The Accessory Cabinet

I'm really not too sure what to call this cabinet.  It's the one to the right of the microwave.  It holds a variety of things from coffee, measuring items, wine accessories, candles for cakes, cupcake items, and sprinkles.  So I went with the Accessory Cabinet - and let me tell you when I unloaded all of it there was a lot of other things in there.  3 year old hot chocolate mix anyone??  It's amazing what that 3rd shelf can hide in the back...

So without further ado, the before photo:

Overall you can kind of see some organization to chaos.  Measuring stuff on the bottom within easy reach.  Coffee/recipes on the second level because they are less used, and slightly used items on the top.

The majority of this organization involved throwing things away and into the garage sale pile.  We had a ton of wine accessories!  Apparently we used to drink a lot of wine??  Or maybe not - maybe it was too much wine and I can't remember.  Either way, we don't need 6 wine openers and 8 wine corks, along with who knows how many shot glasses......ahh the college days.

So once the items were gone through, reminisced and trashed I was left with this:

Sadly it doesn't look like that much of an improvement but I can tell you there are a lot less things in there now and that makes me happy.  I had a white tub from Wal-Mart (3 for $1.97) that I put the kitchen scale, grater, and pastry knife along with some spices we haven't used yet.  The little blue tub (3 for $1) has all the food coloring/sprinkles in it.  Toothpicks still in the top.  Plus that shelf doesn't have anything hiding in the back anymore, big accomplishment.  Middle shelf is pretty much the same other than the recipes are actually in the recipe box and the birthday candles/cupcake items migrated up there in the back since they are rarely used.  The bottom shelf has the most progress.  Snagged some of these metal buckets the girls have gotten over the years for Easter and one now holds all the measuring spoons and can opener, and the other one has all the wine accessories (still kept some of the good ones).  Then measuring cups are sitting all nice and pretty.  There is so much more space on that shelf now I don't know what to do with it!

And look out - I got a label maker and have been labeling a few things here and there and enjoying it a little too much :).  Abigail helped organize her hair accessory drawer which I will have to get photos of.  There are no before, just the work she did.  I'm so proud of her!

House Update and the "Ann Pile"

We have made a little bit of progress with our house plans.  We have met and discussed plans with our 3 prospective contractors, filled out spec sheets, and explained why we don't want to change certain things, yes we have thought about that, but no, this is how we want it type discussions.  All three are crunching numbers and we should have bids in 1-2 weeks at the latest.  We're ready to move forward and make this dream a reality - that is until we talk to the bank.  A little nervous about that but I'm sure it will go fine.  I'm just a stingy/cheap person so spending more money at home time than we ever have before makes me nervous.

And yes, people have been telling us how much money we can safe if we GC the house ourselves, but Tim and I both no we don't have the time to do this and it would only put a whole lot of stress on our already busy lives, and the house wouldn't get done until 2014.  We might try to save some costs with painting and small stuff (painting party anyone?) but I don't see much in our horizon other than picking things out.

So that is where we are, waiting on the bids.  We have $$ amounts in our head as what it will cost, and hopefully the bids will be lower.  May the best man win.

So on to yet another corner of the kitchen organizing progress.  The "Ann Pile" or dump zone as I like to call it.  We do not have a mud/utility room, we walk smack right into our kitchen and I dump everything on my counter, and I mean everything.  Piles are made, bills are buried, and just random chaos occurs.  Now don't think it's just all my fault - my husband has his own pile or dump zone, but that is for another day.  My pile also includes all things kids as well.

So here is the before:

Not one of my most proudest moments, but it is what it was.  There are school pictures from 1 year ago, old chargers for phones we don't have, and TONS of stuff to be recycled, filed, or put in a baby book.

I didn't get to crank this out in one night - took about 3 nights as I would just tackle one pile at a time after dinner or when I could find 15 minutes of time to myself as my helpers want to keep more than I want to, I secretly have to go through things a second time.  So once I recycled a large amount of paper, shredded a lot, and put things back to where they should go or their new home in the trash can here is what I was left with............

Isn't it lovely?  And guess what - there was a counter under there after all!!  I found these 12x12 boxes at Hobby Lobby at 40% off so I think they were about $4.20/each and then that top box was from the Dollar General for $3.50.  I still need to put labels on them.  The bottom box is for my Baby Book items.  I am horrible at putting baby books together and documenting all the important dates.  In my piles there was a lot of accumulation of previous doctor visits height/weight info and such.  So, all those items plus photos and memorabilia can find a home there and I can take the whole box downstairs with me to add them to baby books when I have time.  The second box is where my stuff is - items to read, Groupons, school info etc. so easy to access and address/file/trash when done.  There are actual file folders in there - Items of Interest, File, etc.  The top box is where the chargers are hiding.  Usually I just have them plugged in, not too pretty.  I saw this box and had to have it, it has plenty of space for extra items if necessary.  So when I need them I'll get them out and put them back when done, then this leaves extra space if needed (and outlets) for a bread machine, crock pot, or whatever else.

