that Dyson info we saved, since we were able to cash in on the most fortuitous and generous Craigslist warranty repair in history. Thank you, sweet man!
• Electronics
• Furniture and home accessories
• Clothes -- I only save receipts for big-ticket purchases, but after returning a pair of designer jeans to Nordstrom and getting a full refund I can assure you I will always save my Nordstrom receipts.
• Outdoor
• Tools

So the closet switch and new filing system are complete in one fell swoop! But let's chat for a second about safes. Should we have one? (Probably.) Do you have one? Anyone have an inexpensive, small one they'd recommend to save a few precious items in case of a fire or other disaster?

The closet shuffle, take 1

Doesn't it seem like every home-owning-young-couple-about-to-have-a-baby converts their office into the nursery? Add us to the list. Our office is the smallest of the three bedrooms in our house, but it has the second-biggest closet (right behind the master bedroom closet), which means plenty of storage, so we (crossing fingers) shouldn't need too much more storage than the to-be-refinished dresser we bought over the weekend.

While I made no serious effort to decorate (or even paint) the office in the past four and a half years, knowing (and then eventually hoping) it would one day be the nursery, our office closet has been fully utilized the whole time we've lived here. As some preliminary nursery preparation, I took advantage of some of my travel-free and work-free time this week to start shuffling the items from the office closet to the smaller guestroom closet. Here's our starting point:

Bigger office closet (soon-to-be nursery closet):

Smaller guestroom closet:

The office closet housed photo albums, files, over-flow books that don't fit into our two bookcases, craft supplies, a container of gift wrap, a container of gift bags, my wedding dress, some sentimental items and a few miscellaneous items. The guestroom closet housed some dog supplies, some busted pillows the dogs have semi-destroyed over the years (that I may or not ever learn how to fix), board games, Matt's guitar, and two containers of my school files that I organized last summer and that temporarily are hanging out in there this summer until September. 

I needed to find a way to get the contents of the office closet mostly contained within the smaller guestroom closet. This involved first sifting through all the contents of the office closet, which was kind of fun seeing as a lot of the items in there contain a lot of memories. I love finding old letters from long-time friends writing about their then-boyfriends now-husbands, or the funniest find so far: a postcard Matt sent me in 2001 when he was studying aboard in Spain, approximately two years before we started dating. Turns out I had a lot of loose letters and cards like that in several containers throughout the closet, so I consolidated and filed them in my special container for all-time-favorite cards.

Once virtually everything was consolidated and quite a few items were thrown out, it was time to start moving. The container of gift bags and the box containing my wedding dress fit nicely under the queen bed in the guestroom, and I figure our future guests won't be needing under-the-bed storage, so I stowed those items away to free up some space in the guestroom closet. I also found a couple items that make more sense housed in the garage, such as sporting goods, and a couple household items, such as tealight and votive candles, that make make more sense housed in the linen closet with other similar home equipment. Other than that, though, I needed to get everything else into the guestroom closet.

Although this is still a work in progress, here's the end result after about six hours of work spread over the course of two days:

Current office closet:

This photo emphasizes the improperly installed shelf on the left-hand side that we'll be fixing soon. I couldn't move everything quite yet as I still figure out some storage solutions for the closet shuffle, so here's what remains:

We've started to outgrow the accordion-file system I started to develop when we got married and then added to a year and a half ago. So, I'm currently on the lookout for an affordable two-drawer file cabinet (preferably made of wood) that could be housed at the bottom of the guestroom closet. Craigslist might be the best source for this, not surprisingly.

Also still hanging out in the office closet are these random items. I know I can easily fit most of this inside the guestroom closet, but I think it makes sense to get the file system squared away before attempting any further reorganizing. If you look closely, you'll notice that one of the items on the middle shelf is my Cabbage Patch Kids kindergarten backpack, which is the holding pen for my childhood keychain collection. Sentimental and unnecessary, right? Hmmmm...

Doc gives his seal of approval to the added floor space inside the office closet, a perfect dog hang out. (Note: This is Doc's happy face.) 

So here's the current state of the guestroom closet:

On closer inspection, you'll see this shelf of mostly Stephanie and Matt memorabilia...

