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Organizing

All Things Home

Organizing Process | Qualifications for Keeping Things

As I’ve been going through my house, purging and organizing, I’ve had several people ask about my thought process for what I get rid of, what I keep, as well as how I organize it.  I feel like I’ve shared it sprinkled throughout my posts about organizing, but I thought it would be helpful to put it in one post in a more concise, organized way.  So, here we go… Do I love it? I usually start with this question because it weeds out obvious things.  If I don’t really love it, why have it in my home?   But, I have found this question alone can be problematic because it’s such a subjective judgment call.  It can easily turn into a lengthy internal debate about all of the different types of love and varying degrees.  And it’s a question that just doesn’t apply to certain things without sounding crazy…  Do

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Art Supplies

Organizing & Purging the Studio | Paints & Papers

[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text] Well, I’ve spent the better part of the last three days going through my studio with a fine-tooth comb.  I’ve organized the studio before and have cleaned out a few things, but nothing compares to the thoroughness of this most recent endeavor.  As I’ve been working in my studio over the past few months, I’ve realized that the quantity of supplies, instead of being inspiring, has been overwhelming.  It doesn’t look out-of-control because everything is in neatly labeled drawers, but it’s a lot of stuff and I realized the full extent once I started pulling it all out! Having all of this choice might seem like an artist’s dream, but I found it to be more of a hindrance.  It reminded me of when my boys were younger and, after a successful dentist visit, they were able to pick a prize out of the treasure chest.  The experience

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All Things Home

organizing the studio | sorting the yarn

After our knitting organization chat last week, I was ready to tackle my yarn stash over the weekend.  I have to say that I was dreading the process, though!  So many decisions to make and categorizing the yarn by type seemed a little overwhelming.  But, I started pulling all of the balls and skeins off of the shelf, emptied baskets and made a big mess that I would be forced to deal with.  Sometimes that’s how I have to coax myself into organizing – force the issue. Of course, the kitties loved it.  They took turns laying among the mess, finding sunny spots and loose strands of yarn to play with. The first thing I had to do was start a bag of yarns to donate.  I’ve bought a lot of yarn over the past year, mostly to test out what I like.  I also bought some yarn without any

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a slice of life

uncle George, grandpa henry & other organizing rabbit trails

It all started very innocently.  As a part of my organizing push in February, I tackled the lower right built-in in the living room.  It’s not a cabinet we’re in and out of a lot, so it’s been sorely neglected.  It houses our photo albums, boxes of photos, some family mementos, and it’s where we would drop the school photos each year.  It’s also where I would stick random decor, apparently, like the antique scale. I’ve been avoiding this cabinet because it’s such a mess, but I finally dove in.  As is the case with most messy cabinets, it looked worse than it was.  It didn’t take me long to get things sorted and labeled.  I readjusted the shelves so the photo albums could stand upright.  I sorted the remaining photos and documents into categories and put them in bins.  I also added labels to everything… Everything that is loose

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a slice of life

scanning old documents, photos, & postcards

One of the big projects I want to work on while organizing and purging is scanning antique and vintage family photos, letters, postcards, and documents.  Fortunately, I have a lot of them!  Unfortunately, that means the task is a little overwhelming and I’ve been putting off most of it for years.  So, I’m just going to chip away at it.  Here is the basket I’m currently working through, but it’s just a fraction of what needs to be sorted, scanned, and properly stored. I started by scanning the letters that are most important to me – my Opa’s letters and telegrams to his family when he was serving in WWII. I organized them and made copies once before, but now that I have a nicer scanner, I scanned them all.  I have uploaded them to a Google Drive, so I can share them with family members who are interested, but

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a slice of life

February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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February Organizing Update

Despite a busy week and feeling a little under-the-weather over the weekend, I chipped away at organizing a bit more.  I’m still avoiding the huge projects, but I’ve been trying to do something most days, even if it’s just cleaning out a part of a cabinet or one drawer or sorting one bin.  Making small strides each day will help me maintain some momentum and I know that one of these days, I’ll be ready to tackle some of the tougher areas.  I find that once I get going, I usually end up doing more than I initially planned. Here are the little areas I tackled last week and into the weekend… The junk drawer!  This drawer always ends up a bit of a mess (living up to its name) because we’re in and out of it so much.  It only took 10-15 minutes to get it cleaned and sorted,

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All Things Home

removing fuzz & fur from upholstery

One thing I get asked about with some amount of frequency is how do I deal with pet hair.  With two cats and a hairy, black dog, we do end up with a lot of fluff balls and fuzz in the house.  While my house isn’t always pristine, I do try to stay on top of basic cleaning tasks like vacuuming and dusting and that helps a lot.  But, I’ve recently tried a new tool for removing fuzz and fur from upholstery. Before I share the tool I found useful, I have tried a few of the electric pill removers for removing fuzz and fur from my upholstery and they can’t handle what my house throws at them.  They choke within about 2 minutes of pretty ineffective use.  And these are ones with good reviews, but I think my fabrics are too nubby, maybe?  I’m not sure what the problem

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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