My Make Up Table

Since I did the post about Master Closet Clean Up I have had a few emails wanting to know what all the little drawers are for. Most of you know I am OCD about being organized. Everything I own has as spot, its kept in its spot. I go crazy when things are not where they are supposed to be. Since the post I organized just a little bit more, so below is the picture from Master Closet Clean Up! 

When I was searching for  things to help organize my make up I made sure to measure the space. This way I could buy the right size organizer to fit the space. Nothing get more upsetting then bringing home the "perfect" piece only to find its 5 inches too wide. So you exchange that piece and get a piece that is now your "perfect" piece bring it home and find its too tall. So take it from me and measure. Scour the web for the best deals. Typically at you retail stores (Walmart, Target, etc) on their website they have bundle packs so you can get 3-4 pieces for 1 low price. 

I knew I did NOT want cloth drawers or fabric etc. Let me explain why. When you have children there is always a certain level of mess. Messes such as a spilled cup, such as my coffee cup because "Mommy you have to see how fast I can run" turns into a trip/stumble and bumping into my table. There is also the "Mommy see I can dress myself" turns into getting stuck in the shirt and bumping into the make up table. So you see choosing plastic made sense to me I can wipe it up no matter what gets spilled, including make up! If you still want fabric best of luck to you! I do not want make up stains. 

                                                   

Wondering what the white thing with drawers is? Well, my makeup. (the closest thing I could find to what I have 5 drawer 2 pack) I LOVE having these.

Top drawer is foundations, powders.
 2nd - is blushes, bronzers.
 3rd-is eye shadows.
4th -is extras such as cotton balls, extra face lotions, chap sticks etc.

So you are wondering about the gray tub underneath? It's actually holding my summer wardrobe! I waste no space in my closet. I may now have a "designer" closet but it works for me!  

Now I suppose you are wondering about the blue smaller ones. Right??? ( get them here mini drawers)OK so here it goes. The Small blue drawers on the LEFT that is sitting on top of the white dressers. Is my lipsticks, sorted by shades. On the right is all my eyeliners

Left Side Blue Drawers                                                               Right Side Blue Drawers

1- Reds & pinks                                                                         1- eyeliners
2- Nudes                                                                                    2- Waterproof eyeliners
3 -peaches and clear glosses                                                       3-crazy color eyeliners (purples, blues, etc)

On top of the blue drawers are my make up brush holders. I bought fish bowls from the dollar store and colored glass stones. I put the stones in the bottom of the bowls! Smaller brushes on the left and bigger brushes on the right! 

So after a little "Make up Table Clean up" all of my hair stuff is under the table. 

                                                  Oh the little pink, purple & flowered cases are my extra make up cases for traveling. I keep my velcro  hair rollers in them! 

Blue Drawer

Drawer 1- is ALL  my bobby pins.
Drawer 2- is small hair clips and small claws, etc
Drawer 3- is all hair ties, elastic ties, etc

White Drawer

1 - big hair clips, and 1 curling iron
2- brushes, flat iron spray, hair spray, smoothing serum.
3- LOTS of combs, small hair dryer, curling iron.
4- flat iron and curling iron. Yes I have 3 curling irons. They are all different sizes.

               

                                     Hope all of you have had a great week! 

                                         What did you accomplish today? 

Tackling the Christmas Warranties~

                       Feeling very frustrated right now! I had been keeping notes all day of what I was doing and organizing and apparently I didn't save them! BREATHE, BREATHE. OK I'm over it! So Like I said I have started organizing -the master closet, master bedroom, master bath closet. I am going to move a little furniture around in the master bedroom too.

