Glorious October

October in North Carolina can be described in one word: Glorious! 

Its a great month to enjoy:

A big pumpkin.

Running.

Climbing Trees.

Its still warm enough in the afternoon to wear flip flops.

Learning to do cart wheels.

Rolling in the grass.

Storing things in their logical places...

I'm still working on this area where we have the filing cabinet and shredder set up. Its in a corner of the dining room. Before hubby and I started working on it, it was a big mess. There were boxes of papers to be filed and shredded.

 

I've been choosing an area of the house to work on each week. I call this my "focus area" or "area of concentration". A couple of weeks ago our focus area was PAPERS!

We lived with a mess while we were working on this, but it was worth it. I'm still trying to set up our files so that I can lay my hand on any paper quickly.

This week my focus area is drawers. Almost every room in the house has a drawer or several drawers. Most of them need decluttering and organizing. In addition to having a focus area I am trying to put things in the logical place that they belong.

For example, today after work I cleaned out one drawer of the china cabinet. You would think that only things such as place mats, napkins, napkin rings, and the like would logically be in these drawers.

But not our china cabinet!  Just a few of the things in these drawers that don't belong are: office supplies (pens!), picture hanging hardware, matches, 4 church directories, at least 30 to 40 birthday and other greeting cards we have received, a happy birthday banner, and an address book,

There are lots of things in my house that aren't stored in their logical place. But, where does one store old church directories and cards? I put them in a plastic lidded box and put it under the bed. Not sure that's the logical place, but it makes more sense than the china cabinet.  I classify those type things as sentimental items, and I have pictures and other sentimental items stored under the bed in plastic containers.

Guest Room Progress

I've slowly been adding a few things to the guest room.

The mirror and chest of drawers are very old and belonged to my hubby's grandparents who once ran a hotel at a North Carolina lake resort area.   They were used in the hotel more than 50 years ago.

I think the mirror which has acquired a "chippy antique" look fits well with the look I am trying to achieve in the room.  The chest of drawers has been redone, but still has a water ring where a glass once sat.  There are a couple of cracks in the plaster wall behind this arrangement.  I couldn't have planned that if I tried!

The crock was a recent purchase at a junk shop.  I filled it will silk sunflowers and eucalyptus found at Dollar Tree.  There is the slightest scent of eucalyptus when you walk into the room.

Organizing My Shoes

I'm continuing on with my organization of the house and doing really well. 

This over the door shoe organizer bag in the closet is working really well for me.  It gets the shoes off the floor and where I can see them better when getting dressed in the morning. 

Maybe I won't wear one brown shoe and one black shoe like I did one day back in the summer!

When I find a comfortable pair of shoes at a good price, I will usually buy a brown pair and a black pair.  Then for that season, whether it be summer or winter, most of the time I wear those two pairs of shoes depending on if I'm wearing brown or black on a particular day.

I recently started wearing shoes with socks, instead of sandals because of the cooler weather.  I separated my socks according to color and type in the lower pockets.  So, when getting dressed I can see the dress brown or black socks, or the casual thicker socks by color.

Having my shoes off the floor makes the closet look so much nicer and its easier to vacuum or dustmop in there.

Organization and Peace in the Home

I've been trying to organize everything in our house.  Many things have gotten very DISORGANIZED lately.  Of course this didn't happen overnight, but has been slowly creeping in to the closets, cabinets, boxes, etc. 

I also haven't been staying on top of any deep cleaning of the house.  Yes, the main things have been kept clean, and the house is generally tidy, but I want more than that.

In this time of uncertainty and lack of control in some areas of my life, having control, organization and peace in the home is a way to take my mind off things.

This is how I've been working toward having a more organized and clean home:

1.  I have a weekly to do list of all the things I need to get done.  Not everything on the list has to do with the house organization and cleaning.  Some things are routine, like make deposit, pay bills, balance checkbook, laundry, making phone calls, groceries, water plants, etc.

