Storage Room Overhaul

Truly, there could not have been a more perfect time for us to get married. We got to dump our cheapy college stuff and use our wedding gifts for the most part. But "out with the old, in with the new" meant we had collected a pretty big pile of garage sale/junk items. I nicknamed one of our extra bedrooms "The Monica Closet" because it was literally a dumping ground for things we weren't using. Here is the before..

Yeah..

I made it a point to try to find permanent homes for things we were actually keeping. And thankfully, a few weeks ago we had a pretty successful garage sale to get rid of everything else. We started with 8 big totes of things (plus a trailer of furniture) and only came back with ONE TOTE! Now that we had purged, I was ready to tackle our storage space so we could keep up with minimal clutter long term.

Just before we moved in, the local K-Mart went out of business. They sold all of their shelving, and we were lucky enough to snag some. It is really perfect for a storage room, and we immediately started loading it up with random items (in addition to the crap in the guest bedroom). From the get-go, we did really well about buying bins, but things weren't really organized or labeled properly.

I totally snagged this idea from this post at iHeart Organizing, but it was too brilliant to not put this system to use. We already had plenty of big bins, so we only put in a few bucks for Scotch laminating sheets and were ready to roll! I just made some title pages (which took 2 seconds in Word) and slapped the laminated sheets to them and placed them on the appropriate bins. Then I just used a regular dry erase marker to write the specific items kept within the bin. (Previously we taped on printed sheets that had the items typed up, but when things get taken out or rearranged you have to make a whole new label, plus since they were just paper they got dirty and torn pretty easily).

The front side is still not very pretty, as it is still random. (but how pretty can a storage room be, really???) Basically we have a little tool section (which is another project for another day) and a few banker's boxes for old files that we don't need to access but can't toss just yet. Again, this area I didn't really touch with this project so it's still messy.

Then random home stuff (shower/curtain rods, carpet samples, etc) followed with a big section of just empty product boxes. I'm hoping to eventually toss these but haven't committed - do people keep that stuff??

On the bottom shelf, I placed all of the more temporary items or things we are trying to get rid of. For example, the things we weren't successful selling at the garage sale went back here. As we collect such items this is where they will go. Here you can see a closer look at the actual labels..

The end is our little luggage station. The far end in the back corner of the room has always housed our paint and paint supplies - totally untouched and will be revisited at some point. 

The back side of the shelf keeps more permanent things. On the far end will be our "memory bins" of things saved from our childhoods. Andy's is there now, but I just got all my stuff from my parents' house and it needs a better system, so we will be revisiting that.

Then we have empty banker's boxes followed by a whole section of seasonal decorations. I wanted each season to be limited to one bin to prevent over-buying. Right now these are mostly half full, so if they ever do become full it will be plenty. Christmas sort of won though, since we have the tree box, a regular bin of decorations, a few small ornament boxes, and a box just for string lights. It really is not that much stuff when you think about it. I also have one bin for non-Christmas winter items, because winter doesn't end in December and then I can easily keep the snowmen out for a little longer without creating a big hassle. Fall has a bin, but we don't have a spring/summer because those decor items are out right now (not that we really have any). Those 2 seasons will be limited to one bin, hence that open space.

This system (although we are still working on downsizing and arranging) is seriously the bee's knees. It is so nice and easy to get out and put things away, and no climbing over crap to search for your things. I always know exactly where everything is, and it should be a piece of cake to maintain. Seeing it all makes me feel like we have so. much. stuff. But when I remember that this is where we store EVERYTHING coupled with the fact that the bins aren't full, makes me feel a little better. There is always more work to be done, but at least our guest bedroom is now completely junk free! Seriously, vacuuming that room when I got it all clear was like Christmas morning! Motivation to keep up with the work.

On to the next thing..

Brains Behind the Build: Outdoor Edition

I fell in love with our lot when the old house was still here.  The house sat probably a few hundred feet from the country road and I loved all the open space. The exterior and landscaping was very much a priority when planning the new house. And once the new house came along we could still see more potential, but there was still work to be done.

Issue number one was deciding which direction the house should face. The old house didn't actually face the road, but rather the lane. It's really hard to explain, so hopefully pictures clear it up. It seemed to bother other people that the house didn't face the road, but it never was a big deal to me. It is perhaps my number one pet peeve when people don't use their front door. I wanted it to face the lane because then it gave no excuses for not using the front door. I didn't want any other doors exposed either. Plus, now the house faces a major road across the field so it's actually seen by more people. It was settled that the new house would face the same direction as the old one had.

