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Good grief! Aren’t they cute?!!!

Okay I do have a gardening update. Not a happy one but in the meantime I’ve been doing some heavy duty organizing.

First I made the mistake of visiting the HSN (Home Shopping Network) website. I happened upon the Flip Fold thingy and was hooked.

Now you have to understand I don’t have a television so I’ve never really seen one of these shows.

I have a horrible time folding clothes. Usually my husband comes in and bails me out. He has that military background and can make some mean folds. But I really would rather use this energy to tackle my gardening woes. So after watching the infomercial (and doing a bit of web checking to make sure this was the model I wanted) I ordered.

I was so excited waiting for this thing it’s kind of scary. My husband didn’t agree that this would change my clothes folding life and thought it was a waste yada yada.

So fast forward a week and I have the Flip Fold reg. and junior and my whole house is undergoing a transformation!

I won’t say I love folding clothes but man I do love the results!

It’s a bit more than just being anally neat. It’s about having more room in the drawers and actually knowing what is there. With every day living things were getting a wee bit out of hand.

I re-organize about a drawer or a shelf a day along with the laundry and leave it at that.  I’ve finished the master bedroom dressers, and two shelves in the linen closet.

Meanwhile I decided that the sock drawers could use some help and I found this video.  By the way it does work and I like how they look. It took all of about 5 minutes to re-do my husbands socks.

Sarah Zeldman is looking for 8-10 women to join her “Beta’ Family Manager Coaching Group for FREE.

The group will run for 8 weeks and will feature one teleclass per week, recordings of the sessions (in case you miss one) and an exclusive forum where you can track your progress, get support from the group and have liberal access to me.

In order to join this group you will need..

1) Patience: As this will be the first group, there may be some snags along the way.

2) Feedback: Your comments, concerns and grievances.

3) Testimonials: A testimonial from you and a review on your blog. (Be honest, but gentle please!

and one more little thing…

4) *Optional, but strongly recommended* — Please pick up a copy of Kathy Peel’s latest book The Busy Mom’s Guide to a Happy, Organized Home: Fast Solutions to Hundreds of Everyday Dilemmas. Each coaching session will be focused on the content of a chapter of the book.

If you are interested in joining the Family Manager Makeover AIM “Beta” Group  simply send Sarah an email send her an email and let her know that you’d like to join.

You can read more about Family Manager Coaching here=> http://www.solutionsforbusymoms.com/family-manager-coaching/

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.