Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning everyone! I hope that your Monday goes well! Let's get it started off right with the Monday Morning quick tip!

This mornings tip relates to what I said quite a few weeks back about writing things down on paper. We are going to talk about planners today. Planners are an excellent way to record anything from appointments to things that happened throughout the day. I use a couple different planners for different things. I have a Day Designer that is my largest planner. It stays at home and is my "overall, contains everything" planner. Everything ends up in this planner, however it is too big for me to haul around in my bag (some people do have huge planners in their bags, but I am not one of those people). I have two smaller planners that are usually with me. The back and white polka dot planner is a moleskin day on one page planner. I use this planner for anything that happens during the day that I want to remember. It is where I mark appointments down that I make and where I mark down things I think of throughout the day. I really love this planner because it can be so flexible with what is in it. The smallest pink planner is where I mark down money I spend, things I buy and when things are delivered/supposed to be delivered. My system works for me, I rarely forget or miss appointments ( I say rarely because it has happened, I am human after all) and it really helps keep everything organized.

Now I'm not saying that you need to have three planners or that even one planner will solve all of your problems, but having something where you can list the day to day things that you are doing helps immensely. As I have said before, things very easily get lost in the shuffle and forgotten all the time. So, even if what you have is a wall calendar, have something where you can mark day to day information down. This is a good starting point for getting organized and clearing your mind.

Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning everyone!! It is the start of a new fresh week! Hope everyone is doing well. 

This mornings quick tip is all about purging. When you come to a point that you are ready to get organized, you may also decide that it is time to get rid of things as well. There are three questions you should ask yourself when you are going through your items:

1. Do I want/like it?

2. Do I use it?

3. Do I need it? 

This will help you evaluate what items to keep and what to toss or donate. If the answer to two out of the three is no, the item goes. If you are not totally sure, then stick the item in a "maybe" pile and come back at the end of your organizing session. 

What questions do you ask yourself when organizing/purging? 

Monday Morning Quick Tip- Magazines and Newspapers

Good morning! It's a new week and for me this week is going to be full of some changes to my routine! Going to be changing and adding things all throughout this month for a continued healthier lifestyle.

This mornings quick tip is all about those pesky magazines and newspapers that get piled up. Magazines and newspapers get saved for all sorts of reasons, maybe there is an article that you wanted to save or a design that you kept to implement in a room in the future. The problem comes from keeping the entire magazine. A lot of times when we find something in a magazine or newspaper we will keep the entire paper or magazine just for a couple of articles, or we get it in the mail and haven't read the magazine. They then get piled up in the corner and collect dust and make a room look cluttered.

Magazine's and Newspapers should be purged about once a month (or bi weekly depending how many magazines or papers you get). What I normally do (picture above) is pull my stack of magazines and papers and start pulling out any pictures or articles that I want to keep. I normally do this in our living room and have the tv on or a movie (this time it was Harry Potter :) ). I then take the article or picture that I have pulled out and put it in a notebook using some Mod Podge to glue it in. That way everything that I wanted to keep is in a central location. You can also use a binder with page protectors or a expandable file holder if either of those will work better for you.




This will look better and be less stressful in the long run to have everything in one location and tucked away rather than that stack of magazines piling up.

Monday Morning Quick Tip!

Good morning everyone!! It's a new week and a fresh start! This morning my quick tip to you has to do with the mail and the incoming box that I talked about last week.

I feel like a lot of people I talk to and a lot of what I have seen has to do with when paper comes in to the house it gets put anywhere and does not get sorted through. Thus, paper piles up everywhere. Usually the mail is one of the last things you get before walking in the door after a long day. At that point, usually all that is wanted is comfy clothes, a comfy couch and some food. I personally come home and have to just sit for a while before I am really able to do anything. Mail and other paperwork normally gets put on the first surface that you come in contact with right? Then it stays there until you can deal with it, no matter what "it" is. It could be junk mail, bills, paperwork, anything.

When you get the mail from your mailbox, the first thing you want to do is throw away any junk mail. Ask yourself, is this something I need? If not, trash (or shred) it goes. This should already clear out a number of pieces of paper. If you are not ready to deal with the paperwork and bills, in the incoming box it goes. The incoming box (as we talked about last week) should be somewhere right off your entrance.

