What to do About the Houses

Now that mom is living with me we have to figure out what to do about the living situation. Mom's house is too much to try to take care of and my brother's and I don't want to live in the city again. That means it's time to sell. My home will need to be sold too. It has stairs which is too dangerous for her to navigate on a daily basis. Frankly, with all the cleaning, laundry, and garbage runs I am constantly going up and down the stairs myself and have had enough. I live in a Tri-level which means the kitchen and living room are on one floor and the bathroom and bedrooms are on the upper floor. I loved it at first, but 15 years later it has become a drag.

First up is mom's house. My parents lived in this small ranch house for 50 years which means they collected 50 years worth of stuff. Since my home is much too small for all of her stuff and mine most of it had to go. Every corner of the basement seemed to be filled with useless items that were just collecting dust.

The living room was not bad but the carpet is worn and stained.  

 The kitchen cabinets, counter tops and floors are all original to the house. They were sagging, full of grease and sometimes the doors wouldn't stay closed.

Who knows what's behind this paneling but it must come down.  

Everything we found wasn't junk though. There were a few pieces of furniture, cabinets, a printer, some tools, and dishware that were useful. The best thing I found were these 8mm Olympus and Minolta cameras. Maybe I can find an old school photographer who will want to buy them on ebay. 

I can’t tell you about all the thoughts I have had about selling my mothers house. It was home for 24 years of my life and although I have been gone a very long time it will be hard to say goodbye.

Now to make the house presentable so we can sell and move on to house number two. 

Organizing After Christmas

Christmas is over. It was a lot of fun but man is it a lot of work. It’s time now to put away all our decorations, pack up all the outdoor lights and prep for next year. I prefer not to buy things at full price so I checked out the clearance aisles at HomeGoods, Target and Joann’s. I had hoped to find some deals but was disappointed because the pickings were slim. I'll look elsewhere because it is clearance or bust for me.

If you don’t have containers for your Christmas decorations now is the time to get them. I have large containers that I labeled according to use. My bulb collections seems to be growing so I bought a few extra containers and sorted my bulbs by color which should make it so much easier when I decorate next year. For instance, I used aqua and teal bulbs this year but next year I might go all red. I won't have to sort through all of my bulb containers and can just pull out the one labeled red. 

I also have some special bulbs that I have collected over the years that have more sentimental value. I want to take care not to scratch or break them so I invested in a good two layer Christmas bulb holder. I got this one from Walmart. What I liked about it was that you can customize sections to fit the size of your bulbs, also, you can add additional layers because they just snap together. 

I also dedicated one box for just lights and garland, and a separate one for knick knacks, the tree skirt and tree stand.  

I replenished my stash of Christmas cards and money holders and labeled a small box which included some forever stamps and an address book. 

Next it’s time to take down the tree. Let’s have a moment of silence shall we. 

Now for the tough part. The purge. Let’s face it, you can’t keep it all otherwise someone is going to call you a Christmas hoarder. I bought these teal bulbs and honestly I didn’t like them. My home is not well lit and at times they blended in too much with the tree because they were dark. I liked the aqua blue much better. I kept only the glittery teal bulbs and gave away the plainer bulbs.

Also, I had way too much garland and lights. I prefer lights that have green wires because they disappear on the tree and in the bushes and gave away the lights with white wires. If there are any bulbs you have that you don’t like anymore give them to the Salvation Army. Someone will love them again. If there are any that are damaged toss them.

Now my boxes are all labeled, organized and neat. When Christmas comes around next year I will be ready to decorate and have a lot less stress.

It's too bad I couldn't find any new discounted decorations that I liked. I'll have to keep trying and dig a little deeper. Now that my closet is nicely organized, I have a little more space to fill up. 

B.

What to do with those bookcases

Line the stairs...

House & Home

Go so high you need a ladder...

Architectural Digest

...or how low can you go.

Apartment Therapy

Make it monochromatic....

Home Designing

...or color coordinated

House & Home

Give it a vibrant background with black shelves...

