Project 24: Hang the Measuring Spoons

It's like a family that grew too big for its house.

These are my measuring spoons all in one basket in my "baking" drawer. It looks organized. It really isn't. Try finding 1/2 teaspoon in a hurry.

I saw this a long, long time ago, on Pinterest.

source

 

When my husband bought me these snazzy measuring spoons at Christmas, I asked him to make me something to hang them up.

 

 

 

Originally we were going to put them on the door of the cupboard which holds all my baking stuff.

 

 

Since the door here is solid wood, a few small screws would hold up the wood just fine.

 

 

 

 

My husband got this far in the project when I asked him if he was going to paint it. Um, no, he hadn't considered that. So, I told him to leave it with me and I would look after it.

 

ahem.

 

While I procrastinated, I realised I'm not doing a lot of baking anymore--but I am doing a lot of cooking with spices. I decided to move them over to the cabinet over the stove. So, I did, even though the thermo foil door here made me very nervous.

 

 

 

The first time, I put them in the wrong place. I didn't take into consideration how far they would stick out from the door. When I "tested" their placement, I just held the spoon against the door. With the handle of the measuring spoon flush with the door there wasn't any problem. But, once they were on the hooks, they extend 3/4 of an inch (or about 2 cm) from the door and the door wouldn't close. So, I drilled everything again and hung them higher.

 

 

 

I covered up my mistakes with contact paper--not just because it looks nicer, but to protect it. I've learned from bitter experience that once that laminated seal over the pressboard (or whatever it is) is broken, that pressboard just wants to expand whenever it gets wet. Paint won't stick to either surface without an excellent primer, so contact paper seemed the best choice for an area that only needs light cleaning. Then again, it is above the stove and it does get steamed a lot. I hope I haven't ruined the cabinet door.

 

 

 

I didn't label it though I wanted to. I can't figure out how to do fractions (or even how to make a space between characters)!  But it doesn't matter. I'll be shocked if the measuring spoons even make it to the door instead of in the drawer where their brothers and sisters are still hanging out.

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the month, I'll be making a list of all the projects I've done during May's Anti-procrastination Project.



 

Project 23: Plan the Vegetable Garden

When we first built our vegetable beds, I bought two very useful resources; a book, Guide to Canadian Vegetable Gardening,* by Douglas Green,  and a special edition of Mother Earth News magazine.

The magazine had an article on crop rotation. In that article, it grouped the vegetables by family. I'd never seen anything like it.

These are the family groups:

A. Onion family: onion, garlic, leeks and shallots
B. Carrot family: carrots, celery, parsley and parsnips
C. Sunflower family: lettuce, sunflowers, and a few other leafy greens
D. Cabbage family: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale and many other leafy greens as well as rutabagas and kohlrabi
E. Spinach family; beets and chard
F. Cucumber family, cucumbers, melons, squash and gourds
G. Pea family: peas and beans
H. Grass family: corn, wheat, oats and rye
I. Tomato family: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and potatoes (though I have a not never toplant tomatoes with potatoes. I don't remember why.)

So, planning our vegetable beds was a simple matter of figuring out what we want to grow this year and making a list.

Next, I grouped the seeds into the families above. They are very helpful for planting in beds. I allot one bed per family.

Then, I consulted the crop rotation diagram I made in 2011 and figured out where to put my vegetables and I made up a new chart for this year.

 

This is what I gave my husband when he asked me where I wanted things planted.

While I was having fun doing the planning, my husband and son dug out the odd numbered beds (as it is an odd numbered year) and amended them with compost. We should have added peat moss, but we were lazy this year.

So, almost on schedule, we planted the vegetable beds. (Of course, by "we" I mean my husband.) I suppose it doesn't matter that much if the planning is late--as long as the planting isn't! In case some of you think this is late, we live in climate zone 3a. The traditional date for planting here is the May long weekend (around Queen Victoria's Birthday) which we just had.

We're in the midst of a bit of  drought at the moment, so here's hoping all goes well. Linking to Jules at Pancakes and French Fries for the wonderful William Morris Project.

*This post does not contain affiliate links.

Project 22: The Frog

Are you familiar with the concept of Eating the Frog?

