Winding down the month

As typical for most resolutioners, my first of the year goals are filled with lots of spunk and promise. Promises of an organized house, followed by a beautiful and elegant new half guest bathroom and lots of ideas to follow for the months after. Then by summer I am talking about taking months off because we are too busy. And goals over the holidays? Yeah right.

I wandered the Target aisles over lunch yesterday with AB… and no kids. He doesn’t work on Fridays and I met him for a quick and easy lunch and then to grab a few things.

I have been coveting some cute desk organizers for our office. I didn’t find much.

I haven’t found much online either.

The desk organization part of my January goals is not flying. I bought a little square caddy thing that can either lie on its side for cds, or sit upwards to hold – what I am thinking – pads of paper and midsize desk stuff. I bought a couple magazine storage containers. But I don’t need an In box or an Out box or alphabetical storage. We walk in the house through the garage and everything lands on the surface in the opposite corner of the house. Office type stuff often gets stored and organized in the kitchen first instead because of this. If I am looking for a piece of paper, I don’t go straight to my office. The kitchen is the first stop.

Our computer desk just raises a big question mark for me.

I think I did my shopping for organizing items prematurely. I think I should have cleaned off the desk, figured out what really needs to be there and then gone shopping. I knew we needed a pens container and I bought that. But it isn’t cute. In fact, I am already wondering if it would be better suited for Leif’s room and wondering if I would be better suited for a trip to Hobby Lobby?

Oh well. It’s on my list for the weekend, clear off the desk and organize. (Maybe go to Hobby Lobby…)

Today I worked on Leif’s mess of a closet. (A trip to Hobby Lobby would definitely serve as reward that effort…) Done. Finished. Whew. Not fun. Skadi has already started back to destroying it now that she can see all the fun things.

I am trying to finish out my January organization tactics before getting too amped about the downstairs half bath. But I found these… and I fell in love with them:



I love irises. Always have. There was an iris field in Boulder near my apartment in college that I loved. Irises were my wedding flower.

And oh, they were on sale. I got one for $36 and the other for $41. Yay me!

They are going to look spectacular in my bathroom! And now I have color inspiration for the lackluster room!

January Goals Update

It is almost halfway through January, so I figured it was time to update my goals!

Goal #1 – Organization Needs

I have addressed a few of my organization needs throughout the house.

Recycling Bin – Done – I bought a neat big basket from Target that seems to be doing the job – as long as I continually remind the occupants of the house to RINSE out the containers and BREAK DOWN the cardboard.

Dog Food – Purchased today! Who knew that Amazon was THE place to go? I have had a horrible time lately finding anything I need on Amazon and with Prime shipping. (Leif ski gloves, hello? Hello?) Anyways, I got a nice rolling bin AND a scoop. The rolling bin will be super because I have two dogs who cannot eat together. Unless you want to listen to growling. I mean you each have your own bowl, what is the big deal? Fill one bowl, roll the bin over and fill the other. And for $21.

Stairs – Did these. Found some cute leather containers that sit at the foot of the stairs. Now if I could just get some small people to empty them…

The Wii stuff – I bought an el cheapo storage ottoman. Ottoman for someone who has small feet or butt – whatever you are supposed to put on an ottoman. Anyways, it actually looks halfway decent and fits perfectly save for the Wii lightsabers – which are never used. For some reason Leif doesn’t actually like them, go figure.

Shelves in the kids’ room – Done and I am thinking both kids might need a few more shelves since I really only addressed the stuff that was sitting out in their rooms and not the box of breakable stuff still packed up in Leif’s closet.

The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like. This is still pending. And it is pending me finding some NEAT and in the colors I have selected for the paint accessories. So, this is pending…

SO this was the stuff I set out to tackle in December. I did a few more things too – we got a Hobby Lobby recently. Yay us! Anyways, I bought a nice, large leather tray for my peninsula in the kitchen. It is the stacking place, the landing place. I have tried tactics to minimize this and I have finally just embraced it. The tray at least makes it look a little nicer. Or better yet, when I need it to look nice quickly, it can be done.

I have additional organizational needs. They just keep popping up.

The tops of my and AB’s dressers in our rooms. And the area next to our nightstands. Our nightstands actually hold a lot. But we still have stuff stacked. I am halfway wondering though if I don’t need to devote an entire month to the needs of our Master bedroom… I am not sure 2 weeks can do it justice and I fear I really need a more functional piece of furniture there. AB tonight told me it didn't just need a piece of furniture, it needs all new furniture and by the way, why have we never had a bed frame?

Leif’s closet. The poor child can’t even walk into it – the largest closet in the house. Now it is his fault for dumping his stuff in the doorway. But we need to fix this. THIS IS on the schedule for one of the last two weekends of the month. It shouldn’t really take purchasing anything, just some organization time.

