home blessing!!!! aka cleaning

Today I am going to share my trick for keeping my clean enough with kids, a black lab puppy and a husband. Lets get started, so home blessing is a thing that fly lady started me on years ago. I had 2 demanding kids under the age of 3. MM was a colicky, cry 24/7 baby, it was no fun for any of us. Under extreme anxiety I stumbled on flylady looking for ideas to help with the house stress. She had some great ideas. I started them right away. Step one was keeping the sink clean. WHAT is there a bottom of a sink, but I follower her advice and made sure I had a clean sink every night. it was AMAZING!!!, but for me it was not just a clean sink, it was starting my morning off with nothing to do just make the kids something to eat and unload the dish washer. It was big, I felt I could control the mess a bit. The next step was to get dressed to laced up shoes , crazy right I am a stay at home mom I don't need to get out of my pjs. ha that was even bigger step to calmness was to get all the kids and I dressed even if we were not going out anywhere. It gave us energy and happiness. I would even brush my hair and maybe toss on some makeup, not for anyone else but for myself. Then came making a cleaning schedule, she did not say I needed one I just needed one to make me feel like I had purpose, that I could control at least one thing in my life. I liked to get most of my cleaning done in the morning. At first it was basic stuff, sweep and mop, dishes, make bed. As what flylady says baby steps. Then came home blessing hour, she does hers on Monday I tend to do mine on Fridays. kind of get ready for the weekend I might do a quick version on Monday if we have had a lazy or busy weekend. I see it like a reset on the house.
This is my home blessing hr. She does her differently as I said before, all in all it is what works for you and your family.

1. 10mins putting laundry way.
2. 10mins vacuuming or Swiffer the 10lbs of dog hair off the floor.
3. 10mins away dusting what ever needs doing.
4. 10min  laundry room filling up the smaller jugs whipping down the machines, sweeping, making sure all loads are done.
5. 10 mins doing a 21 toss, this is me getting a shopping bag and going around the living room and dinning room and basement living rooms, trying to find 21 things to toss could be garbage or a old broken toy or something to donate.
6. 10mins to put stuff back in there parking spots.

DONE!!!!!

I love to listen to pod casts, my favorite one is hardwall. It is an hour long so it is perfect for this and it is high energy and gets me moving.

had to share this its so sweet. you can download the file at http://fordwardmovingmommy.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/flylady-commandments.html

I hope this helps to relieve some stress from your life. Have a blessed day!!!!!

office organizing!!!

Welcome!!! spring is in the air and I am loving life.  I have a few free minutes I wanted to share some of my office organizing with you today. This may be the shortest post I have ever done. Ok here we go, well you all know I LOVE!!!!! labels I don't think you can over label, well maybe a little.

so I got his cabinet from a friend. I cant wait till the weather is better I can toss a coat of paint on to it. For now it works great for my office stuff. I am so happy with this space right now. I run 4 companies out of my little 10x13 office. The wifi printer fits perfect here the little drawers up top hold all the paper and labels, then I have all company's divided in magazine files. I love magazine files SOOOOOO much they just make piles look so much better lol.

It is super simple with some nactac and some labels all from the dollar store and it looks so clean and nice. My catalogue for thirty one is all put into a binder in protective sleeves. My calendar is also in there its easy to book parties.  

 

 

this shelf if my organizing company and all the HR stuff for my families business. yes I have a whole basket for jimmy hooks yet another obsession.

 

well that is all the time I have today. pray for good weather so I can paint this asap.  have a great day

 



sanity savers

Good morning world.
So today my day started off realy early. Like 3 am, yes most would think i am nuts but such is life. So as i make breakfast for the man and all i can hear is the trickeling of the coffee maker, my mind drifts in to what my next blog is all about.
 Today i am going to share some of my "sanity savers" . Being a very busy person, somedays i need to run on auto pilot. The best thing i ever did for my sanity was create a home binder. At first i started with basic stuff. Ie. Phone numer list, small calander, and some important papers that didnt have a home or i didnt want them lost in the filing cabinet. 5 years later i have 3 binders, one is still my home binder the second one is the kids and pet binder and the third is the budget binder. Then i tossed the filing cabinet and now have binders holding all that stuff. It really is only 6 binders i got from the dollar store. It works WAY! Better for us. It is a bit stressful for me to put pictures of my binder systems on the web just because there is so much information in them.   So for you to have an idea i have put my favorate blog links here. Idont use one idea i use lots of differant ones to make my binders work well for us.

