Weekend Detour

My weekend took a bit of a detour from what I thought it would be.

Yesterday was supposed to be spent in my garage woodworking on my entryway storage bench, as you saw from my previous post, however upstairs was feeling pretty dirty and gross so my husband and I went into a full cleaning frenzy, and ended up rearranging our room in the process.

We decided to move the bed under the window.  I know that this goes against some peoples home decorating rules and according to Feng Shui all our Chi or whatever would go out the window and it would disrupt our sleep.  Yeah, I totally don't buy into that kind of stuff, and I slept GREAT last night.

Now of course re-arranging our room puts me into a "I need to completely redo this room" mindset and once I get there it's VERY hard for me to get out of that mindset.

I actually considered axing the entryway project and starting to work on night stands instead.

I told you I'm nuts, and completely indecisive. 

It's SO hard for me to prioritize when I have a HUGE list of what I want to do.

Do I need matching nightstands?  Yes.  Do I want my king size bed with a new headboard?  Yes.  BUT I need to be content where we are at.  We will get there and the journey is the fun part, and by lamenting about what I want and don't have, I don't enjoy the present. 

I plan to get a perfect little corner chair and move that wing back downstairs and recover it and put it in my den.   Also we will get a regular bathroom door (we removed the two double doors because frankly they were a pain in the rear). We will move the TV over a bit more centered to the bed, and hide the cables in the wall, and have a tall chest underneath it.  Also I want one of those pretty benches in front of the bed with storage.  

It is ok to dream a little.

Here is my vision (but with Ana's farmhouse headboard and side tables):

img from Houzz.com

Image from Decor Pad

It's fun to plan and dream.

But ahem, back to my weekend detour:  Flippin. Cleaning. Frenzy.

My husband is such a sweetheart and offered to clean our bedroom and let me go woodwork and have a day off.  Because I'm such a control freak sweetheart I decided to help him instead.  (This had NOTHING to do with the fact that I'm a big sissy and scared to use the table saw by myself.)

We usually end up moving beds, vacuuming under them, vacuuming mattresses, vacuuming corners etc.. and doing BIG stuff like this when we just get sick of the mess. 

This is NOT working for us.

With four kids, two dogs, two cats and a hamster I need to get better control of this home.  I need a cleaning schedule that KEEPS it clean throughout the year, and so I don't spend days at a time killing myself because it got so out of control we couldn't handle it anymore.

My weekly cleanings keep the "appearance" of a clean home and keep it from getting totally disgusting, and goes over the major stuff, but there are honestly all kinds of corners I'm cutting because of time. 

I found this AWESOME blog called I Heart Organizing a cleaning checklist and I've been meaning to do this for a long time, it was just sitting down and coming up with a schedule.  Currently I'm putting together a spreadsheet/checklist and a schedule that works for our family.  Here is what I've come up with so far:

DAILY

    Wash dishes
    Empty dishwasher
    vacuum downstairs
    vacuum upstairs
    beds made
    rooms picked up
    full house pick up
    wipe down sinks
    empty garbage
    empty recycle bin
    wipe kitchen counters
    put away toiletries (a.k.a. bathroom is picked up and sinks clear)
    laundry

WEEKLY

    MONDAY
    wipe down fridge
    wipe down microwave

    TUESDAY   
    dust
    clean glass (tv, computer, etc...)

    WEDNESDAY
    vacuum under sofas/chairs
    vacuum stairs

    THURSDAY
    clean toilets
    mop bathroom floors
    scrub bathtubs
    scrub sinks
   
    FRIDAY
    vacuum kitchen floors
    mop tile floors
    scrub kitchen sink
    wipe down kitchen cabinets
   
    SATURDAY
    wash sheets
    clean rooms
    clean hamster cage
    clean liter box

MONTHLY

    WEEK 1
    wipe down walls
    wipe down switch plates

    WEEK 2
    vacuum corners/ceilings
    vacuum inside sofa cushions
    vacuum air vents
    dust fans

    WEEK 3
    launder bathroom rugs
    cycle clean washing machine
    cycle clean dishwasher

    WEEK 4
    vacuum under beds

QUARTERLY

    JAN/APR/JUL/OCT
    wash comforters
    vacuum mattresses
    scrub grout (not sure if this is quarterly annual or bi-annual thing...)

