Sometimes this lady feels like a fool

Today I was reading a post over on Freya's blog at Brit Chick Runs laughing at her funny/random searches she found in her stats, and wondering how I could view stats on MY blog. Um....how 'bout by clicking on the huge 'Stats' tab, Ms. S!! Oh dear. So now I'm wondering: is this tab new or have I really just always overlooked it? Maybe I'm actually happier not knowing the answer to that question.

Having discovered this new-to-me tab, though, I'm blown away by the page that shows me where my readers are! Ok, first of all - I have readers!!! Who knew?! I was very much under the impression that my friends and a few family members were the only ones who trekked this way. But no. From Canada, to the UK, to Demark, Germany, Austria, Latvia, China, South Korea, and South Africa! Wow!! [Side note: Latvia stands out to me because my brother in-law spent a year there as an exchange student and loved it; and I actually studied in Austria for the month of January my sophomore year in college - gorgeous!] This is one of those times where logically I tell myself that when I post something on the world wide web, it can of course be viewed world wide, but continue to pinch myself nonetheless.

It's probably a good thing I discovered this tab. Knowing there are more readers out there than I thought provides excellent motivation to update more frequently. Though it should be noted: I love comments! It's how I know you come to my space and read the words I write. I'm a friendly person, I promise, and enjoy 'meeting' new people. So don't be shy! Let me know you visited!

In other news, I've decided with this much time on my hands I should learn how to do some basic redesign for the blog. Really, I decided this yesterday and spent hours trying to download GIMP with no success because X11 isn't on our computer. And the installation disc is at home in Iowa. Download it from Apple's website, you say? Oh no! After I'd spent a good number of hours trying to get it to download properly, Husband took a stab at it with no more luck than me. *sigh* I guess I'm just going to have to wait a little bit, but I am very excited to get to work. Mostly, I have plans for the header. Maybe if that's successful I'll venture into other things.

And finally, my project for tonight. Filing. Honestly, it's going to be a tedious task - we have stuff from 2006 all the way up to today that needs a home. I've had this project ready to go since last year a really long time ago, but have put it off because looking at the stack of papers makes me want to fly in the other direction. Of course, that just means the papers keep piling up.

I was inspired yesterday to tackle something bigger today after reading this blog post from Real Simple that seemed to be written just for me. In her post, Erin Doland talks about common excuses used for putting off home organizing and cleaning tasks. I'm guilty of using the first two: I'm messy and I don't have time. But here's the thing. I, Ms. S, am prone to messiness - my family (husband and myself) is not, as Mr. S is quite tidy. And not having time? Yeah, being mostly unemployed I have plenty of time.

This morning I had to go through our files to find some information for a job application. Rather than putting everything back where it has been, I decided to leave it out to put it away properly tonight. What does 'properly' mean in this instance? An excellent question.

My sister in-law provided me with an article last summer about creating an easy home organizing system after she used it and liked it. The article is from the April 2009 Better Homes and Gardens magazine called 'Paper Trail' by Joanna Smith. I tried searching for the article online, but didn't find it. It's a 5 step process, so it's easy to follow. And what I like most is that reader Bobbie Ambuske, who shared this system with BHG, recommends using 12 pocket accordion files for your permanent storage. Here's what I like about this system: it keeps all important items from one year in a single, compact place, and once you enter into your eighth year (it's recommended to keep up to 7 years on file), you can easily reuse the accordion folders - all you have to do is change the year the folder is labeled. So simple! I've filed all of our paper work from 2009 using this method and really love it - I've just been bad about keeping up with 2010 and moving all the paper work prior to 2009.

Here's how I make it work for me. The categories I file are: Income - pay stubs; Investments - 401-K, IRAs; Giving - all charitable giving; Insurance - car, home; Medical - bills & statements; Taxes - once completed; Banking - statements once reconciled (yes, it's a good idea to print them off); Receipts - big items or returns only; Utilties - water, electric, gas; Paid Bills - internet, phone, Netflix, etc; Credit; Loans. You should only use categories that make sense for you. This is the part I'm good at - determining what categories work best for us and then filing appropriately (and shredding whatever is unnecessary to be filed). Additionally, we keep the article at the front of the folder for the current year, just so be sure both Mr. S and I are clear on how it all works. But there is another component to this system that I have yet to implement successfully.

