Organization: Linen Closet

I hate this closet. I have always hated this closet. No matter how many ways I've stacked the towels, and folded the sheets, it's always a disaster. Each shelf ends up heaping with random things that just get stuffed into the closet, which makes it nearly impossible to find what you need.

I hadn't planned on organizing this closet today, mostly because I like to pretend it doesn't exist, but I was going through things for an upcoming garage sale and knew there were some things in here that I needed to get rid of. I had full intentions of just snatching the items out of the closet and slamming the door shut. Instead, I ended up attacking this mess head on and hopefully solving the problem for good!

I started out by completely emptying the closet and pulling out the items we no longer use or need. It was a little bittersweet saying good-bye to my Snoogle. Not because I ever plan on being pregnant again, but that thing was just so darn comfortable! With just the items we need remaining, I re-folded everything and start the jigsaw puzzle of putting everything back in.

On the top shelf I stacked our extra comforters, quilts and pillows. On the second shelf are the extra sets of sheets for our beds. Nobody, and I mean nobody (other than maybe Martha Stewart) can actually fold a fitted sheet so that it looks nice every time. Solution - fold the fitted sheet, flat sheet, and 1 pillow case, and slide them all inside the second pillow case. It make a pretty little package and all the matching pieces are together!

The third shelf houses our extra towels and table cloths. On the floor of the closet we have old towels that we use in the dogs' kennels or on the kitchen chair that the cat likes to sleep on. For the love of all things holy, why must cats always sleep on a kitchen chair?! I have a thing for holiday tea towels, and am starting to amass quite the collection. To keep them neat-ish and separate from our bath towels, I dumped them all into a plastic bin from Dollarama.

Finally I can breathe when I open this door. It no longer makes me cringe when I need a new tea towel, or when it's time to change the bed sheets. One less disaster zone in the house is a win for me! What area in your home is driving you crazy lately?

For more organization posts, click here!

Organization: Bathroom Vanity

It's been awhile since I did an organization post and it's not because I haven't been organizing. I keep forgetting to take before photos so I was wasn't going to post about my projects, but I decided it might still be helpful to see how I organize different areas. I'm still in a major purge phase and I'm loving watching all the stuff leave the house. I feel like the house is finally starting to keep itself more tidy, which means I must be getting close to having just what we need in the house!

Okay, so this is the bathroom that I use to get ready every day. This is literally all the storage there is in this room. As you can tell from the weird paint job (we replaced the vanity after we painted) this room isn't quite finished. I had planned on waiting to organize this room until it was done, but it was just getting to the point that it wasn't functional anymore, so I couldn't wait any longer.

This isn't the first time I've attempted to organize my medicine cabinet. I think the go to method is to line up your products in pretty rows on the shelves in the cabinet. Sounds great right? Wrong! You know the first time you pull out that deodorant from the middle of the row that whole thing is coming down. Then you end up shoving everything back in there because you have other things to do. Solution? Utensil drawer organizers! I found these clear ones at Dollarama and they fit perfectly onto the shelves.

I tried to group like items together, so in the bottom tray are all my cleansers, makeup remover, scrubs, and razors. On the middle shelf are my hair things, and on the top shelf is a random package of wax strips. As I look at this photo now I know for a fact I could probably throw those bad boys away because I don't remember the last time I used them....

On this side I have all my moisturizers, lip balms, toothbrush, cup and toothpaste on the bottom shelf. In the middle is my selection of deodorants (I know, it's excessive, but I was trying out some aluminum free ones), perfume, Beauty Blender and the cleanser for the blender. The top shelf houses all of my face masks. The bottom shelf is a prime example of why the trays are a must have. All of those tiny containers are standing, laying, stuffed and shoved into that tray, but it still looks organized because it's all in one spot and not falling out of the cabinet!

I'm so proud of this drawer! The back story; I have a makeup problem. I LOVE makeup! I love wearing makeup, and buying makeup and possessing makeup. I had eye shadow in every color of the rainbow and blushes in every hue of pink. Half (or more) of which I never or rarely wore. So I took some time on my bathroom floor and really looked at what I used on a regular basis and what I never touched. I packed up all the things I knew I wasn't going to use and let my friends root through the box and take what they wanted. Was the stuff I gave away expensive? Yes, but keeping it in the drawer didn't keep the money in my pocket.

So this is what I'm left with! I found these plastic containers at Dollar Tree and they fit perfectly into my drawer. The top bin has all my eye products like brow pencils, mascara, liner, etc. Under that is a bin of brushes, a bin for blushes (I love me some blush), and a bin for face products like foundation and powders. There are a couple small eye shadow palettes at the front of the drawer, two stuck in with the blushes, and my two larger palettes at the back of the drawer. The kids love digging through this drawer when I get ready so it doesn't always look this nice, but it only takes me a few minutes to put it back together even when they completely destroy it.

This last drawer is a bit of a hodge podge of things. One of these bins is filled with lipsticks, and the other is nail products. The mess in the back of the drawer are my makeup bags for travel as well as my brush roll.

Yup I went there, I'm showing you under my sink. I feel like this is a no-fly zone in most bathrooms, but the bins make all the difference. All my brushes and combs are in one bin, and all my hair products and tools are in another. No more searching for a comb in the morning and when I'm done I just toss it into the bin! And at long last I don't have my flat iron cord wound around every bottle in the cabinet!

