Folding

Took a little break from blogging to... survive real life for a bit?
And taking a little break from our outdoor transformation to bring you this indoor tidbit.

I folded my clothes the way my mom taught me until I was in college. It was that standard way they fold t-shirts in the store... you know so they stack nicely, or fit nicely in a shirt box? Shirt box folding, that's how I folded my clothes. And it has worked for millions of people for centuries, and if that's your method and it thrills your soul or fits your style, please, carry on. But I got to college and suddenly had less drawer space, as well as less time for folding my laundry.
The beautiful shirt box folding I had been taught was no longer working for me. I didn't have enough room in my drawers for all my clothes, not to mention, pulling out the shirt that you want (inevitably the one at the bottom of the stack) messed up the entire stack, and then you either had to re-fold/re-stack, or take the more traditional college method, and just shove the wadded shirts back in the drawer and slam it closed.
I needed a better method.
So here's how I started folding my shirts:

1. Lay your t-shirt out flat, face up. Smooth wrinkles.
2. fold t-shirt in half lengthwise.
3. Fold sleeves back over to create a long skinny rectangle.
4. Fold in half, the collar down to the hem.
5. Fold in half again, top fold down to collar/hem

And that's it! You have a nice, compact little rectangle t-shirt. Continue with your pile of t-shirts, and stack them all with the fold on the same side.

Now, when you go to put them in your drawer, stack them with that fold side up... (almost like a file cabinet?) like so:

See how nicely they fit in there? And how many shirts you can fit in a drawer? There are twice as many t-shirts as would fit shirt-box fold style. Plus, having the t-shirts in the drawer 'file-drawer style' means you can easily access the ones at the front or back without messing up the rest of the folded shirts. And this is just my husband's white undershirt drawer (yes, he has an unnatural amount of white t-shirts) but when you have other shirts, colors, and designs it's easy to view which shirts are in your drawer with little digging/messing up already folded clothes!

And see how nice this looks? Simple and organized and plenty of room to hold all of them.
But this doesn't just work for t-shirts. I use the same folding and 'file-drawer style' for my shirts, camisoles, night gowns, baby clothes and onesies, and...

Yep, those are my husband's underpants. (A slight variation, rolling instead of folding, but same basic premise... and look how many you can fit in one drawer!) (Yes, my husband also has a CRAZY amount of underpants.) (No my husband doesn't read my blog, so will likely never know I put pictures of his underpants on here-- it's our little secret... shhhhhh...)
You can even fold shorts and pants to fit upright in your drawer in the same file drawer manner. You will be amazed at the amount of space you save, or the amount of clothes you can fit into one drawer now!

Some other thoughts on this method:
*It's very similar to how you may be instructed to pack, rolling clothes to get more things in a suitcase or small space. So if you do start folding your clothes in this manner on a regular basis, hey, you just cut out a step when you pack for a trip! Yay.
*If you smooth your wrinkles as you fold, I find that this method is just as effective as any for eliminating wrinkles in clothing as any other folding method
*This is not a great method for dress dress shirts, those still do best pressed and hung in the closet.

So there you have it! Maybe this is not anything life changing or new for you, but it changed my wardrobe, and eventually my mama caught onto my method as well... and it revolutionized her laundry, folding, and clothing storage methods. And... my mama is an organizational guru, so with her stamp of approval I plow onward. :)

What about you, what kind of laundry, folding, or clothes storage hacks have you adopted that changed your life???

DIY ChalkVinyl Calendar

Over the past year that I have been a full-time SAHM/home manager I have been slowly trying to implement simple organization methods to keep our family clean, sane, and on time. It's a slow trial and error process... organization is not a part of my God-given skill set. (That skill set does include... making adorable babies, enormous mess making capabilities, and talent for making marshmallows disappear.) Not everything I try works for us. But we are slowly moving in the direction of organization.
Which is why I felt like we should get a large calendar. I strongly considered a dry-erase calendar, but those things are ugly and I was trying to find place I could hide it from view-- which was kind of defeating the purpose of my calendar anyway...
Then I was at my friend's home and saw this awesome chalkboard calendar painted on her wall. "That's great!" I told her, "...but I would be nervous about painting that on my wall."
"Oh, it's vinyl," she replied.
Where does one get chalkboard vinyl? Turns out you don't need chalkboard vinyl. You can write on normal vinyl with chalk quite easily, and it wipes off with a rag or tissue. For real. I was amazed. And said I must have one. So I got to work.