1: budget binder

2:home binder

On to another sanity saver. Timers, i love them.  They keep me focused and help me move fast and somedays just help me move. Somthing i dread is dishes. I hate them. So for the first few years of life on my own i would let them pile up till the whole kitchen was covered. Perfectionism and laziness got the best of me on that one. I didnt think i had 2 hrs to clean the kitchen perfectly so i just would not do it. Well 10 years later almost every night i have to set my timmer for 10 min and beat the timmer. I aways win.  I also use my timmer for putting away laundry. It shows me how much i can do in 5,10,15 min intervals. Try it you be supised at how fast you can unload the dishwasher, and put the towels away. Then you feel like you can have a 15min break. Half the time it motives me to do more.

Baskets and labels!!! I love bins, buckets, what ever I got handy. The thing about them is they can make the craziest places look amazing. The trick to them is lables. I make mine out of bisuness cards on my computer, or if you like your writing to can do that too. In the begining of a projct i do the handwitghting ones so i can see if the plan will work for every one. Another tip, baskets should not be for junk everything needs a home.

Command center!! Oh i love ours. It works well for the kids too. Its super simple, which i love. I did a very small post a few years ago on it. Here  It got a new paint job to go with the new color that will be going in the living room 

Next is my cleaning schedule. I dont love to clean but I dont hate it. I found when i had mm and 2 kids under 3 i could not keep up with the house cleanining. I was big cause of alot of my anxiaty. So i set up a cleaning schedule it realy is simple. It makes me feel in contoll of the house.... most days.

This sits in the back sleave of my home binder. I have been doing this system for a few years so i dont realy have to look at it everyday.  It s also just on paper not stone. Stuff happens, kids get sick other stuff has to get done but i have made it so i can get it done in around 15 mins. Thursday is my big day i find. It is the day for fridge cleanning. Garbage day is friday so i want all garbage and old food in there by thursday night. I will figure out how to get pdfs put on here asap. If you want a copy of this please email me and i can send you it.


Well thats all for today well for this time in the am. Iam working on some great posts for the next few weeks so like me on facebook, so you can get updates. Crazyvalleymama

quick update

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! 

I am getting massive cabin fever lately. Not to sure why, its very warm this winter here in the valley. today I wanted to tidy the house up a bit. I got roses from my honey today so of course I LOVE!!! mason jars and yellow roses. I changed the front door area for the 100th time in the last 3 years this fall. I LOVE the cabinet so much. Its crazy how much stuff you can fit in this thing.

 

Such a breath of fresh air in the winter days!!

 

 

I got the runner from Wal-Mart 6+ years ago. I had a few of them. I had standard file boxes (yuck!!). I took one runner apart and hot glued the fabric to the boxes. Love this idea for large cheep bins. The bins hold all the winter stuff and shopping bags.

 

 

 

 

 I took some name badge tags Velcro and tossed in some paper and a label bamm done. This whole thing took me no more then 40 mins with covering the boxes.

Go and as some freshness to your space.

 

Pantry organised!!! Finaly!!!!

 CAUTION TUPPERWARE OVER LOAD

 

Welcome to the never ending pantry makeover. Three years ago we moved to this house. It was a house that had a pantry, granted not a big one but it had one. That march I started my dream of getting modular mates for the pantry. To stay on budget I started sell Tupperware, I have to say selling Tupperware is awesome. I really didn't think I would enjoy it this much...ha who am I kidding, I LOVE IT!! with a limited house budget I was able to start selling right away, thanks to my good friends I did well. I haven't done a party in over 2 years. I really don't need to Tupperware sells its self with there great warranty and product. well enough with my obsession. On with the pantry, 3 years in the making.

 

 When we moved in the pantry was ok. I hated the doors. If you notice in past blog post no closet doors. only the linen closet and that is only cause my husband will not let me take them off. I took the doors off to paint the green and never put them back on. I love it!! its easy for the kids to put stuff back and it flows well with the kitchen. I am hoping to get over the fridge and stove doors painted in the next week. It will help in not making it look so busy.

These picture are all "in progress" pics over the years. This pantry has some road bumps if you may. Its so stinking deep its 17" deep and 19" wide, and the shelves don't move. I have looked on pintrest for 100s of ideas but I could never find the exact problem I faced or the budget I had.  

 

Now for the finished product. OH I AM IN LOVE!!!!  

 

 

 

 

 

It is organised very basic. In my life simple is best. The kids know were stuff goes and Red knows how to read. Its one of there jobs to fill the bins when we come home from our shopping trip.

