Organize your Stuff (round 6): Week 2&3: Brainstorming & Cleaning

Wow, it looks like we survived Week 1 of Round 6 of the Organize your Stuff Challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket pretty well. The POW is so happy that so many of you have decided to take this journey with us! Creative Me is on the equivalent of a sugar high, as she did more creating in the last 8 days, than she has done in the last 6 weeks! So, space audit complete!

Housekeeping: We are going to try and post a layout and a card every week to keep you motivated, and challenge you to create something…anything… as well. Here is our layout for this week:

Well, it is time for the first tweak to the patented Zen Master Wookiemouse 29 Step Program. In the first 5 Rounds, the POW has noticed a few trends. First, that before Week 1, there are 40-60 people who will post their need to Organize. About half will show up for Week 1…figure out your problem areas, and Week 2…brainstorming. But, when it came time to actually start cleaning, suddenly the thread was dead. Everyone’s Inner Hoarder and PA Me suddenly found hall closets in need of cleaning and errands that needed running.

By virtue of your making it to Week 2, your inner cleaner (OCD Me in our case) has at least some control at this point. Before our Inner Hoarder and PA Me get too organized themselves and realize that we are going to put them to work, it is time to distract them with thinking up their dream space while The POW and OCD Me start straitening up.

Say what?! Week 2 is traditionally called Brainstorming week. In the past, that has meant that now we have our list of what works and what doesn’t, we now picture our perfect place and savor it so that we have direction to move forward. Channel your inner Martha Stewart, and plan your scrap space just like you plan the way that you are going to spend that winning Power Ball ticket… oh and take a picture of your space.

The picture is for you to realize how far you have come…when you are frustrated because you have realized that you have been Jedi mind tricked for 3 of the last 5 weeks and you are not sure that you have made ANY progress, and it might be just easier to give up. Do not give up! Pop in your copy of The Princess Bride (and if you don’t have it, you really need to rent it) and remember that you can be mostly dead all day, and still come back and save the day. Break out that picture and rejoice. At least one pile is missing.

Our Scrap Space:

Now, we told you that we were going to show you the good, the bad, and the UGLY. Here is our UGLY. Now, OCD Me really, really, really wanted to pick up before we shot this, but as we tell our kids… we will never lie to you (intentionally).

In our defense, PA Me LOVES the TLC show “Hoarders: Buried Alive” and this is her attempt to get a professional to come in and clean it for her. Really though, it is the downward spiral of having Fabulous Spouse activate and leave for Afghanistan the day after Christmas and then having very well trained children “saving” everything for their Dad. Lesson Learned: Do not let your Inner Hoarder in charge of the kids…. OCD Me is not blameless. When we cleaned any other part of the house, what we had no place for came in here… Since the POW was too busy keeping the house going, Creative Me barely had time to slip inside, except to make a card for The Front to send to Fabulous Spouse. Literally, it has been 9 months since we did a layout!

Week 3 is time to start cleaning. There is two versions of cleaning in the School of Wookiemouse Organization: Start Small/ Spot Clean and Go for Broke/ Clean Sweep. In Round 2 (our first round) we Went for Broke. If you can do that, it really does make the process easier. Your OCD Me will feel like she has conquered our Flat-surface-it is (thank you Barbara for that term!), and your PA Me will be able to ignore the boxes , and the Inner Hoarder will not get too upset because nothing has been purged yet.

We are Spot cleaning this time around…This is harder, because PA Me and the Inner Hoarder keep reminding OCD Me that there are SO many piles, and so much more to do, that she might as well give up now. Again, do not give up. That is why we are doing this as a group. If nobody else does, we have your back! The only consolation with the clean as you go method is that Creative Me knows where everything is, and with the Clean Sweep method she tends to get more frustrated.

Review:
1.Think of your perfect Scrap Space (ours has a full service bar, a maid, and a nanny on staff)
2.Take a picture (you can link it in below)
3.Decide if you are going small or going big (and start to box up if going big)
4.Create something…always remember to keep Creative Me happy…she has the immunity idol and is essential to not getting OCD Me voted off the island!

