Bobbin organization heaven

These things are awesome! I found them on a blog where someone was selling them on etsy for a small fortune. But I found the same brand elsewhere for much, much cheaper. Just google and you can find them in bulk. They are called Handi-Bobs.

Basically, you snap the bobbin in, secure the end of the thread, if desired, and then snap the whole thing into the end of the thread that matches it. You always have neat bobbins and the bobbin and thread are kept together.

If I knew how dirty my carpet was ...

... I'd have been wearing galoshes through my house at all times.

I'd like to thank whoever it was who gave me this carpet steam cleaner for my wedding in 2005. I am kicking myself for not using it sooner. Now that I think about it, I don't think the carpet in my house has ever been cleaned beyond regular vacuuming in the 10 years the house has existed.



I keep going over the same rooms again and again, only to dump out more murky, black water. I'm determined to keep doing it until the water is clean. I just can't believe I've been lying around on these carpets. Or even touching them with my feet.

What? You want to see the inside of my kitchen cupboards?

Don't you love Bed, Bath and Beyond? I could spend hours wandering through the organizing products, daydreaming about nicer, neater cabinets and closets.

I recently had to do a health assessment for my insurance company and was rewarded with a gift card to a store of my choice. I'll give you one guess what my choice was.

I've recently begun washing out/cleaning out my kitchen cabinets. As I go, I've been separating out tons of stuff I don't use or need. It feels great to not have everything stuffed into the cabinets.

Here's the worst cabinet I had:



And here's the cabinet with my baking stuff:



Every time I needed, say, a cookie sheet, I had to take a bunch of stuff out to get to it. I wanted them to stand upward, so I bought a little rack at Lowe's for about $12. It just sets in the cabinet, no installation. I moved these items from the baking cabinet to the first cabinet I showed you:



Then I filled the baking cabinet with other stuff. I even have space left over. I got rid of a big fajita grill -- you know, one of those things you get for Christmas and then use twice in five years. It took up so much space. If any Duke City people reading this want it, let me know soon. It's pretty cute, and has a tortilla warmer.



The top shelf still looks a little jumbled, but it's really not bad. Just my cake/pie pans and casserole dishes.

I don't have a before picture of this cabinet, but it is so very much nicer now. I had way too many mixing bowls, so I got rid of some old plastic ones in favor of my nice, metal Pampered Chef bowls with lids and the brown bowls that match our dinnerware. This cabinet also was stacked full of stuff. I took out the coffee maker that I haven't used since 2002. Why was I letting it take up space like that?

Organizing your knitting

1. Are you a woman? (if no, stop. if yes, continue to #2.)

2. Do you wear makeup? (if no, stop. if yes, continue to #3.)

3. Are you a sucker for those free gifts at the cosmetic counters? (if no, stop. if yes, continue to #4.)

4. Are you drowning in free cosmetic bags and you don't know what to do with them? (if no, stop. if yes, continue to #5.)



5. Do you knit? (if no, well, you got this far. Might as well keep reading.)

6. Here is a fine use for those bags: Use them to organize small projects like socks, a hat, gloves, etc. Keeps your needles, yarn, instructions, counter, markers handy and you can just grab and go. Fits in your regular tote, but keeps your knitting clean and keeps your yarn from getting tangled around everything else in your main bag.

Ta da!

By popular demand

I've been inundated with requests to see my linen closets. I used to be too embarrassed, but now I can swing open the closet doors and proclaim to the world that I have beautiful, organized linen closets (by the way, Mark didn't know we had linen closets. "What's that?" he asked when I told him to check out the newly organized "linen closets.")

All items are neatly labeled. No more confused Marks trying to figure out which are the cleaning rags and which are workout towels. I realize it's hard to read my mind. And this is a guy who organizes his albums, not by release date, not by alphabetical order, not by genre, but by when he bought them. So we are not exactly on the same organizational wavelength.

laundry room closet, for towels only (cat towels, rags, workout towels, Mark towels, matching towels for guest bath, bath sheets, oh, there are so many kinds):



hall closet, for sheets, blankets and table cloths only:

I have hope for this room

It is difficult for me to allow the public to see this room. If you know me, you know I am very organized. You might wonder how it is I can stand to work in this room. Well, I can't.

This is my sewing room, and my computer room. All those boxes along the wall are my husband's thousands of record albums. Well, good news! I think after almost 5 years I have talked him into letting me move these boxes out of this room. Ultimately, we want to have a carpenter build sturdy shelves in the living room and take them out of boxes. But until then, I'd really like a comfortable, organized, less-cramped work space.
So in my mind, when I look at this room, I see something entirely different. I see access to the walls, where there will be shelves and a magnet for my rulers. I see a folding, waist-high cutting table to work on (it's hard to draft patterns when you're sitting, and hunching over a regular-height table hurts).
I see this table here being just for my sewing machine and serger (which I still haven't used because I'm still scared of it). I see space for my ironing board (which you can't see here -- it's to the far right, blocking the closet). Oh, and wouldn't it be dreamy to have the kind of ironing board with a little shelf under it for my pressing hams and seam roll? Dare to dream, I say.