Organizing Your Living Room or Family Room

Hello and welcome to another Thursday post! Time for more organizing....

If you are just joining us, we have been getting organized using Jennifer Ford Berry's Organize Now book.

It has some great info and tips on organizing various parts of our life and home. You can see past posts here:

Week 1 about Organizing Your Mind and Life Vision HERE,

Week 2 about Organizing Your Priorities HERE,

Week 3 about Organizing Your Schedule HERE

Week 4 about Organizing Your Cleaning Schedule HERE.

Week 5 about Organizing Your Personal Information HERE. 

Week 6 about Organizing Your Finances HERE. 

      Week 7 about Organizing Your Bill-paying System HERE.

        Week 8 about Organizing Your Receipts and Taxes HERE. 

Week 9 about Organizing Your Files HERE

                               Week 10 about Organizing your Magazines and Newspapers HERE.
                                               Week 11 about Organizing Your Email HERE
                                                Week 12 about Organizing Your Mail HERE
                                         Week 13 about Organizing Your Child's Toys HERE.

Week 14 about Organizing Your Crafts HERE.

Week 15 about Organizing Your Photographs HERE.

Week 16 about Organizing Your Purse or Wallet HERE. 

 Week 17 about Organizing Your Vehicle HERE.

                                                  Week 18 about Organizing Your Pet HERE.

Week 19 about Organizing Your Books, CDs and DVDs HERE.

Week 20 about Organizing Your Entryway or Mudroom HERE.

Last week we started a new section: organizing the high-traffic areas. Today we are continuing that in our living room or family room.

This is definitely a high-traffic area in my house. We spend a lot of time in this room. Jennifer talks about determining the function of the room for you. There is no wrong answer here. For my family, this room is a place to relax, watch TV, read and play. My husband and I often pray together, read together and talk here in the evenings once the kids are asleep. I also use it for exercise if I am using a video and I hold my Shaklee meetings and functions here. So for me, this room serves many purposes! What purpose does yours serve for you?

This Week's Goals:

1. Take out all items that do not belong in this room and put those items away. Jennifer suggests "zoning" the room. For example, put books in one zone, toys in another, movies in another, etc. Each zone should have a place for these items to go such as a drawer, shelf, built-in storage in a piece of furniture, etc.

2. Go through all drawers and cabinets and get rid of things that don't belong there. It is so easy to put something into a drawer and forget about it, isn't it? At least it is for me. Out of sight out of mind.

I went through the two drawers in our TV stand this week and was surprised at some of the items I found! There was old coupons, one of my son's art projects and a directory of the area that our realtor gave us when we moved in four years ago!! I put many things into the recycle bin, threw some other things away and sorted and put away the other things that did not belong there. I also found a few things for the garage sale box. Here is the before picture:

And here is the after. 

I do keep my cook books here because it is the closest place to the kitchen I have to store them. We don't have many movies but the ones that we do have go here too.

3. De-clutter the coffee table and end tables and mantel if you have one. Jennifer suggests getting tables with drawers if possible. It isn't a problem keeping these clear if you have small kids. lol. We don't even usually put our coffee table out right now because it just gets in the way of little ones playing and too many bumps on the head occur when it's there. 

4. Less is more. De-clutter old knick-knacks and fake house plants. Dust them off and only keep what you really enjoy. Also de-clutter your walls. Only keep what you love. If you have many things here, consider rotating them once in awhile. Jennifer also suggests making a wall of pictures to free up space on your entertainment stand, tables and mantel. I love this idea and am working on it in my home.

5. Replace lampshades if they are dirty or mismatched. We have had two of these lamps for a very long time. 

I have been looking for something to replace them but hadn't found anything I liked. So I decided to spray paint them bronze to match our living room better. 

The old lampshade no longer worked so I got two inexpensive ones from Walmart that matched better. I think it improved the look drastically and did not cost much! What do you think? 

 While I was at it, I decided to do the same to the lamp on my nightstand in our master bedroom. 

What do you think? I really like how it looks and it works so well with our bedroom furniture.

The old lampshade which is now in our garage sale box.

Tips:

Crafty? Consider keeping your working projects in a basket or storage container so it doesn't take over the room.

Have a small space? Don't put too much furniture in it. It will make the room look bigger and shows better if you plan to sell in the future.

