Internet Motivation and Inspiration-Computer Data Orginization

I've been working on organizing net stuff. I have a lot of passwords and user names and have them in a notebook, but it was hard to find the one I wanted. I decided they needed to be in alphabetical order and I wanted to be able to add pages and dividers. I found this small binder 7x9, dividers and binder paper. It works great, now it's easy to find what I'm looking for.

 Home Your Way is doing 31 Days of Spring Cleaning Made Easy on day 21 Office and Craft Area she has some links to computer and data spring cleaning. I'm hoping this will give me some ideas for more decluttering and organizing of on line information.


Linda

Decluttering Files

My decluttering job this month was my files. I finally got that job done. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I wanted to share this information on Should You Keep That Paper. They talk about an everyday file to keep the current years papers and I wanted to say I've been doing this for several years now and it really works for me. By having just the current years paperwork in this file I can find things so much easier and the files are never too full.

They also have a PDF file about what is a vital paper. According to them experts don't agree on how long to keep something, so you have to make that decision based on your personal situation and they talk about what to think about.

I keep everything for a year and then I only keep those things that I think might be needed like tax records. I probably keep too much, but as long as I have room I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I use to have a big 4 drawer file cabinet and I switched to a 2 draw one next to my desk with the top draw being the current year and the bottom draw being up to 5 years more or less. Then I have file boxes for the old stuff archives, I keep those in my closet. I rarely ever need to get into those.

I don't keep records on my computer because I feel like they are vulnerable to other people reading them or to loss from a computer crash. I'm old school I like paper copies.

In addition to these files I have a receipt file for the current year. It is an according file Jan. to Dec. At the end of the year I empty it out and keep anything important. I often go back and check the cost of things and I always know where to find a receipt.

31 Days of Homemaking

I wanted to share some more homemaking 31 days blogs

Live Renewed is doing 31 Days to Green Clean

Organizing Made Fun is doing 31 Days of Organizing Fun

Orginizing and Decorating Fun is doing 31 Days of
 Loving Where You Live

The Frugal Homemaker is doing 31 Days of
 Pinterest Pinned to Done

The Story of Home is doing 31 Days of Color

Pretty Organized is doing 31 Days
Towards Becoming Pretty Organized

The Happy Tulip is doing 31 Days of Fall Nesting

Linda

Projects

Well I finished another cross-stitch. The is called "The Embroiderer". So now I'm going to try and finish this large sampler that I started several years ago. I hope to actually finish it this time.

My Rotating Project List is working. I've got 4 areas that I'm working on and hope to add more. One is hobbies and specifically UFO (unfinished objects), Reading or study is the next. I'm trying to get all these books from the library read. I just got "Below Stairs" by Margaret Powell today. I'm anxious to read this one but I'm currently reading Surprised By Oxford, which I'm loving. Another area is health and specifically gluten and grain free baking. Lastly home focused on deep cleaning projects. I want to add a couple of more areas, but am waiting for inspiration to hit. I think garden might be one as we get into spring.


Linda

Wholemade Grain-free, Gluten-free Crackers (edited)

Sorry I realized after I posted this yesterday that the link was wrong so it has been edited.
I wanted to share that I made these grain-free, gluten-free crackers today. Here is the link to the original recipe. These were really easy to make and delicious. I made a few changes. I used a dry thyme instead of the fresh rosemary and I plain olive oil instead of the hot pepper oil. Also I didn't use the sunflower butter, but used what I had which was a vegan product called Earth Balance Butter Sticks. I used a drop of stevia instead of the honey or agave. I used Trader Joe's Almond Meal for this recipe. The recipe is very forgiving to variations. You could use the products you have real butter, fresh or dried herbs, sweetener of choice. It's a savory cracker so it really only has a tiny bit of sweetener anyway, you might be able to just leave it out. I want to take his suggestion and try a sweet version of this. I will say one thing about using almond flour it is expensive. I'm lucky I have a wonderful grocery store with a big bulk section and that helps and also Trader Joe's is always a little more reasonable.

