February Resolutions Week 2

Taking Care of my Body & Mind
As of February 13th I gave up going to Starbucks for coffee a Caramel Macchiato. For real! (I may have slipped this past weekend...) I haven't really missed it. I still go for a walk with my coworkers as I believe that was a big part of going all the time. "Coffee" is usually a social thing for me, so it is taking a lot of will power to not buy one when I'm there, but I'm proud of myself for cutting that part out. I actually feel better.

As part of the mind-body connection, I also challenged myself to give up Starbucks for the duration of Lent. As well as pray every day. My goal is to pray on my walk/run in the morning or on the walk to the bus. I'm always so rushed and running that I'm making extra time to walk and be present.

Mardis Gras precedes Lent so I had a a Starbucks to indulge one last time on Fat Tuesday. Ash Wednesday  was the start of the Lent season. I went to Mass at lunch to a church that is nearby. It was PACKED! I was lucky enough to get in the door but there was people standing on the sidewalk behind me. It thrills my soul to see so many people gathering.

I have gone to Barre class twice since my last check in. I absolutely love it! Check out this review for all the details. I am so excited to have this class to go to. Not only is it a great workout, but the upper body portion is great rehabilitation for my shoulder and back. I've booked myself in for the next 2 weeks. Getting up for a 9:00am workout class is a great way to start the weekend. I can easily stop on the way home at the farmer's market to pick up groceries for the weekend/week.

I haven't been keeping up with my running this past week. I was incredibly sick with a cold from Wednesday up until today (it's still hanging around). Running when you can't breathe and it's cold out is a mess and difficult. Hopefully this week I can get back to you.
I officially signed up for my 5K in May! only 96 days left to get in run shape. As in, actually run 5K at least once before I have to do it on race day.

Organize
My email archiving is slowly coming. I have successfully deleted 3 folders of information that was once important, but doesn't make a lick of difference in my life now. Things that are either there for nostalgic purposes I've archived. Another email task I took on was from my phone. I don't need to keep more than 7 - 14 days worth of email on my phone. I've cut it to 14, but even that seems like a bit much. If I don't reply to it right away, I will get to it within a week.

The filing cabinet in the office is slowly getting more organized. We went through a bunch of folders this weekend looking for one document (that never turned up) so it got a good clean out at the point. I have a pile of to-do now. Thankfully you can actually see the craft table again!

Nagging Task
My clothes hemming is still nagging at me. This weekend I WILL go through and decide if I actually need things hemmed or not. Sometimes it's not worth fixing.

February Resolutions Week 1

As part of my happiness project, I wanted to do a weekly check to see how I'm doing.
February 1st I had grand plans of giving up coffee. Not caffeine, just coffee. It affects my stomach in a bad way and I need to quit drinking it. I got to work on, called up my coworkers, told them I'm weak and went to Starbucks. I don't know why it's so hard to quit :(

The weather finally warmed up, which means the ice on the sidewalks from people who don't shovel is finally melting enough to go for a run in the mornings and not risk breaking something or falling.
I'm up to Week 5 in the Couch to 5K again. This is great news and I feel like I'm actually improving. There is a loop near my house that I thought was a long way around the neighbourhood but it isn't.
I haven't managed to get to the gym to do my chiro exercises in a few weeks. I did however sign up for a Ballet Barre class at www.barrebodystudio.com. I'll review that later.

I've been doing really good getting ready for bed early. I find it super easy on weeknights since I'm either by myself while Frenchie plays hockey, or I am teaching piano lessons. As soon as my last student has backed out of the driveway, I bust out the pj's and make myself some tea. It's doing wonders for my sleep and anxiety.

I have started unsubscribing from newsletters that I usually just delete on a regular basis. If I really need the information I will actively search for it. I'll continue to go through newsletters as they come in. Facebook was kind enough to allow us to filter people so that has been really handy. I still need to go through the groups a little better as I feel like I'm missing some people.
Twitter is ok. I've redone my lists a little and stopped following a few accounts that were either not used anymore or I never looked at anyways.
Next will be to go through all my email. Saving emails that have pictures seems pointless. I plan to upload all my attached pictures to an online storage site and remove the extra email clutter.

Organizing is under way. I posted the storage room success at the beginning of February. You can see it's transformation here. I'm hoping to do the laundry room, the master closet and the spare bedroom closet this month.

