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Decorating

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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All Things Home

cleaning out the cleaning supplies

I got a jump on organizing and decided to start somewhere quick & easy – cleaning out the cleaning supplies.  (Oh, the irony of having to clean and organize your cleaning supplies!) But, I figured it would be a job that would take about 30 minutes and I would fly through it.  I don’t have to try things on or weigh the sentimental value of bottles of toilet cleaner.  Sort, consolidate, and done.  If you missed my February challenge, you can read about it HERE.) Well, it ended up taking me two hours! I knew that things were out of hand because of the crammed cabinets under each sink, in the laundry room, and the kitchen, but I didn’t know the extent of it until I spread it all out over my kitchen table.  It was way more than anyone needed for one house and there were so many products

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All Things Home

Montauk Blue Slate Tile Floors | Two Years Later

There are some projects that are completed, shared here on the blog, and then I don’t get asked about them again.  Then, there are others that surface over and over.  The Montauk blue slate tile floors were installed in our foyer are one of those projects.  I receive a few inquiries about them each month, usually from people who found my photos in a Google search or on Pinterest.  They want to know how the floor has held up as well as what sealer we used and how I keep it clean. Now that we’ve lived with the floors for over two years, I thought I would write a blog post to put all of these answers in one place and provide a review for others who are considering slate floors for their home. As a reminder, this is how the foyer looked before we replaced the tile and painted

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a slice of life

February 2021 Organizing & No Spend Challenge

I know I’m not the only one who felt like things got a little out of control in 2020.  Not only did we have the big, global things going on, but I had a lot of significant events happen in my business…selling a part of my business and writing a book to name the two biggies.  When big, overwhelming things are happening, I find that I start to slip in the little day-to-day things.  I’m not quite as on top of daily habits that keep the house organized.  I’ve tackled a few organizing projects over the year, but small things like getting rid of the boys’ shoes they outgrew or cleaning out a linen closet, or purging the freezer start to feel simultaneously too small and too big to worry about. But I’m feeling ready to deal with all of the things that have been forgotten and neglected.  I’m ready

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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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