    FEB/MAY/AUG/NOV
    vacuum/dust above cabinets
    change air filters
    clean out fridge/freezer
    clean oven
    descale coffee maker

    MAR/JUN/SEPT/DEC
    wash sofa cushions
    vacuum window coverings
    wash windows

Bi-ANNUALLY

    clean out cabinets/drawers
    wash shower curtains
    change smoke detector batteries

Anyhow, when it all pans out and is finished, I'll post my spreadsheet/checklist to share and let you know what we have come up with. Also share with me what your cleaning schedule is and any tips that you may have!  I could have EASILY forgotten something!

2011 In Review

My first initial reaction was to say that I hope that 2012 is better than 2011. However when I really stop to look back 2011 was not bad at all, it was just full of busyness, which in turn makes things seem more stressful than what they really are. I think my biggest problem is that I need to chill. Relax. Stop and enjoy the small moments more, because when I truly look back and reflect on 2011 it was a pretty awesome year.

In January I started out really trying to organize my life and my heart. Traci from Beneath My Heart started posts about "Organizing My Heart and Home". It was something I could totally get on board with, so not only did I start working on my heart spiritually, but I started out by decrapifying (word stolen from TDC) my life. It started with my laundry closet project.

Next I moved on to my medicine cabinet:

Then my girls room:

 

After that I took a break on organization and went on a blogging hiatus.  I was busy doing some pretty cool things!  I went down to Austin, TX for spring break for SXSW, and got to spend some time with these lovely ladies:

I got REALLY sunburnt waiting in line for a band we never got to see, which was a bummer.  But I couldn't think of two better ladies to stand in line with.

I came home, and celebrated SIX years with this wonderful guy:

I went back home to Phoenix for a trip in April.  It was amazing.  I got to spend REALLY wonderful quality time with my sister in law, and of course dinner with my besties.  Miss these gals SO much.  It was a great night, full of fun, laughter and of course Sangria.

 

We traveled to Missouri to see my brother in law graduate from basic training.  So proud of that guy!  My husband decided to go back into the military and joined the National Guard.  Can't tell you how honored I am to be a soldiers wife, and how proud I am of the soldiers in our family!

We had all the cousins here at the same time!  It was great spending time with those kiddos!

Sometime in July, just like Forrest Gump I started running.  I really focused most of my summer on my fitness, working on me for a bit.  I spent time running, in boot camp, in Zumba.  My husband (who does Crossfit) convinced me to do a hero WOD with him, and in September we did 31 Heroes to help raise money for families the 31 Navy Seals that died in Afghanistan. 

Our WONDERFUL team.  Couldn't do it without them.

Then some other great stuff happened, my daughter started pre-k, my oldest made the cheer squad and my son graduated to Webelos.  So proud of my kids! 

Then the weather started cooling down and I got back into the spirit of all things DIY.  I started fall out by renovating my downstairs half bath.

Then I tagged along with my husband to Orlando for an IT conference.  Who knew how FUN some IT nerds could be?  We seriously had a BLAST dancing the night away!

Once I start a project it usually begins a whirlwind of other projects, and this was no exception.  Right after the bathroom I moved onto what is my favorite project of the year, painting my den bookcases white.

I'm so thrilled with this project I just linked it to Thrifty Decor Chicks Before and After Party.  So if you have a before and after you are pretty proud of, go on over there, visit her and link on up!

Then, just when I thought I was done for the year, the week before Thanksgiving I decided to renovate my dining room.  Crazy I know!