I used some black vinyl I had on hand... I got it at the craft store a long time ago (I believe it was cricut brand though). And I cut it into 3" blocks. You will need 35 blocks total. I also put a title block at the top which was 3"x12"
As you can see I went high tech with a ruler and a rotary cutter... My fancy silhouette machine was buried, but if you have one of those... by all means, make it easy on yourself. But cutting squares is pretty easy to do by hand as well, so no stress if you don't have the fancy tools.

Then I got out my laser level (see the pink-ish line above the black blocks?) and my sewing ruler for spacing. Each of my blocks has a quarter inch between them. I would put them down, and sometimes the vinyl my stretch of land a little wonky, but it was easy to peel up and reposition until I felt good about it's position.

After making my first horizontal row of seven blocks, I continued on to the next, using my level and ruler (and some masking tape!) as a guide and spacer....

Until I had them all up... then I just wrote in days and numbers and a month title at the top with chalk. Easy peasy.
Oh! And I learned a chalk trick from pinterest...

You can use a pencil sharpener to make a nice point on your chalk for nicer writing. (WARNING: if you have any aversion to squeaky chalk... don't do it. It squeaks and screeches in ways that will make your teeth itch... but it does make for a much nicer writing and drawing experience.) Also I have heard (especially with colored chalk) you can dip it in water for smoother, quieter writing and bright color! I have not tested this method though...

So here is my calendar in my kitchen, in a nice prominent spot so we can't miss it, or the important events listed on it. (Sorry for all the shiny glare in the pictures. Don't paint tomato red walls in a semi-gloss finsh, okay? It's a bad and shiny idea)

This was about a 30 minute simple project that I am pretty happy with. It's been up since the beginning of the month, and has already been pretty effective... so as long as I can keep up with the month change, I think it's a keeper. If it's not, though... it's vinyl that peels right off the wall-- no harm in trying, amIright?
Even though this isn't hard to re-create, if you doubt your skills or time-commitment to the project, I found this chalkboard decal on Etsy.com that is super cute-- so you could let someone else do the work. Even better.
Do you have any awesome calendar methods or organizational tricks for your family schedules? How do you keep track of your family's events? Done any vinyl projects recently? Anything else you want to tell me about? Leave me a comment...

Pinterest Challenge: Bathroom Organizer

I cleaned off my dresser the other day. Yay!
That doesn't sound that impressive until I am humbled and honest and admit that I had to clean it because stuff was piled so high i could no longer see my own face in the mirror behind it. I had to stand on my tiptoes. I'm a slob, folks.
But the dresser is now clear and I had to figure out what to do with the stuff that was up there. Most of it was easy to distribute to other areas... but I had a large collection of hair accessories, and the logical place for those would be the bathroom, but I didn't have a great place in the bathroom to keep them together. I threw them in a box they didn't belong in under the sink.
Then I was trolling pinterest the other day and found this pin:

Source: hobbit-house-h.blogspot.com via Valerie on Pinterest

suggesting you use one of those shoe organizers on the inside of the bathroom cabinets. And I went ding! Great Idea.
And then that same day, I saw The Pinterest Challenge (Fall edition) on YHL and I was all, Challenge Accepted, let's make this happen!
But... I didn't have a shoe organizer to cut up. And I had a very small cabinet door. And I needed some different sizes for various accessories. And... I quickly knew I was going to have to custom make this thing... and I wanted it to be pretty!
Sooooo... I did some measuring, and pulled some pretty fabric from my stash, and it came together pretty quickly. All straight lines, and a couple of pleats... topped it off with a package of gray bias tape... done.
Behold:

The backing is a heavy canvas so it has a little bit of weight to it... but it didn't need to be incredibly heavy duty, because generally hair accesories are pretty light. I was going to put a grommet on each corner to hang it, but I only had one... so button holes worked instead. I used some small 3M hooks to hold it up.

 So I popped it up there, and filled it up right away. Clips, hair pins, and ribbons accross the top. Running headbands and embarrassing hair forms in the middle. (is anyone else embarrased by hair forms? Does anyone else use them? I have one for buns and... a bumpit. I'm pretty embarrassed now.) Bottom row is hair flowers and fancy pins, and decorative headbands.