                      Tackling the desk is a big job! Its the catch-all of the master bedroom. I get so upset every time I look at the desk. I know its there somewhere but, its just buried in the junk I don't want to deal with. So today I it was time. I started gathering my receipts for taxes! Little by little I could see the desk. You guys should know by now that I am a complete organizing freak.  I started creating file folders for the new items we got for Christmas, I create file folders for ANYTHING that has a warranty. Around January  EVERY year when I create new file folders for the new stuff we got for Christmas, I go through ALL the folders and toss expired warranty paperwork/information. Do you just LOVE the envelopes I created for taxes!!! I also created a hanging folder for the Armada, yes I know I bought it 3 months ago, yes I know I am behind!

                       

My receipt catchers are awesome! HAHA

I am very proud of myself for tackling the desk. Cross my fingers that I will keep up with it in 2014. Over the next couple days I am going to be cleaning out more closets, finishing my bedroom up. Hopefully by Sunday I will be able to post about the meal planning app I found and how my cleaning schedule is going to go for 2014. I am still playing with it! 

I am still reading Six Times a Charm, I'm on the 3rd book in the set.  Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner Its funny and I can picture me in the book :) 

Today was a great start to 2014. How did you do today? What did you get accomplished? 

Week 2

        Hope everyone has had a great week! I know I have been challenged this week. 8 days on the kitchen was fun and exciting. Well onto the goals that I have done!

1. Smoking- I fell off the wagon for 2 days this week. But I'm back down to 4-5 cigarettes a day.
 2.Family time- is coming along. The kids got a little involved with me in organizing the kitchen. We are all eating dinner at the table at night. I also got the kids outside since the weather was actually warm for Jan. We pulled weeds in front flower beds!

 3.Organizing- my "new" kitchen looks great. I was able to save so much space! When I open my cupboards now they almost look empty. Me being a couponer, I had stockpiles of everything! Now it's all condensed down into containers. No more stuff falling over in my cupboards. I even put my cookbooks into categories (breakfast, dinners, desserts, etc) so no more searching for the right book! Look for my previous post Operation Kitchen Reorganization. I think next month I will do Adyson's room gathering ideas right now. 

4. Healthy eating- coming along great. I made HOMEMADE Stroganoff the other night, I only have a few "dinner helper" boxes left.

Homemade Stroganoff
1/2c dry/powered milk
1/3c cornstartch
1.5 tbl beef bouillon cubes crushed
1 small onion chopped
1/2 tsp each-basil-thyme-pepper-parsley-
1tsp garlic powder
2 c egg noodles
1.5 lbs hamburger
3.5 cups water
1c sour cream

mix hamburger & onion, brown & drain fat.
whisk cornstarch and 1/2 c of the water together until mixed well. Then add everything to pot EXCEPT sour cream.
Bring to boil - reduce heat, cover & simmer 15-20 minutes until noodles are done, stirring occasionally. 
Just before serving add sour cream. I chose to add sour cream separate-on top of servings, this way I can freeze leftovers, since sour cream doesn't freeze well. I froze leftovers in quart size freezer bags. Don't forget to label & date! 
This was awesome!

5. Yoga- still going great! researching now to find new moves for my yoga ball. If anyone has a suggestion to a magazine or book for this let me know!

6. Reading- I have read HomeMade by Readers Digest. Its a great book I bought it on my NOOK Color, so friend me & I can lend it to you. Teaches you to make a lot of your own homemade cleaners, beauty stuff, gardening tips, etc. So right now I am only 1 book behind!

7. Brain Teasers- I think the last 11 days of dealing with the kitchen were a brain teaser enough. So I got out the Suduko book & its sitting on my night stand to work a puzzle tonight.

8. Blog- Still going! or you wouldn't have anything to read!

9.Positive- Been doing great at having a "Can Do Attitude" the kids are starting to pick up on it too!

10.Crafts- Did 1 craft that went with my kitchen about creating my own cookbooks out of all the recipes i found laying around. I took spiral notebooks and labeled them and added recipes. Some recipes I stapled (if they were already on recipe card) and some I wrote in.

I still have to make them "pretty". Thinking of using  wrapping paper to  cover ?
We shall see what works, or old pieces of fabric? 