The article recommends having two trays or baskets - one for receipts, the other for bills to pay - and placing them in a spot that's easily accessible and visible. The idea is to "follow the "touch it once" rule for receipts and mail." In other words, upon receiving and opening mail, you place it in its appropriate place: basket, recycling bin, or shredder. Brilliant, right? Following this would lead to a life of significantly less paper clutter. I just haven't hit on the implementation of this system that works well for me, and therefore works well for Husband.


Do you have any suggestions for such a seemingly simple task? Are you good about immediately filing paper work at home, or do you let it pile up? What kind of a system do you use?


~ Ms. S

Phone Interviews

I know, I know. Another post seemingly having nothing whatsoever to do with organizing or cleaning. It's just that this is what has been consuming my week, so bear with me because, while it may not involve any cleaning (in fact, it has become a hinderance to it), it does involve organizing.

This is what I have been working on all week in preparation for tomorrow's phone interview for a position I really want. I've had two phone interviews so far for different positions and haven't made it onto the next round. This time I want it to be different. I found a website that lists common questions asked during a phone interview along with links to what they consider to be good answers. To prepare, I have been typing out my responses to nearly every question - even questions of a similar nature. I'm hoping this will help me keep my thoughts sorted out, minimize long pauses and 'um's, etc, as I plan on printing this out keeping it and a copy of my resume in front of me.

Fingers crossed.

Have you ever had a phone interview? What are your best tips?


~Ms. S

A little procrastination

Right now, I'm supposed to be working on a cover letter for Mr. S to proof-read tonight. The body is done with revisions made, but I have yet to write the intro and conclusion and reached a bit of a wall. So I decided to procrastinate a little bit and update you on life since my last post (which was only two days ago, you'll notice!).

Cleaning duties listed, whose turn it is to do dishes (color coordinated), and events for the week.

Let's take a little time to visit the Cleaning and Job Schedules. I haven't been great about keeping up with the daily cleaning. Part of this is because Monday's task is to clean the kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table. It was Husband's turn to do dishes on Monday and they didn't get done (note: this is merely a statement of fact rather than a passing of judgement), which meant our limited counter space and the sink were full of dishes. I determined these tasks could be lumped into another day this week thinking it would be yesterday when it was my turn to do dishes. For whatever reason, it didn't occur to me to do this yesterday, so instead I did a small load of dishes this morning and cleaned our dish drainer! 

The dish drainer project was long overdue. I filled our sink with hot water, some dish soap, and a couple splashes of bleach (probably about 1-2 Tb). Once the sink was full, in went the rack, the utensils holder, and the plastic tray. I let them soak for ~ 1 hour (mostly because I was working on other things and forgot about them), then scrubbed them with a rag until they were clean, and dried them before putting them back.

Sparkling clean and ready to dry some more dishes!

However, the dining room table DID get cleaned on Monday - mostly because that's where I've been conducting my great job search. Please note the sarcasm in the word 'great.' See last post if you're at all confused.


Yesterday was laundry day. Here's the deal with laundry in our building. You have to sign up for time slots. In theory it sounds excellent - you're guaranteed four hours of available wash and dry time/week. In practice it sucks. We used to be signed up for a two hour slot on two different days. Two hours was never enough time to get our laundry done, and our Saturday time was inconvenient. So we are now signed up for two back-to-back slots on Tuesdays from 6-10. Better, but not perfect.

Still damp and drying while spread over some chairs.

Last night, for instance, I had a church committee meeting at 7 (these meetings always last too long), and knew that pretty much shot my laundry time. So I took advantage of being of 'housewife' for the time being and did our laundry during the day when no one is signed up. I have to be honest - I did not wash the load of clothes that need cleaning (and have needed cleaning since our vacation for too long). Nope. Instead I washed our comforter which was starting to look...well...not white anymore. Out it came fresh and clean to join our new white sheets which were on sale at Target. :)

Now I have to tell the truth about another thing - the job schedule. While it worked fabulously on Monday - I spent ~ 30 minutes looking for jobs, put together a spreadsheet of jobs needing app materials, prioritized which ones needed to get done and when, and even managed to write a cover letter and get it sent off with my resume for one of the four jobs - I was an utter failure on Tuesday. This is the problem when you're the kind of person who is most productive when you're busy: when you don't have a job, there is no momentum to keep you going. And frankly, when you want a job as badly as I'd like one, it's easier to spend all day checking email endlessly hoping you'll have some news - any kind of news! So yesterday, Ms. S did not rock the house like Monday.