This is my fancy Rotating Project list I wrote about yesterday. So far it's working well. One of the things I want to do is start using some of the ideas I find on Pinterest and those will be future projects. Both the crackers and the Rotating Project list came from Pinterest. One category is definitely going to be cooking gluten-free and grain-free and dairy-free. Another category is deep cleaning projects. I have clean the kitchen cabinet doors up there right now. Finishing UFO is one of my hobby projects. I tend to take on too much at once and this will help me to keep focused on a few things at a time.

Linda

New Mantle and Bento Boxes

This is my winter look. I usually go for this sort of early spring look right after the holidays. We've had some pretty dark, grey days and I missed the Christmas lights so I decided to add some. Lighting candles also helps.

I've been busy getting my office set up for the new year. I also go through my files in Jan. There wasn't much to do this year and so I also cleared out my pantry and next I plan to clean woodwork in the kitchen.

I just finished a mystery by Carola Dunn called "Black Ship", a Daisy Dalrymple Mystery. It's British and I really enjoyed it.  I'm just starting the first book in the series and plan to read the whole series.

I have a new interest in the cooking realm, Bento Boxes. My gd like to make them. They are basically Japanese lunch boxes, that have become very popular. They are hard to describe so here is a link. I got interested in them because they are colorful and look likes lots of fun. I like the idea of filling up little sections with interesting food and it doesn't have to be Japanese recipes, but I look forward to learning some. I guess I'm looking for some inspiration for the lunchtime meal. I struggle with that meal. Also I want to keep learning new things and so this in one of the things I plan to play with this year.

Linda

A Comfortable and Nurturing Home

I'm getting in the spring cleaning mood, except that allergies are keeping me from doing it. I've been decluttering and trying to let go of stuff I don't really use. I was rereading some of the articles from down-to-earth and noticed her talking about wanting to make her home comfortable and nurturing and I started thinking instead of just trying to get rid of stuff, maybe I should be thinking in terms of is my home comfortable and nurturing. I think having it working well with a place for things so that you can find them is desirable but I don't think I have to worry about it being antiseptically clean and tidy. It always seems like as soon as I get rid of something I wish I had it back. I've been decluttering for several years now and so I don't have a cluttered house, but it is something you have to keep at because things keep coming in. So anyway I decided to not struggle so much with those books I want to keep and instead keep things reasonable tidy and if something starts to bug me that is probably a sign that I need to do something about it. Right now my garage is getting out of  control, but it's too cold now to get out there. I'm wanting to reorg. my kitchen again because some of the things I did last time aren't working so well now. I made room in the den closet for the vegs. that I'm dehydrating so that's done.

I think as soon as the weather is nice enough I want to start getting outside walking and thinking about the garden. The first day of spring is not that far off.

This is a quickie today because I'm not feeling well.

Linda

My Journaling and Quiet Time Box

I've gotten back to having my quiet time first thing in the morning. I'm setting my alarm so that I can do it first. I had a lot of excuses why I could never do it at that time of morning. I fall asleep, I don't sleep well, I can't concentrate and so on. I decided to commit to doing it and just do it and see what happens, because I really think it is the best time to do it.

So I bought myself a new box to hold everything. I got it at Target, the colors go with my living room and I can carry it where ever I want it. I dug out a notebook and bought myself some new pens and highlighters and a little pouch to keep them in.

I like to journal and so I also journal my prayers and conversations with God. It works for me and I can get everything off my chest that way and be able to go back later and see how things have changed.

Because the house is still cold early in the morning I'm doing my QT in bed and so I got out a bed tray which has a place for a book and I keep my devotional and a note book in there along with a Bible. So I have a hard surface to write on. I just tried it this morning and it worked pretty well.

So the journaling box and the bed tray are the tools to help me with my early morning QT and other times when I just want to journal or take notes on something I'm reading. I'm also starting a Bible Study time in the afternoons and I will use the box for that too.

