Be sentimental....sort of.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

I have a new client, we are working on her kitchen. Her kitchen is like many older kitchens, the space is used poorly and the cabinet space is very little.

She also doesn't have a dishwasher. So all of her plates and cups and glasses end up sitting on the drying rack. Instead of putting things away, like many people she just recycles whatever she needs from the clean drying rack pile. Sound familiar?

All of her plates are mismatched sets, hand me downs, and scattered around her precious cabinet space completely unused. So part of our makeover is going to be open storage and new plates. Probably something clean,white, timeless.

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She pointed out her grandmothers plates. I asked her if she wanted to keep them and use them, if it was important to her, it would be important to my design. She said she wasn't sentimental and she would pack them up and store them in the basement.

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How many of us have said that? Done that? Regretted that? Thought about it for years as a burden? Later needed to clean the space, unwrapped the item and then didn't know what to do with it? 

Well that's pretty much what I told her. I think it's better to offer the plates to someone else in the family, in this case her mother or aunt and to  keep one tea cup. Use the tea cup, think of her grandmother when she does, see the tea cup, let the memories visit her on a daily or weekly basis. That is a better way to honor her grandmother.

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There is a way to be sentimental and have beautiful design.


What do you think? Have you ever been in this position? Have you stored something only to regret it?

clean 100%

Clean 100% when you clean.

BH&G 

Finish what you start. Don't clean the whole house but vaccuum and sweep later. or clean (                    ) later because you are too tired now.

A 100% clean house stays cleaner for longer than an 80% or even 90% clean home.

Do you want to know why? Perception. 

When your home is 100% clean every one walks on eggshells. You put your dishes straight into the dishwasher, your husband even puts his clothes in the hamper instead of on the floor.

Visually we see the cleanliness, the order, the time spent on making it clean and everyone does a little bit more out of respect for the cleaner and for trying to preserve it.

When we see little messes around the house, subconsciously we don't feel the need to go that extra step of putting away our dishes, we know we can get to it later. 

So when you clean take the time to do it all, and watch how your family reacts. Try cleaning only 80% next time, see how everyone reacts then. I can't be sure that this will work in every household, I'm not a scientist or anything, but that's how things work around here, and somehow it still surprises me. 

I hope you all have a Fabulous Weekend!

-Jen

Clean

Here are some links to posts about cleaning
 (most recent to least recent)

How to clean your frig





5 steps to a cleaner house

How to clean white slipcovers

Dont wait, organize today

Organizing.

Sometimes it just happens. Without the planning and thinking and it being on a to do list. But usually it doesn't.

Today, it just happened. My daughter went over to the linen hutch and pulled out all the stuff, just like she does everyday. Its happened too many times, and so I decided I could get it organized while she played with all the stuff.



My linen/toiletries hutch is a necessity. Living in a 120 year old home with no linen closet means we got creative and we use this old tool hutch for linens.  Its from my husbands late great aunts home, and his family always gets a kick out of seeing us use it in this very non-traditional way.  We just cleaned it up and painted it, and I think its perfect.

We organize it by linens up top, toiletries in the bottom.

Steps to clean up your toiletries

1. Figure out where you keep everything, and if its in the correct spot

For me this was kind of huge. I had hair stuff in multiple places, so I could never really find everything I needed. We kept all the extras toiletries out in the hall, but we needed them in the bathroom. 

2. Make a mess and pull everything out and put it in piles of like items. Every family will be different but my piles were

1. Hair stuff I use everyday
2. Lotions
3. Extras supplies
4. Fancy stuff
5. Nail stuff
6. Random things we don't use often, but are not trash
7. Hair stuff to dye my hair
8. Baby stuff
9. Face stuff

My husband literally has no stuff.

Once I had it all in piles I had to decide what I actually needed in the bathroom, and what I could keep in the hutch. Maybe you can keep everything in one place? The point is to get all like things together so you can find everything easily and quickly.

