One Tip Wednesday

My latest project has been working to backup all of my digital photos. I take lots of photos both professionally and personally, so it's always a challenge for me to keep them all backed up. Part of my problem is that I have 3 computers where I often download photos: my Mac at work, my home desktop and home laptop.

Over the last couple months, I've been working to get them all moved onto my desktop, making sure to not miss any, but also to get rid of any duplicates. Next I began putting them in date order, organizing my files by month. Once that was done, I have started burning them onto DVDs in month order, putting as many months on one disk as possible, but keeping the months in order.

My next task is to buy an external 1 terabyte hard drive and move all of my photo files off of the desktop onto the external drive. I will also from that point on, keep my files on both my internal and external hard drives until I have enough to burn a disk. Once a new disk is burned, I will remove them from my computers internal drive, but leave them on the external, always having two copies.

So why both? The DVDs are a good way to permanently archive the photos, but they are not as accessible as I would like. Having them on an external hard drive will keep them accessible, but not taking up space on my desktop (which I'm quickly running out of). You can buy a 1 terabyte external drive for around $100, so very affordable.

Why don't I just keep my photos on my camera memory cards? With the number of photos I take, I would have to buy cards constantly. That would simply be too expensive.

What about Jump Drives? NO!!! Never use a jump drive/memory stick to archive anything. They fail often and are not meant to be used to archive. They are to only be used as temporary memory, to move files among computers.

Another idea is to also make an additional copy of your DVDs and put them in a bank safety deposit box or at someone else's home like your parents for safe keeping. In the event of a fire or other disaster, you won't lose your pictures.

Removing Gum

Today's One Tip Wednesday is totally based on experience - today! My 6 year old got a spot of gum on my couch about the size of a half dollar. Momma was not happy when I found it later because he didn't bother to tell me. I first tried just a wet rag which of course did nothing. So I thought - What removes gum? I've heard ice and I've heard peanut butter. I decided against the peanut butter because that to me just seemed to add to the problem - I mean, what would get the peanut butter out? So I layed a piece of ice on the couch and then scrubbed it with my fingernails. I repeated it over and over and it's gone! And my son is still alive!

One Tip Wednesday

Before I had kids, I was always on top of my scrapbooking. In fact, I would make up things to scrapbook just so I would have something to work on. When I was the mother of one, I always had plenty to scrapbook and would sometimes get a month or two behind. Now as a mother of two, I'm a full year behind doing both of their books. I make a book for each of my boys for each year of their life. I have two pages left to finish Tyler's first book and a page left to finish out Samuel's 4 year book.



To help me get started on their 1st and 5 year books, I spent an afternoon outlining all of the pages I would need to do for their books. I always do their books in date order through their birthday party. I created an Excell spread sheet with a column for Samuel and one for Tyler. I have the date of the pictures in the far left column. Then under each name, I put the name of that spread. Where you see blanks, that means that he doesn't have a spread for that particular set of pictures. As you can see, Samuel has far more in his book than Tyler, but I think that just has to do with their ages. Samuel is involved in more activities, but I'm also going to make more of an effort this year to get some extra pictures of Tyler.

Other than the obvious organziation of having the chart, it should be a big time saver for me. I will be able to work through both of the boys books together. So rather than doing Tyler's Christmas pages and then having to later drag all of the Christmas paper and embellishments back out later, I will do them both at the same time when I have all of those things already out. It will also help me not to miss anything as I finish up their books. As I finish those pages, I will gray out the column so I'll know I've done that page. Now - back to scrapbooking!

One Tip Wednesday

One Tip Wednesday is back! Life has finally slowed down and I will be once again posting some of the ways I organize my life and my home. And I would love to read about how you organize as well!

Last year, I posted about this pile of papers that was disrupting my life. Seriously! I couldn't keep track of anything coming or going out of the house. I missed paying a couple of bills and this stack kept growing and I had to do something! This was about a years worth of filing that had overtaken the mail slots built into my cabinet over my desk. So first I started by getting it all filed away into my filing cabinet or to the shredder.

Then I came up with a system for organzing all of the mail coming in and out of the house. You can read about how that works HERE.