Link in for anything Week 2/3 you want to share :)

Organize your Stuff: Week 2 (round 4): Brainstorming Part 2

Here is the layout that Creative Me made this week while The POW has been wrangling Spring Break children.

Yes, if you look closely, Creative me is trying to play nice with the sewing machine again. The sewing machine, however, is being a mean tease, and again we had tension issues, and the bobbing thread did not catch the top thread for part of the inner stitch on the lower left.  Creative Me knows that if OCD Me had kept it to herself, you never would have noticed, but OCD Me thinks especially not nice thoughts about the sewing machine and really wants to donate it to Goodwill or bored sreet kids with access to tools and no fear of destroying things.

It has been one of those weeks. Spring Break in the rain of the Pacific Northwest. To make it even better...or is it worse, we have been black listed by Mary Poppins and the Nanny, and Oldest Child is on no electronic privileges and had therefore decided to try and channel the dog whisperer with the poor over stimulated dog. The Illusive Middle child has decided that personal space is optional (and by optional, we mean that it no longer exhists), and is practicing to be a sportscaster by giving Awesome Auntie a play by play of where any given pet or person is at any given time…totally unsolicited. Girl Friday has vacillated between junior mother and Velcro needy child…depending on the hour.

As for the rest of the shoe, Fabulous Spouse is still in Hawaii on military orders. He flew there first class. Yes, it is Spring Break, and he is in Hawaii and we are here in the rain. We were definitely a bad grasshopper in our last life! Fabulous Spouse’s brother is leaving today to start his IA for Iraq. We are hoping to not have to seek help for Awesome Auntie’s emotional health, but that is why we are here.  Us and chocolate.

We will see how the little ones take it. The POW is taking bets that the WMD (Wailing Mama’s Daughter)…thought you’d like that Awesome Auntie… will see no change. The toddler (we have toyed with SoB… Son of Brother, but it doesn’t suit his disposition) aka the Air raid siren emitter (ok Arse isn’t any better…we will keep working at it) may have a rougher time of it. Lucky for him, Illusive Middle Child will keep us informed, and Girl Friday will adopt him and hug him and squeeze him to itty bitty pieces.

Finally, the before picture.

Considering what my kids rooms look like right now, this looks positively clean!
Here is where we started:

See you Tuesday!  Are you ready to actually start putting things away?

Organize your Stuff: Week 15 (round 3): Inks, Ink Pads, and Embossing part 2

The POW apologizes that this is a little late as the power keeps trying to take a winter vacation along with the kids! Right now we are lucky that all we have is wind and rain, but with all the snow that the rest of the country has seen, Creative Me was inspired to scrap our Thanksgiving Week snow.

In keeping with this week’s theme, the trees have liquid appliqué that was heated with an embossing gun to form “snow” and the background snowflakes were acrylic stamps and white pigment ink.

Also, while I know that it is not punch week, the cracked vellum was from a Martha Stewart Halloween border punch. When Creative Me saw it in the store it made her think of cracked ice (although I am sure that was not Martha’s intent).

Here is my half way photos:

So there we are!  Is it better?  We hope so!  However, it is still a work in progress!

Organize your Stuff: Week 4 (round 3): Paper Part 1

Fabulous Crisann’s Question of the Week: Do you store Paper horizontal or vertical? By color, theme, or manufacturer? OCD Me is in charge of the paper organization. Period. She has decided that she likes the vertical storage. We need to buy stock in cropper hoppers. Solids are by color, my favorites are by company (like My Mind’s Eye and Basic Grey). The rest are patterned, stripes, dots, etc. I probably need to separate holidays, but I haven’t gotten it there.