3. Throw out all the stuff that's empty. There was a couple of things that were totally empty (embarrassing), and we didn't notice because we have so many items all over the place. I also took items out of containers, so I threw away a lot of packaging. And packaging takes up space I just dont have.

4. Donate. I'm a tryer. If I see something or hear about something, I'll buy it to try and hope that it works, because I'm always looking for that perfect product. So all the stuff that doesn't work for me, I put in a nice little bag and I'll bring it over to my moms and let her try it. I'm not really sure if shes a tryer or not, but everybody likes free stuff, and hey, maybe it could really work for her, right?

BEFORE

And here it is all organized.

Top Shelf left to right hair dye items, all lotions, and face stuff

On the bottom shelf, extras & items we don't use often.

AFTER

When I organized the under sink area a couple months ago I tried to keep only items under there that I use everyday, but all my hair stuff was still in the hutch, and I just ended up running back and forth all the time. And when things are in multiple places I would inevitably go to the wrong place every time. Frustrating.

**With organizing its not a one time job. I usually find that I do it once, and realize a flaw in the system.  The idea is to fix it and then you'll really be organized**

PS...the big brown smudges are hair dye, because I'm messy and in a rush and imperfect I never wiped it down

Toilet paper in the back. Mouth wash. On the left all baby stuff for bath time. And in the white basket I have soaps, razors, my body spray and deodorant. Extra toothbrushes, cotton balls and ear swabs are in the plastic bag.

So far I'm really enjoying our new organization, sure it looks better, but it actually really works better too, and that's the whole point of organization.

I'll also say I didn't buy a bunch of new cool storage containers, I just made these spaces work better. Of course I want it to be pretty too, but I can always do that in time, at least for now we are organized.

 Don't wait until you can afford the right containers. You might never be able to.

Don't wait until you have more time. Theres never enough time. And think about all the time you'll save when things are where they should be.

Thanks for visiting!

5 Steps to getting a cleaner house

This post is about Cleaning, organizing will be for another post. These are real life things that I do that help me keep my home cleaner and tidier, and help our family enjoy our home more on a daily basis.

1. Pick a cleaning day
Every week I clean on Monday, its a full out clean, not a tidy, but actual cleaning. Pick a day that works for you, and for your family. 




I tidy/clean 5 days later on Friday too, its less than a Monday clean, but more than just a tidy.  I clean on Friday so that the house is cleaned up for the weekend, it means we can have guests, it means I can relax and enjoy the weekend because there are no chores to do, and it usually needs a good spruce by Friday.




2. Do the laundry one load at a time



I used to do like 5 loads of laundry in one day, and I would end up with 2 baskets full of folded clothes, 1 basket of clothes unfolded. 1 load in the dryer, 1 load sitting in the washing machine, overnight getting stinky. And...then I'd have to rewash the stuff in the washing machine, and sometimes the stuff in the dryer wasnt all the way dry, but I'd get tired of doing laundry.  I know you have all been there, right?

 All that to say...wash one load at a time. Wash it, dry it, fold it, put it away.  Dont start another load unless you are committed to doing that load all the way through.



You can do 5 loads in a day, but before you put in the next load ask yourself  "Am I prepared to wash this, dry this, fold this, and put this away?" If the asnwer is no, then skip it.



( I also like to throw in towels or sheets in between my darks, whites or baby clothes. Because towels and sheets are easy to fold and put away, it makes the task less tedious, try it!)



3. Clean before you relax

At the end of the day after I put my daughter to bed, I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, so I can relax. I actually use relaxation and free time as my motivation. I put away the toys, and clean up her dinner, and finish that load of laundry. No one likes to wake up to dirty dishes, or unfolded laundry, or toys all over the floor. So do a little crazy clean up for a couple of minutes. You'll be happy that you did it. And it literally takes me 2 minutes to clean up my entire downstairs, because I tidy often it doesnt get too out of control.



