Recipe Binder!!

Do you ever feel like you are making the same meals over and over again? I was in this funk. We have our family favorites, our quick meals, and our "oops I forgot to thaw the meat" meals. I have been reading some of my favorite blogs for meals, searching online and looking on Pinterest. I have found some great meals and have been trying several out, but my recipe binder was in desperate need of a make-over. Plus all the new recipes I was printing out were being thrown into the cabinet.

I knew the first thing I wanted to do was find some cute, colorful binders. I scored these at Target and also picked up some new tabbed dividers. I of course had to add some Washi tape to the tabs.

 

While I was in my favorite office store, Office Depot, I found these 4x6 photo page protectors. I knew these would be perfect to slip my recipes in. Also several sites I have been printing recipes from have the option to print the recipe in a 4 x 6 format. It also has a narrow pocket great for those recipes you cut out of a magazine.

I broke out my label maker and labeled all the tabs for my categories. My first binder is all my main meals for dinner organized by the main meat in the recipe. My second binder (that I still have to finish) will be all my

 sides, salads, and desserts.

I began the project by going through my recipes, throwing out the ones that we did not oooh and ahhh over, or the ones that I never made, that sounded good at the time, but now don't sound that great anymore. I also trimmed them down. The pictures are nice to look at and can even encourage me but I felt I really didn't need them and they took up space. For my larger recipes I placed them on one sheet of scrapbook paper and slipped them into a full sheet page protector. I like using page protectors because if I splash while cooking they are easy to wipe off. 

 

I also added color dots to some recipes. Green dots meant the recipe was yummy, red dots meant the recipe required marination (I can't tell you how many times I went to make a recipe only to find out the meat needed to marinate for x amount of hours....grrr!) blue dots meant it was a kid favorite meal (those are hard to come by in my family) and yellow dots meant the recipe was a slow cooker or a long cook time recipe.

I also color coded my each section to help easily identify them. Plus I did not want to see the back of the recipes I cut out of magazines. I needed it to be neat and pretty! 

I put a pocket folder in the front to keep the recipes I have printed out but not tried. Once I try them if we like them I will find a home for them in the binder.

I hope you picked up some helpful tips on how to organize your recipes! I would love to see what you came up with and how you organize yours!

Happy Organizing!

TV Cart - Thinking Outside The Box!

When we moved into our new home we made sure we got the new TV but did not have the new TV cart. We thought it would be easy to find a cart we liked as there was so many to choose from.....wrong!! We found we didn't like the color, the knobs, the storage, but most of all the height was an issue for us. You see when we moved in we of course couldn't have the TV on the floor and I came home to this temporary fix that my husband came up with.

Yep.....that's my sofa table! The last 4 months I have been looking at this mess of a set up, and it was almost enough to put me over the edge! Look at all those cords!! That was screaming at me to be organized!

The remotes were driving me crazy as well. They did not have a home and ended up all over the table, our sofa, or ottoman. Also we had no where to put DVD's so a basket was holding them to at least keep them tidy.

Since a sofa table is higher than most TV carts we got used to the TV being up high. Here is were our next problem came into play. None of the TV carts we even remotely liked were high enough. To give you a sense of the height here is a picture compared to our rocker/recliner.

One day while at Costco (we really need to stay out of that place) I cut down the aisle that had the bedroom furniture. I stopped dead in my tracks as a haze lit up around the perfect TV cart and angels started to sing....ok well maybe it didn't happen quite like that but I was giddy, that's for sure! The TV cart/TV dresser is made for the bedroom and is higher, I guess because you would be watching TV from your bed. I always have to step out of the norm and instantly could picture it in my family room. Who would have thought to look at bedroom sets to find a TV cart for your family room - thinking outside the box!

 

I love it!!! The storage for the media was perfect, I love the drawers, the height was a bit higher than we wanted but loved it after a day of watching TV, and the best part...............all those cords are now neat and out of sight!! The remote and DVD's now have a home in the drawers. Another project off my to-do list!

Happy Organizing!!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I thought I would share with you what I did with my prize that I won from the Organizing Revolution Challenge. I won first place for my organized playroom and won Joys complete home filing system. I have begun to use her tickler system.

There are 3 types of tickler systems, daily, weekly and action tickler. I choose to use the weekly system. Joys tickler files comes with downloadable tabs but I created my own with my favorite Washi tape! I have to have things bright and full of color because it makes me happy and I am more

 likely to use them. 

