Laundry Schedule

Now that we have access to a washer inside our apartment, my laundry game has changed tremendously.

I used to do all of our laundry on Thursdays, when I would have to try to haul it all downstairs to the washroom, pray that all the machines were working and open, and then conquer folding the huge mountain of clean items, and put it all away--all in one day. Not only was it a huge chore, it was frustrating to know that come Thursday, almost everything we owned was dirty. Add in the occasional extra laundry from company, and saying that I dreaded Thursdays was sort of an under statement. : )

But now!...

I get to use a new schedule that keeps our home (and clothes) clean and functional without the dreaded buildup to one particular day.

Washing, drying, and folding only one or two loads a day seems so doable, that I don't worry about laundry much anymore. Somedays, I even feel ambitious and do the next day's to save myself time tomorrow!

Hallelujah for a washer and dryer in our home!

What's your best tip for tackling the laundry?

Super Cool Shower Caddy

This afternoon we are relaxing on the couch, Pete is watching football, and I'm looking at blogs to keep myself entertained. I was reading a post on Apartment Therapy about useful bathroom storage products, and noticed this shower caddy that we own. I showed it to Pete, feeling proud that we had picked a product off the list, who exclaimed, "Wow, I didn't know the shelves moved side to side like that!" "What? Oh, wow! Does ours do that?" We quickly go to the bathroom to check it out (it was a commercial : ) and yes it does! Sweet!

Look how much better all of our stuff fits now! ha ha

Trees in the Kitchen

Pete hung up the tree pictures for me when he hung up the dartboard.

Darboard Cabinet

Look what Peter made for us!
Isn't he awesome?

(Credit: Tony helped and lent us all his tools : )

Patio Update

I found a fun blue tablecloth, and a side table.

I'm looking for ideas about how I might paint the side table to match everything else better.
Any thoughts?

Getting Sentimental

Jacinda and I were talking the other day about preserving good memories in untraditional ways, sparked by her friend Heather's latest project here.
You may have noticed in our living room tour, the key framed on our entertainment center. It's the key to our first apartment together. I could have thrown it in a drawer, but as the sentimentalist I am, framing it as a token of our memories in that place was the better option. Yes, Pete did have a good chuckle at me, as you might too, but it makes me happy every time I see it.
Also, I kept the cork from the champagne we drank on our first anniversary and wrote the event and date on it. Right now it's also in the entertainment center sitting in the glass pear. I've heard of people doing this for all their special occasions and then keeping them as a collection. Not sure if we drink enough drinks with corks to do this, but we'll see. Either way, I like having this one. : )

What sort of ways do you preserve memories in
untraditional or even traditional ways?

Living Room Tour

(I weeded out my book collection. Now all my favorites fit in this bin.)(Notice Peter's bat made the move ; )

Patio Tour

(Herb garden in the pot to the right. Tomatoes and Succulents to the left)(I played with the saturation and exposure so you could see the table, but look how it cartooned the background. It looks like a drawing!)(I would love to find a little table to shove in that corner to hold drinks or a snack.
Only about 16" wide will fit. )The View:

(Looking out straight ahead)
(To the left)
(To the right)

Then there were pillows...

Best part about these is that they can come off and go through the wash. I may still make one more, but the fabric I have left is the wrong shape, so I may have to get pretty creative if I'm going to make it work. We'll see. Either way it's more comfy now!

Corraling Receipts

Does anyone else ever feel like they're up to their eyeballs in loose receipts?

Of all the paper that circulates through our apartment, I always feel like receipts are the toughest thing to keep contained. In our old apartment we had space to hang this dandy guy that housed both loose receipts and other papers that needed a quick and easy home.

Now in our new apartment I've been at a loss of what to do. There is no decent place to put up our old hanging file (it's just been sitting on the floor since we moved in), plus I'm always wishing it was a little easier to get into it. In the picture above it's almost empty. In day to day use, it's a bit more stuffed.

I read somewhere that if you want a neat house, it's important to make things easy to put away, and I find it to be true for us. So I knew I had to come up with some sort of quick fix pronto.

Then I was inspired by this image from my favorite blog YOUNG HOUSE LOVE:

See how there are file folders sitting in the back of that cute box? I'm not sure what they're storing, but I knew it could work for our receipts too! Now to find the right size box for free...