Having a place for the hair stuff means I was able to organize the rest of the cabinet...

So there you go, now you have seen under my bathroom sink. Awesome, no?
So there you have it. Had a problem. Found a pin. Accepted a pinterest challenge. Put my own pretty Pin Spin on it. And now my life is better for it. Yay.
Have you completed any pinterest projects lately? Accepted any pinterest challenges? Made anything to help organize your bathroom?

(Oh, hey... side note. It just occurred to me last time I did a Pinterest Challenge I also made an organizational piece for my bathroom! that's a weird theme...)

(Also, you should go over to Young House Love and check out their Pinterest Challenge Project-- spoiler alert: It's a really cool big standing chalkboard. Oooh...)

(Marriage Saving) Menu Board

This is a really easy project that I bet you have need for, supplies for, and skill set to create. All at your fingertips! How's that? You're welcome.
Perhaps 'marriage saving' is putting too much on the shoulders of this menu board, but it has saved us from quite a few arguments and quiet angry dinners where my husband scoops the food I made into the trash because he's " just not feelin' it tonight". The unfortunate truth is we always have and always will fight about food in our house-- but having a menu written out has made a huge difference. Everyone knows what to expect on the table that evening and the picky members of the family-- who shall remain nameless-- can mentally prepare themselves to try something new, or at least sit at the table next to something new and resist the urge to throw away my food.
(BY THE WAY... if you really want to get Valerie boiling mad fast, start dumping food I've prepared in the trash. YAAAAARRGH!!!)
Anyway, back to the project at hand... I used it for a menu board, but use it for whatever the heck you want. Because tell me a room in your house where you WOULDN'T find a dry erase board useful??? You can't think of one can you?
Because you started to say-- why would I need one in the bathroom? And then you were all... oh, I totally thought of something I needed to write down the other day while I was on the toilet. And you know that dry erase board would have been handy.
Wow am I talking about things we do while on the toilet on my blog now? Things are going down hill.
SO back to the project at hand: A dry erase board!

I received this picture frame as a wedding gift. It's a lovely frame, I am sure a lot of people would like it-- but the whole 'bless this home' quote and the style are not really my gig. So it sat unused in a tub in my basement for almost two years. Then I was digging through stuff one day looking for something entirely different and saw it sitting in the tub vertically-- and I went, HUH. I've never looked at it like that before.
So I pulled it out of there to do something with it. Originally I thought I would put some cute pattern scrapbook paper behind there, but I didn't have the right size, so I grabbed a chunk of burlap and stuck it in the frame behind the glass. Then I took it upstairs, propped it against the wall, and wrote on it with a dry-erase pen, and there you have it, a Menu Board:

You could really do this with any photo frame (that has glass in it), any size, shape, or backing you like... so go make it happen.
Who knows, it could save your marriage too!