Here is what I took from the system: the weekly system has 5 file folders up front labeled week 1 through 5 and then 12 file folders labeled January - December. You put anything you need to do, like call on a doctor bill, make the kids dentist appointment, a card you need to send out that week....anything in that weeks folder. So in the examples above the doctor bill would have come in the mail so you stick the paperwork in the week folder, the dentist might have sent a friendly reminder that the kids are due for their cleaning so I would stick the post card in the week file. If you have something in your mind that needs to get done but no "paper" to go with it I just use a post card.

At the beginning of the week I go into the folder and see what I need to get done. If I don't get something done that week I move it to the next week. If I got a task done I move it to the "to be filed" folder at the back of my files if it needs to filed or throw it away. The monthly folders I used to put tasked that don't need to be done right now. For example the doctor reminder that comes in the mail today. Your calendar is booked for the rest of February so you would place it in March. I also put my cards that need to be

 sent out that month. 

When the month is coming to an end about 3 days before I begin to set myself up for the next months weeks. I pull my March folder and sort thru the tasks and arrange them by priority. I then drop them in the week folder I want them in. 

So far this system has been wonderful! I highly suggest it! I have been more on top of things and before I was clipping the "paperwork" to the cork board, fridge, and writing it down a gazillion times! Now I have a nice, neat place to keep all that important "paperwork" and it is helping me stay on top of it!

Washi Tape - I LOVE, LOVE it!!

Washi tape! Have you seen it? Have you used it? For those of you who don't know what Washi tape is, the best way I can describe it would be to compare it to masking tape, but with a pretty color or design on it. It is also some what transparent, and the best part about Washi tape is it is removable and can be re-positioned if you didn't tape it down just right. 

I had to see what all the hype was with this tape. I bought my first rolls at Target (they sell 4 rolls in a pack for $4.00!). I was hooked and began to go on a hunt for more colors and styles! I was some what disappointed that my local craft stores and big name stores did not have the tape or had a very little selection. So I went to my trusty friend Google! Wow! There are hundreds of sites that sell Washi tape! 

My next thought was "What do I do with this?" I began to play with it on my own and also looked at Pinterest for ideas. I began to get carried away with it and I do believe I now have a Washi tape addiction!

I used it on my tickler file folders (they are so pretty now). I just added the tape on the folder file and trimmed it. Then I used my label maker with clear tape!

I label the bazillion cords we have. Now when I am looking for my iPhone charger, tablet charger, or camera charger they are easy to find. I wrapped the tape around the cord and just used my label maker again. My boys are starting to have electronic gadgets, and I will be labeling their cords with their names so my cords don't disappear!

I had a small scrapbook album that I could not decide how I should design the cover.....insert Washi tape here!!! I just wrapped several pieces around the cover.

We had some friends coming over and I decided to make cupcakes. Of course I remembered seeing the cute flags for food on Pinterest so I had to do that. I wrapped the tape around a toothpick, trimmed the end to make it look like a flag and then punched up a few Valentines Day words on my label maker to slap on my flags!

I labeled my caddy that holds all my daily pens, scissors, dry erase cleaner and markers and post it notes

I am currently working on re-doing my recipe binder (post to come later on this!) so of course I wanted my tabs to look pretty!

 

I am constantly finding new ways to use this awesome tape! My question to all my Washi tape lovers out there is how are you storing your tape? I don't have many now so I am using this 3 layer snap case but I know I will be out growing that soon!

Happy Organizing!

Visual, Audtory or Tactical Person

Are you a visual person? Do you learn thing better if they are hands on or can you read or hear instruction and go to work? I am a visual learner for sure! I learn, comprehend and remember things better if I visually see it.

Let me tell you a story about my "Mom of the year" moment. I am sitting at my computer, doing homework. There is a knock at the front door. I see a child peeking in the window. As I get closer I see my son peeking in the window. It's 2:00pm. I open the door and ask "Nathan what are you doing here? What's wrong?" He replies, "you never came to get me at school!" Then the "OMG it was an early release day" sets in!. Now what's worse in this story is my neighbor asked if I could pick up her kids too as the internet guy would be at her house and she couldn't leave. So not only did I forget to get my kid I forgot to get my neighbors kids too! Yep Mom of the year award goes to.....ME! I felt terrible! Thank God we live less than a block from the school and our kids were smart enough to walk straight home. After apologizing to my neighbor a gazillion times and making sure her kids made it home ok I began the thought process.....how did I forget that. It was written in my planner but that's the problem. My planner is not in front of me all the time. It floats around the house.

