Moving Sites

With my changing organizational needs I have moved to a new site
click here to go there http://www.everyneedfulthingplusalittlemore.weebly.com/

Thanks for reading!

Battle of The Spice Cabinet Begins

Organizing my spice cabinet has been a big weight on my mind.  It really needs to be done and I really want it to be done.  Now how to do it.
I have read books, looked at other's blogs and asked other people how they solve this problem.  And there are tons of great ideas out there.
Just look at my mother's spice drawer (she really loves to cook and explore new recipes and she uses them all)

Just guess how many spices there are.  No cheating.  Well if you guessed 120 you would be pretty close.  What I like about her drawer is that she didn't need special bottles or gadgets.  All she needed was yellow dot stickers that fit on the lids where she wrote the name of the spice and she can easily find what ever she needs.  

I have decided to break what seems like an unobtainable goal into smaller bite size pieces.

The first bite that I am going to swallow is the spice cabinet overflow.  See my cabinet is so full that I often leave the items that I use the most in cooking on the counter so my door will shut easier.  The only problem with leaving them on the counter I find when I leave something out it is so easy to leave something else out as well and it seems to multiply.  It also make cleaning that much harder.

 I figure that five little items should be conquerable.  So I went to IKEA and purchased a small towel rack and a hanging basket and hooks.  I thought I could also help out my cooking tool drawer a little by hanging up some of the bigger utensils.

 If you are thinking that I should have shown you step by step how I put this up you are right but I was so excited about it and it went up so quick that before I knew it, it was done.

It hangs just above my stove so I have easy access.  It really has been nice to not have to open the cabinet door every few minutes while I am cooking.

Voila! 

My project is complete!  With that bite down I am ready to go to the next one.

Here are some of the comments I got from this project.

"Mom, no way that is so cool"

"I love it, it looks great"

"You went to IKEA without visiting me"

And the best is from my husband.  

"I thought you didn't like to hang things on the wall"  

(You can't please everyone)

Just watch out spices you are next!  (when I say next I don't mean tomorrow I mean sometime soon)

Happy Organizing

Bread Pudding

One thing that I have wanted to organize for a long time is my recipe collection.  I collect recipes from all over.  If I am getting the recipe from family or friend I usually just grab the first piece of paper I can find and write it down.  Then I stick it in a three ring binder and call it good.  That has worked great for me.  But I have always thought it would be good to put them in order and make them look good.  That way when people ask me for the recipe I can just copy it off or e-mail it to them saving us both the time and effort of re-writing it.
This is what my recipe looks like now but not for long.

Start by breaking 6 pieces of bread into small pieces.  You really can use any bread.  One of my favorites is Texas Toast I only use 4 slices of it.
Here I am using leftover ends to baguettes we used for brochette at my daughter's wedding reception.

Next you mix up the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. OK I forgot the sugar in the picture but it is still important.

Then you pour the mixture over the bread.  Using a fork to push the bread down and allowing it to soak up the egg mixture.  I have doubled to recipe to use a 9 x 13 pyrex.

You bake it at 350 for 45 min.

It is best served warm.  I like to top it with heavy cream.  To make it extra special you can also top it with a caramel sauce and candied pecans.
Here I just used the cream and it was delicious!

This truly makes for a quick and easy dessert.  I have also served it at a brunch.  Whenever I serve if for company they always ask for the recipe.

Printable recipe:  https://sites.google.com/site/entpalmprintablerecipes/bread-pudding

Bread Pudding

6 pieces of white bread                         

2 cups milk

4 eggs

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

Spray a 9x9 pan. 

Break the bread into small pieces and put into the pan.

Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour it over the bread pushing the bread down with a fork to soak up the egg mixture.

Bake at 350 for 45 min.

Serve warm topped with Heavy Cream

To make it extra special you can top it with a caramel sauce and candied pecans and then the cream.

Easy Caramel Sauce

One can sweetened condensed milk.

Remove label and submerge can in a pan of water.

Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

You may need to add more water during the 2 hours so keep an eye on it.

Remove can from water, open and enjoy.