Alright! The POW is beginning to get her grove on… and is so very proud! Our apple card for Tuesday Trio DT tryouts won Sketch #33, and our smile card placed in the top 3 for Sketch #34. Now we have our fingers crossed for Sketch #35  (below). One of my personalities has a warped sense of humor (probably the Inner Hoarder). So, for a “happy” card we did a Happy Halloween card with spiders in lieu of flowers (they look much cooler in person…when not smushed on the scanner). Girl Friday was happy too. OCD Me is taking bets and managing the pool. It is her belief that sparkly pom poms will be underfoot until at least Thanksgiving/ the end of November.

As for paper week, the POW and OCD Me are in construction mode. Paper was a group therapy week last round, but we were able to find a home for most of it. However, we are yet again at an impasse. While OCD Me is tickled by the jetmax cubes and cropper hoppers holding the papers, it is now FULL with both papers and projects. The Inner Hoarder cannot find anything worth culling to Girl Friday…who, by the way, is always circling like a starved lioness, waiting for the slowest, just barely ignored piece of patterned paper…then it is down for the kill.

This is my Round 2 after…

Note the Inner Hoarder (and part time shopaholic) has overrun OCD Me’s beautifully organized universe. PA Me has waylaid OCD Me with other projects… I am now the proud owner of a marginally unstable core door table that we put together with Girl Friday’s supervision (so only 2 stripped screws). Like many of my round 2 brethren, I have come to the realization that yes, we have made real progress. However, some of that progress may have been smoke and mirrors (You never did see that 2+ inches that I admitted to not filing). So, my goal by end of week is to ignore PA Me (and force her into therapy sessions) and moderate a Peace Accord between OCD Me and the Inner Hoarder. I see much consumption of Chocolate in my future! Wish me luck for the end of the week, when I will hopefully (*cross your fingers!*) have my paper settled, and a layout for Week 2 of Glee Club- Alternative (Seriously!?). Note: the POW is in the corner right now, breathing into a little brown lunch sack, and PA Me is holding her hand. This does not bode well.
Round 3 before...

(do you notice that there are a few more cubes of paper than in the previous picture?)

Organize your Stuff: Week 1 &2 (round 3): Brainstorming and Space audit

First order of business: Here is my next of four entries in the Tuesday Trio design team tryouts ( Sketch #34 )with the needed element of buttons.  The yellow smily is a yellow 2-hole button on which I painted a mouth and cheeks.

Also, I was informed by Illusive Middle Child, that I did not really show the coolest part of the boys’ bedroom well in my last post…the skull fortress on his pirate island. Oldest child had no comment. So, humoring mom that I am, here it is…

Anyway, I went back to http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ to finish my participation in round two of the Organize your Stuff challenge. Much to my surprise (and I guess if I had been visiting the board instead of hiding, I would have), the Fabulous Crisann has resurrected the Zen Master Wookiemouse’s Challenge for a third round. I guess that some would call it luck, karma, kismet…whatever. The Inner Hoarder thinks that it a chance to postpone dealing with memorabilia week for another four months.

The POW, however, is in overdrive. She is tired of being a neophyte and wants to get her yellow belt in Scrapbooking Organization at the very least (between you and me, she is just a trifle bit of an overachiever and type-A personality). Before PA Me and the Inner Hoarder get totally out of control, she wants to attempt to finish round two (Really, it is just that we all don’t want an I told you that you would never finish from our Fabulous Spouse, or the rest of us would tie her down again until the caffeine wears off). So, I am going to try and juggle both and when possible post twice a week to work on finishing Round 2, while moving through Round 3. PA Me was sent to the corner to think about the consequences of making a mess and not picking up after herself, and the Inner Hoarder has been sent to Target to look for storage bins or garbage bags, her choice…I think that I need to buy stock in Rubbermaid!

Why Round 3 at all? Well, during the summer, it seems that clutter has reproduced faster than gremlins when wet! Round 2 has seen the near successful takeover of my dining room. Round 3 will make it more user friendly. So, get ready for some more mental chaos, some hopefully fabulous layouts (and cards). Together, we will get through this…or you can just laugh as you succeed, and I am stuck when PA Me finally finishes her time out.

Now back to business—Brainstorming and Space Audit.

