Small Space, organizing hair accessories

As some of you knew, I went to work last Fall, after a long break (almost after three years). I was not fully prepared in some areas like my personal organization and one of the major areas was my hair accessories which included hair dryer, flat iron, and a messy spot right at the end of my bed. Not having a master bathroom next to our bedroom is not a cool feature in this old house. Over a time period I have accumulated and placed hair accessories conveniently by the end of my bed because, that is where the power outlet is. 

I had used a sturdy plastic/vinyl bag to toss all my hair accessories, I often use to tie my hair. I do like to blow dry my hair and occasionally I would use the flat iron to straighten my hair close to my face line. The bobby pins, pony tails rings, head bands all were thrown together in a mess. As I went to work I would sit at the edge of my bed and work on my hair and in many occasions would get frustrated to find a pin or a pony tail ring. 

I finally decided I needed to be more organize in this area to leave the house in peace to work, I bought few baskets and started to clean up. Now, Nicolette has a small bag to carry her bathing suite to pool (aka) hair do bag! which I used to store all my hair belongings. The use of new baskets, I feel like I am more organized. Hair accessories are accessible easily without having to do a blind sweeps to get a bobby pin or a pony tail band.  I like the neat look. A big difference!

How do you stay organize with your accessories? Do you clean them out weekly, monthly, or yearly basis?

Stocking up on Solids...

I have this thing whenever, I go to a fabric store I have a tendency to buy prints which attracts me the most. Due to habit I have acquired a bit of a collection. 

Recently I have been trying to work few quilt blocks here and there. On the course of this process I have come to realize that I do not own any solids in my collection of fabrics. All these years I have been collecting prints.

I took the opportunity when I saw the sale at the fabric store and stock up a few colors that might work with the prints I have in hand. Do you collect fabric? Do you buy solids at the same time with your prints? Do you keep a track of your prints and buy your solids later when they are on sale?

I am running out of storage space better work on a quilt soon!

Organizing Teen Magazines...

Niegel has been collecting Boy’s Life for a while and he practically had one organizer. I bought this for him a long time ago and it was black in color. See all these were fitting into this one magazine holder.

I have been slowly working in his room to add shelving, painting, and organizing as well. I bought him two magazine organizer but they were white and it was not working with the one he had,

I spray pain the black to off white. Now they all work together all his magazines are organized. This year we gave the subscription to TIMES and he loves it.

We organized them yearly, monthly and the types in different cases. They all look like this now. He loves how it turned out. Best thing was he can take them out easily for mid-afternoon quiet time during weekends. 

More reading, organizing, staying on top of the world news, and enjoying the ability to find magazines at his finger tips...

Quote of the day “invest your money”

Enjoy!

Coming Together...

We separated Nicolette’s room so it is organized. More shelving and baskets but totally worth the look. Toys are housed together because she loves to play with dinosaurs as well. Thanks to her older brother. 

We do have baby dolls as well. I need to finish the little cot that I have been working. So far we have had made progress. I donated bag of old toys to charity. 

Her coloring activities are going well still working with one color one of these days I am going offer two colors. She is excited to work with her activities. 

I love the space we created to her. Room still needs window treatments. I have to work on painting the night stand, and finally to add some art work. You will see the rest.

Quote of the day “ Give Great Hugs”

Enjoy!

How to de clutter your Entryway...

I had this issue of shoe problem as I enter the home but not any more. I was looking into so many ways to organize them since we do not have a coat closet in our little home. We would leave them on the side of the entry way. Matter of fact we would take turns to organize them in a row. 

I was not going for this look as you can see.

I cannot build a entryway cubby system in our narrow hallway and I knew it can go out of control. 

Thank you to IKEA. We used the shelving system to make a cubbies for our shoes. 

Our entryway is clutter free, fresh and inviting it even has a spot for dog treats! My next project is to add a stool to this corner. 

I really enjoy the space we created to take off our shoes. This shelf offers a great seating area for us put our shoes. We created an extra cubby for visitors as well. 

Quote of the day “ look for beauty in unexpected places”

Enjoy!

Winter Break...

This winter break I have planned out few projects to do... I am happy with my grades but planning to do better coming spring. Getting back to the subject one of my project was cleaning out the pantry and organizing. Well my pantry is not the traditional pantry since I have itty bitty kitchen. I was determined to utilize every inch  I have. I still cannot bring in all my dishes that I have accumulated over the years but got what I needed in other words the basics. 

Well, I am not complaining I choose this simple life because the priority is to finish my school. I am working hard towards this goal. Sometimes I do need a kitchen with all the gadgets. I need to wait on that  for a while. 

So I did the best I can to make room and organize the pantry. The best thing was I acquired a kitchen cabinet absolutely free from my neighbor. She was kind enough to offer it to me I did not think twice, quickly hauled it inside with my sons help. This happened at the beginning of fall and now we are way into winter I decided to clean, wash and re paint the outside to match the pantry and was able to house all my spices from SRI LANKAN COOKING and CHINESE COOKING. 

Now that my shelves are free I was able to organize the pots, pans, glassware, and all the knick knacks. 

I am not trying to get any of you into spring cleaning. I acted way early because I wanted to organize the pantry for the longest time since we had moved in. I usually go to kitchen, make something and get out of the kitchen. I had this ideas of creating places for some activities I often do in the kitchen. Like Breakfast items, Tea station, electric appliances, and baking.  I felt so chaotic when I stepped into my pantry before because it was a mess. Now I am happy to go in and see the neatness. I did not spend a dime to do it used what I had. Few more touches then I am done. 