From Every Needful Thing Plus A Little More's recipe box



Congratulations to Sara Palmer for winning our Giveaway

Giveaway and Report Time

Anyone who is anyone knows that a successful blog has Giveaways.  And since I have been blogging now for over three weeks I feel successful so hence a giveaway.  I have known that I wanted to do a giveaway for awhile now so I have been searching for the right one.  At first I thought I would giveaway the containers I used for the jewelry drawer organizing, but I realized that everyone has different needs and my solution might not transfer well to meet your needs.  Then I thought I would make another wrapping paper station and give that away.  I have to tell you that as much as I love you I wasn't ready to do that again.  The whole idea here is to give you ideas and encouragement  to help you think outside the box and to come up with solutions that work for you not for me to push my solutions onto you.  So as I was shopping for (you guessed it) organizational items I came across this.

"Halloween" by Matthew Mead is a fun book with ideas that will help you organize your Halloween parties. To enter into a drawing for this book you just need to tell me what you organized this week or your favorite Halloween tradition.

Now it is time to report on how things are going with my past projects.  I am going to be totally honest here.  I even went on a surprise visit so there was no time to fix or clean up anything before.  That's right, if you had totally stopped by unexpected and come into my house and opened these drawers and cupboards this is what you would find.

Junk Drawer

I now have more scissors than before. I guess knowing where they go makes a difference.  I added electrical tape and my husband ran off with my box of tacks but other than that not much has changed in two weeks.  I am pleased.

Kitchen Drawer

I never found any containers that I liked better than what I already had so I just left them but getting rid of all the things I didn't really need has helped a lot.  My husband thanked me one day out of the blue for getting rid of the old cooking tools.

Wrapping Paper Station

Last night I had to wrap four presents for my grandson's birthday.  What joy.  I had them wrapped in no time and they were some of the cutest wrapping jobs I have done in a long time.  I didn't realize how hard my old system was.  I hate to admit it but sometimes I would just leave the gift in the bag I bought it in because it was too hard to wrap.  You may notice that I have two more rolls of paper.  I bought the grey poke-a-dot at TJMaxx to go with the grey tulle left over from Brittany's wedding and I made sure the paper I found at All a Dollar for baby Josh's birthday matched the beige tulle.  Knowing what ribbon I had to work with made a difference in the paper I chose.  I truly felt organized.  And it was fun to wrap the presents.  So here you caught me.  In my rush to wrap and go to the party I didn't put the white curly ribbon away.  I told you this was unedited.  It is an easy fix but shows were I need to improve.  PUT THINGS AWAY RIGHT AFTER YOU USE THEM!  Lesson learned.

I was going to show you my Jewelry Drawer as well but my husband is still asleep and I don't want to wake him.  No he isn't lazy it is just 5:00 am.  Some people do sleep normal hours.  But the drawer is just the same.  I do need to report that I am wearing jewelry that I had forgotten that I even had.  And it is so easy to find what I want that I want to burst with joy each time I go to get my ear-rings.

Good luck on the giveaway!  I can't wait to hear from you.
PS  The drawing for the book will be Monday September 16th at 12:00 pm so don't procrastinate you entry.  

Bathroom Sink Cabinet

In our now to be guest bathroom the cabinet under the sink has been a kind of black hole.  It is very deep and will hold a lot of stuff and who knows what is down there?  OK, I had a general idea of what had been stashed there but it is time to "de-clutter and organize"(those are my new catch phrases like divide and conquer).

First step empty the cupboard. Second throw away or give away anything I no longer need or want. Third bring order to what is left.

Since I would like to spend as little as possible on this project, especially since I am not 100% sure of what I want stored here, I decided I would go the cardboard box route.  That way I could play around with the shape and size I would like to use and if it didn't work I wouldn't mind getting rid of them.  There are a lot of great organizational tools and containers out there but I don't want to invest in them until I know what will work.  Once I know what I want where and how I want it I can then get sturdier or cuter containers to hold them but until then I will still be organized.

It is amazing how you see things and find things when you are paying attention.  Kind of like if you buy a new car you all the sudden see that car everywhere when before you never noticed it.  Well I was at Costco and all of a sudden I saw great boxes everywhere.  I found this Canola Oil box and thought It might be just the right size for this project. (The cashier must have thought I was crazy walking out with four of these boxes and I didn't want my groceries put into them)

I cut them down. I found that using a serrated knife is the best when cutting card board boxes.

Next step was to take them outside to spray paint.  I used spray paint we had around the house and played around with the different colors we had, This is only the first coat they look better after the second one and the white box got a green coat after all.