Grange

...or with white shelves

House & Home

or patterned....

HGTV - Pure Design

The color can be rich....

Elle Decor

...or soft.

Vogue

behind glass doors...

House & Home

or what's the right angle...

Viceroy Hotel

If you had a wall of bookcases, what would you do.?

Day Planners

Don't you love feel of a brand new day planner. There is something about the crisp, pristine, unused pages that motivates you to do big things and makes the coming year seem exciting. When I first open a new one I take time to write extra neatly because I can't defile the book with paper clips, scratch outs and eraser marks. By the time February roles around all bets are off but for January there are no mistakes. 

Mom Agenda

When shopping for a planner consider how you will use it. Do you want something to keep track of appointments or do you need something with space for planning projects for each months, tracking appointments and jotting down notes. If you choose to buy a super fancy genuine leather planner, consider buying one that has a refillable insert. I tend to like to change things up a bit so for now, a brand new planner each year suits my needs. 

Planners are available in an extensive assortment of styles, sizes and colors and $10 to $500 or more. If you are in the market for a new day planner why opt for the plain black vinyl pocket calendar.  What better way is there for you to express yourself than by using a beautiful day planner so have some fun with it. Here are a few that I thought were pretty. 

Jonathan Adler - Amazon

Smythson

Franklin Covey

   

Gigi New York

                 

Bloom - Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kate Spade - Amazon

Mom Agenda

Here's to a great year!!

Starting Anew

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” — 
-John Pierpont Morgan

It's January. Cold, snowy, and to paraphrase Judy Holliday in Bells are Ringing, the partying is over. It's the start of a new year and the time everyone wants to start fresh or improve their life. My goals for 2014 are getting healthier, surprise surprise, managing my finances better, being a better sister, daughter, mother and friend and restarting my blog. 

I have wanted to restart my blog for awhile and seriously, what better time is there than January. Before restarting it, I took some time to reflect on why it wasn't successful the last time. It wasn't the growing pains that accompany a new blog such as not knowing what the heck you're doing, the poor quality of the photographs or poor writing. These are all things that improve with experience and time. Time. Time and time management was and is my biggest obstacle. When you work a full time job as I do and commute 90 minutes each way, sometimes when you come home after a long stressful day all you can think about is dinner, a shower and sleep. Blogging, whether you do it full time or part time, is work. Paid or not it is still work. It's work that brings me joy. What I learned is that I can't allow the things I have to do, aka employment, prevent me from doing those things I want to do, blogging. My first goal is to manage my time more efficiently so this month I will blog about having better organization in my home and my life. 

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. 
So long as we just don't sit there. 
If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. 
If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late. 
- Lee Iacocca” 

So it's January, the holiday's are over, it's cold outside and I am excited about my blog again. My home is important to me and though my resources are limited I still want it to shine. I will use my blog to share with you my ideas on how you can take what you already own or can get on the cheap, give it an update and use it to make your house the home you want it to be. I know today my blog may be a little rough around the edges, but time will smooth them out. Time and a good sander.

Remember, it's never to late to start over.

B.

I've had all I can takes, I can takes no more

My home office has way to much stuff in it. A couple years ago I was getting dragged down by having my office in my bedroom so I converted my guest bedroom to my office/workroom. I didn’t use it often enough to justify holding the space for a visitor. It’s one of the best decisions I made because my bedroom is now more serene. More about that another day. So now I’ve got everything in my guest room and well….I’ll let the picture speak for itself. 
                                                

                                                                                                                                                   

I want to totally redo this office but I don’t have any definite plans as yet. For now I have to streamline. Step One…get rid of one of the bookcases and downsize to a smaller 19" TV that fits in the remaining bookcase. I gave the huge 27" TV to my son and told him he was free to sell the old one or give it away but it had to go. Wit h the bookcase gone I rearranged things a bit and now there is much more space. I feel more productive already. Here is my new office. 

Next step is to redecorate, or rather, decorate my office. But how?




 More to come in the future.