Finally I have found a solution that has kept my vanity clean and organized! I promise that if you use bins and baskets to organize your vanity, you will only have to do it once and it will stay organized! What's better than a self cleaning vanity? Well, obviously a self cleaning toilet when you have a little boy learning to aim. If I figure that one out I'll be sure to share it too.

To see more organization posts, click here.

How to live without paper towel!

I'm almost positive that you can find paper towel in just about every house in North America. It's become a staple but I HATE it. Why? Well for starters it's never as absorbent as they say. Whenever I watch a paper towel ad on TV I'm constantly reading the find print at the bottom of the screen so I can point out how their experiment is bogus. So you end up using a giant wad of cash (essentially) to wipe up cat puke. The other reason I hate paper towel is that I can't keep a big enough supply in the house. I feel like I'm constantly buying paper towel and it lasts for all of a week. Even the gigantic Costco bales of paper towel never last as long as I think they should.

My hatred of paper towel grew to such an extreme level that I decided I was done. I wasn't buying it anymore. Which left me asking, now what? I obviously still needed something to wipe up those spills, pet messes, and to clean the house with. I was watching an episode of Clean My Space when it hit me; microfiber cloths!! Why had this never occurred to me? I had considered using tea towels, but they aren't very effective at cleaning and I don't have a massive stash of them.

So I headed out to Canadian Tire and bought a bundle of 15 microfiber clothes (similar to these - affiliate link). *Money Saving tip - look for them in the car care section, they are usually WAY cheaper there than in the home cleaning section! The cloths ended up working out to about $0.75 per cloth, which I thought was a great deal! The tricky part was figuring out how to store these bad boys. I knew that if I tossed them into our black hole of a linen closet I was never going to see them again. I also didn't want a vomit rag lounging amongst my laundry for the week waiting to be washed.

Dollar Tree to the rescue!! I picked up these colored bins, one for clean cloths and one for dirty and labeled them as such so there was no confusion and because I'm just a little obsessed with labels. I stuck them under my kitchen sink with the cleaning supplies and voila, my very own cleaning centre! Now I can use the cloths to clean up any mess I have, and when they get too dirty to use, I pop them into the other bin. *NOTE: Let really wet towels dry for a bit before tossing them in, or you'll have creatures growing in there! When the "dirty" bin gets full, I toss it in the wash with our microfiber mop head.

This system has been working extremely well for us. The best part? I will never have to buy paper towel again! Take that you evil, lying, Sponge Pockets!

Organize it, organize it all!!!!!

I can't pinpoint exactly what started this organizing adventure, but now that I've started I don't want to stop. I recently started listening to podcasts while I'm at work or washing dishes, and have really fallen in love with ClutterBug.me. Cass has a blog and Youtube channel in addition to her podcasts, and she is a fountain of knowledge and advice! Her podcasts and videos have been a great help in figuring out where to start.

For me I find that when the house is in a state of chaos my mind is also a wreck. I feel like I'm going in 10 different directions and I'm not quite sure what I should be doing. Not to mention it makes cleaning a momentous task that I try to avoid like to plague because it takes FOREVER. I also find that the clutter makes the house feel claustrophobic. If you think about it, when you see pictures of beautifully staged homes in magazines or on Pinterest, there is never a ton of stuff in the room. Just the base essential furniture and a couple décor items or accent pieces. We Pin those photos to our "dream house" board and wish we lived in a house like that. But we can by getting rid of the clutter!! Nobody wants their house to look like an episode of Hoarders. At the same time there are things that I don't want to get rid of, so I need to find an attractive way to store them so it doesn't look so cluttered.

The first thing I did before I got started was purge! Get rid of anything you don't need. That giant mixing bowl I got when I graduated high school that I could literally bathe Roman in and I've never used, time to sell it. All those toys Roman gets in his Happy Meals that I keep because maybe one day he'll want to play with it again, donate them. The tank tops that I've been hanging on to because there might be an occasion at some point I want to wear it to, let's face it, it's never coming. When I stopped thinking about how much things cost, who gave it to me, and emotional attachment to things, it was a lot easier to get rid of things. A lot of this stuff has been with us since we moved into our house three years ago, and if I haven't used it in three years, obviously I never will.

If you're house is anything like mine, organizing on a large scale is no small task. I know it's going to take a long time to go through everything and get it all sorted and looking all purdy. My plan of attack is to tackle small areas at a time; entertainment stand, toy bins, baking cupboard. If I didn't have two kids "helping" me, I would probably attempt to do entire rooms at a time, but for the time being I think small is the way to go.

