How $2.12 made my day!

Hey guys! Today I'm sharing with you two little quick solutions that I'm pretty excited about.  Yup, that's right, I spent a total of $2.12 and it totally made my day! Its amazing how the little things can make a really big difference. 

There is this one spot on my kitchen counter that just drives me crazy.  It's the spot where our bread and onions, and potatoes, and a whole other assortment of random items collect.  (This picture is a tamed down version of what it usually is.)  Most of the items have other homes but just end up collecting there, however the one thing I haven't found a home for yet were my onions.  They would wind up floating around the kitchen and they just never looked nice.  So this morning I woke up and decided I was going to do something about it.  I remembered I had bought some cute wire baskets from the dollar store before to help organize in other parts of the house and I realized one of those baskets would work perfectly for my onions.  It would keep them in a designated spot, and even though they would still be on the countertop it would look a little better than my current solution. Less mess on my counter top means more space to work with, and when you have VERY limited counter space, this feels like heaven! (ok, so maybe heaven is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea!)

Nightstands... I've never been great a keeping my nightstand looking good.  It always ends up being a collection spot for all sorts of random things. As you can see below I have an assortment of loose jewelry, hair ties and bobby pins, an eraser?!, chapstick, glasses... etc.  I had recently read here, about another bloggers solution to her closet, and realized this morning I could do something similar on my nightstand!  I found these cute little red ramekins at the dollar store, they were packaged 3 for a dollar, so I snatched them right up.  I only used two of them, one has all my loose jewelry and the other has my hair ties and bobby pins.  I  stacked them on top of one another once they were filled because lets face it, when do bobby pins and hair ties ever look attractive?

So there you have it!  I spent $2.12 and I solved two problem areas that have been bugging me for quite some time.  Hope you feel inspired to do the same!  What areas do you have that just drive you crazy?


-Monica

Want to see another one of my dollar store finds?  Check it out here.

Downloadable To-Do Lists

Are you a list person?  I sure am!  I love the feeling of checking off a completed item, it makes me feel like I've accomplished something!  Its also great motivation to get stuff done. I hate seeing those unchecked items, they just sit there glaring at me.

Anyways, recently I've come to the realization that my life was not happening exactly as I was wanting it to.  Do you ever have that? I wasn't getting nearly as much done while I was at home with Piper, and then working part time the end of the week just meant the weeks were flying by.  The house wasn't getting cleaned consistently, I wasn't planning out meals and therefore throwing things together at the last minute, and I had a head full of things that I wanted to get done but when I had free time I couldn't remember what any of those things were!  Ugh, don't you hate that?!

What did I do, you ask?  Took a trip to Staples and bought myself a binder and some other organizing goodies, and started what I'm now affectionately calling "The Hub."  I'll make sure to do a blog on this at another time but its basically a place where I keep and plan, everything that will be going on during my week:  my meal planning, my to-do lists yay!, my weekly & monthly schedule, coupons & recipes...etc, etc.

But alas, I'm not talking about all of that today, today is specifically for to-do lists, my favorite!  Matt and I have found out by trial and error that the amount of work you can do in a day increases exponentially when you have a plan as opposed to just winging it!  Now I'm sure as you're reading this it may sound like I have it all together and I'm a really organized person, but I'm not.  Just ask my husband!  I am slowly starting to get my act together though, and its making a world of difference!

So lets break it down.  I created four different lists:

-Dream Big: This is for bigger purchases that Matt and I have agreed upon that will be made in the future.  This works in line with our budget.  If we have left over money at the end of the month we check this list and see if there is enough to buy and of these items. At least theoretically that is how it will work.  Since we are paying off debt at the moment all extra funds are put to that.  Once our debt is done we will consider this list more often!

-Home Projects: Pretty self explanatory.  I love this list!  These projects were the primary ones that I would forget about.  This list ranges from short term to long term projects so on any given Saturday, it we have some extra time and want to tackle something, out comes the list.

-I Really Want: I don't know if you have this problem, but when I have extra money to burn it just seems to disappear out of thin air.  Then I look back and wonder where it went.  This list helps me spend my money on things I actually want and have thought about, not just whatever is right in front of my face that second.  Often times I'll look at this list and say... "oh yeah, I forgot I wanted that, it would still be really nice to have."  And then I go buy it, instead of buying another tank top or blowing it on food.

-The Weekly Grind: This is my most used list. It is my running to do list for the week.  The stuff I don't get done get's carried to the next week.  I usually try and sit down and write this list Sunday afternoons or first thing on Mondays.  It helps me stay focused for the week, and keep me from spending to much time on facebook.

3 reasons why these actually work for me: 

1. I designed them, and I like the way the look!  Which means I actually want to pull them out and look at them. What good is a making a list if you aren't going to check it twice?
2. I keep them all in the same spot and they are easily accessible, as opposed to my previous method of using scrap pieces of paper and loosing them! 
3. I don't really have a third reason, the number 3 just seemed legit.  Anyways you should give it a try.  Click on the link below and download them for yourself!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Stay classy-

Monica