Part two of the story: Paper is consuming me and my kitchen. Lately the paperwork the kids bring home from school, and the mail is turning my breakfast bar into a desk. It is driving me crazy. In our old house I clipped important things to my fridge and always had a calendar posted. This calendar was more for my husband, so he could see what the kids and I had going on and could stay in the loop. Or so I thought. After today's incident I realized that I need a visual calendar, visual spot to jot down important reminders and some where to stash the paperwork!!!

The first thing I did was find this super cute free printable on 

Pinterest from The Tomkat Studio

 

I put all the kids school dates on it, birthdays, anniversary, plans, and appointments. The next thing I did was go on a hunt for some organization tool to calm my chaos of paperwork. I came across this 
awesome goodie at Target.

I knew it would work. Each child has a place for their school work, I can jot down important reminders on the whiteboard, I pinned our calendar, menu and Hawks schedule (we are big hockey fans). Now every day I can SEE what is going on in my week and hopefully I will never forget an
 early release day again!  

How do you organize paper and remember important dates?

Happy Organizing!

Spice Organization

A friend of mine asked me how I organize my spices. Like this:

I label all my spices so I don't have to pick up a gazillion jars to find the one I am looking for. I place them in one of my pull out drawers in one of my kitchen cabinets. It makes it so easy to pull the drawer out and find what I am looking for and is a great time saver.

How do you organize your spices? What works for you? 

Happy Organizing!

Organizing the Playroom!!

 This week I worked on the playroom. My kids are the luckiest kids in the world as we finished the basement in our new house just for them. They pretty much have the run of the basement, for now. 

Clean up time can make or break us! My youngest always needed direction when cleaning up, what to pick up and where to put it. I dreamed about the day that I could say clean up time and my boys would just do it. 

Well that day has come, after some organization happened. So let's dive right in. Here is the playroom area before me moved in. A lot of space and I knew if it wasn't organize it would be a sea of toys in no time.

In comes Ikea. I love their goodies! My husband and I went there for my scraproom and the playroom. We have a lot of Legos here.....I mean a lot! My son is a Lego engineer, and is always building so I knew I wanted a space for him to store, display, and build. So we created a Lego area.

I love the Ikea piece I picked out. It has bins for all his legos, and he can display what he has built on top. My son and I separated all his Legos by color, and gave them a bin. I then label by color so the youngest can find the color, and put the right color Lego in the bins. We even have some empty bins to grow the Lego collection. The table from Ikea is nice and wide and gives both of them plenty of space to build. 

I am currently in school to become a teacher so of course I have a school area! After school, and after snack, we come down to do our homework. Each child has a bin (labeled with their name) with a pencil, dry erase marker, eraser, scissors and glue stick so we don't waste time getting our supplies out. Next to our table I have a 4 drawers that hold our supplies, markers in one, other supplies in another, paper in one, and our learning flash cards in the bottom drawer. I use clear plastic bins to hold our coloring items, and the other two hold our school workbooks. The kids seemed to pull out coloring/workbooks when they can see them. The kids get their homework done and out of the way giving them more playtime later and I fulfill my passion to teach! Even my youngest saves his preschool homework so he can do it with the big kids! 

The next area I had to conquer was the the toy area. Before we moved we had bin after bin after bin of toys! As we packed our old house I had the kids go through their toys, and pick what they were ready to give away. They did great at this! In our old house I had used one of the Ikea Expedit bookcase and laid it on it's side. I purchased baskets and all our toys went in there. It worked for us so I knew I would be using that system again. We purchased two of them, put the baskets in, and filled them with toys. Each bin contained certain toys, and I wanted the boys to put them away in the right bins. I searched the internet for a picture of the items that belong in that bin, printed it out, cut, laminated, and tied them onto the bins. The kids love it! The picture helps my youngest one know what items go in the bin and my oldest is starting to read so he love to read the tags. When we change the toys in the bin we change the tag! It also helps when our kid's friends come over! 

I also have my DIY chalkboard table. That was such a fun project and you can go here to read about it, and see my before and after pictures. The kids love to draw on the table, and their easel is near by to continue their imagination.

What's behind door number two.....storage. We kept part of the basement unfinished for storage. In here is our old Expedit and I have filled most of the bins with toys. When the boys are bored with the toys in the toy area they can just switch out the bins. The shelves hold all of our games, some larger toys too big for the bins, and the plastic bins hold toys that we can rotate into the bins when we do a toy swap.

I love how our playroom is evolving. We still have ideas that we want to put in place but my main focus was to give my children a space of their own and organize it in a way that would make it easy for the kids to take care of their space. Clean up time is no longer a struggle

 (well we have our days here and there). 

 Happy Organizing!!!