I will admit, once I stepped backed and looked at it - I think I almost found inner peace, for a minute.  Less clutter = Happy Ann.  I am loving it!  It may only be coming together one drawer/section at a time but every little bit is making life a little less cluttered and small improvements are making big impacts - and those are what are keeping me motivated.

Utensil Drawer

I'm not sure if your utensil drawers look or resemble mine at all but here is the dirty details about ours.  One of the things I dislike about our kitchen currently is that we do not have any extra wide drawers.  Everything is just standards size other than 2 that are deeper than normal.  My parents had a wide drawer for utensils and that is what is engraved in my mind that should be where they go and the type of drawer they go in.  So in the new kitchen you will probably see that, but for now I'm left with this:

**not sure why blogger has rotated my photos***
Yes, this is our utensil drawer in all it's glory.  Things have randomly made their way into the drawer and have been buried or forgotten.  Items from college days are in there as well, and a lot of duplicates.

So I emptied the drawer and sorted by type, putting our lovely duplicates together.  Really how many ice cream scoopers, spatulas, and spoons can you need?  Sadly the answer is 4 or more.

After some "discussions" with Tim on what he could handle parting with as I was ready to unload a little more than he was from the drawer things looked like this:

So a lot of items went into the garage sale box that were decent and hopefully have a use in someones kitchen.  We did still keep a few things in duplicate as you see with the cheese slicer and ice cream scoops.  I had one organizing drawer in there to start with (it was buried under everything) and we put wooden spoons and spatulas that made the cut in there along with basting brushes and egg/yoke divider thing.  So items we use, but not everyday.  I wasn't happy with the loose utensils though so had to get another drawer in there.

So one more organizing drawer and less items sliding around.  The random cheese knives, garlic press, and other "necessities" are in there.  Still awkwardness with the pie cutter/server but here is where it lies for now.  I also did tackle some drawers in the baker's rack that has our mailing supplies but didn't take photos of the hundreds of address labels that were tossed, but the drawer rocks now!

We are progressing, one drawer at a time, but there is slightly a new feeling of organization in the kitchen as the clutter exits.

Let the Purging Begin!

So I am learning that the purging process is just that, a process.  A much longer than anticipated, quite exhausting, and challenging process.  I have one child that wants to "trash, sell, donate" everything because I secretly think she just wants the money to buy new stuff.  On the other hand the other child wants to "keep" everything and secretly steals stuff out of her sister's piles for her piles.  Then there is me, who would just like some help and a little more patience to help cope with the fact that the kids want to play with every small toy we find that they haven't played with in years but it's now their favorite.

This Saturday was:  Ann vs. The Playroom
I can honestly say I think the playroom won as I feel a little beat up and sore from the purging.  So it's with great embarrassment I show you the "Before" photos.

This little area is at the bottom of our stairs.  It was originally the land of "Little People" toys and accessories.  Then we got a free desk, then it became the place we shoved all the things from upstairs to put up the Christmas tree and it is what you see today.  I'm so proud.

This is the main playroom area.  We have 4 tubs of toys we thought were a good idea to be able to just throw toys in for quick clean up and mainly it's a kitchen play area.  Looks pretty sharp I know.

So now you have seen the before version and here are the fruits of my labor.

Yes that is the same area!  If it wasn't a Little People toy it is no longer in the area.  I had to trade out for a bigger tub from the other play area to house all of them except the garage that wouldn't fit.  The desk was cleaned up and we're offering it to friends or will be selling on Craig's List as it's something the girls just never used and takes up A LOT of space.  I believe a doll house will be replacing it from the other toy room as it's current location is a little unsafe next to a Bowflex.

You'll have to ignore the blonde head flying by and baby that rolled into the corner - but that is how my picture taking usually ends up.  So I eliminated 3 tubs!!!  Yeah for purging!  The one tub that is in there is basically empty also so there is room for more improvement.  Then I also reused the black and white shelves from the other room that were empty and not doing any good to organize shape sorters, musical instruments, etc.  Kitchen food is actually in the kitchen!  Crazy concept I know.  The kids are loving it and I love the fact that it's easy for them to pick up.  It's not spectacular, but it's getting us there.

Out of the toy room purge: 
2-1/2 bags to donate to Goodwill of toys
1 bag trash
1 box garage sale

Cost for the day:  6 pack of Diet Coke and a little bit of my sanity.
Another good thing is that we have gotten all the small pieces off the floor as we have a rolling, soon to be crawling baby that will put about anything in her mouth.  At one point and time during the day she took down a play ironing board and was chewing the leg.  Teething.....

