Andy, Get Your Gun

The yellow-topped bottles are the best but
are also the trouble makers

I'm in love with a tall spray bottle. Pretty sick, I suppose, even for a cleaning freak. Before we judge, however, remember all the spray bottles we've used that spit, dribbled, and squirted, then went limp on the squeeze when you needed them most.  This industrial strength bottle creates a huge, perfectly fine mist when needed or can produce a stream that shoots four feet.  I love tools that work.  I love the way this basic helper functions.

Towel bar installed

There's often a catch or a small flaw, so here it is. The bottles are too tall to sit on the shelf with the cleaning supplies.  I've perched them directly under the cupboard (remember the idea of storing like things together) on the back of the wash machine. Talk about an unruly gang of helpers. These guys cannot adjust to the sloped surface and tend to tip every which way.  My confined wrist was ready to have me put "duke it out with them and win" on the Things I get to do today.

Ducks in a row

First, the old towel bar from the recycling collection was measured and found to fit, just barely. Next out came the first tool that was my very own--the cordless drill. A week ago I could not hold or tighten the bit or use this tool. But today the wrist is healed enough to accomplish all of these with ease.  I've got my gun!

And now the part of me that glows when things are organized is beaming with delight.  This gun slinger has the whole bunch of reprobates lined up in cooperation.

Andy's Gun

Librarian's Dream

I get to organize all these headings and
started with "needles and hooks"

Heaven is organized.  I know that.  Give me a pile of widgets, just any kind, and my first urge is to sort them and put everything in order.  So when the sorting of Karen's knitting realm brought forth a huge bag of every sort of knitting needle and I took home my 1/3 of the stash,  I could feel the confusion settling into the needle cupboard--not heavenly.

I joined Ravelry (www.ravelry.com) over a year ago, entered my name and looked at a few patterns.  That was it.  Asta, who introduced me to "frogging," also took me by the knitting hand on Monday and gave me a helpful tour of Ravelry.  Last night I overdosed/blissed by organizing my new inventory of knitting needles.

My collection of knitting needles: at least 30 of them from Karen

Charts, squares, numbers, descriptions, categories, those all sing sweetly to my organized side.  Even though it was getting way past my bedtime, I carried on with this most delicious of Things I get to do today until all the needles, short, long, circular, double pointed, fat and skinny were cataloged into their appropriate chart home.  I slept with finely organized dreams.

I Love That Store

Many square feet empty

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."  Bob Dylan said that.  In other words, some things are obvious.  My closet, not even slightly related to Bob Dylan, would say, "You don't need an interior designer to know this is wasted space."


Several weeks ago creativity got the best of me and began plotting to add shelves to this vast opportunity in my closet.  I measured, planned and bought the shelf.

Long bolt for a shelf support
Very strange nuts for spacers

Enthusiasm does not take the place of reading the labels on products, however.  The long shelf board was cut to lengths and the wall support installed.  When I tested the board against the wall, it was way short of reaching the front support.  I remembered the distance from wall to support being 12 inches.  I remember buying what I thought was a 12" wide shelf.  Sad truth was I needed a shelf 12 1/2" wide and the board was really only 11 1/2" wide.  One whole inch short of the front support won't work.  Shelves don't float on air.

Perfect, white-capped bolts to hold
the shelf

I headed out to the garage with an open mind and began to rummage through a bin of odd bolts and connectors.  That's when I fell in love with my favorite store all over again.  There in a bag with random pieces from past furniture construction was just what I needed: four long bolts, prefinished with white heads and some very odd nuts that would act like spacers to hold the shelf one inch back and tight to the wall.  WOW!  How does that happen?

Waste no more!

The end results are thrilling.  A great idea had slipped and fallen into all the wrong spaces and places and then came back looking like a champ.  Lessons from the Things I get to do today are write down the measurements, take a measuring tape to the store, measure the boards to confirm.  And I've fallen in love all over again with my favorite store, the place that provided the assemble-yourself furniture with options and extra parts for me to find and use for this project.

Commit to a Corner

Every time I pass it, there is guilt.  You probably have one, too--a little corner that has an odd collection of stuff that needs to be sorted through, put away or cleaned up.

Chicken stuff landing

Since it's a small area, it's not top priority--but every time you pass it, it sucks some of your energy. Mine is next to the utility sink in the pantry.  I stop there when I come in from the chicken coop. Chicken stuff that is not allowed in the kitchen roosts here. And since I wash my hands here when I come in, stuff is set down with a promise for later.  And later it has become.  Taking just a minute to clean it up feels terrific.  Tiny bit of effort. Big payoff.  Cuts the draining guilt pipeline.




So I've decided that about once a week the Things I get to do today will include "commit to a corner" somewhere that needs my attention.  Once a week is enough is ease the guilt and help me keep ahead of the stuff.  It can even be the same corner.

Like Things Together

I made a promise to the garage work bench.  Back on that day (10/16/11) when I wandered around the house "purposing," the garage was second in line for some serious organization time. I'd already purchased three drawer/bins from my favorite store that would help get a grip on the clutter that always follows not having a place to put things away.

Clutter on the front edge of the shelves piled several layers deep
makes it impossible to see what's behind or under the stuff.

Obviously, if there isn't a place to put something away, we can't just stand in the garage and hold it.  We set it down just to get on with life.  Pretty soon the "just set it down" pile gets in the way of progress.  That's why I made that purposing promise, and fulfilling that promise is tops of the Things I get to do today.

Same view with trouble on the work bench as well--note boxes of
screws piled next to the work bench angel.  

What I really wanted to do today was make the tall gates for the hen pen.  But life (clutter) was in the way.  First things first. *

Space to work as well as clear, clean access to the banks of
organizers in the cabinets.

Wisely when the table saw was out the other day, I made the track/rails for the bins that would find a place under the cupboard.  So today in a few minutes the rails were installed and the bins were fitted in.  Now the fun part began--getting to haul all the piles from the "just set it down" places, sort it out, find a place for it or throw it out.  Plenty went into the trash.

Drawer/bins installed under the cabinet.  Boxes of screws
fill one of the drawers, sandpaper another and all the
miscellaneous items were placed in compartments in the third.

Two of the most helpful tips in getting organized:  Store like things together and store items where they are used.  If the area is just chaos, an excellent approach is to remove everything from the storage space.  Then put back only what you want to have there.  Put everything else in a box to sort: keep, donate or trash.





*The gates were made with amazing ease once all the obstacles were removed.  A sparkling clean area to work in makes any task easier.