Checking in super quickly...

Well, the move is tomorrow morning.  My house is full of packed boxes.  ((No, seriously.  FULL.))  I can't wait for this all to be over!

Wish us luck!

Kitchen Organizational Tools

You know, packing up my house is proving to be a challenge when I get sick every week.  I've got mastitis again, and it's seriously proving to be a pain in the butt.

I was surfing Amazon.com last night, and I found a few things that I really like, and would like to either have for the new house, or find a way to make something similar to fulfill the same function.  I mostly just looked at kitchen stuff for now.  The organization resolution is for everything in my life, but it's probably easier to start one room at a time, and branch out from there.

Innova Classicor Wrought Iron Oval Rack  - $39.99

There's a skylight in the kitchen, above an island, and all around the skylight are hooks.  I believe our landlady, when she lived there, hung baskets from there.  In all honesty, I'd rather hang the pots and pans there.  And use the extra hooks for plants or something.  But I figure, using something like this would clear cupboard space, as I wouldn't need to store all my pots and pans in them.  (Less clutter = Better organization!)

Corner Cupboard Organizer - $10.99

Now, maybe not this one exactly, but something similar.  Make my dishes take less space, but still be accessible.  Nothing is worse than not being able to get at plates that you want to without moving the WHOLE PILE on top of it, just because you're trying consolidate space.  There are a variety of different designs and whatnot of these just about anywhere, but this is the basic idea.

Multi-Use Kitchen Organizer - $7.99

This could be incredibly helpful in helping me store my cookie sheets, cooling racks, and more without having them stacked all over each other and placed awkwardly in the cupboards, where they slide all over each other as you try to dig through them for that one thing that you need.  (Yes, I speak from experience.)  These would keep them sitting up on their side, making it easier to get what I need, and take up less space.

Cutlery Drawer Organizer - $14.99

Once again, this is just a basic idea of what I want/need.  At the house we live in now, there are built-in separators in the drawer that makes it very easy for us to keep it organized.  At the house before this, the cutlery drawer was VERY shallow, and we had no room for an organizer, so everything was just thrown in there.  It was SOOO frustrating and annoying.  I don't recall if there was anything in the drawers at the new house, but if there's not, I want to get something to organize it all.  That's a MUST.  Now, it could be something like this, or something different, like spring-loaded dividers that separate the drawer into sections.  In any case, I'd have to say the organizer--no matter what it turns out to be--is a necessity.  Definitely.

Stemware Holder - $9.77

This could be very handy.  I do have some stemware -- nothing hugely fancy -- that tends to take up awkward space in my cabinets.  They're just goblets -- though some were my mother's that she gave to me -- but I'd like to have somewhere to put them that isn't as awkward as just putting them in the cupboard and dealing with how much space they take up.  This isn't a necessity, just a convenience.

I found this picture in a blog, and fell in love with the idea instantly.  It's so organized, so clean.  I showed it to my husband, and he likes the idea as well.  Loves it, in fact.  So I've been looking into different ways to do things similar to this.  It'll take a lot of reorganizing the way I tend to arrange things now... but isn't that the whole point of this resolution anyway?  Improving on what I do now to become a more organized person?

Cereal storage containers - $9.79

 Something like this would be wonderful.  Better looking than just tons of boxes of cereal all lined up.  I just hope I can find some a little less costly.  $10 a container could get to be a bit painful in the wallet.  I guess it would encourage us not to have so many open boxes of cereal at one time though, haha.  Use our food storage as an actual storage, and open only what we're eating right here and now.  I'm sure Walmart has something similar that I can use our discount on.

Food Containers (10 pc set) - $29.99

Again, this is just a basic idea.  I can't really imagine spending $30 on a set of food containers to store my food unless it's going to cook it for me.  But I do like the space-saving slender design.  I'm sure I can find something similar somewhere.  I just want this as an example.

I'm pretty sure there really isn't anybody reading this blog... but I like to use it anyway.  It's encouragement to really get moving on my resolution and become more organized.  Almost like I'm actually answering to somebody for it.  I know my husband doesn't really listen to me when I talk to him about my ideas sometimes... but I can post them here and come back to them... and feel productive.

So if there is anybody reading it... thank you.  Thank you for being the person who encourages me, whether you say anything or not.  Just by being here and reading my posts, I am encouraged.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem...

So after a nasty bout of mastitis slowed down my resolution getting started, I finally picked up my 6 totes that I ordered from the Walmart.com website!  They're the 34-quart latch-top type totes.  I'm pretty excited.  I hope that I can stick with using them, because I'm really really truly thinking they're going to make a huge difference.  I might even get crazy and color-coordinate the clothes in them!  MADNESS!

Okay, seriously... these totes, though, are an awesome deal.  You can get a set of 6 on the website -- and shipped to the store for FREE -- for only $27, or you can buy them at the store individually for $7 each.  Wow.  Yeah, lemme think about THAT one.  No-brainer, right?  Get it here.

Our resolutions in 2010

In BlogTV, just coming up on the New Year (my time), I was talking with three lovely ladies, and we came up with an awesome idea.  We each made one big resolution, and we're all going to keep with each other, and do our best to accomplish this resolution!!  So, without further ado, they are:

Amber - lose 100 lbs

Mari - Become vegitarian

Denise - be nicer to Mikie

Kayla - be more organized

This is my blog to document my efforts in that direction.  Wish me luck!