Thursday, April 17, 2008

The bow tree and closet peace...

With two girls, bows are not a past time! They are crammed everywhere and even with a drawer just for bows - the girls always like to take out their bows after school and put them - ?. I have purchased more bows and hair bands than I can remember! The tree is a year round decoration in our kitchen area, but I put it in their rooms for Christmas.

While taking out the girl's hair one night I stuck their bows on the tree because I didn't have any other place for it at that time. The tree is now a permanent fixture in their room and a very very easy place to put their bows - either on their own or through a little reminder. The photo I took with it on top of the girl's dresser because I could get the angle better - but in actuality it sits on the floor.


The time it is taking to get my house in order is unbelievable. I can't believe how unorganized I really was - shocked really. The key to order in our house was brought up by my husband. He said that we always have good intentions and even go so far as to input some of our goals - but we are really bad at execution. Taking our resolution and goal and sticking with it and making changes where we need to make them.


One thing we always had trouble executing was the order behind the closed doors - closets, refrigerators - drawers! If we could cram it and shut it, we were fine! OK, that's how I used to think! There is something so peaceful about opening a closet door and finding this...


Instead of a messy crammed space. I threw away two garbage bags full of things from my closet in my bedroom and this one in the hall closet. I even had to pull in one of our garbage cans inside to get everything thrown away.


I decided that towels were a nuisance in our hall closet. We had too many to fit in the space and too many other things that needed to fit neatly inside. I took all of our daily towels, rolled them, and put them in a white basket outside of our bathroom door. We also have a shelf inside the bathroom where we can fold our wash clothes and extra towels - or put them on the towel rack.




The next thing I tackled was the out of date medicine and vitamins and yes there were a few with an expiration label of 6/2001. I threw out any make-up I hadn't used in six months, lotions, and other items that were "stored" in our closets just in case. In the end, the mess I threw away allowed space for compartmental bins, labels, and some extra space at the bottom to store things that just didn't fit anywhere else.


I also completed the refrigerator and the girl's closet in their room - all in about 2.5 hours. One hour for the refrigerator, 45 minutes for the hall closet, 30 minutes for my bedroom closet, and only 15 minutes for the girl's closet!

30 day meal plan update:
My meal plan has been absolutely wonderful! Since I input our meal plan, I've had a few mistakes that I want to share with you:

Prep Time: Yes, I made a 30 day meal plan, but no I did not mark on the calendar the prep time for each dinner. For instance, I started to prepare a chicken dish around 4:00 p.m. one evening, when after reading the recipe it was actually supposed to be a six hour process in a crock-pot! oops! I also did this another time with a dinner that was supposed to cook for 12 hours! oops again! One of the nights I pulled off a potato and egg breakfast dinner (something my mom used to make us) and the other night I swapped it for sloppy joe's which was scheduled two weeks ahead at the end of this month. I am marking my prep time on my calender now!

Go jenn!


Also, I wanted to congratulate my sister who has just finished a 150 mile bike ride that she did with her husband! It's become quite a tradition for them and I think it's great that she is continuing this goal! Also, did I hear something about a triathlon in your future Jenn?!!!
Do you find peace in an organized closet?

2 comments:

Wendi said...

Love the bow tree. Clever idea.

I love organization. It's time to my closets again. Thanks for the reminder! =)

Marie said...

The bow tree is brilliant. Not just for storage of dozens of bows, but it is also a cute decoration for a girls room. Excellent.

I love organized closets. Yours look great. What is funny, is I keep my closets and drawers super organized, and the mess is all over my counter tops. We are oposites!