Promotional to Useful

I often get these small promotional calendars in the mail at the start of the year. Sometimes they get stuck on the fridge and ignored. 

When watching a YouTube video, I noticed a vlogger using a project life calendar card to track her no spend March. It occurred to me that these small calendars could similarly be used to track a daily action over a month.

I tore off April and cut it down and clipped it into my planner and used it to track my blogging over the month.  Now that I am using DIYFish planner pages, I have a monthly sheet that is used to track a host of activities, but I still love this solution.

This is a good way to track those resolutions I'm sure many have forgotten. I don't set resolutions but I do choose a focus area or intention. This is my year of discovery and I am determined to discover myself through more consistent writing. I'm finding that the only way I will get to the more consistent writing is to implement some more consistent planning.

Free Planner Pages

I hear a lot of Filofax users complain about how expensive planner paper can get. There are endless comparisons between the different types of paper and what pens work best. Honestly, I love good paper but most of the paper that cycles through my planner will just end up in the trash so I don't bother with quality so much.  And because I change my pens so often, I will drive myself crazy trying to match up the perfect paper with the perfect pen.

All that said, I still need paper.

This is a snapshot of the "next steps" portion of my planner.  This is where I'm tracking all the project steps for myself and for my work group. With all of the projects we have going, the pages in this section will get filled up, marked up and tossed out quite often. As you can tell, this first page is yellow, reminiscent of the yellow legal pads. And that's exactly what it is.

I admit I have a problem...a big problem. I have piles of notepads, notebooks and tablets that I have collected overt the years. And this is just a small portion. What I can say is that these are probably the oldest. Some are even of college vintage. As I caught up on the latest shows on Hulu, many of these have become perfectly sized planner pages.

This is such an easy solution for both my growing collection of paper and having a steady supply of paper for the planner.

So, to all of you struggling with your paper supply, give this a try.  Use it, mark it up and then toss it away. No reason to stress about the cost.

Spring Cleaning to Make Room

Once I came back home from traveling from work, I knew it was time to start tackling a few things. The priority items on the list were…

• Going through and cleaning up two years of mail that had piled up.
• Clearing out and organizing the guest room that had become a dumping ground for everything that didn’t have a home.
• Making closet space for my soon-to-be husband.

I still have a bit more to do but I have made tremendous progress.



This was my guest room before I started. Oddly enough, the picture doesn’t look as bad as it truly was. I went through everything you see piled there, everything in the guest closet and everything in my master closet and I shredded/recycled everything that I could.



I made three trips to the recycling center. I couldn’t believe how much paper crap I had accumulated over the years. I had bank statements and cancelled checks from over 11 years ago. I had paperwork from college that was no longer needed and I had Christmas cards from people that I don’t even remember where I met them. I got rid of all that I could. The main things that I have held on to are tax documents and documentation from past credit problems that I had. I consolidated all that was left into one container and I will be tackling that with GTD in the near future.

My biggest challenge in sorting the closets was what to with my growing collection of purses and bags. Now, I have already admitted that I have a problem so please don’t judge me. There stacked on the end of my bed are all the different bags and purses that I own. I did not count them this time. I have topped over 100 before.



Piled separately on the floor is my collection of Vera Bradley.



And in a separate pile already put away in a closet, is my collection of wallets, clutches and smaller pouch-type bags.



The key to making room for the boy was finding a new home for all of these bags outside of the master bedroom (with exception of the wallet shelf--that stays in the smaller bedroom closet).

Between the hallway linen closet and the guest bedroom, I found a place to store all of these bags. I’m hoping this is just temporary storage as I really need to cut this collection down by more than half.



So, now that these are settled, there is (ALMOST) enough room for the boy. I still have lots of items I don’t need so you’ll see more about my pare down in the near future.

How is your spring cleaning going?

Use or Trade

I’m continuing to go through the house, cleaning out where I can and getting rid of things I no longer need or want. Next up was the media cabinet. It was getting to the point where I couldn’t fit much more in it without messy stacking that threatened to tumble out eat time you opened the cabinet.

I checked the trade-in requirements for my local used video/games/music/book store before starting because anything that can go will go there for now. I do have some items that don’t meet the requirements and I will keep them for now, but I will be keeping my eyes and ears open for options for getting rids of those.

