Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Organizing...and finding treasure..


As you know, I've been going through boxes, and I've found some cool things. While moving things around I actually found 2 checks I can still cash.....woohoo! And I found these appliqued pillows. They were given to me by an exchange student from Egypt. At the time they didn't go with anything in my room, but look at how well they go now! I love that. 

Hawkeye loves pillows. He tries to use all of them he can.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Organizing...my way.

I've been organizing, and I've been doing it my way, which is why I'm organizing my art room, but you are seeing a picture of the corner of my bedroom. Makes perfect sense, right?

One thing seems to lead to another. My art room was FULL of boxes and many of them contained books. Boxes of books are heavy. I just wanted to put them away, not cart around heavy boxes. At first glance it seemed there was no place in my little house for more shelves, but I had these two little white shelves in the attic. I carried them down and found that I could squeeze them behind the chair in the bedroom if I stacked them on top of each other. I filled them with the books and now I have more space to walk in the art room. I will attach these to the wall so they cannot be turned over, since once in a while I have little ones in the house.

Lately I've been embracing my own way to organize or do chores. I alternate the chores and the fun stuff.  I do something that I've been putting off, such as cleaning out a junk drawer or emptying boxes that have been waiting since I moved here a year ago. Or if I'm going a pretty big project like organizing the art room, I do a little chunk of it, like sort through a few boxes, or clear off and organize a shelf or two. Then I do something fun.....like hang some pictures that I've been meaning to get up, or hanging the bird feeder I want outside the art room window. I pick something that make my eyes happy...and that can be done in a fairly short amount of time. Then back to doing another shelf or two. It works for me.

I learned this from my Mom, and as usual she was right. If I painted a room, I started and plowed through it, and was exhausted at the end. Mom would get her paint brush out and do the trim around just he windows and then quit, and do other things. Then the next day she'd do some more.  She keeps after it until it's done but she doesn't beat herself up doing it. And her house always looks nice. It's the same amount of work, of course, but pacing yourself, and rewarding yourself with fun breaks can make a big difference.

Every time I see that chair I smile. I got it at an auction for 2 dollars, and I've gotten soo many years of use out of it.