...our stack of board games. We love Taboo! (and I am horrible at Trivial Pursuit)...

...a stack of books temporarily arranged vertically that represents my recent past, present, and future...

...and a consolidated and better-organized gift wrap container that also houses some empty poster tubes (and some occupied poster tubes that include, you know, my bachelor and Master's degrees, and the day's greatest find, my New Kids on the Block poster I bought in 1st grade. Congratulations to me for Hangin' Tough all these years.)

It's nice to have made a serious dent in this closet shuffle project at this time when I don't have much else going on. Although I originally wouldn't have planned it this way, it kind of works out perfectly that I'm spending my summer in my second trimester, when I have the time and the energy to get some preparations done.

Reader tip: New year closet organization

Today's post is actually something my friend Dawn told me about many months ago, but with the start of the new year, now seems an appropriate time to share it with you.

Dawn's mom, another super-organized lady, uses this trick in her closets: When she has worn an item, she turns around the item's hanger in the closet. By the end of the season, if a hanger indicates that a clothing item hasn't been worn, she sends the item straight to Goodwill.

This is a great idea! For those of you who are maybe a little more sentimental about your clothing, you can try this modification: if you haven't worn an item in a year, you should put it in the donate pile.

I haven't tried this trick myself because I'm a pretty ruthless closet purger, and I transfer clothes to our guest room dresser (the staging grounds for our big purging pile) on an almost monthly basis. This is, of course, mostly to clear up space to justify making more clothing purchases.

If you're not as ruthless as me, why not take all your closet hangers, organize them facing the same direction, and if by the end of the year you haven't worn something, show you love it by setting it free.

Have you tried Dawn's mom's strategy? Do you have another strategy for keeping your closet clean? If you missed it, you can check out my master closet organization system here.

Tip 48: Mop and broom organization

The other week I decided I had officially had it with our mops and brooms falling all over themselves (and ourselves) in our entryway closet. Now, maybe the problem is that I had these household goods in the wrong place, but what I really needed was...

Tip 48: Hang your mops and brooms on the wall to maximize your storage space.

It took me a while to find it, but I picked up this Closetmaid broom and mop holder at Target for $7.99.

Then it took me a while to figure out where to hang it. At first I had hopes of squeezing it into our tiny laundry room, but that just wasn't logistically possible. Instead, I settled on inside the garage, and I am happy with my choice.

What's your system for these unglamorous items?

Next up...a review of a book that will help you organize your finances (just in time for book club night!).

Inside our master closet!

Over the weekend I told you about my closet purge, and I mentioned that, beyond that, I didn't do much to reorganize our master closet because it's pretty organized to begin with. Maybe you'd like to purge and reorganize your closet this weekend. If so, here's some inspiration and some tips.

First, here's the space we're working with, a medium-sized master closet (though according to most people who go on House Hunters, apparently this closet is pretty small by their standards).

1) Organize by color. I know that when friends look at my closet they mostly make fun of me for this reason. Who has two thumbs and has a perfectly color-coded closet? This guy! And you know why it works? Because it makes getting ready in the morning so easy. It also makes shopping easier. When you see your rainbow of clothes, it's easier to see what you're missing rather than going out and purchasing your 10th blue sweater.

2) Take your clothes out of dry-cleaning bags right when you bring them home. We don't dry clean that often, but when we do I hate the way our closet has the potential to become disorganized. Also, if I didn't take all those little tags and plastic thingys off Matt's button-down shirts, I would be picking them off a dresser or the closet floor for weeks. Spending 10 minutes to put everything in its place saves aggravation later.

3) Put dresses in plastic garment bags. This way you can see what you've got, but you won't have your dresses collecting dust like mine used to be. This garment bag is from the Container Store.

4) Put dress pants and skirts on tiered hangers. I have two hangers for dress pants, that can hold up to eight pairs collectively, and I have significantly more for skirts. I have my skirts divided into wool skirts, non-school skirts (too short!), spring/summer skirts, and year-round skirts (most black skirts and jean skirts). I have these hangers from Bed Bath and Beyond.

