Marta On A Mission: Organization

Showing posts with label Organization. Show all posts

Let’s Play Guess The Sheet Size

Don’t you just hate it when you have to unfold sheets in the linen closet to guess the size? Well you may not have given it much thought, but it is one of those things that drives me a little bit nuts.

Not to mention when you are grabbing one from the bottom and the neatly folded stack falls to the floor. Argh! Years ago I used a laundry pen to write a T, Q, or K in the corners of the sheets. I found I still had to unfold the sheets because the letter was rarely ever visible after I folded them. Next I placed the folded set inside one of the pillow cases to keep a matched set together, but again this wasn’t ideal because even though I tucked in the edges the pillow case was too large to keep them neatly stacked. My next method included me whipping out some elastic from the sewing kit and tying pieces around the folded set with a big chunky knot on top. This worked for the last several months, but this doesn’t solve the problem of identifying the size without opening them up.

Lying in bed one night, moments before drifting off to sleep it hit me…I need to sew tags! I of course proclaimed this out loud and startled my husband moments before he drifted off to dream land. He groggily replied, “that’s nice dear,” and kept is date with the sandman.

This is what my crafting mind came up with to solve the folding, stacking and identifying conundrum. I used a couple different fabrics, ¾” braided elastic, and some Sharpie Stained fabric markers. In truth I was inspired by these Stained by Sharpie fabric markers that I purchased off the clearance rack at Office Depot. I sometimes wander their aisles on my lunch break as a form of meditation during my workday. You’d be surprised how rows and rows of paper products calm the nerves.

I began by scribbling the words using different colors and style until I found a few I didn’t mind. I then cut the fabric into 4” square around each word.

I used the iron to press a narrow hem on each side of the tag. The iron works better than pins when you are sewing a hem this narrow.

I then folded the fabric right sides together and hemmed along the long edge.

I used a large safety pin to turn the tag inside out. I put the pin through one end and pass the pin back through the center until it is right side out. I discovered this trick when making scrunchies in the 90’s (don’t judge me; we all had them it’s nothing to be ashamed of).

Next I used the same pin to fish through the elastic, which I then overlapped and sewed closed. UPDATE: For the elastic I used 24" for kings, 20" for queens, and 18" for twin sized sheets.

I finished by slipping the tag over where I connected the two ends and stitched both sides of the tag. This holds it in place and give it a more finished look.

I made several more using the same technique and proceeded to give my new invention a try. They worked beautifully to keep the sheets sets together and make them easily identifiable.

The possibilities are endless here, you can be as fashionable as you’d like.

I think they would be lovely if you have access to a machine with and embroidery feature. I hear those machines cost plenty of money and take up tons of space. For now I am pleased to have solved another organization dilemma in my home. Thank you for stopping by and be sure to come back to see what I’ve got going next.

The Paper Trail

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor dead of night shall keep the postal service from cluttering up my home! Okay, okay it's not entirely the US Postal Service's fault that I have a paper management problem. To be honest I kind of feel bad the USPS and their financial woes. I am doing whatever I can to use good old fashioned mail whenever possible. So let me just say get out there and buy some forever stamps and send some mail for the hard working people of the US Postal Service.

That being said let's get back to my mail problem. I must confess that I haven't always had a workable system, and I am still trying to file and clear clutter from mail demons in my past, but I was bound and determined not to add to the problem by piling on anymore. So here are the tools needed for the time tested, Marta approved system for handling the paper that comes through the front door.

1 Foyer table
2 Wicker baskets
1 Paper shredder
1 Letter opener
1 Stapler
1 Security stamp
Various rubber bands, clips, hi-lighters and pens

Let's begin with a money shot of the table by my front door. This beauty I found after weeks of an exhaustive search of every furniture store and decorator outlet in a tri-parish area (that's county for the other 49 states). After almost settling for something a bit more than I wanted to spend somewhere in town I decided to check the Marshall's one last time, because I recalled seeing a foyer table there weeks before. This was before our Marshall's and TJ Maxx got the Home Goods treatment and started carrying fantastic furniture and accessories like those I had seen on other blogs. So I headed to the back for the few furniture items they carried and saw this beauty with a red clearance sticker on it. I immediately staked my claim, and not wanting to walk away from this bargain I yelled rather loudly to an associate half way across the store from where I was standing, "EXCUSE ME I NEED HELP PLEASE." Was it really loud enough to warrant capital letters? Yes it was, but the flushness I felt in my cheeks from everyone in the store turning to look at me was worth it when the employee graciously walked over to me and offered to put my table up front where it would be safe from the other bargain hunters.

Safely at home in its new dwelling place in my foyer by the front door, and with a few decorative items in place it was ready to assume its new job of mail management.

Here's the run down: Mail comes in the front door and rest on this table, where it is then sorted into two separate piles 1) for things that do not have to opened to be dealt with and 2) for things that have to be opened to be dealt with.