On the topic of getting rid of things and living with less. I recently made a trip to my favoritest (yes I know that's not a word) store in the whole, wide world; Dollarama! It also happens to be Roman's favorite store as well. Usually I let him pick something out because "it's only $1.25", but on this trip I decided we weren't getting anything. With my purging going so well, I didn't want to bring more stuff into the house. Of course Roman asked for something in just about every isle. I explained to him that we were just looking today and that we weren't buying anything. I managed to make it out of the store with him without and major meltdowns, which was actually pretty spectacular. Having Roman listen when I say "no" is something we've been struggling with so I was really proud of him. As we left the store, with all our tears still in our tear ducts, I couldn't help but notice the feeling of.... what's the word I'm looking for....relief, that I felt leaving the store. Which is a really odd feeling to get when you leave a store. I mean, it's not like there are high-pressure, commissioned sales people working at Dollarama trying to sell me another chatchkie that I really don't need. It was eye opening to me to finally see that I really didn't need the things that I usually buy. I've been buying things that I think I'll have a use for at some point, and then they just take up space in the house. So from now on I'm only going to buy things that I have a use for at that exact moment. I'm really hoping writing that last sentence down, and sharing it with the world, makes it easier...

Okay, I'm starting to sound crazy, but I think it's time to wrap this ramble up. I'll link all the organization posts I do at the bottom of this post so that they are easily accessible if you're interested to see how it all works out. At the very least you should probably check them out because it's the only time you will ever see photos of some of the dark corners of the house that I NEVER let people see, mostly because they are a disaster.

Organization: Under the Sink
Organization: Dressers
Organization: Bathroom Vanity
Organization: Linen Closet

Organization: Dressers

I love that Roman can get himself ready for the most part in the morning, but something choosing his clothes takes forever. He has to dig through all the shirts to find the exact one he's looking for, only to change his mind and try to find another one. Folding shirts every day gets old really fast.

I knew there had to be an easier way to deal with his dresser drawers but I didn't know where to start. I was watching the Clean My Space YouTube channel when I came across a video about folding t-shirts so you can see the design on the front. Ah ha!!! Exactly what I needed to know! This video has forever changed how I organize Roman and Bianca's dressers. I'm sure I'll eventually apply this system to my drawers as well, I just haven't gotten that far.

The key to this whole system is the folding of the shirts. The kids' clothes are still small enough that I can easily fold them on my favorite folding book, but once they get a little bigger, or if I actually get to my clothes, then I'll buy myself a folding board. Not only does folding the shirts this way look nice but they actually take up a lot less space than stacking them on top of each other.

I try to organize Roman's shirts the best I can by putting all the same type of shirt (short sleeve, sleeveless, collared) in the same column. If you don't have enough of the same type of shirt to make an entire column you could use drawer dividers to separate them, or use a square of heavy cardboard to separate them. Don't like the look of cardboard? Try wrapping it in fabric so it doesn't look like cardboard!

Roman has more pairs of pjs than anyone I have ever known. So to keep them organized I put all the tops in one column and all the bottoms in another column, with the corresponding pieces beside each other. This might just be my OCD kicking in, but I can't stand when Roman's pjs don't match. Which doesn't make any sense at all because nobody actually sees him in them anyway. But in my world you can't have a Ninja Turtle top with monster truck bottoms, you just can't!

I take the same approach with Roman's pants and shorts. His pants are folded in thirds so they stand up as well. I organize them into jeans, sweatpants, and other casual pants. Because he doesn't have a ton of shorts they all just hang out together in a separate drawer, along with his swim clothes.

So that's how I organize the clothes for the littles. I find folding the clothes this way takes a little more time on laundry day, but it saves a ton of time when I'm trying to get everyone dressed and out the door. Hopefully you found this helpful and you don't just think I'm a crazy lady who has too much time on her hands.

Organization: Under the Sink

I'm sure the thought of cleaning and organizing the cupboard under your sink has you on the edge of your seat. I know, I know, it's not the most exciting topic but it's a project I wanted to share. Why? Because having unorganized cupboards/drawers in my kitchen and house drives me up a wall! I feel like I have all this mental clutter because I know there is a disaster hiding behind the door that is just waiting to drive me bananas the next time I need some cleaning solution.

After watching Roman dig through a wall of plastic bags while trying to find the bin of dish tabs, I decided that I had to do something about the dreaded cupboard before I lost my son in the chaos. So I made a quick trip to Dollar Tree and picked up a few baskets to help me organize this space.

 

I started by pulling everything out from under the sink to see what I was dealing with. It really was a mix of things; plastic bags, water bottles, bug spry, lemonade mix, even a vase. For some reason this cupboard becomes our catch all for the things we don't really have a place for, like the lemonade mix, probably not the first place you'd look for it in a house. I also found quite the collection of gift bags and reusable shopping bags. I do have places for these but obviously they just got tossed in here at some point and became lost in the sea of plastic bags. Finding empty boxes in cupboards really makes me twitch, and this cupboard didn't disappoint. Why must we keep empty boxes?!?!? Breath Kendra, breath.



I did actually find some things that belong under the sink like cleaning supplies and garbage bags. To keep the sponges and bottles together and prevent them from drifting to the back of the cupboard never to be seen again, I put them into these little blue bins. It also makes it super handy to grab the entire bin when I'm cleaning. Plastic bags are a constant struggle. We like to keep a bunch on hand because they're super handy for cleaning out the litter box, but they can get out of control really fast. Enter the most versatile basket in the world! I have one of these bins in my car and in the tub to hold all Roman's toys. If you have kids, you need this basket!