My media cabinet went from this…



to this…



I didn’t count my totals but I have an assortment of VHS, DVD and CDs ready for trade. The place I am going has the option for cash buy or trade, but since I am a regular customer I will be going for the trade as it is much more valuable.



I added my used first generation e-ink Kindle to the pile and walked away with $159.85 in store credit. Only 5 items were rejected and returned to my media cabinet

How is your cleaning going? Have you tackled your media collection?

A Little Bit of Sewing-the Nissan Leaf

If you have a lot of t-shirts that you don’t wear laying around or you have shirts that are stained and no longer wearable, consider recycling them into other projects. Lately I have been more into projects that are designed to reduce waste. On Friday, Nissan was in town for their road tour announcing their new electric car called the Leaf. Since they were in walking distance of our office, some coworkers and I walked over to take a look. We didn’t stay to take a test drive, but we did sign up so we could get a free t-shirt. it was a beautiful t-shirt, but I would never wear it, so I up-cycled it.

I didn’t think to take a before shot of the t-shirt so you could se what it looked like, but this is what it looks like now.

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I told you it was a nice shirt. That logo was begging to be the centerpiece of a bag. The pattern is the Amy Butler Swing Bag. The dark blue external fabric is the Nissan Leaf t-shirt. The internal is a white t-shirt from Lane Bryant that I had stained but had not thrown away. I would often wear it to bed because the fabric felt so good. Now, it has a new life. The bag is lined with Peltex to give it some stiffness. It is reversible but I would never walk around with a white bag. I attract stains too much to be that brave, but having a white interior gives you that extra brightness that makes finding things a little simpler.

But I couldn’t leave it there. I’m constantly looking for ways to organize all the stuff that makes it’s way into my bag. Mostly I do this with little zippered bags. I made two to match my new Nissan Leaf Swing Bag.

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These zippered pouches are made from the cap sleeves of the t-shirt. These are improvised and far from perfectly square, but they are very utilitarian and ready to toss in any bag.

So, what do you think? Are you off to make new use of your old t-shirts? Let me know.

Happy crafting.

The Atlanta Trip-Finale

While in Atlanta, a trip to IKEA inspired me to go ahead and start the recycling program at home I've been wanting to for so long. Finally I would go ahead and do it. I purchased 5 bins-2 large and 3 small for the common divisions of trash-paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, tin.

I did some research yesterday into the guidelines here in Chattanooga. I also had to check the schedule to see when the pick-up times are so I can make sure the items actually make it down to the road on the right day. They pick up once a month so I have to be careful I make the pick-ups. Otherwise I've be driving it all to a drop-off center. My intention was to label the bins and put them in the garage in a place that allows easy access. Looking at the website I saw that the city doesn't actually require you to separate the items. As long as they can be recycled, they can all go into the same bag and be put on the road. So, I decided to use one bin (a large one) and keep it in the kitchen for even easier access.


I'm not sure if that's where the bin will live permanently, but for now I think that's the best spot. Plus it elevates the plant for better sunlight access.

Glass can not be put on the road so I'll have to take wine bottles to the drop off center but I'm usually good about reusing other glass jars once empty. They are perfect for pantry organization. They offer great contrast to the store bought glass containers and make maintaining my pantry a little cheaper. Yay for reusing!









So now, what do I do with the remaining bins? Seeing that Atlanta is almost 2 hours away, returning them is just not practical or desirable honestly. So what to do? YARN STORAGE of course.

I took this opportunity to reorganize a closet that holds my sewing supplies. I put the bins in and labeled them for sock yarn, single skeins, small projects (for 2-4 same balls), and large projects (for 5+ same balls). I think this will work perfectly for my stash as I am still quite small in terms of stash. Since the bins aren't clear I can't automatically see what inside, but I'll use Ravelry to keep up with what I have as I am good about taking pictures of my stash.




The rest of the closet houses my sewing machine and notions and a table I pull out when needed. I added two baskets; one for large notions and patters, the other for WIP knitting. And of course, my knitting books are there.





Now I'm tired and off to clean and dust the house before I die from allergy attacks. Here's hoping your home is organized and dust free as well!