{ monday thoughts }

I live in a small townhome. I love it, though. It's making me de-junk. It's making me prioritize my worldly possessions. It's making me 'simplify' my life. But it is also making my brain go crazy trying to come up with solutions to make sure there is no 'wasted space'. Most of my items need to do double duty. Or they're out of here.

Which gets the wheels turning. And thinking about beautiful, yet practical and useful items.

Take this coffee table:

Gorgeous and provides a luxurious storage area.

{found here}

*sigh*

{Did I mention that the builder of our humble abode didn't believe in linen closets? Or storage areas in the bathroom? Did I mention that I store my towels in my coffee table? >:( }

Let me tell ya what though. By the time we move into a bigger place, I might be will be a pro at coming up with storage solutions.

And I will cry when I can actually put towels and sheets in a linen closet.

Actually. Cry. Tears.

It will be a beautiful day. ;o)

- - - - - -

So I have been asked to do a review of a product from here. I am giddy. And feel like a 3 year old in a candy shop.

And you should be giddy too. Because on the day I post this review, I will have a giveaway with it as well. Boo-yah!

-----------------------

Have an amazing monday!

-----------------------

xoxo

jordan

{ needing sanity }

I need to be more organized.

Organization=Sanity.

In my mind, at least.

I'm scouring the internet for ideas.

If you have one, please let me know.

For ideas that I do find, I will share them with you.

And I will call my little mini-series:

Without the aid of Google, I do have a little secret that I want to share. It has calmed the chaos of what used to be known as:

Let me share something I have found to be super helpful, and no, you may not laugh. Like my family did. At me.

Let me set the scene for you:

It's Saturday. You have just spent a billion dollars on groceries at you local Grocery Mart {I made that store name up}, to feed your children who seem to eat as much as 300 pound football players. After wrestling with the crowds and the kids, you plop down on the couch the minute you walk in that door.

And then remember you must unload the vehicle transporting the vast amount of food that could feed a small army.

{valuable newlywed information alert}

But this is why we have kids:

You recruit hubby and kids to unload and put groceries away.

5 hours later, when you go to make dinner, you have NO CLUE where anything is.

As you dig past the milk, orange juice, grapes, eggs, jam, sausage, shredded cheese, hot dogs and yogurt, you begin the interrogation of family members to find out where the heck the sour cream ended up at.

And you then realized you have pulled out the entire contents of the fridge for one measly little bucket that was hidden under the bag of carrots.

My solution:

Designate every shelf in the fridge for a specific group of items.

And then LABEL them.

Oh, yes. I said label.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much more organized my fridge stays. One less chaotic thing in my life is such a relief, I tell you what! How many times have you stored Leftovers, only to discover them 6 weeks later {when you're pulling everything out to find the sour cream}? Well if you have a clearly labeled Leftovers Shelf{s}, you know what you have before it goes bad. And you know exactly how long those beans in the Tupperware have been in the fridge, and are able to toss them before they ferment.

It also has helped me keep my fridge wiped down, because there is less junk in there. Before I go shopping, I go through and toss what I need to and wipe down the shelves.

Easy.

Here's what it looks like right this minute. I did not clean it prior to pulling out the camera. {And yes I am *painfully* aware that we are out of milk and that we need to go grocery shopping. This is what happens when it's almost the weekend.}

I printed out the words on regular paper, the taped them to the underside of the shelves or bins.

A free solution for an annoying problem...

Mr. Smith now knows where I want everything to go. I have learned the hard way that he doesn't read minds... :(

----------

stay sane!

----------

xoxo

jordan

{ my computer was in time-out }

Dearest friends in Blogland:

I have missed you.

For the past almost 2 weeks, my computer {along with all the other furniture in my house} has been crammed into bedrooms and the like so that we could replace our tile.

Moving said items made me feel like I was in a real-life version of Tetris.

Because of miscommunication, it took awhile to get people out here to fix it, and the process itself took almost a week.

Which meant Subway, Cafe Rio, McDonalds, Rubio's, Carls Jr., and Wendy's for awhile.

Which sucked because I am in a competition where I cannot eat fast food. Or I have to make very GOOD choices.

Fries smell good.

Especially when you can't have them.

I ate my salads and sandwiches.

They were tasty.

{A Positive Psychological Affirmation/Reinforcement Statement.}

But enough about my eating habits for the past 2 weeks.

{Oh, did I mention I would sneak under the plastic every morning to cook me a bowl of oatmeal? I didn't? Then you must know that I was very sneaky and talented as I made my way over the tile by jumping onto the counter from the stairs, climbing/crawling over to the microwave/bowl/oatmeal area, sliding under the plastic, and sitting there like a 5 year old in a fort as my instant Great Value Maple Cinnamon and Sugar Oatmeal cooked. No, I will not visually or cinematically document this statement.}

Moving on.

But dear readers, I must end this week's post here.

After wiping off the lovely film of tile dust that has seemed to creep over everything, despite all the plastic we had hanging up everywhere, I now have the great privilege of putting everything

BACK.

Awesome.

But my house is now deep cleaned {smelling citrus-y fresh, I might add}, and a new furniture arrangement is in order, so things aren't quite so bad....

Plus we now have tile that isn't shattering or moving with every step we take.

And that my friends, is priceless.

And to those who are thinking of installing tile yourselves, please pay close attention:

When installing your cement backerboard, use SCREWS not NAILS.

Otherwise the floor will flex, making the grout crumble and tile move and crack.

ALSO, remember to use enough thin set so that the tiles you just laid don't pop out with just the use of one's hands.

{Yes, the previous tile layer was a professional, but when our landlord went to contact him to fix his mistakes, he was nowhere to be found. But this time a real-live company installed it. And it looks beautiful.}

Okay, enough rambling...

must...

step...

away...

from...

the...

computer...

now...

------------------------------

Happy Father's Day Weekend!!!!

------------------------------

xoxo

jordan