 

To finish it all up, I simply lined everything up along the front of the cupboard so we can see what is in there and reach it easily. I'm actually surprised at how much room their is in this cupboard now. Before I organized it the back two feet was literally filled with plastic bags. Even as I type this post, just knowing that this cupboard looks this pretty now makes my soul happy. Yes I know, I'm a little weird. And it's obviously late if an organized junk cupboard makes me this happy. I should probably go to bed...

 

*Update*

I ended up adding two more baskets under the sink. One for clean microfiber cloths and one for dirty. This way I know where all the clean cloths are, and when the dirty basket gets full I can toss it in with the laundry.



Flooring Marathon

Better get yourself a drink because this is going to be a loooong post!

It's been a minute since I last had a post about home renovations. John and I haven't done much to the house since we painted the entire thing when Roman was 6 months old. We've wanted to replace the flooring in the house since the day we moved in. Like most of the house, the flooring is stuck in the 70's and has seen better days.

The original plan was to replace the carpet in the bedrooms, living room and hallway with new carpet, and replace the linoleum in the kitchen and bathrooms with laminate. We had a few companies come in and give us estimates for the carpet and we were stunned at the prices they were giving us. $5,000 was WAY more than we wanted to spend on carpet, especially when we still had the basement to contend with (which was going to be another $5,000 for carpet). I know a lot of people don't like carpet, but when you have a clumsy toddler and a baby that will soon be learning to crawl and walk, I really wanted carpet for the bounce factor.

I was planning on painting the dressers in our bedroom (post will come whenever it actually gets done), and I'm a bit of a paint snob (I only use Valspar because it's AMAZING!), so we all made the trip to Regina to pick up a couple cans from Lowes. Since we had already made they trip, and Roman was enjoying driving the car cart around, we decided to detour to the flooring section to see what they had. After petting all of the nice carpet samples, I follow John into the laminate section. I immediately found the exact laminate that I wanted for the bathrooms and kitchen. We had no intentions of purchasing flooring that day but as luck would have it, that flooring was on sale for $1.99/sq ft! So, our trip for two cans of paint turned into the purchase of enough laminate flooring to do the main floor and basement of the house. Eventually we will replace the carpet in the bedrooms with new carpet, but that will happen eventually.

The flooring we went with was allen & roth Provence Oak. It has a good amount of wood grain to it which we love. and it's the perfect taupe color. Not too grey, not too brown, so it can go with either cool or warm toned furniture and wall colors. I really wanted something that would grow with us and wouldn't clash with paint or furniture in 10 years, because we plan on keeping this flooring until the kids/animals destroy it, or are out of the house.

We decided to start with the basement because John could do a bit after work and on the weekends and it wouldn't disrupt daily life with the kids. Plus it was mainly bare concrete down there so it didn't involve much prep work. We piled all the furniture into what will eventually be the toy room and John started laying floor in the living room.

If you've ever laid click together laminate flooring then you know it isn't exactly a quiet job. We were extremely lucky, and surprised, that both kids slept right through all the hammering and sawing in the basement. John managed to get a lot done in the evenings the first week. Of course on the weekend John had a special helper. Roman was very excited to help install the new flooring. John helped him put on his "hard working pants" aka sweat pants, and they got to work. Roman actually stayed down there most of Saturday and was a great help at handing John boards and tools. He even got pretty good at taking measurements for John, problem was everything was "30 inches". Points for trying though!

I thought it would be fun to pack them a pic-nic lunch so they could eat at the "job site" just like real construction workers. It was by far the highlight of Roman's day. He carried the basket over to their lunch spot and proceeded to hand John his half of the lunch.

After the weekend, the living room and hallway in the basement were complete! I was a little leery about laminate in the basement because I thought it was going to be cold, but I was pleasantly surprised! It's actually warm enough that we can go down there without shoes and not freeze to death. It's amazing to now have all this usable space when before it was a place we tried to avoid. I can't wait for it all to be finished so the toys can leave the living room upstairs for good, and I can send the kids downstairs to play!

Now for the main floor. We knew this was going to be a lot more work, mostly because we had to rip up a ton of carpet, and it was going to send the entire house into chaos. We decided the best way to attack this area was to send Roman to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. I would have loved to send Bianca too but I wasn't sure my parents were quite ready to have both of them, and Bianca is still a little finicky with feeding and sleeping.

 

As soon as John got home from work we started emptying out the living room. It was a good thing Roman wasn't home because his room ended up being the catch all for all the small décor items and all of his toys. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you lay it all out on the floor. We love our entertainment stand because it holds a ton of stuff but it also turns into a catch all from time to time. This particular stand is from IKEA and is worth every penny if you're looking for an amazing storage solution.

 

With the living room cleared out, it was time for the dirty work; ripping up the carpet. I helped my parents rip up carpet in their house when we moved in, and I remember exactly how nasty that was, so I've been dreading this part all along. Like I said, I knew this was going to be a nasty job, but I had no idea this is what we would find. Under the carpet was a sand dune, literally! I had no idea there could be so much dirt underneath the carpet. Granted, the carpet has probably been here since the house was built in 1977, but who knew! The only thing worse than cleaning up all the dirt was pulling up all the staples. Whoever installed this carpet wanted to make sure it was never going to lift, even in a tornado.

