Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for April, 2009

In our previous dwelling I had a mail and key organizer on the wall. We donated it to the local Goodwill (where we got it in the first place) and I’ve been on the hunt for just the right organizer ever since.

At first I was looking for something for our entry way that I would mount on the wall. I did find a few that were… okay. And then I spotted one that I really like which is this cute Vintage deal over at Etsy . I really like this one but I backed off of mounting something on the wall. So if you are in the market for a vintage chic mail / key holder this is really cute and a great price.

Now I’m looking for something that will sit on top of my Mommy Desk which has 7 inch wide shelf on the top. After much shopping I have decided that I’m not looking for an expensive wood piece or bamboo. A decorative box with just the right slots will work for me.

There is this truly functional mail sorter at See Jane Work. Which while it will work in theory it’s just not cute enough. I’m sorry but you have to get the right item or you won’t be happy and right now I’m looking for cute, chic, or pretty, or all of the above.

Then there is this great kitchen counter organizer from Lillian Vernon. It might be a tad bit too big and too expensive though. I’ve got it bookmarked just in case.

I do have a cute decorative box from Michael’s that I thought of altering but because I want the thing to angle a bit and also because I’m really not that good with crafts like this I’m afraid I will end up destroying my cute box and be really mad. So back to the all out search.

So back to the drawing board.

If you think you might have a tip of where I can find this cute, stylish, 7 inch deep, mail, desktop organizer please leave a comment.

I’m not that big on Spring Cleaning. Yes I have a few articles and printables over at Homemaking Organized but that’s because in addition to loving the history of it you have to admit that come spring time you seem to have more energy and a drive to do a bit of homekeeping.

I tend to get more of a re-organizing bug than a cleaning bug when it comes to spring cleaning.

This Spring I’ve had the urge to tackle these areas.

1. My daughter’s room. Her room is much as it was when we first moved in except for the fact that she moved from a toddler bed to a big girl bed (and I mean big! This thing is humongous).  So I’ve been moving stuff around every so often until I think it feels right. I’ve also been going through her clothes big time because she had a major growing spurt. And I’ve been purging her toys. She has a tendency to turn anything into a toy there is a lot of little ‘stuff‘ around that she’s decided makes a good toy. Do I ask her first? Sometimes…

2. The office. How this room got so out of hand I’ll never know. Oh yeah, regular use and very little upkeep. Anyway my husband and I have different ideas of how an office should be outfitted. He likes lots of clear desk workspace but we have so many books and supplies that shelves and places to put things are lacking. Since I have my own area now carved out where I normally work I’m retooling the office by setting up clear spaces for homeschooling (we start kindergarten in the fall) and my husband’s work.

3. Shampoo rugs. I’ve been doing this in various rooms in the home. The dining room, Peanut’s bedroom and the front hall so far. I invested in a carpet cleaner last year and it was a good choice. If you have pets and/or kids and a carpeted home it really does make sense. My sister bought one shortly after I did. We were having our rugs shampood several times a year and it just made more sense. Sometimes spot cleaning doesn’t cut it.

4. I have my eye on the pantry. Which I havent’ tackled yet. It’s a small pantry…very small. And I went through early on and reorganized where things should go. I even labeled each shelf. But now I think it could use a cleaning. I’m also toying with lining the shelves. I didn’t do that when we moved in and I’m thinking about doing all the shelving and drawers in the home. That’s a long project so it will be ongoing.

Do you spring clean?

A close relative of mine who is in the same age bracket…well a teeny bit above it, called me this afternoon while my timer was going off. Today is Wednesday and as much as I dislike it I schedule 15 minutes of office work to pay bill, and file papers. My relative, who is also a close friend and we rib each other a lot, proceeded to ask me about it and then made a point to ridicule me over the phone with her coworkers who thought it was…”overdoing it”, “too much”, “silly”, etc.

Now these are people in the workplace who’s daily schedule is already timed out for them. Be at work as such and such a time. Lunch is at this time.  You do this report on this day at this time. And by the way you log in over the phone when you get to work and log out at the end of the day.

But I digress…

I have taken ribbing all of my life for my homemaking ways and while it is irritating it does not bother me too much because you see this is the same person who every night calls me while standing in her home saying she…

1. Needs to clean up her bedroom
2. Find time to exercise
3. Start that project for so and so’s birthday which passed 6 months ago
4. Organize this or another area of her life

I may get ribbed but I get things done. You see as much as I like organizing I’m not perfect at it and I need little pushes and reminders to see to it I don’t just lay here on the couch eating chocolate chip cookies. So tempting but it’s why I rely on a timer. I use my timer for certain tasks during the day like 15 minutes for whatever I’m supposed to be focused on which today happens to be the office. Or to see how long it takes me to do something. And especially when I bake since I tend to move on and forget I’ve put something in the oven (it has happened enough to make a time a must for me in the baking department). It can also be a real help when I get bitten by the procrastination bug.

While it is certainly not advisable to run your entire day by the timer it can help to give you that extra push you may need at times.

Now excuse me. My daughter is down for her scheduled nap and it’s time for my 20 minute workout.

Oh yes I did change the blog template! I could not resist this darling template. I have to write the creator or something but it is so bright and cheerful! And the bottom part is so cute! Do scroll down and check it out!

We have the potatoes out. They are in Smart Pots. I purchased 3.2 15 gallon and one 30 gallon. I’m trying German Butterball potatoes from Seed Savers. We’ll see how they do. According to the potato in a pot article I linked to earlier you start off with the soil halfway and then fill it as the plants grow. I won’t tell you how I planted potatoes the first time many years ago. It’s a wonder they grew at all and the reason I read so much.

We had a really warm day here early in the week and since my little almanac thingy says that the end of April is supposed to be a good time to plant after the last frost I went for it and transplanted my tomatoes, cucumbers and we started the corn….big mistake.