I did work with my 13 year old to do this, we talked about the chores and the utensils we need.  How to house the items we use often. This was fun because I had no idea how to accomplish this.  I did listen to his ideas we worked together considering little Nicolette is getting independent making breakfast. However, both of us did great at the end cleaning and organizing. I hope he will carry this with him in his life as well.

I can happily check off one item from my to-do list. 

What are you up to lately are you cleaning, organizing, or in the process of making new year resolutions. 

Quote of the day “ brainstorm”

Enjoy!

Positive Approach towards Chaos…

 
 
Summer approaching around the corner my classes starts this week and with all the other things I am getting ready to take on another semester. Moving, packing, and everything in between have shape and sharpen our lives greatly.

Boxes everywhere in the apartment I can’t wait till WED to movers to come in to haul our belonging to the storage. My goal is to have clean apartment till the final day arrive for us to move out from our apartment. Some of the pictures are from the overlook from the balcony which I have enjoyed very much during our stay in the west side of the Mansfield.
We will be camping out in the living room in our sleeping bags. Nicolette will be the only person to sleep on the bed while rest of us will be sleeping in bags.

I will not be officially gardening this summer. We have so much going on I decided to let it go. However I will be responsible some yard work you will be able to see. I may have herbs for cooking and that’s it. I used a lot of basil, flat parsley, sage, chives, and coriander. But this summer we will have something very simple.

I did restock my etsy shop during my small break that was a huge accomplishment.

You will get to see what I will be working on soon…

Quote of the day “in every moment you have a choice”

Enjoy!

Moving, and Packing…

 
 
This has been one of the key elements in our lives for the past few years. We have been moving from state to state. We still call VA as our home base may be due to the fact that we still owned a house. I always try to see the brighter side of moving process rather than a critique. This has allowed us to learn more about different cultures, food, etiquettes, what is native and not and many more that I can write a book.

However this moving has shaped our lives in different ways. This is my daughter’s third move and she is only two and half years. If you ask me how she is handling this I would say she is doing great it’s me having this difficult time trying to fix everything to my schedule.
My goal was today to pack at least three boxes with few other things.

My day started like this with a list

Drop Niegel at school
Do the blog post
Pictures shoot
List items in the shop ETSY
Make breakfast frittata
Cook lunch and dinner
Pick Niegel after school
Take Niegel for Swimming
Dinner
Drop at Knitting Club
Get kids to bed by 8:30 (including my -pre teen)
Get food ready for (Charity – CMN) I don’t complain for this I am happy to take part in this and thankful to have an opportunity in this event.


Not too bad for stay at home mom. Life changers in many ways with un- imaginable bumps bottom line is how I face and handle it. My motto how to handle my list is with a smile, a lot of praying, and asking strength and knowledge to face it with a smile I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Quote of the day " complete a project"

Enjoy!

Organized, Cleaned, & Donated…

Yesterday, I decided to clean out my daughters ‘closet. We had so many clothes from fall, winter and spring to donate and clean. So I know what she need for this winter to buy. Also I wanted giveaway some books and clothes for donation. We had some books that I had to tape but still was in good condition… someone to read. There were broken toys to put away.

I was happy that I finally was able to clean out her closet and get it organized. There is more to do but I have clean out the most. I got a bag of clothes from a friend and we can use this coming winter (I love hand me downs) and I am planning to make some clothes for her too this winter… I know it’s going to be interesting to see what I make.

I was able to get two bags from her closet for donation with a small bag of shoes that was a lot…

I loved to see all the quilts that I have made to her are sitting neatly on the shelf. Two more to go then I am done with that project. She is already using the quilts and I enjoy tucking her to bed in the nights…
Thanks for stopping by to take a look to see what’s going on in my world…

Quote of the day “give things away”

Enjoy!

This is not procrastination

I love chapter 9 of the book I am reading. I couldn’t get before pictures but I have after pictures and plenty of them. I was procastinating to organize this pantry cupboard. I know this is an ongoing task to maintain order hope I typed it right. Finally I just did it. First I wanted to buy a list of things to make it organize. I knew something is not right so I used the items I had sitting around to hold small items for baking and what not. I was happy with the result. I was amazed with what I did. So far I have handle two things and I am motivated to handle some more closets cleaning/organizing and what not.

What I am most proud of is I am being an indirect teacher to my kids they automatically learning to be organized and that is priceless.

I am trying to hold on to basics this will aid be to become more organized. I drop off 5 bags at consignment. I am making progress with my sort it out and organizational skills.

Few tips that I incorporated towards motivation and to stretch the dollar. I used my cake stand as a center piece inside my cupboard to display items that needs to be used in near future. It stands up on a pedestal and telling me hey, its time you bake with me or whatever it is. I had two beautiful trays I used them to gather small items. One I used to place water bottles also this will give me quick access to use it when I have visitors over. Storage problem is solved productively/ small place/getting out of clutter/artful reminder to drink water what more can you ask.

Best thing is I did not spend a penny to organize I didn’t buy baskets used what I had sitting around.
I am glad I checked out this book and I love it…

Quote of the day “Hard work is often the easy work you did not do at the proper time” Bernard Meltzer

Enjoy!