What works in my current space…or what do I like best?

Ok, the one thing above all else, my jetmax/ paper storage, and the use of the label maker. My one piece of advice to those doing the Organize your Stuff challenge for the first time- get a label maker (mine is a brother p-touch). Just putting labels on things makes your space look cleaner, and makes it easier to find things.

What doesn’t work?

I need more storage. Less stuff is just not going to happen. I can purge, but between the Inner Hoarder and three kids constantly bringing more stuff into the house…and myself bringing new stuff into the house (yes, I know that it is a problem). That is not going to happen. Also, Girl Friday needs a bigger crafting space. She is too much her mother, and likes to spread out.

So here is my new before picture, warts and all. Yes, some of that is the Easter chipboard album that I have yet to get past page three on, but the edges of the boards are painted! I know, I know. I really need to get PA me back into therapy and finish something. Hopefully, in a few days, I’ll have a layout to go with the card from above!

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Weeks 14 & 15- crops, inks, and embossing powder

Let me first start by apologizing for taking last week off. We were in Monterey, CA to celebrate Easter, and unfortunately, the Easter Bunny did not drop off free WiFi with the Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. However, we did get lots of pictures (and a few minor boulders passing as pebbles from Pebble Beach and the 17 mile drive) for future layouts… but for this entry, I am still scrapping February…

Here, I finally found an excuse to use some of that mulberry paper I found during paper week, but haven’t used since 2003! …and Inner Harder feels vindicated… in person this actually looks really cool, as the edges were touched with Versa Mark ink and gold embossing powder. …and then just like that (and bell bottoms and leggings)… something old is new again…

As for crops (Week 14), the POW and OCD Me have this one mastered! The first rule to crops: have enough storage. Here in the Pacific Northwest, that means bags too… as you have a 75% chance of rain or greater, September through June. My first bag, the purple one on the left was from 2005, when I went to my first 3 day crop and the POW realized that I did my best work from 1AM to about 5AM…just like term papers in college… hmmm… Next came the wooden shelving…a must. When it comes to crops… when you can’t spread out, spread up! OCD Me definitely endorses Zen Master Wookiemouse and the need to preplan layouts. I have yet to under plan, but I definitely get more accomplished with a plan… and without it, OCD Me SO over packs!!!

Now, on to Week 15… The first part of this week is a progress check of before and present…

All of my voices agree that we are making progress, and even better, Fabulous Spouse thinks that it is looking good too. As for inks and embossing OCD Me tackled that ages ago. She is a firm believer in saving for storage, as it will make your life your life easier in the end. Therefore, the embossing powders live in a sterlite container with the embossing gun and one of my several versa mark pads. Most of my inks are in one of my two carousels, and the re-inkers are on a shelf in the hutch that they sit upon.

And, so that is week 14 and 15! Next week is paint, glitter and stickles.

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 1 & 2 (Part 2)

201o! Happy New Year!!! January 1st marked the "official" start of Week 1: Space Audit of the Organize your Stuff Challenge at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/. In order to do this, I needed to plant my flag in the fertile land that I was to call my own, and figure out exactly what it was that I did...or didn't need.
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The first thing to do was remove the large masculine office desk from our dining room (seen in Before-Dining Room).... you know so that I could replace it with another large, er...functional, scrapbooking desk! Out too went the dented filing cabinet (on the right)... and in went the dancing little girl (my self-appointed Girl Friday).

New Years brought a boon for me, with 1/2 price scrapbooking storage at Michael's (Yeah!!!!). As a frugal, dining room expansionist... I knew that this was my chance to acquire all at once, that which would take me months of 40% off coupons to acquire. I channelled my inner "Kid in a Candy Shop" persona, and was off to shop!
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When I got home, Girl Friday was at the door! While my boys had slunk off to the play room muttering something like "this is not the helper you are looking for", my daughter saw a chance to "help". I had my first inner zen moment about jetmax cubes, then. The Cube itself, is so easy to put together that a preschooler could do it (and I have the photos to prove it). It just takes a lot l-o-n-g-e-r...
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Also, the inner drawers are SO tedious with their teeny screws, that if it wasn't for the previously mentioned fabulous spouse (and college football bowl games!!), I doubt that I would have gotten past drawer #2.
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Sooo...in two days, I got 10 jetmax cubes (for the price of 5) done and was ready to redo Week 1: Brainstorming (officially), and complete a layout.