So at the end of the year, I had three very full folders with everything from the year. I kept them in the very front of my filing cabinet so they were easy to access. But the real question is, how would it work for me at the end of the year? It worked great all through the year to help me keep track of things. I would even clip appointment cards for Dr visits and such on the front of that months folder to help me remember. Anything that I needed for that month, I just slid into the folder. But would I have to spend all afternoon filing anyway?

I pulled out the papers for each month and made piles across my table, light bill in one, phone bill, insurance statements, and so on. In my filing cabinet, I file oldest to newest, so I just started in January and started stacking them on top of each month. Anything that I didn't need to save, I put in the shred pile.

In about 30 minutes it was all sorted across my table.

And my folders were empty and ready to use again.

I then filed the papers into my file cabinet. In about an hour, I was finished. So for me, this system is a total success!

For many of you, you likely don't save each of your monthly bills, but my husband likes to keep 3 years of most of our bills. Our entergy bills for lights, water and gas we keep. I like to be able to go back and reference what we paid in the same months in different years and it will be helpful when we prepare to sell our home to be able to give an average of our entergy cost. Any medical or insurance cost, you usually should keep for 7 years if you have used it on your taxes. If you work from home of course, the tax rules are very different. My understanding is that anything you file on your taxes should be kept for 7 years.

If you have an organizational tip, old or new, that you would like to share - add your link below!

One Tip Wednesday

I'm late posting One Tip Wednesday today because I've been busy organizing and cleaning all day! My oldest has started school and we are adjusting to school life and moving on for summer. A big part of that for me is getting the house clean and back in order after a busy summer.

I generally like to clean the house in sections and room by room. Sometimes I get a little ADD and end up all over the place, but I find that I'm more effecient if I take it one room at a time.

Monday I concentrated on the kitchen.

I cleaned out the pantry, fridge, freezer and lazy susan. I also cleaned out and organized a couple cabinets that had gotten out of control. Lots of organizing and washing things down.

This morning I concentrated on the boys side of the house. Last week I cleaned and organized Samuel's closet, so his room was mostly dusting and some touchups. I dusted the blinds and cleaned the window.

Tyler's room was much the same, dusting, cleaning the blinds and the windows and just a few touchups.

Then on to their bathroom. I cleaned it top to bottom including the tub and a little organizing under their bathroom sink.

Now I'm headed to dust the living room and clean the windows.

Next it's on to my desk area. I have some papers I need to go through and a couple drawers that need organized. I hope to finish this by the end of the day.On Friday I will clean the dinning room (where I also have my craft space) and then spend most of the day working on my bedroom, bathroom and closet.

I will finish on Saturday by cleaning all the floors (if not Friday). I always clean the floors last and do them all at the same time rather than room by room. It seems pointless to me to vacumme one room and not others when you will just continue to track things through the house from one room to another.

What have you been doing to get organized? Call it fall cleaning!

One Tip Wednesday

So what is One Tip Wednesday? It's all about organizing your home and keeping your family moving through the many activities we all have each day. I think so many of us have great organization tips and I enjoy sharing some of mine with you and learning from those of you out in blogland.

So grab the One Tip Wednesday button and post a tip you use in your home. It can be anything from how you sort your laundry to organizing your craft supplies to how you handle the paperwork in your home to your handy dandy shopping list.

My oldest started Kindergarten today and getting up early and leaving the house 5 days a week is something I'm really having to adjust to. I am a night owl and don't do well in the mornings. I mean, I REALLY don't like the mornings. I haven't worked full-time in about 8 years, so getting up 5 days a week is something I'm not accustomed to. The past 2 years, he has gone to Pre-K 2 days a week, but that I could handle. So getting up and out the door and to school by 7:55 is going to take some planning and organization for me.

A big part of that is having things ready so that he can get himself ready as much as possible. I created days of the week tags to hang on his clothes for each day of the week. So now, when I say go get dressed, he can just go get the outfit I have labeled for that day.

Each Sunday, I will select his clothes for the week and place them on the lower bar of his closet. By placing them on the bottom, he can get them and get dressed without me ever having to go into his room for the day.
All of his shoes are also hung on the bottom rack, so he can select his shoes or get the pair I've told him to wear. He is also very good about getting dressed all on his own if I have his clothes ready, so I fully expect him to come out of his room some mornings dressed without even being asked.
I made all of the cards with cardstock, printed paper and letters made on my Cricut. I then laminated them so that they would hold up week after week.