Organization: The storage room

I wanted to do this list by the end of November 2012. That obviously didn't happen. With The Happiness Project, one of my goals for February is to clear out a space. It will definitely be an ongoing goal throughout the year, but the first one on the list was The Storage Room. We cheated a little and did it last weekend, but it worked out timing wise to get it done. One room a month will definitely make a big difference. And places like the Office will coincide with a few other resolutions I have in the next few months.

Front closet
Back closet
Master closet
Spare bedroom closet
Office
Laundry Room
Pantry
Storage Room


The basement storage room has been a nemesis of mine. I always have to look through a bunch of un-labeled boxes to find what I'm looking for. In the process of finding what I went for (yes I usually find it), I also find a ton of things that we either have never used, will never use, or didn't know we had. Bunch of old cables that neither of us remember what they go to? Empty boxes "just in case" we have to send something back that is definitely out of warranty by now? Sports equipment on 4 different shelves? Unorganized!
I spent a couple hours on a weekend down there by myself and after Christmas I had the opportunity to organize all the Christmas decorations while putting them away. After another hour or so with Frenchie on a weekend we finished it. The basement still needs a lot of work in other rooms and closets, but it's definitely a huge improvement. Some day the basement will be a TV room and play room rather than a gym and place to dump things we don't want upstairs.

Before

Not too bad. I had gone through it a little bit here and there over the last year

After

Martha Stewart Dry Erase Labels are awesome for Rubbermaid bins.

The great thing is that I had all those bins lying around either empty of with a couple things in them. Repurpose useful items.

Never hurts to buy a little organization shelf if you need one. 

I love this one from Golf Town for our clubs and extras.

We also have an under the stair storage area for all the Christmas decorations, tree, wrapping stuff and non-Christmas wrapping things.

Before

Empty boxes and overflowing bins. 

After

I always wanted a wreath bag (you can't see it) and a wrapping paper bag. Finally found them this year. 

More repurposed bins (with labels!)

Garage Sale Pile

The pile grows every time we do a room or a closet or a cupboard. I love it!

As much as I dislike sitting there all day, it is a good way to get rid of things that are still useful. 

Organization Project #2: Pantry

The pantry is something we use every day. Since I've been selling Epicure Selections, we've needed to make room for the amazing mixes and goodies I buy. This wasn't a part of the house that was disorganized, it just didn't flow right and I was constantly moving things around. I'm sure this isn't the last iteration of organization for it, but it will work for a while.
Once we use up the large containers of spices, it will be better. Still a lot to use up.

Before:

Spice Rack on back of door

Left side - dishes

Right side - food

After:

Spice Rack - after
Only the middle shelf changed

Matching containers for dry goods
Very little food on the floor

Left Side - Bit more room
Plastic containers organized better

Organization Project #1 - Front Closet

Having piano lessons in our front room of the house made me realize all our shoes laying around need a place. The scarves/mitts/toques that we will need soon (hopefully not too soon) need somewhere to go that doesn't require me to empty out a bin to find that ONE matching set.

Reusable bags in the large bag
Large purses and scarves in the brown bin
Shoes in the organizer
Backpacks on the top shelf with some other stuff

I went shopping to Bed, Bath and Beyond and we bought a cube shelf that we thought would fit. It didn't. Took it back and ended up buying a bench with baskets at Jysk.

Shelf from Jysk for shoes, reusable bags, extras
Backpacks at the top
Large purses hung on hangers

I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. When winter comes, each of those bins will be for mitts, scarves and toques. (I'm Canadian, there are a lot of each for varying temperatures and colours)

Organization Project

I have this plan in my head to organize our house a little better. It's not disorganized by any means, but there are a lot of things around the house that should have a spot. They shouldn't be shifted, shoved and moved all the time.

I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest, blogs and the Martha Stewart website and found a mish-mash of ideas I wanted to use.

I'm hoping to get the bulk of the organization done by the end of November.

List of mini projects:
Front closet
Back closet
Master closet
Spare bedroom closet
Office
Laundry Room
Pantry
Storage Room

For the most part, these are the areas that we use a lot and need some updating. I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts! I will take before and after photos of each project so you can see the difference.
I have a feeling that our To-Sell pile will grow in the next few months.