 

With the carpet ripped up, I was pretty much out of work, so while John started to lay flooring I made a run to Macs for slurpees. Sugar always makes the work go faster. By this point John was on hour 17 and was starting to waiver. So once we finished our slurpees it was off to bed to get some rest before it started all over again in the morning. Can I also point out how amazing Bianca is. She slept through this entire ordeal and didn't wake up once!

 

 

Day two of the main floor started bright and early. Bianca is an early riser so John took full advantage, and started laying floor right after breakfast. He made sure to get the hallway in front of Bianca's room done pretty quickly so he wouldn't be hammering right outside her door while she was trying to sleep. Bianca and I did spend a good amount of time hiding out in her room while John was jig sawing around the registers and for some of the loud hammering, but she did get to hang out a bit and watch John work.

 

I was pretty surprised how fast the living room came together. John worked like a dog and by the end of day two the living room was finished and all the furniture, toys and decor was moved back in. He even managed to get a start on the kitchen. We had planned to work late into the night to get it done, but John's knees were hurting (understandably) and we had both had enough, so we shut everything down around 10pm. I think that's the average time of night that most parents turn into pumpkins.

 

 

Day three was filled with cursing, stomping, a few thrown boards, and eventually some new flooring. The last part of the kitchen and the hallway was a huge pain because it involved a lot of weird cuts. Not to mention John had to take all the doors off the hinges and trim them down because the flooring was just a little too high for the doors to work. Add in a couple closets, moving the fridge and stove, and you're sure to have one very happy renoing husband! Even with all those setbacks, John still managed to get almost all of it finished before Roman and my parents showed up that afternoon.

 

 

Roman was so excited about the new flooring. He went running though the house yelling "so cool!" and "pretty awesome!". My mom even prepped him for the change by explaining that he wasn't allowed to throw toys on the new floor because it would scratch. Yeah, that lasted all of a hot minute.

 

We still need to finish the bathrooms and closets upstairs, as well as the bathroom, storage room, office and playroom in the basement. I might post pictures of those rooms when they are finished, or I might just wait until we get the trim and baseboards up and show everything completely finished. Let me know which you'd prefer!











Freezer Organization - Save Money & Lose Weight!

I don't think I'm alone when I say that my freezers are like two black holes.  Food goes in but if/when it ever comes out it never really looks the same because it's been in there so long.  Every day when I open the freezer door to stick Roman's supper in there to cool off, I'm reminded that I really need to do something about that disaster.  So, today is the day my freezers are going to get a good clean out!

For the most part I'm a very organized person so the disarray of my freezers can drive me bananas.  Speaking of bananas, I have a massive amount of bananas in my freezer.  I think I might need an intervention.  But I digress.  Keeping an organized freezer not only saves you money because you can see what you have and use it before it turns into a giant ice ball, but it can also help you lose weight!  By strategically placing you're frozen treats, cookies, muffins and other tasty goodies you can save yourself some serious calories!  Or maybe I'm the only person that has so little self control that I shovel in a few frozen cookies while I'm taking out something for supper...

Let's tackle the fridge freezer first because it's smaller.  This poor freezer becomes a trap for partial bags of everything that just get tossed in when I don't want to go into the garage to put it back in the big freezer.  I found a few large freezer bags that only had a muffin size serving of rice left in them, which of course was so freezer burnt because the bag was left open that I could barely tell what it was.  These of course went straight into the trash, along with a bag of shrimp that was equally as freezer burnt.  I did however find some good things, like raviolis I made awhile back and a few partial bags of frozen fruit.  The amount of bananas I found was shocking!  I now have a bin in the freezer specifically designated for bananas because I have so many.  I really need to get baking!

Once I sorted through everything and decided what was staying and what was going, I organized the remaining food into categorical lines.  One for breakfast foods, fruit, veggies, and meat.  I just kept a few things in the freezer that we use regularly and the rest made it's way out to the chest freezer in the garage.  Luckily I'm almost out of Christmas baking so I have one lonely Hamantashen cookie and one piece of Puffed Wheat Cake left (Those have long since been devoured).  If you're trying to watch what you eat make sure to hide these bad boys behind the veggie or fruit lines.  The farther you have to dig for them the less likely you are to eat them!  In the door I store a few homemade squeeze pouches for Roman, a few stray popsicles, and all my herbs that I froze from my garden this year.

Now let's head out to the garage to tackle the real disaster!  I always have great intentions when it comes to the organization of this freezer but it never seems to last long.  If I'm in a rush things just get tossed in and then when I need to find something I have to rummage through it all and things get even more messed up.  The solution?  Diaper boxes!  If you have kids then you have a ton of diaper boxes, unless you managed to use them all when wrapping Christmas presents.  If you don't have diaper boxes, find a Mom, I guarantee she'll be more than happy to unload some on you!  I managed to fit in three diaper boxes in the bottom of the freezer, one for meat, one for freezer meals and one for fruit/veggies/random items.  Right now I don't have any meals in the freezer so this box is just holding some meat.  In the space towards the front of the freezer I have all my bread items, and on the bench in the corner I have some peach crisps.