I think this system will simplify my life and make our morning rushing out the door much easier and quicker.

Join me - what do you do to keep your home organized?

One Tip Wednesday

So what is One Tip Wednesday? It's all about organizing your home and keeping your family moving through the many activities we all have each day. I think so many of us have great organization tips and I enjoy sharing some of mine with you and learning from those of you out in blogland.

So grab the One Tip Wednesday button and post a tip you use in your home. It can be anything from how you sort your laundry to organizing your craft supplies to how you handle the paperwork in your home to your handy dandy shopping list.

This may be my favorite One Tip Wednesday ever!! Why? Because it was an idea my 5 1/2 year old thought up all on his own. Last week when we were getting school supplies together, I pulled out his pencil box from last year and told him that I'm was going to take it to my friend Amy for her to monogram. He then said, "Can't she just do a new one and I can keep this one to put my Bakugans in. It would be perfect for my Bakugans and cards."

How could I say no to that! Not only was it a great idea, but it made me happy to see that he was thinking about ways to help organize his room.

And he was right, it is perfect! Bakugan does make storage containers for these and we told him that would be a good birthday or Christmas present, but for now, this box works great!

He can easily take them into different rooms of the house to play or throw them in his backpack to take to Grandma's or Mamaw's house or to a friends house.

One Tip Wednesday & A Giveaway!

Welcome to One Tip Wednesday!! I would love to have some of you join in and make this a weekly event - and help us all learn new ways to organize our homes and our daily life.

So to kick it off, I'm throwing in a giveaway! Come back next Wednesday and leave a link to your One Tip Wednesday post and you'll be entered to win my prize! It's a great, personalized gift - come back next week and I'll reveal the giveaway prize.

Now on to today's tip:

I've mentioned before about my love for plastic storage tubs. I use them for everything, but one of my favorite uses is storing holiday supplies. Except for Christmas, I have one tub for holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. I keep them in the attic, but they are easily grabbed when it's time to decorate. And because I use clear boxes, it's easy to see which one I need. And even easier to send the husband into the attic to retrieve the right one. Also, buy a tub bigger than you need at the time so you will always have room to add other things to your items.

Click HERE to see past One Tip Wednesday post.

One Tip Wednesday

One Tip Wednesday is on break in July while I attend to some family needs. It will return on August 5 with a give away! Come and join in on the first Wednesday in August for a chance to win a personalized prize. More details coming. Until then, click HERE for previous One Tip Wednesday posts!

One Tip Wednesday

I nearly forgot to post a One Tip Wednesday today. I've switched my work days around this week to take my boys to CMOM with our church group and I've thought it was Tuesday all day! But after going to church tonight, I'm feel a little more back on track.

So, a quick One Tip Wednesday. All moms with small kids know that there is a constant battle in every house. It's the battle between the mom who likes the clean house and the toys who like the floor. I've posted before about how we store our boys toys, but in all reality - those toys have to somehow get put there.

We have one very strict rule in our house - ALL the toys must be put away EVERY night. No exceptions. When my oldest was younger and the only one, I was a little more relaxed on this rule, but after the baby came and I was walking through the dark house often at night, it became a very important rule. This concept seemed like such a no-brainer for me, but recently when talking to some other parents about this issue, several of the parents were amazed that we cleaned up the toys every night. They admitted that most nights they just make a trail through the messy rooms and clean up every few days.

But it truly became a safety issue and for the last 21 months, we've always cleaned up everything from the floor before bedtime. Now, it is such a habit in our home, it's not something we even think about, we just do it. And when I say WE, I really mean THEY. The boys must pickup their toys. Obviously Tyler gets a little help from us and usually so does Samuel. And I'll be honest, sometimes it's a little bit of a battle. But it's important to me for them to learn to pickup after themselves and not to wake up every morning to toys all over the living room or messy bedrooms. It's a simple little thing that keeps the chaos under control in my house.