It was actually nice to sit in the dining room, listening to my fabulous spouse help lead his teams to victory on the field through mass male ESP, share punches and oohhh over the creations of Girl Friday, and break up what ever the boys were doing in the play room that had me convinced that a herd of wild rhinos had been smuggled in with the cat from the back yard.
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This time I got a real list...
What Works:
1. Solid Papers in Cropper Hoppers
2. Clear Stamps / Acrylic Blocks
3. Inks
4. Digital Photo Organization
5."Must have"/easy reach sack of tools
6. Cricut cartridge storage
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What Doesn't Work:
1. Ok... the obvious...1/2 my stuff still upstairs
2. Counter space too small
3. Embellishments in too many places
4. Ribbons not organized
5. Patterned Paper
6. Pre-digital Photo storage in bulging plastic shopping bags


Here are my cubes in place, with 12 photo boxes (for photo week... also gotten for 1/2 price.

This leads to Week 2: Brainstorming (officially). Wookiemouse challenged us to think of what we would envision of our space, if money were no object. For me, that meant that if in fact fabulous spouse was transformed into non-philandering millionaire spouse, then my Scrapbook Room would be Martha Stewart/ New England Colonial. You know, fabulous trim, fluted moldings, cool pewter labels with antique, hand written labels that can only be reproduced if you are MS and own your own quill making ducks and geese and crush your own berries for ink... I know, not realistic, but Wookiemouse never said anything about realistic...
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Back in reality, fabulous spouse was on travel, and I brought down my two Ikea Expidit bookcases and scrapbooks. Also, I came to realize that stacking boxes on carpet is not the most stable of ideas....so it was off to my other store (besides Michael's and JoAnn's) that I am usually banned from without supervision...Home Depot.
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I built a platform for my jetmax cubes...to keep them stable, not because my inner OCD makes me overdo everything...
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Here is my middle child on the platform (I did manage to get my oldest to help...briefly). My boys are like rare, endangered species that are not often photographed in the wild, as they have been over exposed by my maternal paparazzi instinct.
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And finally, my transforming room for Week 2. No, I am not sharing the devastation upstairs... I ...er... forgot to photograph that. (It is a part of the letting go....yeah....um hmmm....).

Organize your Stuff Challenge: Week 1 & 2 (Part 1)

Ok. Here we are at Week 1: Space Audit.
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We were challenged to create a layout, any layout, and to do so with pen and paper to write down both what works and what does not work. So, back in December (before I knew that Crisann would revive the Challenge for 2010) I grabbed my box with my project, a handmade book about our trip to visit Ohio this summer, I grabbed my bag of "essential" tools, I grabbed the two boxes of punches I had accumulated, hauled them to the coffee table, where my husband was sitting and watching football... and 20 minutes started...

What doesn't work?

1. 20 minutes to bring down stairs the things I need to finsh 6 pages to complete my book.

Hmmm....that was it. I had my Epiphany! Yes, I needed to organize, but the real problem was that where I wanted to be and where my stuff lived was not the same space. It was like going back "into the closet"... that one thing I thought I'd gotten away from by expanding to a Scrapbook Room. I had just exchanged one closet for a bigger one.
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I did complete my book for my husband to take back to Ohio the day after Christmas, and took my first before pictures, which is actually Week 2: Brainstorming.

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Before-Original Scrapbook Room

w/desk that came with home

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And...

Before-Dining Room

Yes, its indeed messy,

messy, messy...

...but soon it will be transformed into my new functional Scrapbook Room. The desk will be moving out and some 12x12 jetmax cubes will be coming in!