 

 

 

The Breakfast shelf is very self-explanatory. In order to not " loose" things in the back I have a regular ovals mm with oats extra toast stuff chocolate milk syrup in the back. Then up front I have the "everyday " stuff . A box of cereal will not fit well on the shelf so the Tupperware cereal sorters work great. I also love them cause the kids can make there own bowl with out the bag falling out of the box. ugh I cant remember how many times Red lost a whole box on the floor.

 

Lunch / snack shelf,  also really no explaining needed. in the spot is just a bin from the dolor store that holds fruit cups and granola bars stuff like that. It works well.  

Pasta shelf and extra chips for mm Birthday next week.

 

 

I also switched out some stuff in the baking cabinet and I also love it.

 

 There is a lot of stuff in both these cabinets. You can also find past post about my always changing kitchen.

 

Kitchen Tour

 

thanks for reading!!!

 

laundry room makeover.

Good morning!!!!! Well this was a awesome week. Got lots done, a few friends had babies. All around it was good till today and i woke up with a cold booooo!! But lots of tea and bloging will make me better in no time. 

The last week i have been redoing my laundry room. With Christmas it just got away from me. So good thing a bowl full of lemons had that on her 14 week organize your house that i am following. On with the pictures. Well lets look at the before eeeee it scary. No wonder i was falling behind it was a mess.

When we moved to this house 3years ago the laundry room was in need of help bad. We were planning on redoing the whole basement so i was not going to do anything till we had done renos. Well a year in the house nothing happened  so i painted it a miss tint i had got for $5, cant go wrong with that. It worked well.  

I am a person that gets tired of colour easily. So i wanted a change badly. I sent the kids to school and headed to Canadian tire for my paint. I love the lady there super friendly and and she likes my colours. Lol. I came home ready to do this job. I cant be any more happy with how it turned out. I have been doing laundry all morning and its just a dream to be in. Are you ready. 

 Pictures don't even do it justice.  Its so bright. I was a little worried putting the colour on the walls but i love it now with all the stuff back in.  Laundry rooms always have clutter i feel. Plus i don't have a cabinet to keep laundry stuff in so everything that is in here has to look nice to me and easy for putting away. 

I got super soiled by my amazing dad.  I gave him the measurement's i needed and he had some wood in his garage. Its perfect i just have to decide what colour i want to paint it. The plans you can find on my top fave website. Anawhite,  i love all the stuff she makes. 

 

  

Red and i made this it was a sign i had got from the thrift shop for .50 cents. Mm has already matched a bunch of socks that i could not find. That is one of his jobs for the house. 

People that really know me know i LOVE!!!!!! pegboard. In the laundry room our water lines are in the middle of the wall. I carfully put pegboard over the line to make the wall way better. To make it look good i did a quick stencil i got at walmart a few months ago. As you can see i colour code our hangers, yes crazy but they look so good in there closets. The kids clothes get hung up well about 90% of it. You can read a small post about that here . 

One last quick and cheap thing i did was a dolor store run. For $10 i got tins thst are ment for the kitchen but they dont seal at all but i just love the look of them. So grab 3 at $3 a each amd a pack of chalkboard lables 6 for a $1. They are perfect, for now you never now if they mught get hit with some spray paint in the spring. 

 Wall colour is tropical paradise from CIL real life.

Well i think that is all for today. Well off to do more laundry. Yaya 

Happy organizing!!!

Good morning world. Well it is another start to the work week also its week 2 of the organizing Challenge at a bowl full of lemons. This week we are going into the dreaded laundry room. Well i guess normal people don't like laundry. I am crazy and love laundry.  It calms me, helps me think and focus. I not sure were i got my love of doing the laundry my mom hates it. Well lets take a look at my laundry room that i don't love but dont  hate lol. Its small but that's OK it does what in needs to do. In this house if we have guests over they have to walk though our laundry to get to the room and to the bathroom. Not the best idea but its what i have to work with.

So it not to bad. Just needs a bit of decluttering and a good cleaning. I am thinking on tossing some paint on the walls today and tomorrow. But cant decide what Colour. There is very little natural light in the room so a clean bright colour is what i am looking for. It needs to flow with what ever colour i use in the bathroom too. 

After looking at some ideas on the web i think i have picked one.

 that is the plan this week. To really clean up the basement area. After 3 years it needs it. So off to the hardwear store i go after the kids go to school.
Follow me of facebook crazyvalleymama to get tips and ideas for the week.