View from the mailbox

So many mismatched trees...

View from the field. Also a closer view of what you see from the major road across the field.

As far as the look of the house, we went with a neutral gray siding. Perhaps some day we will upgrade with some stone or brick accents, but I am perfectly content with the current look. I also fought hard for my front porch. I wanted the porch to stretch the length of the house and to be as deep as possible - deep enough to sit or rock comfortably in a chair without hitting the house or a railing. And I didn't want puny columns, I wanted significant ones. Now that I have it, it's perfect. Eventually we will add a railing, flower boxes, and other furniture to dress it up, but again, priorities. Hurray for having front steps! It only took 14 months after moving in to get them.. (notice the bottom piece of siding is still unfinished).

Obviously, the house needs landscaping around the perimeter (hopefully next month!). It will bring a lot of color to the house. The circle drive landscaping needs some work too - Andy already tore out the old overgrown bushes and replanted some of the random hastes that used to be in the back. There are also random bushes here and there on the property that will go, as well. Basically, we have a lot of work to do on the flower front.

The lot had several old trees around the property, protecting it from wind. However, the best trees had to be cut down to make room for the new house, and all the ones left are old and dying (seriously!). I honestly don't think there is a single tree that we won't eventually tear down. I don't love the evergreens in the front and the current trees/bushes are oddly spaced to me. Over the years we will have to replace them all one by one, but we do want to have trees surrounding the house again. My OCD self just needs coordinating tree placement and type.

Not sure why the right half of this tree doesn't grow..

More proof of the tree-dying phenomenon. Such a sad evergreen..

Originally the lot only had one shed, the smaller one in the far back corner. However, the bigger shed was put up due to necessity for more equipment storage. Now half of the lot is graveled and I'm not really a fan. Paving the lane and drive-up would make me feel a little better about losing so much green space but that's A LOT of area to pave, so I won't hold my breath waiting on that. I guess it's a necessary trade off..

As far as the backyard and an outdoor living space, we have two sliding glass doors installed- one off the dining room/kitchen area, and one off the mudroom. We are hoping to build a small deck sometime this summer off the dining room space. We've been grilling in the garage and it's such a hassle (not to mention a bit of a fire hazard). Last summer was such a bummer to not have anywhere to entertain, and I hated having to lug out a folding chair just to sit outside, so it will be nice to get some patio furniture. In the future, we plan to pave a patio off the mudroom door, as well.

Space for future deck

Space for future patio

Obviously there is so much yard space that we can pretty much do whatever we want with it! There is even a lot of space beyond the house in the far back of the lot.

The back of the lot - also more proof that this generation of trees has seen better days

Random white fence that sits in the middle of nowhere

The inaugural first tree planting took place last month 

We have big plans for this place! And I'm thankful for Andy who is obsessed with the outdoors. I know things will happen thanks to his motivation. He's been working so hard to get our new grass to grow! We know it will take a LOT of time and effort, but we couldn't be happier with all of the potential.

Financial Planning for Dummies

Andy and I are both Type A control freaks. We are both constantly checking our bank statements - him for more business/tax reasons and me because I'm just a money hoarder. This can make financial planning interesting because we are both stubborn and find it difficult to give up complete financial control. He has always used a financial program to file receipts, so in the beginning he was really the finance-man. Although the program he uses makes it really easy come tax time and gives him everything that he wants to know, it wasn't giving me the information I wanted on an ongoing basis.

After just a few months of marriage, we determined it was easiest if we both let the other do their own thing, even if it meant we overlapped. In many ways we repeat what the other one is doing, just in a different way. At least we are both in the know that way, right? He continued to do his thing, while I started doing my own.

Enter these babies!

There is something about physically writing down your expenses that makes me feel more in control, but I really hated those dumb register booklets. They took up extra space in my wallet which was completely unnecessary since I don't write down expenses when I'm out and about. I know people tell you to do that, but I always wait until the payment actually goes through to write it down in the register. If you are afraid of overdrafting this is not a practice I would recommend, though!

Anywho, I created a larger, easier-to-write-on version of my register using Excel. It is colorful and I actually look forward to filling it out. I just print out a few blank copies at a time and keep it in my "Financial Worksheets" folder in our filing cabinet. I aim to update it every Tuesday, but there may be a week where I know we have more items on our statement, so I will update it earlier. I never go more than 7 days without doing this, so I can usually finish the entire process in no time at all.

After I've gone through the register and balance everything, I pull up my handy-dandy Excel Budget Worksheet. It is my one stop shop for finances.