By doing this extra simple step, you should see a lot less paper coming into your home, as well as a single location for the paper that does come into your house. Remember, the incoming box should be emptied once or twice a week depending on what your needs are.

Transformation Sunday- Kid's Room

I have a new post to bring you this week! Transformation posts are all about transforming and changing spaces. These posts will included before and after pictures of recent projects and a little information on what went into the transformation. 

This project was a really fun one for me. This room is being transformed into a kids lounge room. It will eventually have all of the gaming devices for the kids, will have the books they read, games, an art center for the younger one and just a generally lounge room for the kids to hang out in. What they originally had was not working for them. The biggest thing was just feeling cluttered. Everything was spread out all along the room in various spots and just feeling full of stuff. 

To start, I had the family bring all of the books that were throughout the house to this room. This creates one space for books to go. When I got there, we started pulling books of the shelves and sorting into piles based on age range for the books. We then cleaned up the shelves and started moving furniture around. By separating the unit out, the space was able to be used more effectively. It created a "larger" looking room and space. It really opened the room up. 

The finishing touches are going to be curtains, pictures and a few more accessories. Also, the gaming consoles will be finding their own home in the cubbies below the tv. 

Monday Morning Quick Tip- An Inbox System

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday! Let's get the week started off right!

This morning I am going to quickly talk about an "inbox" system. I firmly believe that everyone needs a "catch all". This is part of the catch all system. I have a sort of tray that I put paper in (picture included below). Anything that comes in to the house, that is paper and needs to be handled goes in to this tray. If it doesn't belong in the tray, chances are it doesn't need to come into the house (aka it goes in trash or recycling). I go through the tray twice a week (although this you can customize this based on your own needs). Mostly what goes in this tray are order forms, invoices, things for the blog or business, and cards. I then go through twice a week and sort through the tray to put everything where it needs to go.

This is something that I highly recommend to anyone I talk to or work with because a lot of time, things just go places. They go wherever there is room for it (or in some cases, where there isn't room) and it gets lost or overlooked. This system helps to handle that and if you put it somewhere where you see it constantly, you are going to want to empty it out and handle what has been put in it. This is a temporary place to put things that you do not have a chance to handle right at the moment you get them.

Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning!! It is time for the quick tip of the week!

This weeks quick tip is...to write everything down. You are more likely to remeber something if you actually write it down (and I don't mean put it in your phone, although that does work for some people). I prefer to have a small notebook with me as I write things down throughout the day. I also have a planner that I use as well in addition to my notebook. My planner normally stays at home on my desk and I transfer notes and appointments back and forth between my notebook and my planner. I have included a picture below of some of the notebooks and planners that I am currently using and have used in the past (a full review and further information will be written). 

So make sure that when you make an appointment or something comes to mind, that you write it down!

Note: I do not currently use every notebook pictured above!

Monday Morning Quick TIps

Welcome to the inaugural Monday Morning Quick Tip post! I am very excited to start bringing these posts to life and to share my passion with you! This first post is going to seem almost like common sense, but a lot of times I feel like this is really where it all starts...

Have you ever looked at your office (home or work) or your garage and said to yourself, "I really need to go through everything and clean it out"? Or maybe you looked at your closet (which could be overfilled) unsure of what to wear and how to find a good outfit. You may have wanted countless times to organize and clean out, but have never fully completed the task. It can be so overwhelming to look at everything that needs to be gone through and put away, that the task may not even get started before it is stopped. Or, you can convince yourself that the space it working well already the way it is (which it really could be).

This morning's tip is to START SMALL. Start with one section of a larger room. If you are looking at your office, make a goal that only one small section of the office is what you want to achieve in a certain time period.  If that is clearing off the paperwork and clutter from your desk, then that is what you want to achieve in the time set aside. However, make this goal reasonable and specific. Instead of "clearing off the paperwork and clutter from the desk", choose to "file necessary paperwork and shred/toss unnecessary paperwork". This type of goal is a perfect one to list as a weekly activity. Or, if you are looking at your closet, start small by organizing shoes, accessories, or short sleeve tops.

You may now be thinking, this was kind of a common sense tip that doesn't add much to what you already know. However, a lot of times I have seen people try to completely re organize a room in one sitting and quickly become frustrated that they don't seem to be accomplishing anything. They don't always remember that if you start small and do one portion at a time, you will see the improvements and be less frustrated at the end of the project.