I started showing off my projects on Pinterest and other blogs and this little blog of mine started to take off a little.  I got featured on Ana White's blog in December and also on Knock off Decor, and got some great Christmas gifts from my husband!

Right before Thanksgiving, during the middle of my dining room renovation, I got a terrible phone call.  Dad had been taken to the hospital with chest pains.  Come to find out he had a mild heart attack, and a REALLY massive blockage that caused it.  We are all so fortunate that God had his hand on him and he made it through.  He was better and able to visit for Christmas.  I got to go see the OKC Thunder play with him on Christmas day.  I hadn't been to a game with my dad since back in the 90's when the we had season tickets to the Phoenix Suns.  I'm so glad I have this memory with my father, and SO thankful that he is here with me today.  I praise God for his recovery.  My dad is one amazing guy.

Looking back 2011 has been an amazing year, full of great things, some ups, some downs, but mainly ups.  I don't know WHY on earth I get so cynical at times.  Life truly is wonderful.  I have a great family and my life is full of so much joy.  So in 2012 I want to spend more time filling my heart full of joy and letting go of stress and strife.

Bathroom Reveal

So, I just glued together my DIY mason jar soap dispenser, and decided to call the bathroom "done" enough to post photos.

We still need to nail down the baseboards and I have some other art I'm working on for the wall, but I was ready to wrap up this portion of my blog on my bathroom.

I had a LOT of fun with this project, and some frustration as well, but I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out.

So (drumroll) here it is:

Before:  Yellow walls, dingy cabinets, creme switches, brown trim.

After!  I am SO pleased with my dark cabinets, neutral walls and white trim!

Painting behind the toilet was NOT fun.

I went back to home depot and had them darken the color.  The first time I brought it home it was too "purple".  It's still a slight bit too pinky for my taste, but since my accent towels are purple, it actually works pretty well.  I also painted all the trim white in the room and I will eventually switch it out for a paneled white door when I get the funds.  Baseboards are all white now and I'm LOVING the contrast of the colors.  The dark trim was just SO not me.

I used my old flowers but made a new trough to put them in on the back of the toilet.  An idea I got here from my hero Thrifty Decor Chick.

I love how it turned out and it was super easy to make.  Just used scrap wood I had in the garage, wood glue and some nails and stain and voila.

Isn't it pretty?  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I'm so into this rustic meets modern look.  Farmhouse meets modern decor.  LOVE it.  Another Pinterest find was the mason jar soap dispenser.  I decided to make one too, and I love how it looks in there.  I just followed the easy instructions.  The hardest part was getting the pump to stick on.  Hot glue did NOT work, and I had no plumbers adhesive, so I used good old superglue and it worked just fine.

My mason jar soap dispenser.

The vase I had in the attic for like...um, forever and I forgot about it.  Added some branches and voila!

I had a lot of fun on this project, but I'm glad it's over!  Seriously though the photos do not do justice to HOW MUCH better it looks, really.  Now I'm working on my den cabinets.  They are painted and I'm working on adding the decor to the shelves, that blog is coming soon!

The Half Bath Redo

A while ago I got the brilliant idea to stain my half bath vanity cabinets a darker color, and to paint my den cabinets white. Then I could decide which I liked better for my kitchen, dark or white.

My half bath was actually one of the best looking rooms in the house, the cabinets had the least wear and tear and the paint job was much fresher than any of the other rooms. Seriously there are probably about a thousand projects that should of taken higher priority than this. However since it was the cheapest project and a test on how I will handle the rest of the house, it was actually the perfect place to begin.

I've had this idea in my head for a while and finally I came home last week and my wonderful husband had taken everything out of the bathroom and started sanding the cabinets for me. We taped a tarp over the door and brought in his shop vac and reversed the air flow to eliminate a lot of the dust from getting in my house. It worked pretty well. The dust stayed mostly on us and in the bathroom!

Once we got down to nearly raw wood (we weren't extremely particular because we are going darker), we cleaned up and vacuumed all the dust off the cabinets.