4. Go ahead and just finish that little task.
Its the little tasks that are undone, and stay undone and stay in our minds. Its the little things that we dont do because they are so easy, but unfortunately we dont do them, and then we worry about them, and we have to keep reminding ourselves to do those things. Its the easy thing like mail out that bill, or empty that trash or taking the extra minute to put away your jewelery.



5. Have some routines



A. I clean on Mondays. I clean on Mondays because we enjoy the house over the weekend, and we always make a mess on the weekends, so by Monday it really needs a cleaning  B. I tidy up every night so we can reset for the next day, it starts us off on the right foot. C. I wipe down the sink in the bathroom every day. We only have 1.5 baths, so its 2 grown ups and a baby who use that bathroom every day to take showers and baths and all that getting ready makes a mess. Once I'm done using a washcloth I simply wipe down the sink and the shower ledge, it feels clean, it looks clean, it makes me happy.  D. I empty the garbages in our bedrooms and bathrooms 2 or 3 times a week.

My home is not immaculate, sometimes it gets messy because real living happens and I dont pay attention to my own 5 steps. But these 5 steps are things I do every week. I really believe if you clean really well once a week, pick up and keep things tidy your home can look cleaner and be cleaner.

This is what has worked for me, and I hope it can work for you too!

(All pictures are from BH&G.com)

Do you have any routines, steps or tricks?

Cleaning up after Christmas

Cleaning up.

This is our Living room with our christmas decorations

I wanted to keep things pretty simple. With our daughters one year old birthday party at the begining of December, I wanted it to feel festive...without it being TOO much. Especially with a lot of people in a smaller house, too many decorations could feel crazy...REAL fast.

So I was careful to make sure it didnt feel crazy cluttered

Well on Friday I took down the decorations...because guess what? Dry garland and a tree that is so dry and hard and painful to the touch..is actually not what we were going for!

This is our living room after I took down the holiday stuff, and added some stuff I had away in storage.

I like the look of the layered bookcases.

 Is it too much??...I'm kind of loving it

All these items were on the bookcase are either from garage sales, or thrift stores. The little 9 container and the white pot is from christmas tree shops, and the little tea lights are from target.

All these items are from garage sales and thrift stores too except for the tea lights and the the white shutter thing.

I also decided to do the little book project. I LOVE vintage books, I collect them anywhere I can. For free, at garage sales, at thrift shops. I dont really care what the books are about, I just love the way they look. Because my books were mostly free, I dont like a lot of the colors on the covers, so I decided to cover them.

I feel like they look so much better, I love seeing the old pages. So these all went in the bookcases.

I love the texture

So do you like it?

I'll be linking up to:

Have you seen my giveaway, click here to enter

Slipcover & Pillow Party

This is my living room a couple of months ago, without my new rug, without my christmas decorations, and minus a chair and with some extra side tables. I'm a mover and a shaker, and things dont stay the same for very long around here

Now

I have 2 white slipcovered chairs and 1 white slipcovered sofa, and 1 off white/tanish slipcovered sofa.

I like to spot treat any little stains, turn over pillows and wash as little as possible. Yesterday it was time to wash them though

So I stripped all my chairs and sofas down, and even took the covers off the throw pillows

My daughter "helped"

I kept yelling "pillow party" and she was diving into the pillows and biting and laughing. To see the world through a childs eyes is a great gift

And I took the extra 3 minutes to clean under the chairs. Books, toys, and dust bunnies love to live here

Have I told you yet that Macaroni is a mountain climber? Thats what we like to say because he loves to climb on the backs of the couches, and hes so athletic, he runs like a bunny

And then he found a good place to lay down

On a serious note, I love slipcovered furniture. With a baby and dog and me being extremely clumsy I love that I can just throw it all in the wash. Its better to wash the whole piece together, because otherwise I find that it'll look different colors. And the real reason I love it so much I guess is because I dont want to be hovering over my family or guests. If something spills, it spills. I choose to enjoy our home and worry less.