Christmas Break!

Hello friends!

Merry Christmas Break! It feel amazing to know that I have two full weeks of practically nothing to do! So that's a lie, I have a long list of what I'd like to do, but it's exciting! First of all, Jed has no work this entire week, so I think that means some fun activities for us: visit the Draper Temple (since the last TWO times it was either closed or we ran out of time and went to the Provo Temple instead), move around the furniture in the second bedroom, watch lots of TV shows together under a nice cozy blanket on the couch (Lie to Me? White Collar?), wrap Christmas presents and hide our stocking presents until we can put them in our stockings, and probably some other fun things, who knows!

I have my own personal list of things I would like to do. Some are boring, like get my tires rotated, put away laundry, etc. etc, but there are some fun things, too!

Today I was inspired by this blog: IHeart Organizing. You all probably know that I love to organize. I love it to death. I get a little discouraged, though, because you see these beautiful pictures of beautiful homes with big spaces and perfect shelving units to put cute and EXPENSIVE organizers on, and we just don't have the space or money to buy any of those things. But since getting the crib, I have a renewed motivation to organize! For one thing, our crib doesn't fit where we wanted it to. Lies, it does fit. But we can't sit at our desk with it there. I never use the desk except to store things, but Jed always sits at the desk to do things (he's destined to be the person who works for a living, right? I hate sitting at desks....). So, when I saw how terribly small and crowded our 2nd bedroom looked, I knew something much be done. And with that, the nesting instinct kicked in. Have you ever heard of the nesting instinct? It's a side effect not often talked about among pregnant women. Basically, it's like how dogs and cats like to find a perfect cozy spot to deliver their litters in, and other animals I'm sure do it too. Humans are no different. The baby's on the way, and the mom has the natural instinct to get the home ready for it. In my case, that means ORGANIZE!

So back to the IHeart Organizing blog. Pinterest lead me to it, and I will probably look at this blog daily, because there are hundreds of posts on there, every single one interesting and inspiring. Seeing her beautiful home inspired several things for me to do over the break:

1) Organize the dang 2nd bedroom closet. It is not efficient AT ALL.

2) Create my own boxes for organizing. Like I said before, those super cute woven boxes that people organize with are so perfect... and so expensive! Average from what I've seen, $20 a box. I think I could spend well over $400 organizing our home, and we just don't have that money to spend. So that's why I will create my own! We have lots and lots of random cardboard boxes, and I can totally make them cute with wrapping paper! And then I can create my own cute labels on the computer and simply tape them on (they don't have to be sticky on one side to be called a label! Yes, in my head, I truly thought that). On her blog, there are so many other things to use for organizing that become cute and coordinated simply by covering them with paper:

• Kleenex boxes (love this. Use it in your pantry for spice packets or even spice bottles, use in in your office, closet, bathroom--for washcloths!--It's really amazing! I haven't bought Kleenex in a while because why spend money on that when you can just use toilet paper? But now I think I will invest in a few, just so I can have the boxes afterwards ha ha.)
• Empty cans (so save those green bean cans!)
• Really, just any empty container. You can cover anything with cute paper. It's ridiculous how many different containers she uses on there (like an empty parmesan cheese bottle--the plastic ones from the store. She put markers in it. Love it!)

3) Cover the back of the shelves in my bedroom. Remember how I have those cute built in shelves in our bedroom?

Well, I have made no headway in putting cardboard on the back of the few that need it, nor have I put cute wallpaper on it. So, sometime this break I am determined to do both. I'm actually contemplating finding cute wrapping paper to cover it, because it won't be touched much, so no worries about the wrapping paper ripping, and it might be cheaper? I haven't looked around much at wallpaper.

4) Buy new knobs for the dresser in our second bedroom. This dresser was Jed's from when he was a baby, and it is is perfect to set a little changing pad on top and use as storage for baby clothes/a changing table. And I just realized minutes ago, as I sit in our recliner, staring directly at our crib and dresser, that the colors are practically identical! I am so glad we went with the cinnamon colored crib, now! I wasn't originally concerned with the baby furniture not matching, but it's pretty sweet that it does! But the knobs to open the drawer are just not that cute, and I think changing up that one thing will make a big difference.

5) Clean out the other two closets (the on the stairs and under the stairs closets). I have a lot of baking appliances that can't really be helped, but maybe I can find a more efficient way of putting them on the shelves. Oh and the laundry room closet. I think we have to move some things in there in order to fit baby clothes in the dresser.

On a related note, for our wedding we got a cute container full of homemade laundry detergent along with the recipe. We are finally using it, and it has taken a few months to get through even half of it! So, the fact that you use so little for a load and also that it is so cheap to make (I will post how much it costs to get the ingredients.... I think it will be pretty amazing), I think this is our new laundry detergent until Jed starts working full time and making millions (I'm an extremely optimistic person). Another great reason to get these laundry supplies is that on IHeart Organizing, she has a recipe for homemade cleaner. Look here for the recipe. It uses borax, just like the laundry detergent, so I can kill two birds with one stone buying that stuff. So, saving money on laundry detergent and a multipurpose cleaner (which I use daily), how can you pass that up? I will be making this stuff over the break too!

6) Trip to DI! With all this cleaning, there is no way that we won't be getting rid of stuff. We actually are looking into selling some things (we have 3 Rock Bands.... they all work.... we only need one.... But we are actually selling the drums and guitars, too, because the last time we played it was Easter, and so really it's just taking up space), so anyways, we're selling some things, but there are lots of things I want to get rid of that I know we cannot sell. I want to get rid of this little electric globe thing Jed has.... I don't think he will let me, but maybe? But after all the clearing out of closets, I just know that we will have a mandatory trip to DI to get our random knick knacks out of our beautifully clean house!

7) If Jed will just let me, I will start cutting up his old t-shirts to make a quilt! I've brought this up many a time since we've been married, but not too much because in all honesty, I think it could turn into an actual argument. Pick your battles, right? Anyway, Jed was in a lot of plays as a teenager, he did a lot of cool things, and with that comes the cool, free t-shirts. Long ago, I got rid of all of my old, random t-shirts because I just don't get too sentimental about stuff. Jed is soooo the opposite. So, we have probably about 30 old t-shirts that Jed never wears but also will never give up. I think he's finally beginning to accept the idea that something must be done with these t-shirts as they are just taking up space and haven't been used in years, and so maybe I can convince him this week to let me make a quilt. My logic is, he never uses them now, but if I make a quilt, he can look at his fun old t-shirts all the time as he gets cozy on the couch under his own personal blanket. If only Jed and I could see eye to eye on this....

Wow, what a long post! So sorry, I hope it was slightly interesting, but more than that, I hope it inspired you to organize, too! Then we can compare our before and after pictures (because I will be taking some of those) and talk about how adorable our houses and closets look, and we'll have you over for dinner since our house is more than presentable, and you'll have us over for a game night, and we'll just be the best of friends!