Oh, and I'm SOOO putting shelving paper on those shelves.  They are disgusting, I know.

The next day we began staining.

If you know me well, you know I have trouble making a decision. I sat in Home Depot Sunday morning with a can of Ebony and a can of Jacobean stain for about 45 minutes while surfing the net on my iPhone at what these colors actually looked like completed. I finally went with the Jacobean and came home, because the people at Home Depot were starting to think I was weird.

So we stained.

We stained more. And more....finally four coats in they just were NOT getting any darker. I wasn't happy. It was not my vision, but I sighed and figured I'd just live with it.  They did look a TON better than the old color, but still not my vision.

My wonderful mother in law (who knows a LOT about staining) told me not do do anything else until she came over with some of her stuff. I wasn't certain we could fix the cabinets, because they are pretty cheap pine plywood (seriously the edges of these cabinets are NUTS people...they just soak up the color like crazy).

Anyhow, she came over with a couple other options for color. She took one look at my cabinets and said "those aren't very dark."  She confirmed EXACTLY what I was feeling.  (It's so good to have her opinion, she is such a great lady).  She had a gel stain (Java) that she got from Woodcraft and she said I should put that on top. I tried it on the back of the cabinet and I LOVED it. It just gave it that richness that the Jacobean was lacking. So, I started staining....AGAIN. Gave all the cabinets backs, fronts and built in's in the bathroom another coat of the gel stain and it turned out just about perfect.

I may need ONE more coat on the cabinet fronts. For some reason the base is taking the color better than the cabinet doors, and I don't want it to be mis-matched. The flash doesn't help, but it really does look gorgeous.

I'm SO over staining and ready to move on to painting my bathroom, putting down new baseboards and getting the decorations back in there. I almost have my paint color picked out. That was a funny story in itself. Proves how brilliantly crazy that I am.

Thrifty Decor Chick has the most gorgeous colored walls I've ever seen in her stairway, and that is the color I'm wanting to go with. She got the color at Porter Paints. So I found the place up in Edmond that sells the paint and went up there. The color is discontinued but they still had a swatch of it and said they could match it for $32 a gallon. Uh, yeah, I can't pay that it's WAAAAY out of my budget. Of course since it was discontinued they didn't have a swatch they could let me take. So I took the swatch around their store and found one similar to it that would work, grabbed that swatch and plan to try and color match it at Home Depot later this week.

I told you I'm nuts.

I think I've decided though that painting my kitchen will be a LOT easier than staining. I'm getting this vision for it. White cabinets with a black glaze in the cracks, dark granite or poured concrete counters...oil rubbed bronze pulls....dark espresso beams across the ceiling with some canned lighting. Farmhouse table with a bench in the dinette area, with dark hardwood floors. Are you seeing my vision?

Anyhow, stick with me, the full reveal will be coming soon!

Decrapification - The Girls Room/Closet

Every spring and fall it's the same thing. As I look forward to the changing season there is also a fear and a dread that comes over me. It's this nagging thing that I push and push off until I MUST do it.

Organize the girls seasonal clothes and clean out their closet.

Dum, dum dum dum dum!

I've gotten pretty handy at organizing other areas of my home. The medicine cabinet wasn't bad, and neither was the laundry closet, but I go into my girls room, look in the closet, shake my head and just usually end up walking out totally defeated. There is just SO much stuff I never know where to begin. I usually end up just pulling out everything and end up cramming it back in the closet in a slightly more organized mess than I began with.

I can't live like this anymore. It's driving me insane.

So, before I began this time, I decided to wrap my mind around the project and break it down into simpler steps. I went and took a look in their room and closet. I looked at what items needed to be organized, and what inventory of organizational supplies I had on hand, then I was able to compile a list of what I'd need, and where everything would go.

I made a spreadsheet so when my husband and I budgeted we could look at it and see what fits in the budget this week so we stay on track with our finances, and then I have a reference to look back upon.  I know it may be a bit overkill and nerdy, but it really helps me not to DREAD this project.  Knowing that I have a space to put everything.