Brian Tracy borrowed the phrase to humourously encourage us to do the most unpleasant thing in our day, first. Everything after that, you see, would be a piece of cake. (So to speak.)

Here's a short video I found on you tube which explains it: http://youtu.be/0W7GB5Fh2XM

This project was my frog.

This dresser which we call the "white dresser" (and I do suspect he's related to the white rabbit as it is always getting away from me....) sits in a very busy spot.

The top of it is a clutter magnet. The top drawer is worse. It was the drop spot for everything I didn't know what to do with. What is this bit? Don't know, put it in the top drawer of the white dresser. Looking for something? Look in the top drawer of the white dresser. That works--to a point. But then it gets to where the drawer is so full, you can't find anything in there. It took us about two and a half years to get to this point. (I know, because I did a scrapbook page about clearing it out in 2010.)

The date on this picture is April 28th.

Tackling it was one of the reasons I started this project. (Why I have to start 30 in order to finish one, only my therapist knows--if I had a therapist--which I don't. But s/he'd know. I hope.)

I piled everything on top of the dresser, in hope that that would motivate me to tackle it.

Nope.

The next picture was taken May 1st, after 15 minutes of sorting into "stay" and "go."

I have no clue what happened after that. I know I bought organizers at one point.

I know I thought about what we needed in it. One new thing was stuff for doing hair. This is right outside the bathroom and doing one's hair here instead of in the bathroom means folks can get in (and out) more quickly. (It is our only bathroom with a shower/tub.)

At some point, I put everything I wanted to keep into the organizers. And just like that, I was out of room.

Then, I stalled on dealing with the stuff in the baskets I no longer wanted to keep here and, frankly, did not know what to do with. I still haven't dealt with all that stuff. It is the last 10% of the project that I always seem to have trouble finishing.

But the drawer is technically done. As is the top.

 

I will tackle the leftover bits and bobs, eventually.

It's all in the basement. You now, the place where things go to die.

Project 21: Hang the Paper Cutter.

This was supposed to be another embarrassingly easy one.

When I first got the idea of hanging my paper cutter, back in February while taking the creative space workshop,  I had no idea how I was going to do it.

When I re-wrote my project list for the anti-procrastination project, I allotted it two hours. Most of that was for researching how to hang it.

I sat down with the computer and typed in some search terms, like "hang paper cutter" and got all sorts of unrelated and irrelevant articles. The same thing happened on Pinterest. It was a good thing that rabbit hole wasn't too deep.

So, I decided to take a look at the paper cutter itself and see what it suggested to me.

It suggested a narrow block of wood for the lip to rest upon.

I went down to my husband's newly built shelves and organized wood pile and found what I needed immediately.

I decided to paint it the same colour as the wall. I found the paint (and the brushes!) easily because of our newly re-organized basement.

I did have to go out and purchase more command adhesive in order to put it on the wall. The plan was to fasten one of the command velcro strips to the wood and the other to the wall.

It was going to be so easy-- and I was happy thinking I did not have to continue to make Swiss cheese out of my walls.

And that should have been that.

Except the Velcro on the command strip gave way.

Twice.

So, in the end, and because I was determined to have a post for today, I didn't say rude things and walk away (well, half that statement is true). No, I used the drill, wall anchors, screws and a level and fastened a block of wood to the wall.

My five minute project took about a half hour.

Here is where I kept the paper cutter. On the floor between the end of my desk and the wall.

sorry you had to see that.

This is where I am keeping it now.

Much, much better.

Project 20: Create Home in Pantry for Extra Bathroom Items

I'm almost embarrassed to post this. It was too easy.

I have two bathrooms and no drawers in either of them. The only storage available is the medicine cabinets. There are closets, though, fitted with shelves, outside each bathroom.

If you wanted an extra tube of toothpaste you could look in the medicine cabinet, or in the closets. I never knew where to find it or even whether we had any. It was ridiculous. When I created my Household Goods Inventory Checklist, I realised, again, that I needed to create just one place to look.

So, I did. First, though, I had to put this pile back on the basement shelves.

Then, I could find my little plastic "shoeboxes" hidden at the back. I ran around the house gathering up all the extra toothbrushes, floss, and toothpaste. Then, I labelled it and placed it on a shelf in the pantry.