I had two great little helpers

The boxes fit my deep shelves perfectly and I was able to organize my stuff easily.  I am so glad I tried these boxes.  One because they didn't cost me anything (to buy bins that would fit my shelves it would have cost me at least $50 most likely more).  Two  I can see what I have easily and because they go all the way to the back of the shelf I can pull out the box and see what is there. (no more black hole)
Three I can change things around with out feeling like I wasted money on containers that I don't need anymore.  These boxes really can work well.  The Shampoo and Conditioner box and the one next to it without a label are boxes I cut to use about five years ago (see I have been trying to organize for a long time.  I just need to redo it)

By clearing out the clutter and getting things in order I feel like I am now capable to start decorating and improving the looks of things around my house.

The Pinball Effect or Organizing Your Organization

You ask what is the Pinball effect?  Just like a pinball that is bouncing all around from side to side - up and down- and tossed to and fro by levers thrown in it's way.

I have, in my excitment to get organized, been doing just that.  I know what you are saying and you are right! (my husband loves it when I say that)  I will just have to Organize my Organization.

When I went to take pictures of the areas I had messed up in the name of organization.  I found there were only three areas.

A Hallway I had started to put things in so I could begin organizing my storage room and new playroom

A bathroom were I had emptied all the cupboards and drawers so I could de-clutter and re-organize.  I started this room because I was cleaning it and I just had to dig in

 And a basket I had been storing school supplies in. Definitely a future post.  I started on this basket because it was 4:00 in the morning ( I do that sometimes) and I had to think of something quiet to do.

I also was in the middle of canning pears

You have to admit they look great!  And they do taste delicious.

Well the effect of all these projects going on simultaneously was the pinball effect in my head.  No lie.  Just thinking about it makes my head start to hurt and my heart start to race and chaos is starting to take over.  See it isn't just those three areas.  I have a lot more areas in my head that I am excited about getting organized.

So I need to organize my organization.
I will start by making a list of all the projects I would like to do and putting the list in a place that I can add to it easily while I am cleaning the house or just daydreaming about how I want things to be etc. (My husband would also like to add to this list)
Next I will prioritize my projects according to greatest impact, ease, and financially do-ability (I do need to stay within my budget, right?)

I share this with you so you too will think of a good way to organize your organization and can avoid having the pinball effect take over you life.

PS.  I would like to thank all of my supporters.  My daughters: Sara for her excitement to get organized herself.  Brittany for her encouraging words.  Lindsay for keeping me on track.  Bethany for staggering backwards.  My sons Noah for giving up computer time, William for being in England.  My son-in -laws: Robert Palmer for being my number one fan (Trust me he knows how to be a fan), Nate, Matt and Neil (Robert as well) for making my daughters happy and helping in the yard. And most of all David my dear husband for editing and encouraging.  (I told you Robert that I would get your name in somehow)

Wrapping Paper

So this is the moment that you have been waiting for (OK, I have been waiting for).  I have finished my first DIY project.  My son now occupies the bedroom were my wrapping paper has been stored in two under-the-bed storage boxes.  I really don't think he wants to store them for me.  As I was looking at some of my favorite blogs, I saw on http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com a great wrapping paper organization system.  After reading the blog I went to the link on the website to "The Container Store" where they sell this great system.  I loved it!  But on sale the system was $75.00  Aah!  If I have to spend that much for every project I do it will take me 20 years (I like to exaggerate) to get through my house.  I needed to come up with a cheaper solution.  Looking at more sites I saw several wrapping paper stations with tons of great ideas.  Each station I saw had their own little twist that met each person's different needs. I now had enough ideas to come up with my own solution.

This is a picture of my wrapping paper, gift bags and ribbons. Looking at it you know what the first thing I need to do is.  That's right.  DE-CLUTTER. 

I took this picture to show you my collection of recycled ribbon.  It usually is arranged a little neater but I had already thrown it all away and had to dump it back into the box to show you how courageous I am being.  De-cluttering takes a lot of courage for me.

While I was going through the ribbon and trying to decide whether to keep the ribbon or not I found one that was held together by an elastic in back making it a perfect head band for me.  I enjoyed wearing it the rest of the day.

I knew I wanted to make my wrapping paper station hang on the back of a closet door so when I saw these over the door hooks in the clearance aisle at TJMaxx I grabbed it.

Trying to figure out how I was going to design my station I played around with my gift bags and hung them on the hooks by size (more or less).

So I think I have too many bags and may want to give some away.  