Today, as you can see, I've been mildly and comfortably productive. And am hoping that this post will help with my writers block for my cover letters. Especially since finishing the one I'm currently working on means I get to reward myself by painting my nails. A little self-pampering never hurt anyone!

~ Ms. S

Just buckle down...

Since most of you reading this are family and friends, you know that I am in the midst of a frustrating job search. Frustrating because of its length (6 months, not that I'm keeping track), and because in that amount of time only two first-round phone interviews have come out of it. Possibly better results than others have had, but I'm getting impatient and itching to have a job to go to.

What does this have to do with cleaning/organizing? Well, very little and a lot at the same time. Very little because it is not at all related to home projects of any sort; a lot because I haven't had the motivation to DO much cleaning and organizing as I sit in front of the computer all day with my phone nearby waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Not very productive. Hence the formation of 'The Cleaning Schedule,' and now a 'Job Search Schedule.' Sometimes you just have to buckle down and tackle the problems head on, right?

In an attempt to maintain a few shreds of sanity, I will be giving myself an allotted amount of time each day to spend searching for new jobs, and an allotted amount of time for preparing necessary application materials, and finally, an end goal for turning in said materials. Gee, anyone else see the former project manager in me? The rest of my day, then, is free for me to tackle any chores from 'The Cleaning Schedule,' run errands, and finish projects that have been set aside for the time being. Here's today's schedule:

11:30 - Noon: find new jobs for which to apply
 - break for lunch -
1:00 - 2:30: work on materials for applications
Plus today's cleaning chore: scrub kitchen sink and counter, wipe down dining room table, and disinfect the dish drainer
Plus a quick errand for toilet paper - never a good thing to run out of entirely.

I'm not going to give myself tons of time for the application materials bit because I have a couple really good cover letters written already that make it fairly easy for me to piece things together. But I'll give myself enough time to write a draft of a new paragraph or two. We'll try this and see how it goes. The crazy heat isn't helping things. Thank goodness for our window unit and fans!

*Sorry for the lack of pictures. I haven't really been sure what to pair with these two 'schedule' posts, so I promise pictures in my next post.*


~ Ms. S

Cleaning Schedule

Alright, dear friends. Sometime ago I mentioned putting together a cleaning schedule to try out. Well, after much procrastination, I finally did it and will be putting it into effect this week. Before showing you precisely what the schedule is, let me share a little bit of my thought process that went into the making of 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

My natural tendency when it comes to cleaning is to wait for things to pile up and do everything at once. Generally, I think it's fair to say that 'deep cleaning' is what comes most easily. However, I've found that this approach to maintaining even our lovely little apartment just doesn't work. There's always something that needs to be done, and waiting for it to pile up for a purging session makes cleaning an incredibly daunting task. So I'm taking a que from my mother.

My mom stayed at home with my sister and I growing up, and in doing so, came up with a fairly regimented schedule that she still sticks to today. She did 'deep cleans' every-so-often, but they never took very long because she had a daily schedule of smaller things that helped keep tasks reasonable. Since I'm currently unemployed, I figured now would be the perfect time to get into the habit of doing things on a daily basis to continue even when I am employed. Without any further ado, here's 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

Mondays: Scrub kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table, and disinfect the dish rack
Tuesdays: Laundry
Wednesdays: Sweep and mop apartment (we have wood floors or tile throughout)
Thursdays: Clean bathroom
Fridays: Pick up clutter and file papers
Saturdays: Dust
Sundays: to be filled with whatever needs to be done, even if that's nothing
And most importantly: dishes every other day (with Husband taking the days opposite me)

I implemented the dishes schedule two weeks ago and it has been working quite well, though I've done most of the dishes this week - including everything from the potluck we hosted on Thursday. Not that I'm keeping track, or anything. :) But I'm quite excited for the rest of the schedule, too, as I'm hoping it helps us maintain a semblance of order without going crazy. My problem is, at least while I have lots of time on my hands, I'm much better at creating messes than getting rid of them.
Anyone else have that problem? It's terrible, let me tell you.