So where are all the cookies I shovel into my face?  When presently all the good ones (in my opinion) have been eaten, but there is a bag of jam filled cookies hiding in this freezer.  I try to hide my treats amongst the bread so they aren't as noticeable.  Most of my trips out to this freezer are for meats and veggies for meals so by hiding the treats with the bread, I likely won't even seen them when I'm in the freezer!  I also try to position them away from the loaves of bread since that's the most common bread item I pull from the freezer.  Granted there is no stopping me when I really want a cookie.  Those bad boys could be nailed to the ceiling and I'd find a way to get to them!  Obviously Roman feels the same way as me because he couldn't contain himself when we found the peanut butter marshmallow squares.  Oddly enough he also felt the same way about a package of frozen pork chops...

So there we have it, my freezers are organized!  There is something so freeing and calming about a clean freezer.  It's similar to the feeling you get after you clean out the junk drawer in your kitchen, like a weight has lift and the fog cleared.  At least that's what it feels like to me.  Now that I can see what I have in my freezer I think it's time to use some of these items up!

Chores with Toddlers

Currently Roman naps for about 2 hours after his lunch so there is no way I can get everything done that I need to in a day while he is asleep.  Plus I'm a strong believer in Mom getting at least a couple hours to herself during the day.  It just makes everyone much happier!  So while Roman naps I typically work on blog posts, watch TV, cruise Facebook, or all of them at the same time.  Unfortunately this Mom break means that most of the "work" has to get done while Roman is awake and mobile.  Here is how I do it!

I don't think anyone really enjoys cleaning, but it is something that we have to do.  Or at least it's socially expected that we do.  I've never been a fan of cleaning, which my mother will attest to, and it's something I have to force myself to do.  When I first started staying home full time I found myself this pretty schedule on Pinterest that told you what to clean on what days to "make your life easier".  Perfect I thought, this is exactly what I need!  Well that schedule lasted about a week because I got sick of having to clean when this bully of a paper told me I had to.  I also found that I was spending my Mommy Hour scrubbing toilets, not my idea of a break.  I promptly threw that schedule in the garbage and started my own schedule of sorts. 

Vacuuming
After Roman and I have breakfast and get dressed each morning, we pick up all the toys from the floor so we can vacuum.  John and I pick up all the toys every night but it always looks like a tornado hit the house after I've been in the bathroom for 20 minutes getting ready.  I also think it's important that Roman learns how to help early.  I'm lucky in that he truly loves helping me and I can get him to do pretty much anything if I put "Do you want to help Mom" in front of it.  Now granted Roman isn't much help at actually vacuuming, but he will wander around and play with the dogs while I vacuum.  This means the floors are dog/human hair free and I didn't have to listen to Roman scream through the entire thing!

Dishes
One of Roman's favorite chores is dishes.  I can see the Moms cringing already at the thought of a toddler near a sink full of water.  Yes he does make a bit of a mess but there are some sacrifices that we have to make to get things done.  To help cut down on the mess I make sure to remove all clothing from Roman except his diaper.  Even with only a inch of water in the sink this child will somehow soak everything on him, so why even bother with clothes?  Roman is in charge of the rinsing half of the sink, so to help keep the water off the floor I only let him play with objects that don't scoop.  Spatulas, spoons, forks and whisks are all fair game.  The measuring cups, bowls, glasses, those bad boys are quickly rinsed and placed in the disk rack.  This way he still gets to play in the water and overflow should be limited.  When he does decide the counter or chair needs a good washing and starts sudsing them up, I try to let him be for the most part, even complimenting him on what a great job he's doing.  At the end of the day it's just water and it can be wiped up.  I'll only step in if we start to get a large puddle on the floor.

Bathrooms
Ugh!  I HATE cleaning the bathroom.  There is nothing fun about cleaning a bathroom because there is nothing fun about the business that is taken care of in the bathroom.  I often wish that someone would invent a Jetson's bathroom that magically cleans itself when you close the door.  Until that wonderful day happens I guess we're stuck cleaning the bathroom.  The bathroom can also be tricky to clean when you have a busy toddler because the bathroom is the equivalent to Disney World at this age, but there are still ways the little ones can help.  Roman loves to carry the sponges, paper towel, and spray bottle to the bathroom.  We use a mixture of water, vinegar and peroxide to clean so if I'm able to tear him away from the sink and the taps long enough he'll often help wipe the counter.  Roman is also pretty good with a mop so he'll often push it around the floor for me.

Cooking
Roman has been in the kitchen with me since he was only a few months old.  Granted it's a little different now since he loves food and loves to help me.  He obviously can't help much yet but I usually let him dump ingredients into bowls and stir things.  Sure it can take twice as long, things get spilled, including blood, but I think it's important for kids to learn how to cook early.  Helping in the kitchen is also a great opportunity for kids to try new foods!  Roman will often munch on a slice of raw onion or snack on some minced garlic.  Not typical snacks but who am I to say no? Plus it can be pretty funny to see his reaction to these snacks.

There are some things that just can't be done while Roman is running loose through the house.  Blogging and crafting are activities that I now reserve for Mom time while Roman is napping or after he goes to bed for the night.  Hopefully soon Roman will be able to sit still long enough to work on a craft project, but I'm not holding my breath.  As far as the computer goes, if you bring it out when Roman is awake, you're just asking for the black screen of death. 

