My Now Functional Armoire

Well, I have been working on this project for a couple of weeks but I finally have it done. Well, the inside that is. I still want to paint the outside of the armoire to break up the sea of wood in the room. That is a post for another day. But, I am so happy with my new organized space.

I did not take a picture of the before, I don't know why. I planned on it but got caught up in the moment and totally forgot. But, picture this huge monitor on the middle shelf and there was a pull out keyboard thingy under the shelf.

The baskets were full of old paperwork, old computer discs, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't even know why we held on to. There were also about 4 boxes of computer parts such as wireless modems, and such that were old and weren't even being used stacked next to the monitor and dust bunnies everywhere. Oh and pens and pencils, some worked, most did not and some rulers and other things. This was our life.

I saw this picture below on Pinterest from Red Door Home and I knew I could turn my armoire into something just as functional.  It may not be quite as pretty as hers but I love it just the same.

 

So after much purging, mostly into the garbage, washing of the basket liners and a lot dusting and vacuming, this is what my finished bill paying/stationary/gift wrap center looks like.  

 

I spay painted some magazine holders green and covered them with Moxxie Scrapbook paper then printed a label from my computer and mounted it onto the front of the newly covered magazine holder.  Now they house our phone books, and below are birthday, boy, and girl gift bags and then I have tissue paper in the container next to the bags

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Next to the phone books is my red, bill paying binder and a 3 drawer container for notebooks, rulers and printer paper just if we need to make notes.  A container with a calculator, envelopes, stamps and other mailing products.  I separated the markers and highlighters, pens, and pencils into three different "pots" my son made in his pottery class.  Above are baskets that house the computer discs we still use,  and larger mailing envelopes.  There are several empty baskets and the drawers below are empty now too.  Wow!  Extra storage to boot!  I am so happy with this.  It makes me smile every time I look in it.  

I am still not finished with the whole dining room.  See...I will never run out of things to do.  Off to Pinterest to find some great ideas.

Until next time,

Michelle

 

Organizing Our Bills

If you know me at all you know that I am a huge Pinterest fan, but really, who isn't? I have been browsing the "organizing" section a lot lately and have found many pins that have peaked my interest. So, of course I re-pin them to my "organizing" board. Well, I got the bug a few months ago to do something about the huge mess of paperwork, etc in my life.

I decided to start out slowly so the first thing I wanted to get a grasp of was our bill situation. We did keep them all in one place but really they were thrown in a basket in an armoire in the dining room and we had to dig through them to find the one we wanted. It was always a task that got "saved" for another day until we were paying at the last minute...or worse...late...again! Ugh. Enough is enough right? So, I looked and looked until I found this pin from this blog. Echoes of Laughter The title of this post is: The Absolute Easiest Way To Track, Pay & Organize Your Household Bills...No Filing Involved!

She had me at "the absolute easiest" but the "no filing involved" is what really got me hooked. I actually read and followed her post pretty much exactly. Here is my binder.











We have been using this system for a couple of months and really do love it. I broke it down into different sections such as mortgage, insurance, utilities, student loans, etc. Each section has a cover sheet that I printed on card stock so it would hold up for a long time. On the cover sheet is the company name, address, telephone number, website and our passwords for the website if we have one so we don't have to try to remember them. We can track the bills that are paid and when we paid them on the calendar at a glance. After they are paid, I punch the side and file it into the binder in that section. It is so easy and has really helped us to keep all of bills where they belong. Now, I even sort the mail and put the bills into the binder right away. So, having this little red binder has helped us tackle the mail each day and get rid of anything junk related. So, now there is less junk mail. It used to live on the dining room table for days, sometimes longer until I would "get to it".

I am so proud of this and even my husband has commented on how he loves the red binder.

I think my next project will also involve the armoire in the dining room. It now houses a huge computer monitor (not the flat screen kind) that is hooked to nothing and is taking up valuable storage space in my house. So, I am off to Pinterest to look for another great idea.

Until next time....

Michelle