I thought I would share a few before and after pictures of my living room. The before is after the kids got in there and tore it up with their toys. It pretty much looks like this daily after they have played there. :) 

And here is the after. I kept a small zone for toys but pretty much cleared all of the extras out and put them in a better place. We will still keep the coffee table out of the center of the room while the kids are small but will use it when we have guests.

That does it for another organizing post. How is it going for you? What tips can you share to improve the look and function of your family room? I would love to hear from you.

Remember that today is the LAST DAY to take advantage of the free membership with any order through Shaklee, the #1 natural nutrition company in the US!! I am so excited for many of you who took advantage of this already. For the rest of you who are interested in health, nutrition and green cleaning products for you and your family, you can look at the online product guide HERE and you will receive a free lifetime membership with any order through today! Members always save at least 15% on all products. Good stuff!  

I will be posting an additional one day special on my business facebook page today too. Check it out!

Shaklee's green cleaning products were featured on Oprah a few years back. you can see a clip of that here.

  

Thanks for reading! Have a terrific day!

Rebecca 

Memorial Day - A Day of Reflecting

What are your plans for Memorial Day? It is a wonderful time to reflect and spend time with family. Taking time to remember and pray for all of the service men and women who have, and continue to fight for our freedom is important. 

Enjoy your day and thank you to all of the military folks for doing what you do so well!

Rebecca

A Healthier Take on Brownies!

I LOVE sweets! I really do. It's always a struggle for me not eat too much. So when I came across this yummy brownie recipe in

 Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious book I knew I had to try it. (You can find a few others from this book if you click the recipe tab on the right side of my blog)

 

I made the brownies recently for a women's health event that I hosted and they were a big hit. Dark chocolate has a lot of antioxidants in it, so I thought it was the perfect choice to share with my girl friends. :)

So what makes them healthier, you may ask??

There are a couple of secret ingredients......

And...

That's right - Spinach and Carrots! And honestly, you could not tell that they were in there at all.

Jessica's book is all about adding in pureed fruits and veggies so your kiddos (and other picky eaters in your life) will get some good stuff in their food. I have used different recipes from this book and my family has always enjoyed them.

The recipe called for a 1/2 cup of each vegetable puree. I use my mini food processor that I used to use when I pureed baby food. It works really well for this. Be sure to cook or steam your veggies first, cut them up and add a little water if necessary.

Other ingredients included 3 oz of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. (Dark chocolate is a healthier choice.) It also had unsweetened cocoa powder.

They tasted pretty good for being a healthy option! My sweet tooth was satisfied:) And I loved that they were loaded with antioxidants for eye health from the veggies and also had some good fiber and were low in calories and saturated fat. Perhaps a good option for your holiday weekend festivities. Feel free to contact me for the full recipe.

Thanks for reading! Have a healthy and safe Memorial Weekend!

And remember that there is less then a week left to take advantage of Shaklee's free membership promotion with any product order! (19.95 value) You can click HERE for more info about Shaklee or feel free to contact me.

Rebecca

Organizing Your Entryway or Mudroom

Happy Thursday! Time for more organizing....

If you are just joining us, we have been getting organized using Jennifer Ford Berry's Organize Now book.

It has some great info and tips on organizing various parts of our life and home. You can see past posts here:

Week 1 about Organizing Your Mind and Life Vision HERE,

Week 2 about Organizing Your Priorities HERE,

Week 3 about Organizing Your Schedule HERE

Week 4 about Organizing Your Cleaning Schedule HERE.

Week 5 about Organizing Your Personal Information HERE. 

Week 6 about Organizing Your Finances HERE. 

      Week 7 about Organizing Your Bill-paying System HERE.

        Week 8 about Organizing Your Receipts and Taxes HERE. 

Week 9 about Organizing Your Files HERE

                               Week 10 about Organizing your Magazines and Newspapers HERE.
                                               Week 11 about Organizing Your Email HERE
                                                Week 12 about Organizing Your Mail HERE
                                         Week 13 about Organizing Your Child's Toys HERE.

Week 14 about Organizing Your Crafts HERE.

Week 15 about Organizing Your Photographs HERE.

Week 16 about Organizing Your Purse or Wallet HERE. 

 Week 17 about Organizing Your Vehicle HERE.

                                                  Week 18 about Organizing Your Pet HERE.

Week 19 about Organizing Your Books, CDs and DVDs HERE.

We have made it to a new section of the book: Organizing Your High-Traffic Areas! I have been excited and also nervous about this section for awhile. I really want to get some of these areas more organized in my home. 