Pile one is reserved for things like ads, political post cards and other items that are not inside envelopes. These items I generally stamp out the address with my handy dandy security stamp and recycle. This stamp I purchased with a 20% coupon at the BB&B and I love it. It even comes in groovy colors now.

Bed, Bath and Beyond

Pile two is for items hiding the important information inside an envelope. For these I keep a heavy duty brass letter opener I received as a party favor from a lovely Mardi Gras ball. Mail management is not for the faint of heart and you need a good sturdy tool. Once I have opened every envelope I go through to see what is to be done with its contents. I generally stamp out identifying information and recycle what is fairly benign. But I do have a shredder handy for items that contain too much personal information.

It's worth mentioning that I would have preferred that outlet behind the table, but there was no outlet in the foyer previously and the electrician pulled it off an existing outlet on the opposite wall in order to save me time and money. Thanks Mr. Electrician!

Bills are generally stapled together and placed in the left hand drawer to be doled out to my husband or myself depending on what it's for. Information to be filed is likewise stapled and added to that pile of mail demons I mentioned. But have no fear we have a ~~new~~ recycled file cabinet begging for some attention. More on that to come later.

I was fortunate to purchase my childhood home from my parents a few years ago, and seeing as how all of the members of my family used this as a permanent address for some 30+ years, I frequently receive mail for various members of my family. This mail goes into the right hand drawer until such time as said member can retrieve their items. This is tricky because we are all scattered, if I feel it is important I will call them and ask their permission to open it. My parents visit often and routinely depart with a bag of mail and whatever other goodies I have for them.

So there it is, my mail system to hopefully keep the paper floods at bay long enough for me to tackle those past paper demons I mentioned before. Happy sorting and come back and see me soon.

Storage, Storage Everywhere...

Alright, I'm ready to expose the underbelly that was my messy storage room. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit because we have completed phase one of this project, which was to build shelves and purge the room of anything we absolutely didn't need. Phase two is to pull everything out in the spring and paint the walls, shelves, and possibly the floor. But for now I am grateful to have some kind of organization. Here are the lovely before pictures. I couldn't even step inside the door so I held the camera inside and snapped away.

First my hubby and I pulled everything out indiscriminately to expose whatever was lurking inside. Next we separated out all of the hazardous materials and paint to determine what needed to be recycled. It just so happened that the day we took on this project was Hazmat Recycling day in our parish. Our parish sponsors these events twice a year and is it a great way to properly dispose of your Hazmat items. Information can be found here: Hazmat Recycling. Check in your area for similar recycling events.

While I was dropping off recycling several people pulled up to our home and asked my husband if we were having a garage sale. He ended up having to hang a tarp across the carport after the 6th or 7th would be customer. As you can see we had quite a hodge podge of things stashed in this seemingly small room.

Later that day, after the items were sorted into piles, we strolled into Lowe's with a materials list for two 1/2 inch sheets and one 3/4 inch sheet of plywood, and several 8 foot pieces of 1x2's (I guessed, because it never hurts to have extra 1x2's hanging around). I hit the hardware aisle for a couple of boxes of different length wood screws; what the heck, I'd have the perfect place to store what I didn't use. Not wanting to bring out my table saw I chose to have the sheets of plywood pre-cut in the lumber department. I had them rip all 3 boards to 22" the depth I chose for the shelves. This was a tremendous time saver for me. Our youngest was only 5 months old and ripping plywood usually requires 2 pairs of hands, this way it was a one ~~man~~ woman project, while the hubby kept an eye on the baby.

Home with all my goodies and the room cleaned out I began by determining the height of the shelves. I measured the length and width of my plastic containers to determine the depth. I knew I wanted deeper shelves on this side of the room because the opposite side already had narrow shelves that were perfect for paint and small storage items. The shelves are 22 inches deep and 45 inches wide. The top shelf is 64 inches across and they are spaced 24 inches apart from the floor to the ceiling. I knew I wanted a tall space against the wall for long items, and a single shelf across the top to lend stability and give me more flexible storage options. I located the studs in the walls and marked where I needed to screw my supports.

The top shelf is where I used 3/4 inch plywood for strength and stability. The two lower shelves were 1/2 inch plywood; they were plenty strong enough for what I planned to store. This was a fairly easy build, although I did have to put a few extra short supports to anchor my vertical piece to the only studs I could find. But I was more concerned about stability than cosmetics so I was okay with that.

The last thing was to load the room back in with all of the things I wanted to keep. I made a trip to the Dollar General for the first round of small containers, and then to the Big Lots of the larger containers. Both of these stores are dangerously close to my house, if you know what I mean. I wanted everything to be something I could see through without having to open them up even though I planned on labeling them. Oh, and I even carved out a storage solution for my hubby's golf clubs. More on that later.