100+

Source: moneysavingmom.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Deadline.
My personal challenge to remove 100 items from my house is up today.
Are you dying to know how I did? are you waiting on the edge or your seat to find out if I made it to 100? I am sure you are... (ha!) But before i talk about results i want to talk a little about the process.
So how was it? Was it hard to part with things?
It was for me at first. Well, honestly when I started the challenge I had in my mind a list of the things i wanted to get rid of, so i felt confident going in. And then I gathered up those things and wrote them down... and I had 12 things. And I have to say, I was a little disappointed it wasn't more. How would I ever make it to 100? What was I going to have to 'give up' that I wanted to keep, simply to make this goal? And I started to get all needy and possessive and selfish about my stuff--
It's silly to get rid of this stuff that has value, or this stuff that I am not using now... but might some day. I need this stuff... I paid for this stuff... I have earned this stuff.
And then somehow, I heard this self talk-- and I was appalled.
That is exactly what got me into this over-stuffed house to begin with. That is the opposite of living simply and content. It is the exact opposite of living gratefully.  And I do not wish to be that selfish, ungrateful person telling herself she earned all this. YUCK.
So I started cleaning and sorting and getting rid of things. Some stuff was junk--trash-- that I held onto for sentimental reasons. I carefully logged the memory in my mind, or wrote it down in a journal if it was important, then got rid of the item.
Some things I found in my wardrobe were things I didn't even like or couldn't wear, but I had held onto them for the brand name, the status, the fact that I liked seeing 40 pairs of pretty shoes lined up in my closet even if I only reasonably wear 4 on a regular basis. People don't give a crap what brand name is on the pants that fit you poorly, Valerie. It was time to get rid of those items and those delusions.
Some things, I started cleaning out, and realized how much excess we had. Really. We have 2 beds and 10 sets of sheets in our house. 2 adults and 16 bath towels. Over a hundred pairs of socks between the two of us. That is entirely out of control. And does nothing but encourage me to do laundry less often. Our excess was harboring laziness in our house, and it was time to get rid of it.
This week I cleaned out our linen closet, my spice cabinet, half of my wardrobe (the other part didn't make the deadline), my jewelry box, and several boxes in our storage area downstairs. Do you want to know what items left our house?
1 box full of old magazines
1 large tub of books (there were probably 40 or so there, I didn't count them)
12 DVD's
1 Baby Bullet we aren't going to use
2 cookbooks
1 folder full of recipes I printed off and never tried
6 sheet sets
1 fitted sheet
5 pillow cases
1 comforter set (comforter, bedskirt, shams, and decorative pillows)
8 towels
5 hand towels
10 wash cloths
1 kuerig storage tower
1 grilling basket
1 pizza spatula
1 basement throw rug
1 chipped salad plate
1 folding desk
1 folding chair
1 humidifier
1 melted tupperware bowl
2 plastic tub/boxes I kept jewelry in
1 plastic jewelry pouch
30 pieces of jewelry in good condition
10 pieces of jewelry that were broken beyond repair and thrown out
3 hair accessories
16 clothing items
15 baby clothing items
8 bottle of baby products sam can't use (dang allergies!)
1 baby play gym
1 candle
3 picture frames
4 empty shoe boxes
And  17 bottles that were duplicates/expired in my spice cabinet.

So... did you do the math? That is 173 items removed from my home.
WHEW! I have to say I am exhausted after a busy week of cleaning, sorting, and getting rid of stuff... but oh my word, I feel better.
Really. It's been kind of freeing getting rid of this stuff. And cleaning out all the excess, trash, and uneccessary makes me feel like I have better access to use and enjoy the things still in my house. Also cleaning and getting rid of stuff is kind of addictive. I got started and then it felt so good I just kept going and going. And I am not stopping today just because it is the challenge deadline. Admittedly, I might slow down a bit, but I am going to keep working toward storing and holding onto less stuff.
Becuase at the very beginning of this challenge that's what I said I wanted, right? LESS STUFF. I am happy to report I achieved it, and it feels great.

So how did you do? Did you make your goal? What did you get rid of? How do you feel? Tell us about it all in the comments! :)

100 things-- in the middle of it all.

Reader's Digest, April 1968

Sooo... how's the 100 things challenge going? Is it easier or harder than you expected it to be?
For me... it was hard at first, but the further into it I get, the easier it becomes.
Yesterday, I cleaned out my jewelry box, and got rid of almost 50 pieces of jewelry! That's not the crazy part though-- after removing 50 pieces my jewelry box is still overflowing. I like jewelry, I do... but obviously I wasn't getting use out of 90% of the jewelry in that box. Sooo... cleaned up and repaired several pieces, threw away a bunch of stuff that was gross or beyond repair... and strangely I feel like I have much more jewelry at my disposal now. Hmmmmm. 
I've been thinking this week about that 20/80 rule. You know... how you use only 20% of your stuff 80% of the time? As I am sorting through my STUFF I am thinking about that 80% I am keeping around for that 20% when I might need/use it... and I ask myself, is this valuable enough to store-- taking up prime realestate in my house for a rare occasion I might need it?
And furthermore, who really needs two chocolate fondue fountains? (Yes, I have two of them-- soon to be less!)
So what do you think?
Do you think you will make it to 100 by Friday?
Do you think I will?
Do you think you will miss the stuff you are getting rid of?

