I'm so excited to kick off the Lost + Found series today with Stephanie of StephModo. Besides being a bit of practical inspiration, I'm hoping this series helps reveal how we're all a little organized and disorganized in our own ways. Nobody's perfect — find what works for you. If you're not already a fan of Stephanie's blog, you should check it out — you'll find inspired entertaining ideas not to mention fantastic shopping finds + giveaways. Stephanie was on my short list when I came up with the idea for Lost + Found, as I'm super impressed with her masterful menu planning. Here's Stephanie on how she organizes some systems in her life:
magazines
Each year I choose a few different magazines to subscribe too; what I choose mostly depends on how good of a rate I can get! Once I receive those magazines in the mail, I try to read through them rather quickly — say under one week. As I am reading, I am also tearing :) If something jumps out to me, I rip it out, trim the edges, and file it in a sheet protector. I then place it in one of my "inspiration" binders (I have one for kids, travel, and general design). Sometimes I tear pages out because I like the furniture layout, the way they arranged framed art, or the general look/feel of a room. I can't express how helpful this process is to me. At times when I've had to make major design decisions in a day or two, I've consulted my pages of magazine tears for inspiration. All in all it takes a matter of minutes and provides a great excuse to sit down and relax for a good half hour!
photos (digital + prints)
My Mac organizes them for me by date; this makes me a lazy photo organizer :) Sometimes when I am feeling extra energetic, I make photo books for our family. So far I love Blurb but am open to trying some other self-publishing websites as well.
When we have professional photographs taken of our family or of our children, I try to quickly decide on prints and have them framed and hung as soon as possible. I am always worried that if I wait too long, we'll all look different by the time they are actually hung! Although this takes some effort and sometimes, slight expense, it's been very rewarding to view our family's photographs over the years on a daily basis.
tax paperwork + receipts
I bought an accordion file organizer at a local big box store a few years ago. It's about the size of a clutch purse. I labeled each pocket "A-B", "X-Z", etc. creating a small place for all of my receipts.This has come in handy when I've purchased an article of clothing, waited to wear it for awhile, and then put it on only to discover it is flawed. These days you really can't exchange anything without a receipt! I keep mine on hand for about two years. It usually takes me that long to get around to cleaning it out!
craft supplies
I have a little closet I refer to as my "craft closet". In reality it also stores my on-hand gifts, old photo albums, wrapping paper and packaging materials. I put little things like tags, grommets, note cards, scissors, etc. in little plastic drawers that stack. I also use under-the-shelf wire baskets to utilize all that dead space between shelves. Despite my best efforts to keep this closet organized, I usually have to do a total re-haul once a year. Like Jen so accurately says, "I think all of us are both organized and disorganized in our own ways...". I couldn't agree more!
and how do you organize getting dinner pulled together during the week?
I'm a big menu planner. I've been doing this for years now. It takes about 30 minutes per week to plan our week's menu but it's so worth the effort. It's so nice to have your week's meals planned ahead of time so when it's 4 o'clock and you start thinking, "what am I going to make for dinner?", you basically know already! I write down the meals I've planned on a post-it note and place it inside one of my cupboards — usually the one next to my cookbooks. I decide what I'm in the mood to make and then start cooking because I know I have everything I'll need on-hand. This alleviates a lot of stress in my life and allows our family to eat better food and save money along the way. No more impulse buying at the grocery store and no more late-afternoon panicking about making dinner.
A big thanks to Stephanie for being a part of Lost + Found! I'm adopting your menu planning system after our move this month. I'd love to prevent the early evening "what's for dinner" panic (currently a daily state of being for me.)
{photography by rebecca mudrick}
what's lost + found? find out more here
