Blog, Take 2 (or 3)

So... I am going to attempt to start this blog afresh.  I have set some goals for 2011 (I dislike using the term "resolutions"), and I am going to attempt to document my progress towards those goals here on the blog.  The goals are:

1) An organized home and family life

2) Efficient and effective time management

3) Become better at saying no (ties in to the time management goal above, but I feel it needs to be stated on it's own, because there is more to it than just time management)

4) Be an excellent steward of our family's money - beyond eliminating debt, this means saving when possible, but also spending when it makes sense.


I'm going to attempt to document the steps I'm taking and the progress I'm making in these areas here.

Here's my first bit of progress:

Our coat closet.  It is quite small and in addition to housing our coats it is basically the only possible place to store our vacuum and carpet steam cleaner on the first floor.  Before today, all of our mittens/hats/gloves/umbrellas/etc were all housed in one small bin on the shelf above the coats.  It was severely overstuffed and on Friday Kate's gloves fell out literally 5 times in a row when I tried to put them back in (after they fell out the first time when I was trying to get Claire's gloves out for preschool).  Here is my solution, which proves that I can have the occasional moment of organizational brilliance.  I'm sure plenty of other people have thought of this idea, but I was rather pleased with myself for coming up with this entirely on my own, if I do say so myself.

I bought the shoe organizer at Big Lots for $8, which included hooks.  I had a choice of this apple green color, aqua or purple.  Since our living room is earth tones (olive, brown, yellow-cream & white), this seemed to be the best of the colors I had to work with.  I love it because the girls can reach it and can now get their own items out, and also put them away.