100 things

Source: raynoah.com via Valerie on Pinterest

I want less stuff.
Seriously.
The stuff in my house-- in my life-- has reached an out-of-control level. There is too much of it. It is wearing me out and holding me back. It needs to go.
I've been saying this for several months and I haven't done a darn thing about it. It's time for action. It's time to challenge myself to make something happen. Or make 100 things happen. Or make 100 things stop happening in my house. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
This morning I was again lamenting the amount of stuff in my house and my inability to control it, and all of a sudden a number popped in my head. 100. I need to get rid of 100 things.
Not really sure what those 100 things are going to be, but I am beyond certain I have several hundred items in my house that I could do away with and never miss. To 'get rid of' things, I can throw away, give away, donate, or sell the items.
So challenge for me is: Get rid of 100 things by next Friday. One week from today.
I am serious. I warned my husband this was going to happen. I told him to nail down anything important, because I am cleaning this place out. And I am talking about it here, so you can keep me accountable. I will make a list of the 100 things and let you know how it goes.

Would you... consider taking my challenge with me? Maybe you find yourself in the same boat with too much stuff and you are ready to dump 100. Maybe 100 seems like a big number, but you want to dump 30 things. Maybe you aren't ready for that kind of sorting, but you can challenge yourself to get rid of one thing a day. Would you consider challenging yourself as well, then sharing with me your experience?
Maybe you already live simply and minimally and you have great tips, and want to be a cheerleader-- would you consider sharing your story?
Leave a comment and let me know!

See you next week- with LESS STUFF to talk about!
I'm pumped.

Keep your bags handy!

This is kind of a ridiculously simple project.
At the very least it is a great big DUH project... DUH, meaning, once I did it I was all, this is such a great solution, DUH! Why didn't I do this sooner???
And why didn't I make one for every room of the house? (Well, because I haven't eaten enough oatmeal. But I am getting ahead of myself...)
Sam has a small trashcan in his room that we use for disposable diapers on the occasions he wears them (mostly when we're out and about, or if he has an extra bad diaper rash and we have to use the heavy duty not-cloth-approved diaper rash cream.) We don't have a diaper genie or one of those things that makes diaper sausages... you know what I'm talking about? Nope none of those. I think they are smelly and unnecessary. We have a small trashcan that gets dumped frequently. Much better for us. Much less smelly. We use plastic grocery and walmart bags as the liner for our can, so we need easy and frequent access to a stash of those in Sam's room. Preferably something that doesn't look like a pile of old plastic bags.
Behold!
The plastic bag holder:

 Exciting, no? I told you-- you are totally thinking: that's a stupid easy solution, why have I not done this?
Here's how the thing come together:
You are going to need:
An empty oatmeal can ( or cofffee, protein powder, etc... something tall and cylindrical with a snap on plastic lid)
About a fat quarter of fabric
spray adhesive

 Start by measuring up your can... get the height and circumference, and cut a rectangle of fabric accordingly. (add 1/2 inch to your width/circumference measurement)

 Iron down about 1/4 inch on one end of your fabric so you will have a nice clean seam where the fabric overlaps.

 Protect your work surface (I use paper bags), and spray one side of your can with the spray adhesive. line your fabric up and start smoothing it in place.

 Work your way around the cylindar, a little bit at a time smoothing as you go, until you make it all the way around, and oh look, you have that nice seam that you ironed down, lovely! Trim any edges that hang off. (or you could easily cover uneven edges by hot-gluing on some ribbon or decorative trim.)

 Grab the plastic lid and use and exacto knife and straight edge to cut a star shape in the lid.

 Now fill it full of plastic backs and place it somewhere useful! You can see mine found a hangout right next to the trashcan it will serve. Because the fabric is cute it looks nice in the room, and it's super handy having it there.

But think about how nice it would be to have one next to the trashcan in the bathroom! The office! Your bedroom! You don't even have to cover them with fabric either, if you are opposed to things of that nature. You could decoupage junk, or scrapbook paper on those things. You could spray paint them. You could put vinyl decals on them. Or you could just leave them as oatmeal cans, if you don't mind that look. It doesn't matter to me... be creative.

Now go eat some oatmeal... because once you have one, you are going to need several more. Oh, come on, it's not like you don't have the plastic bags to go around.

