Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for April 14th, 2009

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…