So, now I had a list complied of what I needed to organize the girls closet, where I would relocate certain items to better utilize the storage I had and a list of new items I needed to buy.  I was really happy with how much relocating certain items would free up space and use the storage I have in a more efficient manner, so my buy list was pretty small.

Shoe Rack
Two 15 gal bins
One shoebox size bin
4 drawer organizers

A NICE to have would be some wood for Jamin to build a dress up bin, but we are going to try and do that out of scraps. Until then I will use the current bin that I have. It's not great, but it will work to save us on the budget. The drawer organizers and shoebox size bin I was able to find at the dollar store. The shoe rack and two 15 gallon bins I got at Target. Total I spent $27.00 on all the items I needed. I went out and got these FIRST before I even entered their room. That way I was ready to relocate items.

Here are my before photos of the room and the closet. It's a giant overwhelming mess.

 

Here is the room, it normally looks pretty bad, and that is expected because the girls play in it.  I can't expect it to be immaculate all the time.

 

Drawers just stuffed with clothes.  I guarantee you not one item of clothing in there is folded properly.

 

This is really just to show off our kitchen set again and to show you the CUTEST banners my husband's sister Ginger made my kids.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

 

My nemesis.  The closet.

 

See all those bags and bags of clothing just stuffed on the top shelf?  That is what I eventually need to get to.  I have to get through the closet mess first though.

 

This bin is SUPPOSED to be for kitchen items, but it's always overflowing with miscellaneous junk too.

 

These bins are the worst waste of space ever.  I realized I needed to better utilize the storage that I did have.  I can never find shoes because they are just piled on top of the dresser in the closet.

I started just putting stuff in bins and rearranging.  It was easy because I'd all ready planned out where everything would go.  Well it was as easy as it can be with little ones running under your feet.  Even with an entire room full of toys to play with, whatever mommy was doing in the closet was MUCH more interesting to get into.

I finished up day ONE with getting the room clean and the closet clean.  Next was time to tackle the clothing.  I started by yanking EVERYTHING out of their drawers and going through that first.  I then move items that are no longer needed into file boxes in the attic marked as to what size and season they are for.

 

Here is a photo of my piles of clothes and bags to go through.  This is not even CLOSE to all of them that I need to go through.

I then started pulling out clothes in their size and put them into a pile.  Then I started separating the clothes that needed folded from dresses that would hang, and then winter from summer clothes.  (because of Oklahoma's wacky weather I need to keep warmer clothes on hand in case they are needed).  I put the summer shorts and shirts into the dresser in the bedroom, and winter and warmer clothes go into the "reserve" dresser in their closet.  This makes fall sorting easier and I have stuff on hand for chillier spring days.

Sorting the clothes was definitely almost a full days work.  It took me about six hours to do it all.  I know that sounds like a crazy amount of time, but I am REALLY blessed with neighbors and family that gives me hand me downs.  I don't have to buy one single item for my girls this summer except for some sandals for Lucy and a swimsuit for Evie.  They almost have more clothes than they can wear!

I got a little nutty and started labeling bins, which may have been overkill, but I just like the way it looks. Also if the older kids help clean the room, they know where everything goes. So, after two days of hard work, here it is for me to show off!

 

Bins better used to hold play food, play bake-ware and play dishes! It also gives the girls some "counter" space.

 

Pajama and sock drawer.  Everything folded neatly and socks in their little organizers from the dollar store!

 

The room is clean (for at least five minutes)

 

Books in a nice little basket.

 

Lego's and wooden blocks & Lucy's dresses.

 

Clean, organized, beautiful closet!

 

I can actually find the shoes now!  (That is our door that leads to the upstairs attic)

 

My nerdy labels.  

BEFORE

AFTER

All in all I'm totally proud of how it turned out.  Room by room I'm getting this house organized a little at a time, and each time I do it I'm getting a little better at it!