Pinterest Challenge: Amy's Organization

Amy Lee and I have been friends since... middle school? Maybe grade school? Anyway, long enough that we know way too much about each other to ever be enemies, because that would be dangerous. But that's not the reason we are still friends (I think... ). Anyway, Amy Lee is crafty and creative and has her own lovely blog Made With Love where she shares her stuff... and lots of recipes involving cake and soda for some reason. I love her, and love the fact that she participated in the Pinterest Challenge... and she definitely surprised me. I thought she'd be all about making some jewelry, or cute top, or shoe bling... but she got all organizational on me and grabbed pinterest inspiration to clean and organize. Look:

Dirty Little Secret

I bet underneath your sinks is not that clean and organized, is it? I kinda feel ashamed of my under-the-sinks now. Great.
But the Accessory Queen didn't stray too far fro her true self because her other project involved organizing bags:

Purse Hoarder

Yeah... I totally need to do this too! Just get all those bags in one location and accessible. Great Job Amy!
You should totally head over to her blog for more pictures and explanations and all that good stuff. or check out all of her Pinterest Challenge Projects and Plans ...there were quite a few more projects listed on that initial 'Challenge Accepted' post, so leave her some love and encouragement to keep working on all of those. (Because the fire pit looks really cool, and I want to be invited over for s'mores. Just sayin'.)
(Also, She could use some love and followers... becuase she regularly posts stuff worth reading. It'd be worth your time to click the 'follow' button... is all I'm sayin')
*Edit: I swear this happened for real just like this... moments after posting Amy's purse organiztion project today I got an email in my inbox from REAL SIMPLE titled "Shower Hooks as Purse Organizers" several moments of confusion followed as I tried to figure out if REAL SIMPLE was reading my blog... or Amy's... or what in the world was going on... but it turns out it is an unrelated coincidence and more evidence of the fact that Amy Lee is so legit even my favorite magazines have to go to her for great ideas and trend setting. True story. It really happened just like that. I wouldn't lie to you.

Also... if you haven't already, check out what Jessica, Erin, and I did for our Pinterest Challenge. Lots of great fun stuff! And Erin has since completed another project, and I am just in love with this HP inspired tee:

HP Inspired Shirt for Little D

Isn't challenging ourselves fun? Yay!

Pinterest Challenge: Project #1

What in the world might I be making???

Happy Monday, friends! My last post on here I invited you to participate in a challenge with me... A  Pinterest Challenge! Just in case you haven't read it yet, and you are too lazy to go back and read that post, In a nut shell, the challenge is to pick a project from pinterest (or anywhere on the internet) that inspires you, but you never got around to doing... and do it by the end of September. Easy, right?
I told you I had several 'pinterest inspired' projects up my sleeve this month, and I didn't lie. Here is the first that I completed this weekend. First, the inspiration:

Source: shelterness.com via Valerie on Pinterest

I saw this and thought, yes. I need this in my bathroom. And we have this awkwardly small mirror in our bathroom. with a large gap between counter and mirror that we can't do much about because we rent. So I figured that would be the perfect spot.
I bought all my supplies (pictured at the top), minus the mason jars and paint I already had, at home depot for eleven dollars and some change. I probably could have stolen a chunk of wood from my dad's scrap pile and it would have been cheaper, but I didn't. I bought this piece of pre-cut sanded pine from the depot. Then I painted it black, to match the black shelves already in the bathroom.

Next I measured and marked carefully where I wanted the pipe clamps to sit... then headed to my parents house when I realized I had nothing that could drill through metal. (It's wasn't a matter of lacking skills, just lacking tools.) So my dad popped some screws in there for me... and we trimmed the extra metal off.

 Then I tapped these beyond tiny nails into these saw tooth hanger bracket things on the back... (ignore the crummy paint job on the back... it's the back side, you know the side against the wall that no one sees? Don't judge me.)

And... then I popped 4 empty jars in there, and tightened them in place. Then we hung it!

And I put junk in it (cotton balls, cosmetic sponges, cotton swabs, and makeup brushes) This should do the trick to fill the awkward spot between mirror and counter, and get all these grooming essentials off the counter top where they would otherwise be sitting about making my tiny bathroom a mess. (Ahem, hypothetically-- not that it has ever been a mess.)

Anyway... I am quite pleased with the results. It was a pretty cheap, quick, easy addition to my bathroom. Not earth shattering or life changing on a large scale, but I like it. And I am glad I decided to just do it, rather than thinking, "Huh, that's a clever idea I should do that someday."

Well, then... Have you been working on your challenge???

Oh, and I linked to some parties....