A couple of projects I worked on during the week were junk drawers.  According to Jen at iheartorganizing a drawer should take about 15 minutes to organize.  Well, she hasn't seen our junk drawers that have 10 years of junk accumulated in them.  Honestly - does anyone really know what is in their junk drawers? 

Let me introduce Junk Drawer #2.  You might wonder where junk drawer #1 was, well I wasn't ready to tackle that one yet.  I thought I would start with the "easier" one first.  Found some interesting items, our engagement photo and announcement in the paper, along with a beer can opener that is Homer Simpson saying "MMMmmmmmmm, beer".  Our junk drawer is that cool.

So, this was my first drawer, not the most spectacular reveal but there was a tremendous amount that went into the trash and a good chunk that went to the garage sale box.  Who knew we had so many steak knives??  There is probably more efforts to be made here, but a lot of progress was made.  Our most commonly used items are in the green trays (found in a drawer of the nursery with 10 year old markers in them!).  Other odds and ends that make it our junk drawer are in the back for when we "might" need them next.

Somehow I misplaced the "before" photo of Junk Drawer #1 but here are the contents.  17 can koozies - seriously who needs that many?!?  We used them to sort batteries kind of, but they just really took up space.  Then you wrap it up with flash lights, envelopes, and random junk.

You'll have to excuse the clutter ( I know, the reason for doing all the work!) but I wanted to show our battery stash.  And Tim wanted to use his new food processor at the same time, the kitchen table is the big loser I think.  For most of our highly used kid toys we use rechargeable batteries but for all the other items that aren't used that much or are beyond a AAA or AA batter we buy in bulk from Sam's.  So this was taking up a lot of room in the drawer.

Introduce this nifty little snap and lock box I found at Hobby Lobby.  It was $7.99 and I got to use a 40% off coupon on it so the penny pinching continues.

Sadly I might love how this organized and reduced our battery storage a little too much.  I was a little giddy, I'll admit it.  All the least used batteries:  D, C, and 9V are in the bottom layer; AA in the second; AAA and rechargeables and chargers in the top portion.  You can unsnap the layer you need without messing with the others - the beauty of the box!  Plus if you don't know what size you need - bring the whole thing!

After the can koozie funeral we have minimized to a couple "keepers" that are stored in the back along with the not often used carving knife.  Envelopes, flashlight, and batteries are easily accessible and stored.  I might even label the box - LOOK OUT!

That rounded out the week of projects to get the house in better shape to sell.  I had a couple projects that are in process that did not really turned out as planned.  As I am new to this whole crafty organizing and still getting ideas there will be stumbles, just need to hit the drawing board again.  Or throw more things away when no one is looking......hehehehe

The Beginning of a New Blog

Not that we aren't busy enough as it is, but I thought I would dedicate a separate location for our house/farm/moving challenge, struggle, catastrophe, experience.  Just to give you a little background how this all started......we go back to the beginning.

In April 2012 we purchased 102 acres.  About 30 of it tillable and 60-70 is wooded, ideal for hunting for the Hubs.  It has a shed and a "shouse" as we like to call it.

The Hubs is a wannabe farmer plain and simple, trapped in an engineer's profession.  Our first "farming" experience was to prep the fields for planting soy beans.  We ended up getting circle bales, not sure on the quantity - maybe 30 or so.

You can see one on the left there.





After that we planted soy beans, had the HOTTEST SUMMER EVER and had a really bad crop - maybe 7  bushels/acre.  I do love crop insurance though.





So now that the beans are out and it's winter we are working on our house plans.  Yes, two engineers designed their own house from scratch - how much fun is that!  There have been A LOT of revisions but we are about 95% pleased with where we are now and are having conversations with contractors to get some bids on it.  This. Process. Is. Slow.  It doesn't help that Tim and I are limited on time to do this and will often chose going to bed than spend another hour up and awake during the work week.

In addition to designing a house we are starting on the process of getting our current house ready to be put on the market.  I have dubbed it:  Operation Purge Schmidt House.  We are not even close to calling an agent to look at our house because the to do list would be outrageous.  So I'm giving it the ole college try, and with a little motivation from my new favorite blog:  iheartorganizing I hope to go through the rooms/drawers/doors/nooks and everywhere else to make our house more liveable and organized for 2013 - and for hopefully someone to like enough to pay what we'll ask for it.  Here's to hoping!!

So that is where we are at with this process.  Not very far, but we are excited and motivated as the plans are coming together and hope that will in turn get some wheels turning.