2.  Two of the items on the to do list each week are:  my weekly cleaning chores and my weekly area of concentration.

The weekly cleaning list is based somewhat on Flylady's weekly home blessing.  I also have to give credit to the author, Emilie Barnes, who first introduced me to working on a job for 15 minutes a day. 

Each week, usually on Saturday morning, I am trying to spend an hour or so doing just 10 or 15 minutes each of dusting, vacuuming, dustmopping, mopping,  emptying trash, cleaning the bathrooms and general pickup/tidying.  These chores aren't meant to be deep cleaning, but just general upkeep.

I also choose a weekly area of concentration which is usually a room, area, or cabinet that has been bugging me.  For instance this week, we are working on papers, records and filing.  This has definitely been bugging me.  Its amazing how fast papers pile up if you don't stay on top of this.  We having been living in this house for 2 and 1/2 years and are just getting around to straightening out the filing cabinet that came with us!

Hubby has been on a paper shredding mission!  He loves to have things organized.  One of his favorite ways to organize is to put things into binders.  We noticed that our bank statements come with pre-punched holes for fitting into a 3 ring binder, so there is one good way to organize some papers.  We are working together this week to get the paper monsters in our home under control.

The week before last my area of concentration was the master bedroom and closet.  Last week it was the guest room and its closets.  One of the closets in the guest bedroom has been used for storing Christmas things and other odd things.  I'm happy to say that now the Christmas things stored in there have been organized and decluttered.  Just in time for Christmas, I know what's in there and if I need to buy any wrapping paper, etc.  Also, the bedroom floor has been thoroughly cleaned and I even washed the window.  If you look under the bed you won't see ANY dust bunnies!

It will take me a while to go through all the areas that need organization and deep cleaning.  And as you know by the time you get it all done, its time to start over again.

But I think if these things are done I will have more peace and then I will have more time for sewing and other things that I enjoy doing.   I can see myself now:  Sitting at the sewing machine and knowing that the 2011 tax records are safely filed away and that the Christmas paper and bags are in their own space.

I have been enjoying watching the You Tube organization videos of Alejandra Costello found HERE!  If you want some motivation and ideas to get organized you will enjoy them too.

Some areas that have been bugging me that I'll be working on soon are some of the kitchen cabinets and the SEWING ROOM.  The closet in the sewing room is a total mess.

I will be showing you some of the finished organized areas and the tools and ideas I'm using, as I can.

I hope your week is peaceful and organized!

Run the Clock Up!

My favorite quote this week. "Run The Clock Up"

Do you ever wish that you could get some unpleasant chore or other thing over with? I guess we all do.

Before going to dialysis the other day, I asked Mama if there was anything I could do for her before she left. She said, "Run The Clock Up". I was confused at first, but then realized she wanted the time to go by fast. I had a little chuckle over that, but it was no laughing matter for Mama. :o(

She is experiencing many health problems in her old age, that I won't go into detail about here. But, know that its tough!

I found some comfort this morning in Psalms 139. ... All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

I also love Psalms 56:8 You have kept count of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

So what ever happens with Mama... or any of mine or your loved ones, its already written in the book. 

We can't "Run The Clock Up".  We have to endure what ever comes our way.

But, on the weekend I  want to slow the clock down!.  I need to practice being content what ever the circumstances and  no matter where the hands of the clock are pointed!

I hope your day and weekend are filled with blessings and peace. 

A Recent New Recipe

I love Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks and own 2 or 3. Recently I was browsing their website. I was happy to find that there are free "sample" recipes from each cookbook. MAC N CHEESE KIELBASA sounded good to me so I made it. Its very rich and certainly fits the bill for a cooler weather, comfort food. We had "BT"s with it. It was supposed to be BLTs but we only had the bacon and tomatoes. We are still using turkey bacon. Its delicious!

The recipe makes a huge dish too. We needed a couple of hungry boys to help eat it!

Do you ever eat something that is so rich that you can't eat a lot of it at one time? That's how I would describe this dish.

My final opinion of this recipe: Good, but maybe we should only make half the recipe at the time! It would be wonderful to take to a covered dish dinner or when we have company. Do you need an idea for a dish to take to a church homecoming? This is it!