Everything in It's Place

I was in Oregon for a little over two months (a bit longer than anticipated). That left my husband to fend for himself and keep up the house. I returned a couple weeks ago to my "clean" house to find that his version of what that means and mine are two very.   very.  different things. So, nesting kicked in full force! Besides a good spit shine of every surface I can get my hands on, I've been obsessed with organizing and clearing things out. Everything must be in it's place! It's a work in progress, but I'm hoping to feel satisfied and done sooner than later. I've been tackling the more trivial items that enhance my daily routine. Later, I'll bust out the big guns and attack the bedroom closets!

First things first. The mouse has been homeless for years and has worn off the finish below it on our table. That leads to sketchy cursor behavior and aggravates me to no end when trying to photoshop! So, I remedied the situation with a mousepad complete with a recent photo of my two favorite short people! Computer time is now a little more lovely.

The computer shares a room with the kids toys, which allows me to keep an eye on them while using my spiffy new mouse pad. However, it can feel pretty chaotic at times when all the toys end up on the floor. The larger ride-on type of toys were driving me nuts always shoved against a wall somewhere when all the other toys made their way into the proper basket. No more. One hook and the doll stroller, surely the largest and most awkward toy of them all, is up off the floor and out of my way! Checkity-check-check! I'm telling you, it's sick how happy this all makes me.

Laundry is another big one for me. Every day, I'm doing several loads and spend a good deal of time folding while staring into the laundry closet. Again, the hooks have saved the day. The ironing board, steam mop and dry mop were always falling against each other and frustrating to get to.  Now, they hang gloriously on the wall for easy retrieval at my every cleaning whim!  TADA!  I even added an S-hook with clips so I can hang the microfiber pads from my steam mop to dry before I get a chance to wash them. No stone left unturned. 

 

You may notice the giant container of Charlie's Soap in the photo above (LOVE that stuff, by the way). Very economical, but also very heavy and not-so-easy to pour out the tablespoon of soap I need to use for each load. Which left me no choice but to buy a happy little yellow ceramic olive oil decanter to pour from. I measure the soap into a little silicone bowl then dump it into the washing machine dispenser and laundry is fun again!

 

Cooking is another thing that I spend a lot of time doing. It makes such a big difference for me to store my veggies in containers that keep them fresher longer and allow me to see them readily. There is nothing worse than a slimy cucumber hiding at the bottom of a veggie bin beneath a mess of plastic produce bags and vegetables. This solves that. Produce bags disappear immediately and veggies go in clear, stackable containers. I swear we're eating more vegetables now that they are so easy to see and get to!

Another thing that was crucial for me to get a handle on was our vitamins.  I give our kids several vitamins each morning and I have to take quite a few myself (along with the lovely Lovenox shots you see in the photo) to keep from getting any blood clots while I'm pregnant. Opening a dozen vitamin bottles every day was not working for me. These containers are my new love.

They fit 800 vitamins, which is a heck-of-a-lot, considering I literally dumped several entire bottles into their own section and won't have to deal with refilling for a long time! We each have our own box and now it's really easy to grab one of each kind of vitamin. Even in the morning before coffee with both kids freaking out wanting their vitamins! That's saying a lot.

Getting picky now. Magazines floating around the bathroom = yuck. Magazine rack is happiness. Why didn't I buy one a long time ago?

What's next, you ask?  Cords.  The tangle of cords behind my computer, at the head of my bed and behind the t.v. are about to get tied up. I found these neat re-usable (great when you move a lot) turkey ties. Best part is they actually look cute if they are visible and when you go to take them off, you don't have risk slicing your wire to cut the tie off.  Genius.  

 

So, there it is. My sickness in a blog post. I am obviously made far too happy by all of these simple little things, but I guess that's why they call it nesting. I did manage to keep myself from photographing my freshly cleaned baseboards and sparkly clean toilet bowl, so that's good.  Although, if I'm honest, my back hurts from cleaning them and my belly would prevent me from getting on the floor for the proper angle of the base boards anyway. I may need an intervention!