Now that I could see what I had left I came up with a plan for my station.  Since my goal was to spend as little as possible to make this work I went shopping around the house and yard.  My husband had some wood slats that he had used last year to make tomato cages.  These would work perfectly to make the shelves I wanted to put on the frame I made using a 1x2 piece of pine purchased from Home Depot.

I then measured and cut the slats for three shelves.  One for wrapping paper rolls and two for ribbon and all the other accessories.

After hammering the slats into shelves and nailing the shelves to the frame I had all that I needed to organize.

Here is my finished project!  

Much better than the two boxes under the bed!

The chain that I used to hang the frame to the hooks was an old chain left over from some hanging baskets we had used in the yard, making the final cost for me to make this wrapping paper station  $7.50.  The over the door hooks cost $5, the 1x2 pine board used for the frame cost $1.25 and a small dowel used to hold the tissue paper was another $1.25 Not too bad!  OK I lie.  I forgot the paint primer I used that cost $2.99  add a little for tax and the grand total is $11.

.

The Ribbon shelves have room to add more supplies such as tags and cards.

Organizing the bags according to similar colors made the bags look so much more organized than in the picture before

 Putting the larger gift bags and gift boxes on the bottom shelf also make for a neater look.
 As you can see I don't have too many rolls of wrapping paper but now that I have a place to put them where they won't get smushed (not really a word) and destroyed I am sure I will be acquiring some more. 

With small cup holder hooks screwed into the front I was able to put a wooden dowel to hold tissue paper.  Yes my tissue paper is mostly recycled tissue paper from gifts given to my family.   I used to feel a little embarrassed about that but now I just say that I am going green.

Thanks for your patience waiting for this post.  It would have taken even longer to finish but my husband said that "you just don't paint crates" (which is kind of the look that inspired this station).  "It is best to go for the natural look".  Since I was so excited to finish this project and show it to you I agreed.
I would love to hear any creative ideas you have for storing your wrapping paper.

Organizing Rocks

Yes that is right!  Rocks can and need be organized.
I have been working on a project to share with you but it is taking longer than expected so I thought I would buy a little more time by sharing my favorite project of the summer.
We live on an old creek bed so if we do any digging or planting we run in to rocks.  Lots and lots of rocks.  Well we wanted a trampoline that was in the ground.  That meant lots of digging and lots of rocks.  I wish I had a picture of the big pile of rocks that we had so you could see what I mean.  Anyway to get to the point while we were watching HGTV they did a show with "Gabion Baskets".  These are wire baskets that you can put all kinds of things in but mostly people use them to organize their rocks.  They make tables, walls, benches, planter boxes and many other creative things.  I loved them and knew the "Gabion Baskets" were going to be the answer to my rock problem.

You can order these baskets online but we made our own with wire we bought at Home Depot.

The baskets can be made any size you want.

We plan on topping the baskets with cedar planks to make benches and side tables.

Don't you just love them?  Rocks no longer are the bain of my existence.  When I am back by my rock walls I feel as though I am in the canyons and I love it.  Who knew organizing rocks could be so rewarding and fun?

Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinner at our house usually means lots of food and lots of noise.  But most of all it means lots of love.  Sunday dinner can be a good place to get organized.  A simple organizational tool can be implemented here to answer questions such as "What should I bring".  The tool that I am going to show you is one that my own mother used successfully for many years while I was growing up.
You start by making two circles.  One larger than the other.  Card stock or poster board work great.

Next divide the circle by the number of people you want to participate in helping to make your Sunday meal.
Write their names on the smaller wheel and then on the larger wheel create the different components to your meal such as Salad, Vegetables etc. (So if you look at the wheel closely you will see that I spelled vegetables "vegitables".  That is what you get when you write vegi's to many times and get up at 4:00 am to post this blog.  I thought about fixing it and I will. I don't want anyone to learn how to spell incorrectly from me but I also don't want to have to retake the pictures.)  

 Next put the smaller circle or wheel on the larger one.  Then you put a grommet in the middle of the two circles to hold it together and to allow the circles to turn separately.

 Notice how Lindsay is in charge of Salad one week and then the next she is in charge of Vegetables.

This system is easy to make and to implement.  For years I thought my mother wanted to teach us cooking skills by assigning us the different elements of the meal.  Later she told us that she created the system to keep us busy so we wouldn't argue and spoil the atmosphere of the day.  Organization can bring peace in many ways.