11. Music- My hands have been tied up with the kitchen (ha ha sometimes literally). I have scheduled music time for later today! :)

12. No Chemicals- has been working out great. I made my own coffee creamer this week, and the Homemade Stroganoff.

Coffee Creamer
1-14oz can of sweet condensed milk
2 c milk (what ever you normally use)
This make a good "base" to start with. You can make it sweeter if you would like. Take 1/2 c milk heat in microwave about 1 min. Then pour in your sugar, mix until sugar is dissolved let it cool! Then you can add it to the rest of the batch.

You can add flavorings or extracts to it & get a flavor you like. Mine is Cinnamon!

1.5 tsp cinnamon extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1 tsp Vanilla extract


13. Gardening- I had a great idea for starting plants indoors. I already had soil, starter pots, most of the seeds. I did go buy a wire shoe rack & assembled it. Put it near back door (now that I have room in my kitchen) it cost me $10 it also collapses for storage! Yes I know its early to plant, BUT when we waited and planted indoors in Feb, the plants were only 2-3" tall come April. NONE of those plants survived. So this year we are starting a few weeks earlier, so the plants can be 6-8" tall by April.

Labeling for now I stapled a stick to the seed pack. Adyson & I are looking into "cooler" ideas for labeling. I planted....
HERBS
Rosemary-basil-cilantro-oregano-tarragon-thyme-sage-parsley

VEGTABLES
Cherry toms- Slicing toms- cucumbers-Kohlrabi-green peppers

FRUIT-
Watermelon

So far this year has been awesome! So 11 out of 13 goals started!!! I need to get better about Music and brain teasers! Much better then last weeks 7 out of 13!!! Now since my attention has been focused on the kitchen the last week, its time to show some TLC to the rest of the house, dust, vacuum, etc....

Until next week, I hope all of you are achieving you goals for 2013! 

Operation Kitchen Reorganization

Finally all my oils, vinegars, syrups in 1 cupbaord!

     This week has been challenging. Trying to quit smoking, organizing my kitchen, etc. But I survived!!! That's the important part.  My "new" kitchen looks great. I was able to save so much space! When I open my cupboards now they almost look empty. Me being a couponer, I had stockpiles of everything! Now it's all condensed down into containers. No more stuff falling over in my cupboards. I even put my cookbooks into categories (breakfast, dinners, desserts, etc) so no more searching for the right book! This took 8 days, but you have to understand how detailed I got with my kitchen, I also have a 3 year old who tried to help me, plus one day the Seattle Seahawks played (I had to stop and watch the game)!

 All these containers were part of my starting point. I'm sorry I forgot to take good pics before I started but I did post pics of all my ideas, & cupboards along the way. You can kind of see the tops of my cupboards as you look through the pics. Before I started this the tops of my cupboards were FULL of stockpiles from couponing. I had no more room on top of my cupboards.

Here are all my containers. I purchased them from Walmart.com because I could buy them in 4pack or 6 packs. (PS look
at the top of my cupboard at all that JUNK! )

BEFORE

AFTER

This entire project took me 8 days. It was VERY detailed

Day 1- I went through cupboards and took inventory of what I had, and what would fit into containers. I found that MOST of my stuff would fit and stack better in containers. So I worked clockwise around my kitchen (so I didn't miss any cupboard or drawer). As I was doing inventory I would measure my cupboards & shelves (so I could purchase the containers to fit my cupboards). I also adjusted a few of my cupboards to fit my needs. I also found stuff in back of cupboards, who knows how long some of it had been opened so in the garbage it went! I found I had multiple spices open, 3 black pepper, 2 salts, 2 garlic powders, etc. So I combined them into 1.

Day 2- I went through and double checked my measurements, researched containers and moving stuff. I this was the day I started having piles of stuff on my counters & table. You may notice the orange post-its on the top cupboards, my notes of measurements, how many containers needed, & what is going in those containers.