Office Pictures

I have my pictures for my Office! I am very pleased with what I have right now and I'm working on my next project! We share an office, so the pictures are only of my side:

 The book shelf contains different school books and notebooks, books I've checked out from the library, some paperwork folders and books that I am currently reading. As well as pictures and trinkets on the top. It also has our wedding binder that I am still working on:

 On my desk, I try to keep as few items on a day-to-day basis. I can pull stuff out while I am working (obviously), but I make sure it is all put away before I leave the room. I have my desktop and laptop out, and my iPad is tucked in between the monitor and the wall. I keep a glass of water on my desk while I'm working. I also keep my daily planner, which you can see is on the edge of the desk (the black notebook).

I have several pictures and trinkets on the top of my desk. I enjoy being in this room and the space that has been created!

One of My Favorite Things

I love, love, love (!) to organize!! I organize to reorganize to reorganize. I am constantly thinking of new ideas for how things should be placed and new ways for things to look. I am starting to let this side of my flourish (mostly because we now have a house with more room) and I am having so much fun with it! The office area has been completely finished, pictures of it will be in the next post, and that was the last big area to do! Sorry if this post gets a little long!

Over the past two days, I have been helping a friend organize a couple areas of her house. She had one closet that she was unsure of and then they have a FROG that is being made a man cave. They have recently moved into their home (it may not be too recent) and these were the last area's to finalize.

For this project it wasn't necessarily a throw most of this stuff away, it was more of a lets make it look aesthetically pleasing so that the process can continue to be ongoing. A lot of it was collectible things, childhood memories, and work items. Now, we did go through and sort everything, I don't ever just take one box and put it in another just so that it looks nicer. There are certain times that you just can't go through everything (the relevant people aren't there, the particular boxes have memories attached that are not ready to be revisited, the items already have a place to go and have been sorted in a way that already works, etc). In those cases, I tend to go for what is the best place/way to showcase/store said items.

For the closet space, it was just a rearrangement to get the maximum use out of the space. For me it was a relatively straightforward project. I looked at what was there, pulled it all out, and found a couple things that we rehomed to another area. Then everything went back in in a way that guaranteed the most space would be available.

The FROG was a larger project (and not as straightforward). They have a great space up there! The space lends itself to entertaining people (there whole house really does) and media. We started by sorting and emptying all of the cardboard boxes. We placed the items into different piles by where the item belonged (e.g. desk, display, games, collectables, photos, childhood, etc.). Once everything was separated into the piles, we placed the furniture in the room just off of the main entertaining area in the FROG. We had to place a small desk and sectional in the room. My friend actually came up with the final placement of the furniture.

Once that was done we started sorting through the items in the piles. One of the largest piles (and one that we thought we could actually go through ourselves for the most part) was desktop. We separated the desk items out again into piles of what they were (loose leaf items to go through, hard drives, supplies, computer software, etc.). They had a couple of nice milk crates to use as well as a couple of "file box" looking boxes that we were able to use. Once that was done we placed them in the office/desk area. We placed some items under the desk towards the back, some were more open due to what was in them.

The collectibles went into a large plastic bin to be sorted and displayed at a later date. Shelves are going to be added to that small room so that items can be displayed. The childhood memories and other toys were put into bins as well and into an eave off of the main area. These items will be used later on when they have children. The cords all went together in a milk crate type box and all of the gaming items were placed next to the tv to be set up.

The photo's and different memory items that they have were sorted through and what was kept is now in a box that will be put in a safe place for storage. You cannot always display all the photos that you would like to (and sometimes you keep photos and other items as a nostalgia and don't want to display them at all), a box area is good for those because they can be kept out of the way. The only way I would put photo's and memory items in photo albums is if you were going to display them. They do keep pictures in good condition however I feel that a photo album is just begging to be displayed.

The last items for them to go through are what we categorized as "display" items. They were posters, pictures, frat items, dart boards, etc. That was something that they will have to go through and decide on a placement. I can only say where things should go on my personal opinion and what I think would work out best.

I was very impressed at the work that went on and what it looks like now! They are still waiting on getting the pool table put together and that will help finalize some of the other items that are still waiting.

Organization does not have to mean throw everything away (or mass amounts) it's just repurposing what you have, and finding new ways of storing items. I love doing it and love seeing how things come together in new ways. I can't wait till I can do it again!