Do you have any kind of a cleaning/organizing schedule? 


~ Ms. S

Dishes, dishes everywhere

Last week (maybe two weeks ago), we had some friends over for a semi-potluck dinner. It was quite delightful as these are friends we live close to, but our busy schedules tend to keep us apart for longer stretches than we like. Here was our menu:

Course 1: Cesar salad with homemade dressing
Course 2: Homemade veggie lasagna and red wine
Course 3: (brought by our dear friends) Homemade brownies with Izzy's ice cream and white wine

Everything was delicious! And I'll take this time to tell you my darling friend's brilliant idea for pre-portioning brownies. She used her muffin tin (standard size). Duh, right?! Brownies don't rise like muffins do, so you just fill each cup about 1/3 full, bake monitoring the brownies carefully (don't want 'em to burn), and let cool before removing from the tin.

Once our friends left, however, a rather horrifying stack of dishes appeared. *Knowing how much I hate doing dishes, I will never ever ever ask company to assist in doing the dishes. So anyone how comes (or has come) to my house, don't feel bad. That said, I'm happy to assist others if they request help with dishes while I am enjoying their kitchen.* It was late and we were tired so we called it a night and went to bed. Normally, this doesn't bother me. I'm very comfortable leaving dishes for the following day Carl to take care of later. :) But this time....whoa. However, it gives me the perfect opportunity to show you how I like to organize my dishes when I DO decide to tackle the task.

1. Before I even begin to fill the sink, I arrange/organize my dishes according to their shape and size, as this dictates the order in which they'll be cleaned. For example, all the big plates go into one stack, small plates in another, cereal bowls in another, and tupperware is stacked according to shape and size. Not only does this let me see how much of everything I have to wash, I can maximize our counter space (we generally have a pot still on the stove, our pull-out cutting board out and full, and/or a few dishes still on the table). 
2. This next step might be different for some of you, but we have one giant sink (never again!). So we have a plastic tub that sits in our sink that we fill to wash dishes. After sorting the dishes, I put all the silverware in the tub, throw in some dish soap, and start the water.
3. As the tub is filling up, I wash the silverware and place it in the drying rack.
4. Next come big and flat items - biggest plates first, smallest plates second.
5. Then soup/salad bowls, followed by cereal bowls.
6. Small tupperware containers and their lids.
7. Big mixing bowls, baking pans, pots, etc.
8. Glasses. 

This system allows me to maximize and creatively fill the space of our drying rack. If my drying rack is full and I still have a number of dishes left, I'll let my first round dry and put them away, coming back later to do another round. Now, if you were to talk to Mr. S, he'd tell you a completely different method for washing dishes (cleanest to dirtiest). There isn't a right or a wrong, simply a different.

How do you tackle dishes? Do you spend any time sorting and organizing before you start, or do you just dig right in? 

~Ms. S

Revealed: The New Bed

That's right! Our new bed was delivered Friday afternoon by my awesome father-in-law. Mr. S and I were so excited we could hardly contain ourselves. And I have a confession to make - the bedding arrived on Monday!!! I was going to write a little post about it, but upon finding out the bed itself would likely be here soon, everything was saved for a 'reveal' post. :)

Just so you remember what the bedroom looked like before...

Alright, these photos are from this past summer, but if I'm being completely honest, the piles of clothes and general messiness never fully went away. And you can't really see them (due to the embarrassing amount of clothes strewn everywhere), but there are boxes to the right of the dresser that had been there since we moved in last June. Suffice it to say, we were grateful to be forced into dealing with cleaning and organizing issues we had continually pushed aside.

The king sized bed required rearranging the room to maximize the amount of usable space. We switched the wall against which the bed sits, moved the rocking chair to a better corner - by a window, and rethought our hamper usage. We now each have a (small) laundry basket on our respective sides of the bed - hidden from sight initially, but easily accessible for us so that we can get rid of the navy and gray 'darks and whites' hamper you see in the picture above. I'm hoping this will encourage me to stay on top of laundry better than in the past. Additionally, we inherited an old wicker hamper from Husband's boss which we have placed in the bathroom for dirty towels, washclothes, placemats, napkins, etc. I'll have to let you know how this system ends up working for us (well, for me really, seeing as how Mr. S tends to be laundry adverse).