5) Put sweaters in plastic storage bins. I moved to this system when I discovered last year that my favorite black sweater had apparently gone to the moths. So I bought these plastic vinyl zippered cases from the Container Store, which come in packages of two for $10. I used three for my sweaters, which are, of course, organized by color.

I bought some for Matt, too, and he used them (mostly) until one zipper broke, and then I think it became too much effort, because he kept putting his sweaters on top of the bags but not in them. So I decided Matt needed something easier to use on a day-to-day basis. I opted for these green canvas totes from Bed Bath and Beyond for Matt's sweaters, which I divided into Patterned Sweaters and Solid Sweaters. There's no top to deal with on the containers, so it's one less step.

6) Get your shoes off the ground. We have these shelves in the middle of the closet which mostly house Matt's shoes. My shoes, which tend to be much smaller in size, fit nicely in these two hanging shoe racks. I've had these since I was a kid, and I don't remember where they're from, but you can get them just about anywhere, including Target. My shoes are mostly divided up into heeled versus flat and open-toed versus close-toed.

Other items in our closet:

• Two hampers: one for Matt, and one for me (Matt's hamper is visible in the picture above)
• A tie hanger for Matt. He only needs one as he has a fairly limited tie collection (unlike yours, Brandon! Hello to Australia!)
• A hook for my belts. Again, I don't have many.
• A hook for my purses, which are also lacking.
• A low shelf that existed when we moved in (along with all the other closet shelving that was already in place upon our arrival) which houses my four pairs of boots.

Remember, before you can organize your closet you must purge anything you haven't worn in a year. Then you can sort, figure out some storage solutions and get to work. Don't forget to arrange by color!

Spring cleaning day 1

In second grade my hippie music teacher taught our class a song about the arrival of winter titled "Something Told the Wild Geese." This is what I remember:

Something told the wild geese
It was time to go
Though the fields weren't frozen
Something whispered, "Snow."

I think of that stupid song all the time now because there are tons of Canadian Geese that live in a mile radius of our house. I think they must be imported to make everything appear "quaint" or something. Regardless, I know spring is approaching because the geese are back! (We almost hit one with our car the other day.)

So, it's appropriate that today was the start of spring cleaning in our house.

First, the symbolic changing of the wreath from this DIY one I made this winter (and plan to hang for years to come)

 

To this one, which screams "SPRING"

We accomplished a lot today. I stayed home and took care of chores while Matt ventured out and handled errands. (I realize this is a little cave-man, cave-womanish of us. Cave man leave, cave woman stay home.) I accomplished everything on my to-do list in about five hours.

Step 1: Garage. This is the one that has been bothering me the most recently. We have so much sand (and probably chemicals) that we've tracked in on our boots, the dogs' paws and our car tires.

The garage itself didn't start off that dirty:

 

But after about 10 minutes of sweeping, I had this beauty of a pile. To put this in perspective, it took me five full dustpans to remove all this from the floor.

 

Then I looked at the shelf in the garage. I'm thankful that this is something the previous homeowners installed, because it's the perfect amount of garage storage space for us. As you can imagine, we don't believe in clutter. Still, I needed to sort through it all.

Here's what we have in the garage storage space:

• two medium-sized suitcases
• two large coolers
• all the paint we've bought since we've lived here, about six different gallon cans
• some paint supplies (brushes, rollers, tape, etc.)
• a drink tub for parties
• flattened boxes and bubble wrap for mailing (both of these items are being stored to reuse...green!)
• car-washing supplies
• Matt's mountain-biking gear
• empty pots for gardening
• headrests for Matt's car
• dog food
• bag of bags (you know, shopping bags you will eventually use again....everyone has this, right?)

