organizing

“Life changing?” we will see

| mollyeleen

So I have a little secret. Wait! Nothing like my Sneaky B secret (although she was a secret to us all) this is minor compared to that moment in life. This is a hidden secret.

99 percent of the time our home is picked up and relatively clean. Should you eat off my floors?- No.  Could you pop in and I not be mortified? – YES! However if you open a closet I just might die of embarrassment.  No really – it’s bad. See-

closetCollage

Did I just post these pictures?  Wow. I mean really… the holiday closet if off the charts of crazy. (OMG I really can’t believe I just shared this)

livingCollage

Pause – side note- this is the only closet you can open. Our bar. We turned the random coat closet in the living room into a bar. Fun right!

Back to crazy.

I think about these disaster closets often; thinking “today during sneaky b’s nap I will clean out the office closet.” I get mental prepared, gather garbage bags and boxes.  Then I open the door and think of 500 other things that I need to do more, close the door and walk away.

A few days ago I found this book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo.  Okay maybe I should find time to read this and maybe it will work. Maybe this is yet another form of procrastination? Of course it is. But maybe it will be “magic.”

After reading the book let’s just says it’s a little on the crazy side. A lot on the crazy side.  I’m not so sure about thanking every item in my closet for the work they have done for me. I already feel I need a straight jacket somedays, this might just put me over the top.  Then after thinking about it- maybe it will work. Truly Marie Kondo is famous in Japan. And her clients have had life changing experiences from her method of tidying up. And I do like a new “gimmick” Okay it’s on.

Tomorrow morning I start. NO this is not yet another procrastination. The books says it’s best to start working early in the morning when your energy and your things energy have been rested. So I take on my closet. I will share. We will see how life changing this is… fingers crossed

Improving the recipe situation

| mollyeleen

If you are at all like me, you might possibly have a mountain of printed out, ripped out and scribbled down recipes in a pile or magazine file. This makes me bonkers! It takes for ever and a day to find what I am looking for, usually I give up and make something boring for dinner, “Yes stir fry again”

IMG_5695So this is no secret, organizing recipes.  I choose to go with a binder, plastic pages and divider tabs.  This mountain only took an hour to organize (why didn’t I do it sooner!) and it brings me such joy.

IMG_5696One of my “to do’s” for the 2013 is to have a meal plan every week for dinner. I can see the logic in this, shopping at the market once a week, knowing what you are doing when it’s 530pm and your family is used to eating at 6pm. Meal planning will be a big improvement for me.  I started this week, and so far so good.  I am not one who plans Monday we will have this and Wednesday it’s that, this is just a bit too organized for me, what if I am not in the mood for that on Wednesday.   Anyway, I just choose seven meals and then cross them off while I go.

Today while organizing the recipes, I thought it would be great if I could keep the weekly meal plan in front of the binder, writing it out on a sperate page every week seemed like a bit much (funny I know) so I thought what if a dry easer pen works on a binder… guess what, it does! Happy day! This little discovery makes me so happy (sad but true).

IMG_5701Off to make dinner, hum I think it will be Arabian Lentil soup, oh and my recipe is right there in the binder on the counter… ah a total improvement!

This is day 3 of "Improving our little world in 31 days" you can read them all here
This is day 3 of “Improving our little world in 31 days” you can read them all here