THAT drawer

Not to be confused with THAT boy ;)

Everyone has one.  THAT drawer that you are scared to open.  Scared to put your hand into for fear it might get cut or find something that REALLY doesn't belong.  Am I being a little dramatic?  Maybe.  But it was thanks to my "THAT drawer" that I decided to make a little purchase at Home Goods during my recent visit to St. Louis.

Here's the situation that necessitated an intervention:

A too small utensil holder on the counter which held about five utensils comfortably.

The utensil holder was an IKEA purchase (~$7) for my FIRST apartment, which if you read between the lines means this bad boy has been gracing my counters for about 8 years, so about 75 cents/year. He had put his time in and I believe I had gotten my money's worth out of him.

Enter my new shiny utensil holder from Home Goods!  I purchased it for $11.99 and once I was back in town, it found its new home on my counter.

You know you are getting old when you seriously get excited about making purchases like this one.

I also liked the scale of the new one much more than the old one, but thought it looked a little cramped with the knives on the counter too, so those got moved to another area of the kitchen.  #unclutteredhappiness

So now that the new holder was ready to be filled, I decided to tackle THAT drawer.  Embarrassed to put this online, but hey, I'm sharing this one like it is.

This drawer houses our can openers, measuring cups, baking items, and other "overflow" utensils. Yes that is a knife also just hanging out in the drawer - SCARY. 

On a positive note, this is probably the most prominent area for primary colors in our home.  I don't fall far from the tree when it comes to beiges and related neutrals. 

I emptied out the entire drawer, putting utensils in their new home and everything else across the counter.  I wiped out the drawer and washed anything that looked like it needed it.

I was a little shocked by some of the items in the drawer.  Do we really need FOUR of one utensil?  I agree that there are some things that are nice to have multiples of, but we really don't need four pastry brushes, scratch that, five.  So I downsized unnecessary items and started reorganizing.  Can/bottle/wine openers grouped on the left, random items in the middle and I filled in that last section with the remaining pastry brushes and wooden spoons.

Lovely organization.

I think my helpers were just as excited as I was!  Or not.  Because it was 9:30pm and they wanted to go to bed.  #happeningFridaynight

In the end, I had a small pile of about 10 things that we no longer needed from ONE drawer.  #stillwaitingforLuke'sapprovaltogetridof #Idon'tactuallydomuchcooking #nobodyisshockedbythat

I'm also happy to report that we no longer have stray knives hanging out in the drawer. Nobody was cut in the making of this post either.  Small celebration!

Time for the side-by-side comparisons!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I LOVE the new utensil holder and how much more it can hold while still looking stylish. However, I don't LOVE where the knives found a new home, so it looks like they are leasing the space for now until they can find a new place.

Another thing I didn't LOVE?  The hardwater spots on my utensils.  My mom suggested a vinegar water soak to get rid of the white grossness.  I'm trying it now and will let you know how it goes!

Another "clutter" area tackled.  

Anybody else tackled THAT drawer lately? Or does anybody get just as giddy as I do with new purchases for the home?!  #TJMaxxandHomeGoodsAddictionAnonymous  

Linking up to New Years Organizing Revolution! 

Save the Dates: Birthdays and anniversaries that is!

At this point many of you will think I've lost it - you are probably correct.  This is what happens when I have had too many cups of coffee and "Today's Hits Radio" blaring from Pandora.  The motivation is slowly starting to wear off, but the Dance Party will be ongoing until my caffeine wears off! #eventhedogsaredancing

So a few days ago I wrote this post on Paying It Forward throughout the year and prior to that this post about how I'm approaching the New Year.  With those posts in mind, I have taken time today to catch up on a few things I've been wanting to do for weeks to years (yes, I said years) that will hopefully help me accomplish a few of those things.   One my ideas was a one-stop-shop for important dates!