I'm not going to lie and say that I can do things just as fast with Roman's help as I can on my own.  Anyone that has kids knows that isn't true.  I do however find these tasks more enjoyable (for the most part) when I have Roman's help.  There is nothing worse than trying to do something with a kids screaming blue murder because they want you to pay attention to them.  So why not involve them? 

I think the hardest part of having kids help you is learning to accept that there will likely be a mess made in the process of cleaning the original mess.  This used to drive me nuts but I've learnt to pick my battles and let the added hassle roll off my back in the interest of learning.  Once you get into a bit of a routine it will get better I promise!  Now that Roman knows when we normally clean he knows what to expect and is ready to help.  If he doesn't feel like helping he seems to be content with me cleaning while he plays, maybe because he knows what I'm doing?  I really have no idea what he's thinking so I can only guess, but this is what I'm going with.

Chores with a toddler are only what you make of it!  Focus on the fun parts, the giggles and the smiles.  Look past the extra mess and if you don't get everything accomplished in one day, oh well.  The world will not end just because you haven't seen your counter in a few days!

Craft Room Makeover

I have been waiting for this moment since we first bought our house over a year ago!  It's been sitting on the back burner since the upstairs and Roman's spaces obviously take priority over my creative lair.  Now that Roman is a little older and a lot more independent I decided it was time to get this party started!

This room has sat unused with piles of stuff everywhere since we moved in.  Once in awhile things get moved around when I need something, and the piles have slightly grown with added projects and supplies.  Roman loves doing crafts and I'd love to be able to find all of my supplies to come up with little projects for him instead of buying more stuff every time I come up with an idea.  I of course have to admit my selfishness in wanting a space where I can work on quilting, scrap booking (I'm still working on my class Europe trip from 2004), and any other fun projects I dream up,  Plus I think John has had enough of me hauling supplies onto the kitchen table.  I'm actually surprised he's lasted as many years with all my craft stuff as he has.

The room was pretty bare bones when we moved in.  The closet basically didn't exist and the color of the walls was an institutional grey - I swore I had a before photo of this room but it seems to have evaded me.  Like every other room in the house all the trim and baseboards are missing and that is a project we are going to tackle once we replace/install flooring throughout the house, or at least level by level. The carpet, while not something we would have chosen, is fairly new and in great shape, so the green monster is here to stay!

This is the one room in the house that I feel like I can stamp "GIRL!!" with a big rubber stamp so I knew I wanted a girly color for the walls.  I had originally tried to pick something that would pair nicely with the carpet, but with a house full of boys, blue, grey and green walls, I decided that just wasn't going to do.  I threw all design logic out the window and went with hot pink!  Anyone that knows me was probably a little shocked when they saw the color choice because I am not a pink girl, but I wanted a happy color that would inspire me.  Because the room is in the basement I decided to paint 3 walls white and use the pink as an accent wall.  Our basement is full of these little bulk heads that enclose the heating ducts, and while most people would be annoyed with them I actually love them!  To me they feel like beams and I knew that I wanted to accentuate the bulk head instead of trying to hide it.  What better way the accentuate it than slathering a coat of hot pink on it?  I used this same technique in our basement living room and loved the way it turned out so I just had to replicate it here.  This paint job took a whopping 4-5 months.  Not because the paint was horrible or we ran into problems, but solely because I got busy with Roman and this room was abandoned. 

Fast forward to present day and I need storage, and lots of it!  As you can tell from the piles all over the room, I have a lot of crafting and party supplies.  Probably way more than any one person needs, and I might be considered a hoarder to some, but I'm okay with it.  I decided to re-purpose a couple storage cubes that we already had in the house and turn them into a desk.  I found this idea on Pinterest, and as soon as I saw the pin I knew I could make it happen.  One cube was sitting in storage while the other was being used as a dresser of sorts for Roman.  Now that Roman has his own dresser that I revamped for him, I decided to nab his cube.  I purchased a table top from IKEA when we were visiting Trellyn and her family in Alberta (IKEA you NEED to come to Saskatchewan!!!).  John sunk a few screws into the table top and voila, a craft table for around $100.  It may seem like a lot but look at all the awesome storage!

 

On top of the desk I have two lazy susans, one for scissors and one for pens, glue and other random stuff.  I also have a basket that houses my one true love when it comes crafting, my glue gun.  There is nothing you cannot do with a glue gun in hand!  The wireless speaker from out kitchen has also made it's way onto the table right beside one of our wedding favor glasses filled with the pheasant feathers from my wedding bouquet.  One of these days I will find a project worthy of these feathers!  The Roman (the group of people, not the kid) looking vase was a score from Value Village that I plan on doing something to soon.  In the mean time I popped a few flowers in it.  The smaller ones are actually made from wire and almost a stocking material.  They are super cool and I love them, plus they are from my first trip to Toronto to visit John! Aww....