Sunday I followed Passionate Homemakers idea about having a Planning Retreat and redid my whole schedule. I used the box to keep a binder and notes in that I was reading about Vintage Housekeeping and yesterday I went over those notes to make changes to my schedule. So the box can also be used for special projects.

I'm doing a series about my Housekeeping Book on my Around the House blog. Links on side bar under housekeeping book catagory. My latest is about rituals.

Linda

Containerize Your Pantry

I saw this idea somewhere on line, but can't find it again. Anyway they had used beautiful containers that matched their kitchen. I already have my pantry divided into like things together, and I had used some containers and baskets. I wanted to continue that idea and do more of it and try and find some pretty red containers to match my kitchen. I looked at every place I could think of around here and couldn't find what I ideally wanted, so I've decided for now just to use what I have. So I've containerized my beverage mixes like hot chocolate and Cafe Mocha. I also put all my beans, lentils and grains together. I have another container for all my chocolate and dried fruit and another for sweeteners. I already had my herbs and spices in small baskets. I have a basket of just different kinds of salt.

I wish I could have found the original post because she had different ideas and categories than I do. We are all going to do this differently as we have different kinds of foods. I don't use many processed food, but pretty much cook from scratch. I think snack foods was one of the catagories I saw. So why am I bothering? I already had my categories together, but I found that they don't stay separated and so I think the container is the way to keep things where they belong and hopefully will make finding them easier.

I would like to dress up my shelves with oil cloth, but don't want to spend the money right now. I still hope to find the red containers, maybe on line, but this way I can see if it really works and is worth the expense.

I found that you don't want something too tall, you can't see what's in it and if you pantry has a door like mine you can't get the boxes on the sides out without moving other things, so you want to be able to just reach in. Something a little deeper than a tray is good. The wooden box I have I found at a craft store with their unfinished wooden things. I could paint it later and get my red that way. For my chocolate I needed a deeper basket because I have a lot of bags. I buy chocolate in bulk of different kinds. I do put a lot of my bulk items in canning jars, but that doesn't work as well for large odd shapes of chocolate pieces.

One thing that's nice about my pantry is that it has fairly deep shelves and that is another reason why the container helps to see what is in back. You can pull it out like you would a draw even if you can't take it out. Depending what you have in them they can be heavy.

I reorganized my pantry because I'm doing more baking and I have some new ingredients I didn't have before, so things were getting messy. Now it's nice and neat again, for a while.

Linda

Storage Solutions

Living room storage- The top picture is a box I got for my birthday. I put it under my drop leaf table in the living room. I thought it would be a good place to stash current projects like knitting or reading material. I think they got it at Michael's. It's really beautiful.

Paperback storage- The last time I moved bookcases around these paperback mysteries ended up without a home. So I started looking for a small shelf or something to store them in. My gd and I were out shopping at TJ Maxx and I saw this storage box and thought it was so pretty and wondered if it would work. It turned out to be the perfect solution. It was a lot cheaper than a shelf. I put it in my bedroom and it fits in very nicely.

Linda

My New Meal Preparation Planner

I was thinking about the idea that everything in my house should have a home. I was looking at my hot spots, places that collect paper and junk. I have two in my kitchen, one is my frig door and the other is on the end of my kitchen counter. I decided I wanted to find a solution to the one on the counter I want that area to stay clear. So I looked at what was in the pile and is was mostly recipes, to do lists and shopping lists with a few other things. I have had binders for my recipes but they always get over loaded and end up become impossible to find things in.

I've been talking on my kitchen blog about developing the habit of prepping for dinner right after I finish breakfast while I'm still in the kitchen. Because I wanted to take best advantage of that time I started thinking about what I could prep or even cook during that time and I started to think ahead about what I wanted to have for dinner and other meals.