I had mentioned that I think sending cards or messages is a fantastic, yet simple way to show someone you care.  However, and it may just be me, if Facebook doesn't tell me, I often don't know.  Update: Facebook is not always right either! Enter somebody who is not on Facebook and I have NO clue.  So I decided to put all of the important dates in an easy to use document.  I've seen similar approaches online, but wanted to create my own so it was stream-lined, straightforward, and editable for future additions to the family!  I started with my family on my mom's side so I could give you all an example:

I made a document in simple document in word with the months of the year, then filled in the columns with the date of the month and the person(s) name(s).  If just one person is listed, it's his or her Birthday!  With two names, it's an Anniversary and I included the date of the year the couple was married if I knew it so I knew if it was going to be a "milestone" year! Pretty simple huh? You are welcome for not including birthday years :)

I like that I can use this document as a one-stop shop for what cards I want/need to buy so I won't be running out last minute. I also used this document this morning to add the dates to my Google calendar, which has the option to have the event repeat every year so I only have to enter them once - yes please! So for less than 30 minutes of transferring the dates, these are on my calendar for years to come.  I consider that a time-saving situation!

Now I need to set time aside to do this for the rest of my family and friends, and would like to include add in general dates as well (i.e. Mother's Day in May), but I think that will have to be a gradual process!

Another something new?  Here's the link to download your own! #Ihavenoideaifthisisgoingtowork 

Download Non-Personalized "Important Dates" Google Doc Here 

Reclaiming the Garage

There is something about a clean and organized garage that makes me happy.

So you can imagine my mood when I came home to this:

Despite my better judgement, I'm putting it online for all to see.  

My extension cords, outdoor "won't light up" lights, and random shelf components from when one of the shelves came crashing down.

My wood from previous and future projects lining the wall so I could barely pull my car into the garage.

The Pepsi container from the people that lived here before us. Cough 3 years ago.

The remnants of wood from projects passed that I just might use in the future for a cool project that is yet to be determined.

And the corner of death (feeling dramatic today..) where projects go to die and never be touched.  I think our powered snow shovel is even hidden back there.

And my "woodshop" workstation with no usable counter space and a glorious pegboard that I wasn't fully utilizing.  Not to mention an empty rubbermaid and oodles of car wash products from the SO (which means significant other as one of my recent interviewers pointed out to me).  

What can I say - he loves a clean car with EXTRA shiny tires. 

After cleaning my floor mats, I couldn't stand to look at my garage or even be in it.  Since it was a 70 degree day in November (not likely to stay that way long) I tackled another project: reclaiming my garage.  

I took a quick survey of the garage, and decided immediately we had too much stuff.  I recycled all the extra cardboard (most of the boxes were empty or nearly empty), repurposed the Rubbermaid container for wood scraps (why did I not do this before?!), threw away broken unfixable objects, and reorganized the remainder of the garage by grouping like things together.

How did I tackle this project?

-Wood pile in the corner of death, sorted by size and type.

-Outdoor citronella candles, bug repellent, and summer related things into the same container on a shelf.

-Car wash supplies in a plastic shoebox already owned and sitting in the basement.

-Tools and building supplies with the workstation.  Saws, sanders, drills on top of the station.  Tools, screws, and nails on the pegboard.  Spare nails, screws, and other metal objects in small plastic storage container.  Remainder odds and ends (screwdrivers, stir sticks, etc) in flower pot.

-Extension cords, ropes, and all things "corded" wrapped and hung on previously owned shelf supports. 

  -Outdoor lawn equipment hung on the already present hanging organizer.  Exception: gas powered weed eater which needs to be stored horizontally (so I'm told), now lives on shelf.

-EVERYTHING had to have a home, or it didn't go in the garage. 

Ready to see how it all worked out?

Before: 

After:

I can actually see what I have now and something about the pegboard made me REALLY happy.  So happy I took more pictures...

I think I was the crazy neighbor lady spending hours on end outside and taking pictures of strange things (for the purpose of blogging, but they don't know that!).

The best part about this project?  I used what I already had and spent $0!  The garage is now back to being a happy place for outdoor tools storage, wood working projects, and my car.  

Not having to scrape my car in the morning? Priceless.  

Project "Reclaim the Garage" tackled.

*True story: The end table/nightstand from the corner of death was a project I just didn't feel like tackling anymore.  So I decided to give somebody else a chance to make it their own.  I took a picture of the end table (which wasn't really necessary anyway) and put it on the curb.  I went inside to post my ad to Craigslist for "free stuff", went back outside to take a few more pictures of the end table, and saw it was already gone! It sat on the curb for 5 to 10 minutes max. I either live by vultures or have creative neighbors!