Solution:

Contact paper covered shoe box!

(Yeah, I know it's not quite as awesome, but it totally works, and if I hadn't shown you the cute one first, maybe you wouldn't have noticed?)

I used a bigger shoe box (think running shoes), simply covered it with contact paper I had on hand, and then slipped the same files in the back.
Now, no more mountains of receipts. Hallelujah!

I should have taken a before picture, but it would have been pretty embarrassing. I'll let you use your imagination.

What is your biggest day to day mess and how do you handle it?

Apartment Tour: Dining Area/Office/Entry

Still some pictures to hang on the floor.
The white dish cabinet has been transformed into an office/home management center.From the kitchen, you can see our entry area.

Apartment Tour: Kitchen

Walking straight into our kitchen, it's much wider than our last one. Room for more cooks now! If you stand at the sink, you look right into our living room.
To the right is our large pantry cupboard that fits all our food, appliances, and extra big platters.
Look! All our dishes in one cupboard.
I'm standing in dining room looking in.
Our stove is gas instead of electric now. So much easier to clean.

Hope to have more apartment pictures up soon!

Shampoo is Better...No Conditioner is Better*

I've been refilling the same small bottles from the big Costco size since high school, and no matter how often I cleaned them, they were getting pretty grimmy.
Solution:
These cute new shower buddies, complete with pump nozzles I found at the Container Store. The monogram stickers are just in case I forget who's who.

(*quote from Big Daddy that's been stuck in my head : )

Our new Kitchen Beauty

This lady used to be yellow, and a little polka doted from the bad Ikea paint job. Now check her out with her fresh coat of white paint and new bead backer board painted in a calm blue.

And look how much we can fit in her! This new piece has freed up some major kitchen cabinet space, which means that our extra appliances are no longer housed in the linen cabinet. No more towels smelling like waffles and smoothies. Awesome!

Dry Erase Pens - Magically motivating adults like stickers do for little kids

My housekeeping plans keep morphing and changing, as I realize what I need to do to personally motivate myself. At first I was trying to just clean the house without any built in accountability or rewards. Unfortunately, I'm not intrinsically motivated to dust like some people.
First solution:
I made a big list of chores I wanted to accomplish Daily, Weekly, and Monthly, and then framed it so I could use a dry erase pen to mark it off.

Result:
This increased my productivity immensely, because just having a list present reminded me of household chores that were off my radar. The reward of checking things off was great, but there was still a problem. On Monday I would look at the weekly chore list and think, "Maybe I'll mop the bathroom floor on Tuesday, I don't feel like it today"...and then on Tuesday, "How about tomorrow, I'd rather vacuum instead"...etc. Needless to say, I didn't mop the bathroom floor until 10 minutes before people were coming over one day. Gross!

New Solution:
I made large index cards for each day of the week and assigned particular tasks from my large list to specific days. Now the bathroom floor gets mopped on Tuesdays. No putting it off. Plus, by laminating them, I still get the joy of checking the items off with my magical dry erase pen.

Time will tell if this solution may work better. Changing into a tidier person is a process, but I see change happening, and lists and systems (and dry erase pens) make the process way more fun, at least for me.

How do you motivate yourself to do the household chores you hate?

It's Lovely! I'll Take it!

Sometimes, it can be fun to look at listings online. Other times it can become frustrating when I start wishing we could be our own landlords (i.e. our car gets flooded, we are infested with ants, our roof is leaking). Then, I stumbled upon this website that put the twist of humor I needed on the situation. Check it out here. Just a clip from their website:

"Be aware of transients living throughout property."

Heather found this listing, with its friendly advice that one should "be aware of transients living throughout the property." I like the offhand tone. Oh, those? The things scattered throughout the property? They're just transients. Tra la la..."

I have my eye on..

this new beauty from Ikea. Now I'm not a huge fan of the yellow, so the plan would be to paint the entire thing white, and then replace the backing (particle board) with some bead board painted a really pale blue. At this point we would use it for extra kitchen storage, but I think it could also be used as a bookcase, craft/sewing storage, or linen closet in the future. We'll definitely wait till we get our tax return, so I have some time to think about it. Oh and best part, unlike most Ikea furniture, this is actually made out of pine. I'm hoping that means it could last a lot longer.