This week we are organizing our entryway or mudroom. This isn't the formal entryway that always seems to stay clutter-free. This is the main entryway to your house. For me, it is the entrance off of the garage. For you, maybe it is a mudroom. It is a high-traffic area, and one that always seems to get cluttered with shoes, jackets, backpacks, hats etc. And it is also an area that needs more regular cleaning attention. This is what most people see when they visit.

Here are some before pictures of my entryway!

My husband hung these hooks last year, which have really helped a lot! And I love how they look. Although you can't see them when they are covered in coats! I like having two rows so we have more room and also so the kids can reach their hooks.

 After you enter from the garage, you are right in the kitchen. This is the first thing we see. It is so easy to clutter up the chairs and the island. Does this happen to you too?

I think that having a place to put your keys is crucial to staying organized. I still have a way of losing mine from time to time though. lol. But having a hook by the door saves me time on most days. We got this in California. I think it may be due for replacing as it has been knocked off of the wall more then once. :)

And here are some after pictures.

I cleared out all of the winter coats, hats, etc that we don't need right now, and put them into an upstairs closet. And now you can actually see some of the hooks that I love so much:)

I also cleared out a lot of the shoes and put them into a bin in our downstairs closet. Boots went to upstairs closets.

Here is the after picture of what you now see (on most days - lol) of our kitchen entryway. Much better, isn't it? We are just trying to get into better habits of putting things in their place right away. A work in progress!

 Jennifer also talks about organizing the closet that is near your entryway. This one always tends to clutter up too, doesn't it? We only have one closet in our downstairs area, and no basement, so it tends to fill up fast! Here are some before pics.

You can see that we had WAY too much stuff in there. It is supposed to be a walk-in closet! lol My music therapy stuff is right in front, which makes it easy for me to access on days that I work, but harder to access the rest of the closet every on other days.

My husband put these bins together last year after reading the Organize Now book for the first time. We have some CDs that I use in my Music & Me classes in one, and hats, mittens, scarves, etc in the others. At least there was a little order in the closet! lol

We also hung these hooks last year.

And here are a few after pictures of the closet. I took everything out and put many things that we were not using like winter coats, snow pants, boots, etc. into the upstairs closets and storage bins. I also put a ton of things into our ongoing garage sale pile that we will either sell or donate. Feels great to purge!

 The hooks are great for my grocery bags, purse and umbrella.

That may have seemed like a lot, but it really did not take me more then an afternoon to do. And it was fun! Getting organized is freeing! And addicting. Once you get going, you get on a roll and wonder, what's next? So trust me, if I can do it, then I know you can too!!

This Week's Goals:

 1. Sort out everything that does not belong in your entryway or closet. Group it by family member and put away. (or have them do it if they are old enough to)


2. Wash rugs or replace them. I washed ours and was amazed at what a difference it made. This rug gets so dirty so fast.  Here is a before picture. 

Here it is after I washed it! What a difference! It looks brand new again!

I used some of my favorite earth-friendly cleaners to make it look like new. First I sprayed the stains with my Basic H2 organic spray (16 oz of water to 1.5 tsp of Basic H2)


Then I washed it on a regular cycle with the Fresh Laundry Liquid Concentrate along with a scoop of Nature Bright (awesome and safe alternative to bleach). What do you think?


I also used the Basic H2 spray (this time 16 oz of water to 1/4 tsp. of Basic H2) to clean the bottom of the doorway. Boy, does that ever get dirty fast!! Ick! You can see the difference it made in the after picture.




3. Jennifer suggests keeping a wicker basket by the door for shoes. We don't have the space for that, which is why we keep ours in a clear storage bin in the closet. I know some people who use a nice wooden box or bench, which could also serve the purpose as a place to sit to put on shoes.


4. Put non-clothing items in the closet. Take everything that does not belong in the closet or that you are not using and store it in the appropriate place. Or get rid of it!

5. Put hooks or cubbies in for each family member's coats, backpacks, hats etc. Teach them to use this space to hang things up. You can label the area with each person's name if you choose to.


6. Keep a bin in your closet, if you have space, for things to donate or sell. Add to it regularly and periodically donate or sell the items in it. Coming from a reformed packrat  - This Feels Great!!!


Tips:

Jennifer says that corners are the most underused areas of rooms. If you have a corner of your mudroom that is not being used, find a creative way to use it!

Well, there you have it! Another week of organizing done. If you have felt like you are not keeping up with the posts, today is a great time to get back on board with our new section. Feel free to comment on how it's been going - good or not so good. I am sure other readers would appreciate it and could benefit from it. And we can all support each other's efforts.