Let me give you some background before I get back to my weekly process. When I created this for the new year, I started with a projected budget. Do this by taking each annual or monthly bill and then just estimate spending for other common expenses. I tried to find a balance between being too specific vs. too general. I did not want a list of 50 categories to sort through, but I also want them to be specific enough that I easily know which category an expense falls under. Occasionally I will add a category if I find a need for it. Once I get a few years of data under my belt, developing an accurate budget will be much easier.

By coming up with a projected budget, you can estimate how much you will save over the course of the months/year. If your projected savings is less than you want it to be, you can adjust your budget so you know you only have X dollars to spend in each category. I personally overestimate expenses and underestimate income, because I'd rather be pleasantly surprised with more savings. Creating a budget also allows you to compare your real spending with your projected budget, making it easier to adjust spending in the future.

The worksheet simplifies it all so you can focus on things individually, rather than feel overwhelmed by "trying to save". Before doing this, I really only focused on keeping my bank account above a certain number, but if you have more than one account that can be difficult. Plus by compartmentalizing and tracking, you will likely be surprised by the amount of money you spend on unnecessary things, motivating you to save even more! I may only be 23 but I'm already concerned about saving for retirement and paying for kids' college tuition!

Again, color and order makes me happy and I wanted to make the worksheet pretty so I look forward to updating it each week. As far as my weekly routine, I refer to the newly added items on my checkbook register and start with any income. It gets added to the appropriate column and then I do the same for expenses until all of the new items have been added. As the months go on, I continue to add to it each week.  I always do this in tandem with updating the checkbook register.  I do have a credit card, and I separate all of the purchases on those statements into the appropriate categories in the month the bill has been paid. For purchases made at Walmart or Target where I may buy several different things, I lump the entire amount spent into one category rather than separating out each individual item within the purchase (you may have purchased food, cleaning products, etc. all in one but don't worry about separating). It will never be perfectly divided, but just do your best. As long the expenses and income even out, you're doing well!

The wonderful thing about Excel is having the ability to use functions to create a running tally of income and expenses. As soon as I put in a number, the totals on the bottom and right side of each table are updated without me having to do anything. Therefore I always know the total of how much income each job has provided and how much expense has been spent in each category (monthly and annually). Below the Income and Expenses charts, the Savings chart is already set up to the function [Income - Expenses = Savings], so I consistently know if we have spent more or less than our income for that particular month. I've always been told the number one rule of finances is to make more than you spend, so by looking at things month to month I know to always aim for a positive number in the Savings column.

Another added thing I do is keep track of the totals in our accounts at the end of each month. I just do this to see if there are any patterns.

Even though I've been babbling a lot, this is a super easy system to maintain! Honestly it takes me about 15 minutes each week to do, and I know I'm always in control of where we stand financially.

Organizing Files with the Freedom Filer

Happy Tax Day, people! Since April is Tax Month I figured I might share some things that have made this tax season a little easier for Andy and me.

Since the beginning of time, I've wanted an appropriate filing system. I'm gonna be honest with you, until recently I knew nothing about taxes or what documents to keep/throw away (and I still really only know the basics). Andy files all of our receipts/bills into the computer because of the farm business so I don't have much of a hand in it. But there are bunch of other items besides bills we needed to start filing, so I did some research..

I don't have any affiliation with Freedom Filer but I've had my eye on one since watching this video posted on Alejandra.tv a long time ago (probably a year and a half ago to be honest). It was one of the satisfied gifts on my Christmas list this year because it's not something I would likely buy for myself. We got a filing cabinet and folders shortly after Christmas, and right away I got to putting it all together.

I mostly got the system because as I said, I had no idea where to start. The system comes with pages and pages of color coated sticky labels that are already printed. Could you do this on your own? Sure. But printing labels is a pain in the rear and takes forever (at least for me) - so that part is a win for me.

The system is broken down into color-coded categories, which makes finding certain files very easy: 

-Permanent items (red), such as birth certificates, education certificates, family history, etc. These are items that never have to be rearranged or taken out.

-Temporary items (orange) are things that have an end, such as leases and insurance policies. These folders will likely always be filled but need to be replaced with updated documents (ie. each year put in your new lease agreement or policy).

-Monthly items (green) are mostly financial related, like bills, receipts, and bank statements which you are constantly accumulating. 

-Tax items/Archives (blue) would be any tax forms (1099, W2, or returns) or things that need to be written off as a work expense.

-Resource (purple) and Active (gray) folders are sort of miscellaneous. Things like coupons, to-do lists, and any other ongoing items belong here.