With no further delay, please enjoy the pictures below...

~Ms. S

The bedding has arrived!!

 And it's beautiful.

Before the 'Emporer' found his clothes...

Tranquil, peaceful, and serene; and the cleanest, most organized this room has ever been.

Calm enough to enjoy a long nap yesterday...

Desk Transformation

My goal for the day: clean off this desk and repurpose it to be my sewing desk as opposed to being a (paper) work space. A rather lofty goal considering you truly can't see the top of this desk, and haven't been able to for...I don't even know how long...a REALLY long time. Why the change? Well, let me share my motivation!

I ordered our new bedding a little over a week ago. (Exciting!!) Hopefully it will be arriving shortly, as there is a chance our big bed will be delivered on Friday, courtesy of Husband's dad. Since we're changing up the look of our bedroom, and I've been in the mood to do some sewing, I decided to make us some throw pillows (so much cheaper to make them!). And as I trolled my blog role, I stumbled upon gold!

Design*Sponge guest blogger, Brett Bara, posted a lovely piece about making pillow covers. Wah! Butterflies started fluttering in my stomach. Not only were there step-by-step instructions (critical for me), it actually looked easy! AND there would be no pattern involved. I can't tell you how much I hate cutting out patterns - so much so, actually, that I have a pretty impressive stack of fabric I've done absolutely nothing with for lack of motivation to cut the pattern. 

Anyway, I had some time yesterday and stopped by the best craft store in the world. Crafty Planet sources some of the most gorgeous prints I've ever seen. And the best part, in my opinion, is that they're all cotton prints (aka: easy to work with). I spent a good 45 minutes picking out two prints for contrasting pillows and picked up the other necessary materials elsewhere. 

When I got home yesterday and sorted through my finds, I realized I didn't have a great space to work. So, after church this morning, I decided to turn my desk (which has never been used for office/school work here) into my sewing station. There was a ton of paper to sort through. Most of that was recycled, and the rest is in a pile to be filed away. And I went through the uppermost drawers to make space for some sewing supplies. 2.5 hours later, I was super pleased with the results and ready to begin on my project. But I couldn't find the power source cord for my machine!!! I still haven't found it and I've searched everywhere. 

(the blue blob is an unfinished skirt - soon to be finished!)

While I'm bummed I didn't get the chance to start, it turns out that's not such a bad thing. During dinner, Husband and I were talking about the fabric. I had chosen one print with a dark gray background and fabulous baby blue polka dots, thinking that shades of blue would be an excellent pair with our new white coverlet (and remembering Mr. S mentioning wanting blues as our accent). Come to find that Mr. S associates light blue with his sister's bedroom and wants nothing to do with it in ours. Huh! Good thing we had that conversation. :) Thankfully, he does like the other print I picked - a soft gray with white dandelion-inspired flowers/floating seeds on it. So, he'll be coming with me on my next trip to Crafty Planet, though we've decided to hold off on that until we have our bedding.

Exciting things! Cant' wait to have pics to post of the new bed when everything finally arrives and comes together. In the meantime, I've got some other things up my sleeve.

Goodnight, and enjoy the lovely spring weather (it got up to 63 today)!

~Ms. S

Some inspiration

Having been sick recently, not too much cleaning has been done on my end of things. Husband cleaned thoroughly and all by himself this past weekend while I was cooped up with a nasty cold that's still lingering rather powerfully. But I have resolved to do a better job of up keep here, and this is my inspiration for doing so:

"I ought to have done it long ago but I've just kept putting it off...it's such a detestable task. It's a very bad habit to put off disagreeable things, and I never mean to do it again, or else I can't comfortably tell my pupils not to do it. That would be inconsistent." ~ Anne Shirley, Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

And with those words of the immortal Anne Shirley, I am off to make our bed before promptly falling into what will hopefully be a deep (and most welcome) sleep.

Goodnight.

~Ms. S