My 3 freezers had gotten beyond me being able to find things in them or knowing what was in them. I've done inventories before but didn't keep up with them. So I decided to reorg my freezers and do new inventories. I immediately started to use things that I now knew I had and where to find them.

In the past I have never been good at meal planning and all those plans out there never worked for me. I had given up on the idea. I thought about my freezer inventory and decided that if I put it in a meal planner it could be the basis for a lot of my meals. I also have info. that I could use to make my meals healthier and cheaper that I thought could go into this planner.

Next I looked at all these recipes that were in my hot spot. Some of them were things I had tried and wanted to keep. Some were recipes I thought I wanted to try and hadn't. Some were recipes I was working on tweaking. I came up with the idea of having 4 sections in my planner for the 4 weeks in a month. My plan is to put any recipes I print up or find in the current week and at the end of the month when I start over again on a new month I would look at what was left after I pulled out the recipes I had tried. If I hadn't tried a recipe I would probably dump it, but I did give myself another option a seasonal section.

In the next part I would have 4 sections Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. I would put recipes in here that weren't used because they were seasonal. This would be one way of getting me to use seasonal produce more. There are just some recipes that are better with fresh seasonal produce. When each season came along I would try and use those recipes and the ones that didn't get used would be dumped.

Finally the last section is a Working On It section for recipes I'm tweaking.

Recipes I liked and wanted to keep would go into a Tried and True binder, used only for recipes I know I wanted to make again often. Hopefully that will keep the binder from getting overrun with recipes.

Linda

Gift Wrap Center

I've created a little gift wrap center for myself. I had a small desk in my bedroom that wasn't really being used and I got the idea to move it into a little nook next to the closet in the children's library. I keep all my gift wrap supplies in that closet. So even though it's not a very big surface I think it will work out. I also put all my notepaper and cards in the draw so it will be an ideal place to write a note or send a card. The two bags hold tissue in one and lengths of cut ribbon in the other and the little basket has stickers in it.

At the same time I decluttered this closet and my gift wrap supplies. I found out I had a lot of gift boxes and tissue I didn't know I had. So those big boxes have gift bags in one, paper in one and gift boxes in one. I have the rolls of ribbon in the basket and a big box on the floor for tissue.

I also keep all my Christmas gift wrap on the top shelf and I want to go through that also, but will keep it separate from the regular gift wrap.

Because of moving this little desk I ended up doing some other moving and rearranging finishing off the rooms I had repurposed in Jan. I'll have some pictures on my house blog later. Don't have time right now. Edit new pictures here.

Linda

Strawberries

I'm still working on bringing color to my living and dinning rooms. My dd lent me some strawberries she had to add to my wreath and my coffee table. I want to make some of these myself. My dd told me they are easy. I've also been looking for fabric to recover pillows. So far I've found a couple of pieces, but I need more. I want to do a patch work like the ones my dd is letting me borrow. The strawberry napkin in the picture under the cake plate would be the center.

I've also been working on decluttering and organizing my craft room, magazines and another closet. I tend to organize and not get rid of anything, but I'm trying. I don't buy magazines anymore, but have some old ones that I keep for crafting and some just to read. I have a lot of old Country magazines. I love to read those and Reminisce. I've also kept a lot of the old Country Living one of my favorite magazines and Country Home.

I'm working on my granny's will post about those later this week.

Linda

Filing and Paperwork

I got all my filing done and reorganized my office closet. I do this every year at in Jan. so that I can start off the year with organized files.

This year I really wanted to simplify my files. I'm from a generation that is use to things on paper and I tend to want a hard copy of everything, so I've had to gradually wean myself from keeping all that paper. I've looked up lists of what to keep and how long. Each list is a little different so I had to really decide for myself what to let go of and what I really didn't need to keep.