One Tip Wednesday

Far too often, my small craft space quickly looks like this:
Unfortunately I don't have a craft room or large space to craft and the space I do have is in the dead center of our house, very visible. On days when I'm crafting a lot, it doesn't bother me, but eventually it does have to be cleaned up. And what if someone calls and says they are on their way over? My motto is "A place for everything and everything in its place."

Although it sometimes looks a mess, everything on this table has a place where it belongs which helps me quickly be able to take it from the mess to this: 

The key truly is storage. Having a place where you can put things away and yet be able to access them when needed. I can't live without my paper drawer. Many scrapers would ask how I get away with just 1. Two reasons: I have a Paper Keeper where I keep scraps, holiday themed paper and other papers I don't use except for special type pages. And two - I really try to only buy paper that I need. I no longer go to the scrapbook store and go crazy. I have found that far too often, I never end up using that cute paper I just couldn't live without. Same with stickers and embellishments.

Here's another storage container I love. After spending too much time digging mangled messes of thread out of a box, I found these and think they are the best use of storage for anyone who who sews.
And this is an idea I saw a while back on another blog. She took scrapbook paper and cut it to fit the sides of her drawers. So on this cleanup, I made that addition. I think it keeps the area looking even neater since you now can't see the mess on the inside.

One Tip Wednesday

Today I'm going to share an idea that is not mine, but thought it was a great idea! On our trip a couple of weeks ago, I read the Dugger's, of the TLC show 18 and Counting," book and Michelle talked a lot about her organization. She acquired this system years ago from a book she read about organization when they were preparing to move with 5 or 6 kids. Here's what she did and continues to do today to keep things organized.

She bought file storage boxes, paper ones, not clear so that the kids can't see what's in the box (resulting in them wanting into the box).

Each of the boxes are marked on the end of the box with corresponding colors based on the room. For example, the kitchen with red, the bathroom with blue and so on. The boxes are then numbered.

The next part of the system, and what I think is such a good idea, is the card system. She keeps a file box with index cards for each box. The cards are numbered to match the box and color coded to match the box. Each card list everything that's in that box. So later when she needs something, she can look on her index cards, find the item listed and go to that box to get it out.

She also has a system for marking the cards when she's ready to give an item away or sell it in a yard sell. She initially did this to prepare to move, but has kept using the system for day to day storage. I'm going to implement this system in the fall when my husband and I clean out the dreaded attic.

One Tip Wednesday

Around every 6 months, I try to nearly empty our food supply to allow for all new, fresh food to be bought. That means that we eat down the food in our freezer and pantry as much as we can before I purchase new food. Most food in your freezer only last around 6 months before it can begin to get freezer burn and not be as fresh. And it also allows me to use up things we might not otherwise use.

A pick of my fridge toward the end.

My pantry - and this was taken a little before. We actually had very little left when I went to the store.

Same here. Most of the cans you see right here I had bought to finish out recipes before the big shopping trip.

And after restocking. You can see a large supply of frozen food in the freezer. I also plan my menu to include a number of meals I can pre-make and freeze for later use when we are limited on time. I'm going to have another post on this soon.

So how do we not starve during this process or eat strange foods that just don't go together? Careful meal planning. During the month when we are eating down our pantry/freezer, I plan our meals around the food we already have. So if I have ground turkey and a can of tomatoes, I pickup a package of chili seasoning and we have a meal. I only purchase things that I know we will use with the food we need to use up. If there are still things left that I know we will never use, I donate them to the food pantry. It may be something I bought and we (or the boys) decided they didn't like or one of our parents sent to our house (their way of making sure we don't starve I think). But always check your dates, never send anything that is expired or close to expiring. If it is, toss it.

You will have a very large grocery bill when you go to restock everything, but in the month or so leading up to it, you should find your bill to be lower since you are only buying things you know you will use and using things you already have. So it should even out. I will confess, I may not do this every 6 months on the dot. Sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. Sometimes I do it if I notice things are getting low on their own, I'll just take that opportunity to use up what we have before doing a big shopping trip. Obviously though this doesn't include things like bread, milk and things to send in the kids/hubby's lunch. I also don't generally include condiments. Those I keep until they expire and buy them if we run out.

Have tips you want to share? Post a link to your tip under the comments section. And feel free to grab the button above. Please just be sure to give a link linking back to my blog.