This is what my kitchen started looking like about day 3-4.... :)

Day 3- I went through ALL of my cookbooks. I was so tired of searching for the right book. So they all got organized my category- breakfast, lunch, snack, desserts, etc. They all got a good dusting and set aside. Then I found all those pieces of paper with recipes on them. So I found a spiral notebook, labeled the front and wrote or stapled recipes in them.

I chose to have all the books a different color so I could "grab & go" by color.

Day 3-4- When I found all those recipes I chose the ones I know I would cook, and tossed the rest! So I spent the rest of day 3 and most of day 4 writing/ stapling into my own cookbooks. By the end of day 4 my containers had come in.

Day 5- As I was pulling EVERYTHING out of my cupboards I found 2 wine bottle holders. We don't drink wine so who knows why I had them. But I got creative! I bought those decorative pebbles (cheap at the dollar store, $1 a bag, used 2 per wine bottle holder) this gives it weight to hold up my cookbooks!

                    

Also as I finished day 5, I noticed that my kitchen doesn't make sense. I had oatmeal & poptarts in cupboard, but cereal on top of fridge. I had pudding in one cupboard but other lunch snacks in other cupboards. So EVERY cupboard in my kitchen now holds a "category" of food. I chose what fits ME! Be creative with your cupboards and make them fit YOU!

Beans, canned veggies

Dinner boxes, rice, salad toppings. The other cupboard is spices.
Like my beautiful display of my cookbooks on top of my cupboards?
No more junk on top

Seasoning packets, broth packs.

You guys get the idea. I organized  according to what fit ME.  

Now ALL breakfast in on top of fridge.  5 boxes of oatmeal fit in a large container. 2 containers of cereal, 1 healthy & 1 for

kids. 1 container of the breakfast shakes, my protein powder, 1 box poptarts. All the "extra" boxes of cereal now fit stacked toward back of fridge

Look at all that empty space! It was COVERED
in all my stockpiles. Now the only thing up there
is what goes in the cupboards below it. So proud.

  

In large container is ALL 7 packs of puddings/fruit cups.  In the smaller red lined is the  cracker packs,  green lined is granola bars. Drinks to the right. In the back of cupboard on shelf is all the snack/lunch bags of chips. So when I make lunches every morning, EVERYTHING that goes in them is in this cupboard. The kids also know this is for LUNCHES ONLY. The "home" snacks are in a different cupboard!

Day 5-6- Washing/dusting everything and putting the stuff in its new home! I did have 1 box that went into the garage. It was full of stuff I only use once a year during the holidays such as my Christmas serving platters & trays, deviled egg holders, Christmas baskets, holiday cookie cutters, why keep all this stuff in your kitchen if you don't use it on a regular basis. I understand some people may not have that ability to do this, but I do so I am taking advantage of it!

Day 6-7 Putting away more stuff. So all food now has a proper cupboard to go into. I have made a Baking cupboard & drawer. All my mixers & bread maker, special cake pans fit into 1 cupboard. In the drawer was all my measuring cups/spoons, cupcake holders, cake decorating kit, candy thermometers, spatulas, etc.

I have all my "frying" stuff together, my Deep Fat Fryer, griddle, George Foreman grill in a cupboard together!

Day 7-8 getting the table cleared off, the poor table, it was the "catch all" for the entire process. The box packed properly and taped and put in garage. Sweeping & mopping.

I'm glad I did it! I was able to go start to finish. The whole project cost me about $150. So to me that's not bad. Especially for all the space I now have in my cupboards! I really feel like I need to go grocery shopping, after having stockpiles/boxes of stuff all over my kitchen for the last couple years and to look at my kitchen now with all the extra/open space (even though I only took 1 box of holiday stuff to garage) feels weird!

HAPPY ORGANIZING!!!!

Make sure to follow me on:

Facebook

Pinterest

YouTube