I have a 2 draw file cabinet that I keep most of my files in. I also have some large plastic file boxes for my old records that I feel I need to keep. The file boxes are in my office closet. The top draw of my file cabinet is for current year paperwork. I can easily find what I need that way without having to look through a large file of paper. Every year at this time I clear it out so that it is ready for the new year. I throw away some of it and the rest goes into the bottom draw where I keep things for 3 years or so. I go through this draw when it gets too full, usually not every year. So after that 3 years I can toss a lot of it. What is left goes into the long term storage or old (permanent) file boxes. This is mostly financial and some medical records.

I have a separate filing crate for my tax files. After my tax return has been filed I keep the copy and the receipts in here. After 7 years the receipts get thrown out unless they need to be kept and the return itself goes to the back of the file. I use to throw these out until I read you should keep them forever oops.

I remember the days of having large file cabinets and trying to keep info. on subjects I was interested in. That was before the Internet. It was very cumbersome and I gave up after a while. Now I use the binder system for mostly print outs, but I rarely ever read this stuff so I'm thinking if I'm wanting to simplify maybe I should get rid of these. It would free up a lot of space. The rule if you haven't used it for a year seems like a good one. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it sounds like a good measure of what is really useful.

Linda

Plunging Into Paperwork and Budgeting Tools

I finally got started on getting my financial records ready for the new year. I decided for the new decade to make a new budget book, mine was getting kind of old. I devided it into two books. Several years ago I had to start handling my own finances and didn't have a clue how to do it. I read several books about budgeting and came up with using accounting pages to keep track of my money.

In the budget book the first page is my budget and behind that are accounting pages for each item in the budget. At the end I keep the audits I do at the end of each month. I do those to make sure I have in the checking account the same amount that is shown in the accounts. I include in my budget a monthly amount for those bills that only come up quarterly or yearly or things like dentist that vary. I figured those out by adding up the year cost and dividing it my 12. I redo that every year at the beginning when I redo my budget because costs keep going up like gas for the car.

In the banking book I decided this time to start keeping track of my deposits, so the first section is the break down of what is in my deposits. The second section has a page for each month and I record my spending for that month. These amounts are posted onto the accounting pages a couple of times a month, so that I know if I have over spent in an area like groceries. The third section is savings. I keep all my savings in one account but it is from different sources and for different purposes so instead of having different savings accounts I keep track of it here.

The last took I use to keep track of receipts. It is an open top according file with Jan to Dec sections. I just throw all my receipts in there and clear it out at the end of the year. I always know where my receipts are that way and I like that it is open because it is easy to stick them in there.

So I still have to clear out the receit file and then it's on to doing my files. I'm going to break it down into small bits. It's not a job I enjoy doing. That is why I make myself do it in Jan. each year. Even though I don't enjoy doing this stuff I do enjoy knowing that I'm on top of my finances and paperwork and that I can find things if I need them. I lived too many years not being able to find stuff.

Two more disciplines that I do to control finances and paperwork. I throw out junk mail right away and I pay bills weekly. I try to do filing regularly, but I don't do it as often as I should.

Setting Goals

It may be obvious, but I wanted to say you have to know what your goals are to set priorities. My are to

1. Be more fit.


2. Be able to fit into my clothes, lose 5 lbs.


3. Keep my home and life in order.


4. Stay on budget.

These are pretty broad goals. Some of them are long term goals and some are short term. Because I like to keep things simple I want to keep my goals to a short list.

I could have a list of goals under each of these broad goals, but those things usually end up on a To Do list.

I'm a list person and I write down what I need to or want to do each day, week and month.At the beginning of the month I ask myself what I want to accomplish that month just 2 or 3 things.On Saturday or Sunday I make a To Do list for the week. On a daily basis I have my schedule and I look at the To Do list and decide what I will do that day. I try to do this the night before.

I know it sounds like I'm this terrible organized person, but the reality is that I run hot and cold. But when I start to lose sight of what my goals are I go back to all the planning and keeping track. Sometimes I don't need to do that and can just keep it all in my head and on a to do list. But I always know what my broad goals are, it's the details that get a little muddy sometimes and that is where the priorities come in. I look at my goals and set my priorities and that gets me back on track.