Next week we will work on the living or family room.


And remember that there is still time (through May 31, 2012) to take advantage of Shakee's Free Membership with ANY order promotion!! (19.95 value) Shaklee's earth-friendly cleaning products and natural supplements are wonderful. You can read my Shaklee story and why I love the products so much HERE and you can learn more about the free membership promo HERE. 
 Members save at least 15% always with no annual fees or minimum purchases! So great!!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!!

Rebecca 

Women's Health Week

It's National Women's Health Week! Did you know that? I didn't until yesterday, which is why I didn't put this up earlier this week. Better late then never, though, right?

As women, we tend to try to do it all, don't we? Especially if we have kids. We are not just mom but also perhaps wife, housekeeper, teacher, nurse, chef, taxi driver, boo-boo kisser, etc. And many of us have jobs outside of the home too! Where does that leave time for us?? I know I am guilty of putting myself last more then once. But it is so important that we make our health a priority. 

I found some wonderful information on women's health through the womenshealth.gov website. I would encourage you to check it out and  will share some highlights here. I also am taking some of my information from Dr. Jaime McManus, M.D., chair of medical affairs, health sciences and education, with Shaklee. Shaklee is the #1 natural nutrition company in the US and if you have followed my blog at all, you know I LOVE my Shaklee!! :)

Preventative Screening

It is important to visit your doctor regularly. Mamograms should start at age 40 and pap smears annually. 

Get Active!

Physical activity lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, depression, arthritis and the list goes on! It is a great way to manage stress and control your weight.

Walking is a simple way to get some exercise in. I also enjoy yoga and kickboxing when I really need to de-stress! lol

Eat Healthy

I know this isn't always easy to do. At least not for me, the queen of sugar cravings! It is important though, to get our daily allowance (7-9) servings of fruits and veggies daily. A serving really isn't that big - 1/2 and apple, 1/2 cup of blueberries, etc. Try for the most fresh and whole food that you can. 

It is also important to eat whole grain food (look for 100% whole wheat and nothing enriched). Low fat dairy options are great along with fish (wild caught is best), eggs, nuts. 

Poly and Mono saturated fats are good. Limit your intake of saturated and trans fats. Those are not so good!

Also limit cholesterol, sodium and added sugar. Be sure to steer clear of artificial sweeteners, like in sugar-free items and in diet soda. Studies have been showing those linked to cancer and weight GAIN! Soda in general is not good as the carbonation has been seen to leach calcium from bone. 

Water, water, water! Always the best choice. If you aren't used to drinking water, start slowly. You may be surprised at how you begin to crave it over time and really enjoy it more then soda, juice or coffee.

 Supplement

Nowadays, we get our food from all over the world. Produce can be harvested earlier, which limits the nutrients that it provides. Even if you are eating well, chances are you may still need a good quality multivitamin to fill in the gaps in your nutrition. Not all vitamins are created equal. Some are made from synthetic ingredients that do not break down in the body. Be sure to research the one you choose. You already know that I love my Shaklee so you can guess which one my family takes. But this was after my research-scientist husband put Shaklee through the ringer and was so impressed by the science backing their products.

In addition to a multivitamin, it is important to get enough calcium and vitamin D3 for bone health. Bone loss begins at a very early age.

Women should also ensure they are getting extra vitamin C and  Vitamin E 

Omega 3 Fatty Acids (DHA, EPA) are also so important to our health in many ways. Fish and olive oil have this. But most people need to supplement as well. A good supplement will not have any contamination of lead, etc. that fish may have. And recent studies show that mother's who took a DHA supplement in pregnancy have smarter kids with better brain development!

Supplementing can also help with digestive health. Digestive health issues can lead to infertility problems. Sometimes just adding a probiotic to a women's diet can assist with pregnancy.  

Extra Tips:

Don't Smoke!! We know this leads to all sorts of health issues including cancer and heart disease.

Be sure to get enough sleep. 7-8 hours a night is ideal. It also helps with stress management.

Women's heart attack symptoms are different then men! Some include feeling anxious, shortness of breath, odd pain in the arm. Women who have a heart attack in their 40s are 8xs more likely to die from it then men! 

Be proactive about your health! Your family will thank you for it! 

I hope this information is beneficial to you. Please share with the women in your life.

How do you take care of yourself?

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend!

Rebecca