First off I was replanting a cuban oregano for my mom and I made the grave error of setting the pot on the banister right above a tomato plant. It promptly fell off and beheaded the plant.

Secondly the next day we experienced cold wet weather complete with heavy winds. Since you only plant two plants per pot about 4 of mine look like wilted lettuce. Extremely wilted lettuce.

Thank goodness a few weeks ago I had a feeling I was going to have problems with my first batch of tomato seeds so I started some more. They are growing nicely under the lamp.

Thirdly the cucumbers just died period in the wind. They couldn’t take it at all and it’s hard not to burst out laughing whenever I look at them. I’m only planted two plants and even though I wasn’t committed to them I think I’ll try again after reading a bit more about them.

The onion starts are doing well considering they are all in too shallow of pots. I’m just leaving them and I’ll see what happens. If nothing else we have some nice green onions.

The carrots have sprouted but I have some teeny round ones I would have rather planted than the Nantes that I did plant.

The strawberries continue to do well and it will be interesting to see what they produce. It’s been so long that I’ve had them I’ve forgotten what variety they are. Either June bearing or ever bearing. I think they are the ones that produce twice a year but then I think I say that every year. I have moved with them 5 times over the last 15 years and have been keeping them in a rather too small pot until they find their permanent home. They still aren’t home but I decided then needed a better pot.

My lettuce in a pot indoors has sprouted and well…we’ll see. The lettuce out doors (the ones from starts) are doing well and we had some amazing turkey with Caeser dressing sandwiches last week with them. There wasn’t enough for an all out salad yet so we just had them on some sandwiches.

The main thing is we’re having a blast. Yes it would be nice if something actually came from all this but I did not use all of my seeds so there’s always next year. Well that’s my update so far.

Okay so yes we have an office in our home. My husband works in there, my daughter does her preschool stuff in there, plays on the computer, does her crafts in there. We house many books in there. The main computer, printer, even my sewing machine. But I just don’t seem to fit in there. Not at all.

When we first moved here I would try and work in there in my few spare hours late at night after the home was asleep.

But I constantly found myself migrating to the kitchen table.

Then I would pack up my books and put them in a crate or something and lug them down the stairs so I could have easy access.

Okay so I can’t have a website called Homemaking Organized and then having a dining room that looks like it could be a main feature in an organizing intervention show. So I had to take action.

Also don’t forget this post. I was STILL looking for a home for my HOB (home organization binder).

I needed something that I could call my own. If you’ve ever seen Julie Morgenstern’s organizational videos (Franklin Covey) she talks a bit about organizing where stuff happens. I might be phrasing it wrong so don’t quote me you get the idea. It’s about changing the environment to fit what is happening there instead of the other way around.

The dining room was(is) my comfort zone. It just fits the work I’m doing.

So I had to find the tools that would fit this space and allow me to work.

It’s a small home and a small dining room. When I told my husband I was getting a desk for downstairs I thought I was going to have to lay him down and elevate his feet if you get my meaning.

I looked and measured long and hard. These very expensive pieces (this one, this one, and this one) from Ballard Designs sparked my ideas. While I do love them I just couldn’t bring myself to deplete my account this much (yet). And besides they were truly too big for my space.

So I researched some more and made the decision to get this secretary desk

It was combination reviews, price, and size. It was the perfect size for the space I had.

How I use my desk.

My desk sits right next to the kitchen in the dinky dining room.The back of it is against the side full length cabinet of the kitchen and the skinny side of it is against the sliding doors to the porch (as you can see).

The top of it holds my HOB (home organization binder) and a little box of nuthin’s (clips, notepads, odds and ends my daughter can’t reach).

The top folds down so I can work on it and and there is a mini shelf to keep notes and things I’m working one.

Underneath the work surface is a drawer. Pens, and some computer stuff like flash drives or disks I’m using.

The bottom cabinet has one shelf and I keep books down there. I’m still finding my daughter’s toys but she did help me put it together so I’m being a bit lenient.

Thanks for letting me share.

So the last time I bought lettuce in the grocery store my little nice bag of freshly washed lettuce went bad well before the expiry date.

I thought about buying the lettuce that is still growing in the little pod thingy but then I decided that I really wanted my own lettuce. You know from my own home. Sometime in 2007 I posted about how a serious gardening friend of mine harvested her own lettuce through the winter from her back porch so I thought I would grow my own lettuce.

Well I really didn’t know what I was doing and really didn’t read about it. Sadly my daughter and I just sowed a few seeds in a miserly fashion in a couple of pots that let us (lettuce Hahahah!) know mad they were by not really taking off.

So I sent an SOS call to my friend and she gave me a few tips on having a better harvest.

Whilst we await the new shipment of lettuce seeds I went and bought some organic lettuce starts which we transplanted this morning. You can see them below…

This is Romain and Butter Crunch. Shortly after I placed them outside it rained kind of heavy so they look flattened. I’m wishing them well and moving on.

Oh a little tid bit on my potting mixture. I’m feeling rather farmer like these days as my garage is packed with potting mix, lime, vermiculite, fertilizer etc.

So the salad greens are in a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, and peat moss with a dollop of fertilizer. I mixed like I cook and so it’s pretty much a third of each (except fertilizer) with a little less of the vermiculite.
I’ll let you know how it does. I did the same with a teeny pot of cilantro I’m messing with.

Meanwhile I also landed upon this blog post… Growing Lettuce Indoors and decided to give that a try. I had about 25 seeds of a lettuce mixture from seedsavers.org left over so I used that. Just go to the url and look up lettuce mixture. There is only one (unless you’re a member). That’s the one I used and I’m giving that a try below…

Stay tuned…