Sometimes I have to say something isn't working and I have to find a new way to reach my goal. I was having trouble with the walking. I was so tired I didn't want to do anything the rest of the day, so I decided to work on just being active and if I have the energy taking an afternoon walk. It's cooler now so I don't really have to do it first thing in the morning. So my goal of being fit hasn't changed but my method has and my priorities have shifted a bit, now that I'm not walking first thing in the morning I'm spending more time and energy on the deep cleaning.

In the past I've made complicated goals and sub goals and it doesn't motivate me, it depresses me. I've learned to keep it short and simple. I write down enough to remind myself what it was I wanted to accomplish. The important part is the process of sitting down and thinking it through. What's important to me and what is just cluttering up my life. What needs to be done first and what needs to wait. I enjoy playing with my new camera but if I don't plan my meals and prep them ahead I won't eat right and if I don't keep my kitchen clean I won't want to cook.

So I hope this post will encourage you if you don't already to sit down with a cup of tea and think about your goals and then your priorities and keep it simple.

Linda

Reviewing Priorities

I thought it was time to look at my priorities again. It doesn't take much to get me off track. My new camera has done that, so I decided to see if my priorities have changed and what they are going forward into fall.

1. walking



2. losing weight



3. cooking



4. schedule



5. christmas gifts

Family needs and spiritual always come before everything else.

I started out walking to help diabetes and to help me lose weight, but I also realized that I want to know that I can walk to the grocery store if I need to. Also I just want to be fit. So far I'm not losing weight but I've developed the habit now of walking every day and that's a good thing.

I'm trying to get back to the weight I was a few months ago. I started gaining and have lost a little but not much. I'm trying to work out the problems. So this led into my next priority cooking.

I need to be preping my veggies and have things on hand ready to eat to stay on the low carb diet. Having the right thing in the frig. ready to eat will help me not to grab the wrong thing. I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen right now.

I am renewing my efforts to stay on my schedule. I think it's important to keep my house maintained and my life running well, the schedule helps me do that. My new camera got me off track a bit. I also started deep cleaning my kitchen 15 mins. at a time and plan to go through the whole house this way.

Lastly I want to make some of the Christmas gifts this year and I'm thinking about what I can make, so I need to make that a priority this fall.

So my blog and photography fall to the bottom of the list along with a lot of other things. That doesn't mean I won't do those things it just means that the other things come first. My schedule tells me when I have time to do these things. Without my schedule I tend to do all these thing at the bottom of my list first.

Priorities change that is why I check mine frequently.

Linda

Blog Crazy

My family thinks I'm crazy because I've started 4 more blogs besides this one. I mentioned

Fit For Him before my blog for keeping track of my health habits that I'm trying to do.

I also started My Anchor for bible study. I was having trouble getting myself to get into the bible daily and thought a blog might get my going and it would be a good place to keep track of studies I'm doing and notes from sermons. It has helped but I'm not doing it daily. I do like having a place to record my favorite verses and just verses that I want to remember.

So being those 2 have been fun and useful I started wanting to start one for the kitchen and housekeeping so I started In The Kitchen and Around The House to keep track of projects and info about those 2 subjects. I posted my schedule on Around The House and the spring and summer projects I've been doing on In The Kitchen, also what I made for recent birthday party for daughter and picture she took of table. I only plan to post on those blogs as needed. I will probably add recipes at some point and if I get a camera pictures of projects.

These blogs are really for me. I wanted a place to keep track of things that might be boring to readers, so didn't want to put them on here. Also I liked being able to have a place for each part of my life.

So I just wanted to share the idea of doing different blogs as a way of keeping track of goals or information on different parts of your life. I don't feel I have to worry about readers although anyone can and is welcome to read them. I also don't feel I have to post on them daily. They don't take away from my main blog Foxtales because there purpose is totally different.

Linda

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