My closet. Specifically my clothes. I have a thing with buying more. I just bought a boatload on after Christmas uber-clearance. Like seriously a sweater originally priced for $150 that I bought for $24. I hate to even admit that last week, I found a pair of really cute cords. Found them. As in forgot I even bought them last year. I need to ruthlessly purge my closet. Who knows what treasures I will find.

Goal #2 Paint Colors

We are working the paint thing. Working and working it. AB and I have narrowed into a color scheme, now it is just a matter of testing said colors and then deciding where to put them - and where to stop. Very difficult in a foyer that is two stories tall. And if you know AB you will not be surprised to hear that the word "scaffold" has come up with enthusiasm. I know. Scary.

Help?

I need help with one of my January goals. It’s the paint colors one.

AB and I went bold and had no problems selecting colors in our other house. Unfortunately I am having a serious problem with selecting colors in our new house. The kids’ rooms, no problem. Our entryway? Gah.

I have been playing with the behr.com site, but my biggest issue there it seems is that I cannot share with you the colors I have selected. No copy and paste allowed.

Ok, so my foyer area is painted “Egyptian Nile”, it is a deep green. I liked it at the time, but have to admit it isn’t sticking with me. And there is some part of me that wants to scrap that color altogether so that my palatte can start new. Because trying to coordinate all my other adjoining areas with Egyptian Nile is giving me a headache. The Egyptian Nile is the reason I cannot commit to anything. About the only coordinating color I can come up with is shades of grey and frankly, grey isn’t tripping my trigger.

Oh yes, this blog was going to be about selecting colors for my half bath.

I need inspiration! I want something slightly funky, slightly sophisticated, not stuffy, a bit edgy and that will match ANYTHING I decide to do to the foyer/office/dining room.

Make sense?

Small half bath with a beautiful deep mahogany framed mirror (that I love) and white white toilet and pedestal sink, mirror finish stainless fixtures. The lights are good too. Floor is a clayish terra cotta colored 18” tile.

Go forth and bring back ideas!

Staring down the 2011 goals

Last night we went for a nice walk around the neighborhood and up on the ridge above town. The kids and dogs ran ahead playing, giving AB and me a change to talk about the upcoming monthly goals.

The past few years, instead of annual New Year's resolutions I have undertaken monthly goals. It is easy for me to see changes by focusing one thing or set of things each month and then at the end of the month - regardless of doneness levels - I try to move on to something else. I like progress and doing goals this way enables me to see progress easily. AB used to give me a hard time about my monthly goals, but he has jumped on board recently. Most of the time lately we discuss the goals and work on them together. Except when it involves the garage and then I make myself scarce...

I haven't spent much time thinking about specifics of my 2011 goals until now. And I was actually looking for AB's input.

He announced straight away that he had a goal in mind - starting a boat. He has wanted to build a boat for awhile... ok, years. And he is thinking that January is the perfect time to do this.

He went on to suggest that going along with this it would be nice to get the garage cleaned out so that we can both park on one side and have the third bay to devote to the boat.

I reminded him that cleaning and organizing the garage - a non-heated garage - in January wasn't exactly my idea of a fun goal. But that he could have at it.

During 2011, we would like to tackle our dining room floor, the office floor and paint the walls. I would like to paint our half bath on the first floor. And we would like to renovate the back yard/porch area so that we have an outdoor living area like we did at the other house. However, I am feeling a bit miserly right now after a big vacation, Christmas and AB's last employer screwing up his last paycheck - which we have yet to receive.

AB suggested that it will probably be awhile before we get to the floors and that if I would like to paint either the dining room or half bath... I can.

This is where my mental block comes in. I am still not sold on a color scheme. And I want to be sure. Entirely sure. Way sure. 100% sold. And excited about a new color scheme too. And I am not at this point.

January 2011... seems that January according to the home magazines is all about organization. And I have spots in my house that could use some organization.

I have a list started so far:

Recycling Bins - right now our recycling gets stacked on the counter until one of us head towards the big bin - and remembers to take recycling with. We intend to continue to recycle now that the program is in full force in our region. Why not make this permanent and get some recycling bins?

Dog Food - the dog's food is presently in a trash can that is missing a lid and is ugly. We need a new dog food holder.

Stairs - I toss stuff on the stairs that needs to go up. Then when *I* go up, *I* take the items with me and sort to the rooms at the top of the stairs. I am going to get some bins of some sort to put on the stairs with handles. Something I can put each of our names on. Stuff goes in the bins and here is the really novel concept... the KIDS can take their own bins up!

The Wii stuff - I need some organization method for all the Wii accessories. Seriously need this.

The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like.

Shelves for Leif's room - he has so many trophies from participating in sports and I haven't even unpacked a few boxes in his closet that contain breakable things because he doesn't have a good, safe place to put stuff. Shelves for his room would help with that.

And the last task for January that AB has encouraged. Let's decide once and for all on a color scheme for the dining room, office and half bath.

February (provided we have time - February may be a month off since I have a big client visit and then we are going to Palm Springs for a number of days) or March will be for painting.