Keeping a Building Binder

Throughout this building journey, I’ve kept pretty clear and regular notes. In a composition notebook, there are entries of the date and whom we spoke or worked with and what was said.

There have already been times I’ve looked back because we may not have remembered something the builder said, or I was curious how long another thing took to finish. The binder contains all the builder’s receipts that the bank forwards to us for each draw.

There is also a general building timeline I found here.

Also a pamphlet of one of our builders previous homes to keep as a reference for some of the same materials or finishes used.

Touch It Once

Everyone is talking about ways to get organized here at the beginning of the new year. Usually I am ready to get back on track or try something new. So far this month, we have been continuing to pack all non-essentials, books, decor, things that we're not going to miss for a few months. It seems so early when we have a good six months to wait until moving, but it is so great to get things out of here and gain some clear space. In the process, I have been able to organize what's left and hopefully create some new habits to help maintain our stuff.

A few months ago I read something about the "Touch It Once" rule, where its basic principle is the item in your possession goes to the place it belongs. It's supposed to save time and those extra steps of cleaning up. This is a common suggestion from professional organizers, but I know can be a frustrating idea as well! An example in where I've tried to change my habits would be the dishes. Using the touch it once rule, instead of putting my dirty dish or glass in the sink, I decide to actually put it in the dishwasher right then rather than waiting until the end of the evening to unload the sink into the washer. That goes well for a bit, until the dishwasher is ran and full of clean dishes to be put away. Then I either start placing dirty dishes in the sink again, or taking the next step of unloading the dishwasher, even if that wasn't on my agenda at that time. I like that it takes away the dish clutter from the sink and counter, but still isn't completely realistic to follow all the time. Another area that does work for me is putting away my coat into the closet instead of hanging it on the back of the chair when I get home. Really, I think this rule is more about being aware of how you are controlling your space and making decisions at the current time instead of dealing with something later. I'm going to keep trying it out!

Besides organizing our things, I'm striving to begin using my Motivated Moms planner to help me keep a more consistent schedule in cleaning. I found this a few years ago and thought it was the smartest thing.

I have also used Susan's planner, from The Confident Mom (free!), but this year decided to go back to MM. Each is equally helpful and has helped me organize the never-ending chores throughout the house. I have mine printed and binded at the FedEx office near here but have also just printed a week at a time on my home printer and stuck it onto a clipboard. This schedule is different from what I saw my mom do growing up. She does dusting in all rooms one day, floors in all rooms one day, etc. But I have found the MM routine to work great for me and feeling like I am completing the household work. Check out both planners if you haven't seen them yet!

Disney Planner

Our Disney World trip is near. This will be our first time as a family. I went as a child, way back in the 80s! It has drastically changed, so many new attractions and characters. I spent 40+ hours researching and planning our trip. This is how I organized it all:

This binder came from Zazzle.

A set of plastic dividers w/tabs. I have sections labeled Travel, Hotel, Dining, Parks, and General.

The Travel section holds our info for the flights and map of Orlando International Airport. This page was found at Lovely Commotion's website here. She has some cute designs for a planner! The Hotel section has our resort info, reservation number, map of the resort, and the Disney movie times that are shown every evening. 

The Dining section contains all of our dining reservations & info about which dining plan we chose. I also decided to be proactive and print the current menus for each location so we all can get an idea of what we are ordering. Maximizing our time in the parks!

                                                   

The Parks section has a sheet for each day for that particular park we've chosen. We decided where we would be according to the Magic Hours. We may find out we've over done it with such long days! These sheets have room for info like the park hours, our dining locations and times, and Fast Pass times. This was also found at Lovely Commotion. I included info regarding the Fast Pass options and  ride height requirements at each park.

I have current maps of each park so we could have an idea of where things were before getting there. I found these on eBay.

In the General section, I have maps of the locations of the Pressed Coin machines that I know the kids are going to love! These make great (and cheap) souvenirs. There is also a large map of the entire Disney World area so we know where each park is located from our resort.

I found this tip from all of my searching: use Mini M&M's containers to hold coins for the Pressed Coin machines. The penny machines are .50 each. Everything is ready to go when you load the containers with a penny and two quarters, stacking them in this order to the top.

Baseball card sleeves for any Transportation cards or Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom cards we may collect.

I wanted to be ready when we got there and not searching for these so I bought them from the Disney store beforehand. Autograph books and Pressed Coin book for everyone!

Also bought these ahead of time. Buying them at the parks comes with a day's wait to get them embroidered. I did that here at home. Also from the Disney store.

DrH picked this cookie cake up the day we told the kids. We let them know a month before so it wouldn't seem like forever waiting.

1. Metal hangers from the dry cleaner

2. Sweaters with too many fuzz balls or snags

3. Shoes that hurt your feet

4. Clothes with stains

5. Plastic stadium cups

6. Dishes you never use

7. Cookbooks you never use

8. Difficult, time-consuming, or expensive recipes

9. Dried-up cans of paint

10. Broken electronics

11. Florist's vases that you don't use

12. Paperback books you'll never reread

13. Greeting cards with no sentimental value

14. Expired coupons

15. Manuals for items you don't own anymore

Easy Way to Organize Their 'Sweet Streets'

Our family started collecting the Fisher Price line of Sweet Streets homes and shops way back in 2003. It started as a trip to K-Mart after my oldest had gone to have immunizations and was in need of something cheery to think about. The beach house led to the town house which led to the hotel and so on...ending up with the entire set of 15+ building and vehicles. The older girls have now since outgrown playing with them, but they still reside in their room on a bookcase. The furniture and people are stored in a plastic container. Through the years and one house move there have been a few pieces lost. I was able to find and replace those on ebay. I decided it would make it much easier to photograph each house with the items that belong to it as a reference in finding which goes with what.

Then I laminated each picture, cut out & punched a hole in the corner, and put them on a ring clip.

Yes!! It's Here!!!

I am so glad I found out about Project Life! I have high hopes that this system will get me back into scrapbooking on a regular basis. Why didn't I know about these products before? Anyway, if you were lucky enough to snag the newest sets this week on HSN then you received the same one I did! They sold 20,000 album kits in 24 hours!

Here is everything out of the boxes:

The plan is to start with this past January, catch up to present, and continue the year. On to print pictures! (Oh, and I may or may not have went back three hours later and ordered the other kit). I could not miss this deal. Half off retail and they are not in stores until May.

Cookbooks

These are our most-used cookbooks right now. My husband loves to cook, but I just like looking through them! We have quite a collection. I can't seem to get rid of any. Some have been passed down, but most are newer. There are more in a very messy cupboard that needs organizing (see below!)

One of the absolute favorites!

 Two great classics

You're not a true Oklahoman if you don't own Ree's (The Pioneer Woman) books

The lovely cupboard. This is a project I have been putting off. The binders on the bottom shelf hold recipes printed off from Recipes.com, Allrecipes.com, etc. This is one of those areas where you pull one thing out and five come falling down!

Any recommendations to add? What are some of your go-to food ideas?