There were some odds and ends mixed in there that are getting donated to Good Will next week, but other than that all I needed to do was group like objects together, and take a minute to gather all the car-washing supplies:

Matt's mountain-biking gear I have relegated to one carton:

 

And now that storage space is a little more appealing

Step 2: Closet purge. We have an exceptionally organized master closet, but it still needed a look over for any winter clothes we did not wear this season. Those clearly need to go out the door. Next week I'll share with your photos of our closet, but so as not to overwhelm you, before you do a major closet overhaul make sure your closet only contains the items you need. Here's what we took out of the closet and will donate next week:

A few of the items in here are items that other people have given to me as hand-me-downs. This happens to me all the time. A friend will say, "This is too small for me, but it will probably fit you" or "This is a little tight in the chest for me, so maybe it will work for you." Yeah, I am that guy, and I'm OK with being 28 and looking like I'm 15 because hopefully when I'm 50 I will still look like I'm 35. I will accept that. The point, though, is that hand-me-down clothes rarely work out.

Oh, and we also donated some never-used kitchen items and some books that we never plan to read again.

Step 3: Window washing. This is another one I've been looking forward to, and I am not being sarcastic at all. The worst is when I am looking out the windows on a weekend when the sun is out (since it's rarely out when I'm home during the week). I can just see the caked-on dirt that has been whipped up during this winter's storms.

I've picked up a couple tips with window washing in the last couple of years.

• First, I use the one-part vinegar, two-parts water DIY cleaning solution that I store in a spray bottle.
• Even though I've used newspapers in the past, I didn't have any on hand today, so I went with paper towels. 
• Also, I go over every window twice. First I spray the window and wipe it down using first horizontal motions and then vertical motions. Then I go over the window with a clean towel, either by flipping the towel I am using over or by just grabbing a new one. This is the strategy to use to minimize or, if you're lucky, completely eliminate streaks.

The windows here may look deceivingly OK (look closely at the spots on the window)

 

But here's an example of what I got off the outside of one window

Because I have those windows from the future that actually pull out of the frames for easy cleaning, it really is pretty easy.

Here's how I start: I pull down the bottom window first, and then I lay the top one over it.

 

Then I clean the outside of the top window; then the inside of the top window; then the outside of the bottom window; then the window ledge; then the inside of the bottom window. This system makes the most sense for eliminating run off and other dirt from hitting the recently cleaned surfaces.

It took me a little less than two hours to clean all the windows and glass doors in our house. That's 17 windows and doors. Not too shabby. Also, I am only this thorough about once a year, maybe twice if we're lucky. 

Step 4: Outdoor patio. This is where Matt came in. First he swept our deck, that you may recall was covered in two feet of snow about a month ago.

Pretty sad looking, eh?

Then he brought up most of the patio furniture that had been stored in the garage.

 

But it looks its best when the umbrella is open. Here's another stupid confession: this is our -- count them -- fourth umbrella. Yes, we have gone through one umbrella for every year we've lived here. Two flew away and one broke. In all events we were the people who left the umbrella open while we left the house. Really dumb. At the end of last season we got this umbrella on sale and we only keep it open if we're outside. 

For dramatic effect, the open umbrella

Next on the spring cleaning to-do list is a major vacuuming session, the likes of which our house has not seen in years (even though Matt vacuums the whole house every Sunday). We'll also clean the bathrooms a little more thoroughly than usual, and we need to work on our front garden and our backyard herb garden, but that will be in due time. More on those events later!

Remember: most of the time I do about 45 minutes of cleaning/straightening/organizing on a Saturday. But today was a day for the record books. I did this a little early in the season (or a little late in the winter, whichever you prefer) because 1) this winter has been too long and I am ready for a change and 2) we are really busy the next few weekends, so I didn't want to put this off.

Next up...the tale of a vacuum cleaner repair that might help you regain your faith in humanity.

Tip 30: Hanging necklaces

I am the owner of quite a few pieces of chunky jewelry. I outgrew my little jewelry box fairly quickly. Now my jewelry box that once housed everything only houses my earrings, bracelets, and nicest small necklaces. For chunky jewelry, I follow...

Tip 30: Use a hook system to hang your necklaces on the wall as an artistic, organized display.

The nice thing about jewelry, unlike, say, tube socks, is that it tends to be pretty. I bought a four-hook hanger from Bed Bath and Beyond for $6.99 (if you're browsing in the store, these items are in the closet section). It is intended for hanging sets of keys, but it works perfectly in its new role.