Now I need to organize the pantry! (Again.)

Project 19: Organize the Black Book

After: Good enough.

The "Little Black Book" in case you aren't familiar with the reference is the place where gentlemen kept the phone numbers of ladies they pursued, back in the day.

So, when I was trying to come up for a name for this binder full of essential reference papers-- which, incidently, is not black-- I thought of the "Little Black Book." (Just to clarify, this is not a household management binder. Those are different and I don't have one.)

I set it up the first time I took the Paper Clutter class at Simplify 101. (And no, they don't pay me to mention them!)

I've been meaning to re-organize it since the Paperwork Challenge back in February. Like most of the projects I've procrastinated, this one took less than 15 minutes from the turn of the first page to labelling the spine. (OK, so, no, the labelling took longer than organizing it!)

Before: The motley collection of binders I keep handy to the desk.

Paper is personal. So what we keep in here is useful for our family-- I doubt it would be for anyone else. But the the sort of thing that goes into a "black book" are those things which you want to get your hands on quickly when you need them--and wouldn't have a home, otherwise. Some might be on the side of the fridge, some on a bulletin board, some in a folder, somewhere. This binder is a useful beast.

So, for us, that's library cards. My husband and I take turns going to the library so we need a central location for them.

Other things:

• Information on how to contact the schools the kids' attend and how to access the site where the school posts their homework.
• Bus schedules.
• Stuff relating to Scouts, Guides, and (now) their summer activities.
• Stuff relating to what goes out for garbage pick-up, the garbage pick up schedule.
• Take out menus.

You get the idea.

This year on one page calendar is from www.donnayoung.org. I use it to keep track of my husband's holidays.

The dividers are also pocket pages. I used my handy dandy labeller to identify the contents behind the tabs. Finally. Hopefully, now, things won't get mixed up. There's nothing worse than having to turn every single darn page to find the one you are looking for.

Since organizing all that took no time at all, I thought I'd make the binders on this shelf more attractive.

And that was it. Another project crossed off the Anti-Procrastination Project list. I cannot believe how many of these take so little time. They just needed a little intention.

Project 18: Jewellery Holder, Part Two

There are a gazillion "jewellery organizer" pins on Pinterest. Here's my board.

I took all my jewellery out of my lovely jewellery box sometime in January. That's when I decided I needed to sort it and figure out what I wanted to keep. (And why jewellery and not jewelry? 'Cause this is a Canadian blog, that's why.)

And then things stayed pulled out and jumbled like this for a long, long time.

One of the truly great things in Aby's Simplify 101 classes is that she emphasises doing a little bit whenever you can. In the Fundamentals class we called it "Embracing the Bite." That's how this happened.

No, I haven't painted. That's the difference between a sunny winter day and a cloudy spirng day. The trees outside the window block a fair bit of light when they are in leaf.

First, I got inspired by a vignette on a tray and learned you can put your toiletries in a drawer.

No, wait, first I emptied out a drawer and took the horse napkins and picture frames that were in it, put them together, and hung them up for my daughter.

Then I was able to have a fairly tidy dresser top. But I was really stumped with how to deal with my jewellery.

I looked at options that would let me organize and display my earrings and my necklaces, but it was tricky. I wanted to be able to access the backs of the earrings and that meant I had to put them through something. For the necklaces, I just needed something sturdy to hang them from.

It wasn't until it occurred to me that I needed to make two jewellery organizers that I solved my dilemma. After all, I put my earrings on in the bathroom when I put on my make up and the necklaces in my room when I get dressed. As soon as I realised that, it was easy. I made the earring holder in Part One. This, the necklace holder, is probably more complicated than it really needs to be.

When I cleaned out the bsement, I found some cork tiles and an unused picture frame I'd been hanging onto for probably a decade.

I used the glass from the frame to "measure" the cork.

I cut the cork with an X-acto knife. Several scores and I was through it in no time.

I broke apart some straight pins with wire cutters in order to attach the two pieces of cork. (You can see the second piece of cork hanging off the edge of the dresser above.) It probably wasn't necessary.

The hardest part was spacing the thumbtacks evenly!

And so there we have it, another project crossed off May's Anti-Procrastination Project list.