Another Organization Post and a Remodeled Closet!

Before

After

So we managed to remodel the closet this week, finally!  Chris was off Monday and we (mostly him) put it all up.  It looks sooo super awesome, and now our clothes are all in the same place, previously the hang up clothes were in the closet, and all the pants, socks, underwear, were on shelves over in the bathroom area.  It's so much more light and accesible now, I just wish I'd painted the walls before I hung the shelves... But if I'd waited on painting it would have never gotten done.




After culling clothes I ended up with probably 60 extra coat hangers, I just got done switching out all the colored ones for white, I don't really care, but I had enough white so I figured why not!   Anyone need 40 or so colored coat hangers?

After

I'd slacked off on the organizing/cleaning the last week or two, I needed some more inspiration so I picked up a couple more organization books at the library.  One was a big book full of amazing pictures of amazing houses with amazing (and expensive) cabinets/shelves/cool gadgets/etc.  I did get some idea's from it and it was fun to look through and dream.  The other one turned me off at first, when I picked it up after flipping through the picture one, it didn't have any pictures :(
But after flipping through a few pages I was hooked, it's full of inspiration and great ideas, and you can go to the authors blog at http://simplemom.net, she also has Simple Homeschool, Simple Kids, Simple Mom and a few more, tons of great info for us mommies that need help.  She's also got some downloadable/printable charts for home management, cleaning, etc.  I've been using them the last couple days and it does help.  Though my problem is starting something, doing it for a couple days, then quitting.  We'll see if I can stick with it, probably not, but if it gets me a few weeks of a clean house I'll be thankful for that!





One of my projects for today was to put up a shelf above my fabric cutting table.  I had an extra board from my laundry room shelf project, I didn't have any other plans for it so I figure I might as well use it.  When I went out to the shop to get it I came across a piece of plywood that was salvaged from another project so I grabbed it as well.  I have a ridiculous amount of fabric for my baby diaper sewing business, way way way too much fabric.  Most of it is shoved into Rubbermaid tubs and then stuck under the table, which makes it hard to get to, and find, at times.  So the shelves help but cutting down on the amount that's under the table.  It's a work still in progress but it already looks much better.  At least I actually have room to cut fabric now.

The other project I'd really like to get done today is to clean out my refrigerator, I'm pretty much completely out of bowls and storage containers and I figure they are probably full of nasty old things in the back of the frig.  I keep procrastinating and not getting it done, but it's on my "must do today" list so it had better get done today!

Oh, and the stack of meat I took a pic of last post is all gone now...  We ate the last bit yesterday, it lasted a week, so I guess not too bad, I wish I'd have weighed it, that would be interesting.  And now for a recipe, can't post without telling you what deliciousness we've been eating lately :)  It was late last night and I hadn't gotten supper done and all I had was some ham from our piggies. I've not really done much with ham other than just feed it to my family, but I thought it'd be fun to do something different, so I heated up some coconut oil, chopped the ham up into chunks, sauteed the ham in the oil, mixed up a bit of honey, vinegar, and mustard, and added that to the ham.  Then I dumped a can of pineapple chunks into the mix, took toothpicks and made tiny kebobs with the pineapple and the ham.  That went over so well it was crazy, it got eaten like candy, probably because it tasted like candy.  Next time I think I'm going to skip the honey, the pineapple makes it sweet enough.  I didn't get to eat any because I'm not doing sweeteners, though a good thing because there wasn't enough for me anyway.  I also made a spaghetti squash dish that wasn't very good... How depressing...

Building projects and a couple recipes

Well, I've been busy lately and not been posting...  I'm still stuck in the organizing and decluttering mood, which is great, I'm getting so much done, and my sweet husband hasn't complained a bit about all the new things I want him to build and the money I've been spending.  He got the school desk and shelves finished and it's amazing!








Look at that bench, I just think it's the coolest ever, if I had been the designer it wouldn't have been near so attractive.  We didn't have a decent paint brush to stain it with so that'll have to happen some other time.  We had some extra 1x8's from some shelves I took down, we figured that'd make a good bench without having to spend more money on lumber.

And today he put up my new laundry room shelves, previously there was an incredibly nasty old cabinet with only one shelf, now I have two and they are shiny and bright.  I just wish I'd had the time and energy and paint to get the room painted, oh well, task for another day, or never (more likely).  I went to Lowes a few days ago and bought wire shelves to redo our closet, I can't wait!  It's going to be like living in a new house, I'm going from basically no storage space to more storage space than I know what to do with.  And, considering all the throwing away I've done, I actually don't have that much to store anymore!  Yay!!!

I've also decided to clean up my life in addition to my house, I started a Whole 30 three days ago, not long I know, but considering that I've thought about doing one for years and never had the guts to try, even three days is pretty awesome.  My diet has been pretty good for the last couple months, but no where near perfect, and in the last few weeks it had disintegrated further and the scale was showing it.  I really, really, really do not want to gain #60 again this pregnancy, I refuse to!  But the good thing is that means I get to find lots of delicious new recipes, which I love to do, and then I get to share them with you.  Today I made Sausage and Cabbage with Fried Apples for lunch. Okay, that sounds weird, the fried apples are separate from the sausage and cabbage, I don't think they wouldn't be quite so good mixed.  They were good though, and the fried apples were a nice treat.  Then I made Zucchini Spaghetti in Creamy Tomato Sauce for supper, and it was awesome!!!  I highly recommend trying out the recipe sooner than later, Chris said it needed to go on my "regular" cooking menu.  Not that I have a cooking menu plan, something I need to remedy.  I of course forgot to take pictures, dang it!  I need to strap that camera around my neck whenever I start cooking, I don't know why I can't remember it...  Oh well, there are of course gorgeous pictures on the blog I linked to, oh, and I highly recommend buying her cookbook, or at least bookmarking the page Everyday Paleo, she has amazing recipes that are always easy and delicious.  My sister bought her first recipe book and I kinda wish I would buy her other one, but it'll never happen, the internet is so much easier and cookbooks take up precious cupboard space.

Oh, speaking of cupboards, I almost forgot, I did a little project today as well.  Previously the bowls just sat on top of the plates, kind of a pain.  This is so much better!  I've read about 10 different organization books in the past month and each one gives me new ideas, most of which are costly and unfeasible, but every once in a while I get a good one that I can use immediately.