Here's what it looks like:

This display hangs in a corner of our bedroom over a low dresser and next to a large mirror where I get ready each morning. Even though I tend to overlook jewelry at 6 a.m. when I am rushing to make it to work on time, by having my fun jewelry visible it makes me more likely to grab one from a hook. It also forces me to purge my necklaces every once in a while, because there's only so much space and I don't want this display to get more crowded than it already is.

Of course, there are lots of options available for such a display. You could buy separate hooks and stagger them in such a way on the wall to increase the visual interest. You could probably get extra creative and take something like an old wire hanger, sculpt it into a pretty design and hook your necklaces onto it. I've also seen ladies who are fortunate enough to have changing rooms or huge walk-in clothes hang their necklaces in this manner, but tucked away in these changing areas.

Whatever you do, take those big necklaces out of all those boxes (or the random drawer where you've thrown them) and make a piece of functional art!

Next up....let's talk mail! Mail week begins Sunday!

Snowtastic time: Make the most of a snow day (or week)!

As all you D.C.-area people head out to get your supplies for the impending snow storm, also think about how you'd like to spend your time while you're buried under 18-24 inches of snow. They've already canceled classes in several school districts (including my own) and the Federal Government has issued an unscheduled leave policy. Plot prediction: People will use it liberally. So, looks like many of us will have time on our hands tomorrow. Let's make the most of it!

Here are some activities you can do at home, with a little preparation:

• Paint a room. I know it sounds a little ambitious, but I would say half the painting in our house has taken place on snow days. And, it requires a little money and a few supplies: the paint, rollers, roller covers, roller tray, brushes, painter's tape, an edger tool, and an extension pole (if you also have ridiculously high ceilings).
• Do that craft project you always meant to do but never did. I have two special projects lined up for tomorrow, and I'll share the photos when the projects are done. If you shop at Michael's for craft supplies, don't forget (as I almost did yesterday) that when you sign up for online coupons, they send you 60 percent off coupons to use, as opposed to the standard 40 percent off coupons in the Sunday circulars.

And here are some activities you can do at home with what you've already got:

• Organize those digital photos. I also plan to order some from a site recommended by my friend Lindsay -- mpix.com. I need to replace some of the wedding photos hanging on what seems like all our walls. I am ready to take that step, but I will keep some weddings photos up, never fear! Once my mpix.com photos arrive in the mail I'll post a report.
• Make a coffee table book of your digital photos. I am partial to MyPublisher.com. Here are some example pages from the wedding album I made there and here is a link to our awesome photographer Chris Baltazar.

 

  

  

  

 

• Clean out your closet. I'll post more in the future about closet organization, but for now, get out some big bags and prepare to fill them with all the shoes and clothes you haven't worn in at least a year. I know some people follow the "if it hasn't been worn in two years then I'll toss it" rule, but frankly, if you haven't worn it in a year, you're not going to. By the time you gain or lose weight, those clothes will be out of style and you'll want new clothes anyway. Then, figure out where you'll donate the clothes once the roads clear.
• Clean out and organize your pantry. Check all expiration dates. Group items by genre and frequency of use.
• Clean out your fridge. Give it a thorough scrubbing in all compartments, shelves, draw units. Don't forget the freezer. I sometimes forget that frozen foods still have a shelf life.
• Organize your recipes. Here's my post about making a recipe notebook. Even if you don't have all the recipe notebook supplies, at least gather all your recipes and develop a filing system.
• Arrange your books and/or DVDs. I like to organize my books by genre (and sometimes, for aesthetic purposes, by color!). It's amazing how much better a streamlined bookcase can look than one that's overflowing with materials.

 

  

 

• Plan your upcoming vacation! I will be reading the rest of our Lonely Planet Spain travel book, and then I'll take a stab at the Italy book for our upcoming three-week vacation this July.
• File your taxes. I would like to do this, but we're still waiting on one final tax document....grrrr.

And, don't forget to:

• take a nap
• watch a movie
• go through your DVR
• check out OnDemand
• read a book
• start a journal (or blog?!)
• catch up on your blog reading
• play video games
• develop make-shift skis
• write someone you miss an e-mail
• break out that camera for some phenomenal photos

Next up...the Droid post, for real this time!