I positioned the table in the centre of the room because I've always wanted a desk in the centre of the room (I'm not sure where that strange desire comes from), and it will make cutting and moving fabric for quilting much easier.  Where ever you decide to place your table take into account where your light is coming from and where you will be sitting.  If the light is behind where you sit, you will always have a shadow where you are working which can be extremely frustrating.  The lighting isn't the best in this room, again because it's in the basement, so I knew I wanted to have a light on my work table to cut down on the shadows even more.  To avoid extension cords running across the floor for Roman to grab onto, I decided to run the cord up the wall and through the t-bar ceiling and then down onto my table.  Let's hope this keeps Roman from ripping the pretty lamp from Wal-Mart off the table.  I found this super comfy stool at Home Depot and I really like the way the black chair anchors the table.

The next adventure was the closet storage system.  I purchased this Closet Maid kit (plus a few extra pieces) from Lowes for $200 which was a great deal!  I compared prices at Home Depot, and to purchase a similar system piece by piece would have cost nearly $300!  I have never in my life installed something like this but I figured it couldn't be too hard.  Boy was I wrong.  Granted I think it was more the materials I was provided with that caused the problems and not my building competency.  Luckily John came to my rescue and solved all my problems.  The top rail is secured to the drywall with butterfly anchors and each vertical rail has two screws anchored into the drywall as well, making it nearly bomb proof or at least hopefully toddler proof!  I also picked up this neat hanging basket which adds more storage without needing to add more holes to the wall.  Plus I can move it around depending on where it will work best.  Most of the plastic storage stands I either already had or I inherited when Mom cleaned out her craft room.  Hey, if these are the things people are getting rid of I will gladly take them!

No makeover, or any project for that matter, would be complete in my house without something from the dollar store.  All of the bins, baskets and tubs are from Dollar Giant or Dollarama.  The super cute black tiles hanging on the wall are also from Dallarama.  Art for $6, why not?!  The paper lanterns I originally purchased second hand for our wedding.  I made sure to keep a few after the wedding because I knew I wanted to hang them in our house some day.  Now that I have my very own space, I can't wait to get down to business and create some amazing things!

DIY Dresser Makeover

Looking at this photo your probably thinking "Why would you make over such a gorgeous dresser Kendra?".  Okay, maybe not.  I will be the first to admit that this dresser isn't much to look at.  It was however, free!  You read me right, FREE!  I came across this gem in the fall on a local buy & sell Facebook page.  I had been looking for a dresser for Roman as he is quickly growing out of the current system I have set up for him.  When this diamond in the rough came up I jumped on it in a hot minute.  John thought it was pretty ugly when he went to pick it up but he knew I could turn it into something pretty and useful.

The first thing to keep in mind when attempting a project like this is to pick a dresser that works.  I personally have no experience fixing the actual working parts of a dresser so I made sure to pick one that was just ugly.  Ugly can always be fixed!  The selling feature for me was the draw pulls.  They were originally gold with a flower pattern painted on them.  Not the most appealing design but the shape of them was great.  Like I said, ugly can be fixed.  Let the project begin!

I know your probably jealous of my amazing work table.  You too can build your very own!  I took my two planters and laid an IKEA table top on top of them.  This is the table top that eventually made it's way to my craft room in a recent Follow Us Friday and is now part of my craft table.

 

I started by removing all the hardware from the dresser.  I was a little worried the draw pulls were going to be glued down.  Luckily they weren't, so after removing the screws they fell right off.  There was only one knob in the top drawer so that saved me some time.  To be truthful all I had to do was touch it and it basically fell off.  To give the pulls a new life I decided to spray paint them.  I used a silver Rust-Oleum paint with a metallic finish.  I built a make shift spray tent out of a diaper box.  This keeps the pain from drifting all over the garage and attaching to other objects.  I like to do multiple thin coats so that I don't have bubbles form in the paint.  Always remember to spray paint in a well ventilated area!

Once the pulls were painted I moved on to sanding the dresser.  I started with the drawers and used and fine grit sandpaper to scuff up the original paint.  This will allow the paint to stick to the dresser without having to prime.  I honestly have no idea who grit the sandpaper was, I just came across a few random sheets in the garage so that's what I used.  I LOVE Valspar paint for Lowes!  We used it in our Bathroom Makeover as well as the rest of our house.  The best part of this paint is it only needs one coat!  I have yet to find a color that needs more than one color, which makes painting a breeze.  I decided to use white for 2 reasons.  1. I already had a can of it on hand, and 2. white furniture will go with any theme room Roman has for the next several years.  This paint isn't tinted at all so it is the white color out of the can.

I started using a brush to paint with but I didn't like the streaks I was getting, so I decided to switch to a roller.  I'm not nearly as good with a roller as I am a brush (I usually do the cutting when we paint while John rolls) so I ended up doing a couple coats to cover up my mistakes.  If your more skilled with a roller than I you can probably get away with one coat.

All that is left to do is reattached the pulls and add some knobs.  The knobs I picked up from Lowes on a previous shopping trip and had planned to use them on another project but I decided to snag them for this one.  Older dressers are made of thinner wood so the knobs sag a big because the screws are too long.  On my next trip to the hardware store I'll pick up some shorter ones, but for now they will work.

 

I'm extremely happy with how this dresser turned out!  You would never guess by looking at it now how ugly it was to start with!  This entire makeover cost around $50, most of which is the cost of the knobs, since I already had the paints on hand.  This dresser should be able to grow with Roman for a few years which gives me a great bang for my buck!