It also comes with a guide that gives a lot of helpful hints on how to set up and organize the system - SUPER SUPER HELPFUL. It sounds straight forward but it's definitely important to read before you do anything. Then you can figure out which of the labels you'll need and buy appropriate folders from there (I definitely got more than I needed because I skipped this step). Most importantly the guide breaks down each category and each of the labels provided within. So it gives you examples of items to be filed within every single label provided. I chose to get colored folders for each of the colored labels, but if I were to do it again I would use all one color and let the colored tabs speak for themselves. Then I wouldn't have to worry about having the right of number of folders for every color - I have a lot of extras. 

I should note that I only used about 1/3 of the labels they give you. There are a lot of repeats that I didn't need. And as I said, Andy already had a system for receipts so I basically didn't need that whole section (perhaps I can someday get him to convert to this way, but I doubt it). There is a label for literally everything you could possibly think of - every type of account or purchase or form out there. You're destined to not use them all. The labels are general though. For instance they say 'vehicle' instead of 'Ford Fusion' or whatever, so as your life evolves you can still keep the same file without needing to change it. You can add the letter or number stickers to personalize them if needed. It's sort of hard to explain, but it all works. 

Overall it cuts down the labor of creating your own file system if you need to have everything printed and matching like I do and don't know where the heck to start. I honestly think the guide is the most helpful part, as I could've just used that to form a list of labels to make. I saved all the labels I didn't use because I feel like our needs will change as the years go on (meaning more files). I've added new files a few times since I set the system up. It has reeeaallllyy cut down on the paper clutter in our office (which is still a work in progress). 

Ch-Ch-Changes

If you remember correctly you may recall this living room post (ewww). I've never loved the decor in this space but I also haven't had a clear idea of what I wanted to do with it. Now I finally think we are getting somewhere! (And Andy is finally open to painting again)

We purchased a new couch several months ago but it was a long 12 weeks waiting for delivery. We have been enjoying it for a few months now. We are very happy with the decision, but I am even more excited that we waited to make any other changes until after we placed it in the room. It seriously changes the whole feeling of the room and has led me to go in an entirely different direction design wise.

With that in mind, we've decided to buy all of our furniture prior to doing any painting or accessorizing.  We'd been looking for a new TV stand for literally months. Months, I tell you! I don't know if we are overly picky or what, but we were not willing to settle (a lesson not needed to be learned again). And then the heavens opened up and we found the Ainsworth collection from Crate and Barrel. We didn't really want to spend that much money but we figured it was an investment well made, and I had a coupon that would go a long way. We picked these babies up this Saturday! The TV stand is big and it is SO nice to have a bookcase. They are a great quality, too. Why does furniture make me so happy? Probably because I've been living in college bachelor land.

We still have a long way to go. We have been looking for an end table to replace the janky one we have, and are hoping to find a matching sofa table for between the windows, behind the couch. Not a super high priority though. We also want to get two upholstered arm chairs for the space to the right of the TV to replace the chair that is there now. I know the current one doesn't go with the decor but it is actually a really comfy chair (it's IKEA if you're curious)! And the coffee table is super functional, but not what I have in mind for the space (and it just doesn't match with the new stuff). Andy and I have always said we wanted a big storage ottoman that we can use as a foot stool and keep all the blankets in. (When I say 'we' I really mean it - Andy has just as much interest in our home decor as I do, although I am typically more gun-ho.) That Bauman sign wouldn't be hanging above the TV if he didn't insist on covering all the electrical covers.

I also moved over all of the picture frames that were near the toy closet to make space for the media tower, so now we have one larger collage rather than two smaller ones, which makes way more sense. I'm even thinking of adding to it, we'll see as I have bigger fish to fry at the moment. I will paint them a few different colors depending on the wall/accent colors I choose. The variety of frame colors is a bit much now.

When we painted before moving in, I wanted to go with a gray and navy scheme to reflect the kitchen. But the "light gray that really looks baby blue" did not turn out how I wanted. Literally half of our house is painted this color and it makes it so cold looking. I've been racking my brain ever since trying to figure out the best color(s) to paint. The couch is mid tone gray but reflects brown sometimes too - hard to describe but it's very versatile! Now I'm thinking more of a warm color scheme. Again, I have vowed to wait until all of our big purchases are made to even think about worrying about the little ones. Then, we'll worry about accessorizing with throw pillows, wall decor, and paint color. We are headed in the right direction though! Patience really is a virtue..

(Can you tell I'm in the middle of switching the piano decorations from winter to spring? Oops.)