Organizing Manuals

Thought I would share another organizing tip we have implemented in the Poland household during my season of nesting....if you want to call it that.

You know all those user manuals that come with all your appliances, electronics and, in our case, baby gear?

We had all of ours scattered all over our house in different drawers and folders.  It was a mess and looked a little something like this...

Until I purchased a binder and page protectors...under $10 and got them all in one place, organized by kitchen appliances, electronics and then baby gear.

Note:  You can organize however works for you...I mostly did one manual per page protector, except for a few of the smaller appliances or baby items that could be combined into one.

Then it took me about 2 minutes to print a label on some colored paper...

It makes me happy to look at the small steps of progress we are making around here.  And most importantly, they are things that work well for our family.

Organizing Tip

I think I'm beginning to "nest"...isn't that the term when you pull all your stuff out of every corner, nook, closet and drawer in your house and organize it?  Well I am still in the process of creating an even bigger mess organizing our house...many more posts to come...and wanted to share one quick tip I have used that has been pretty handy.

To start this post off right...let me give credit where it is due.  I used to subscribe to the iheartorganizing blog, but this chick started annoying me b/c she is out-of-control organized.  Annoyed might not be the right word...maybe it's more like jealous.  Either way, I kept feeling like an epic failure every time my inbox had another post from her...anyway, now I just use her as a resource when I get in one of these moods to clean out.  

So I went and purchase a pack of command hooks.  You can pretty much find them in any store these days.  I stuck one on the inside of our kitchen cabinet and...

you have a nifty way to store your bibs.   Don't know about you, but I use these things many times a day and this way, I don't have to take up drawer space to store them.

I also stuck a couple on the wall of our closet and hung a few of my bags on them.  We all know it's no secret that I have a FEW (I'm using that term very loosely) bags.  Anyway...I'm trying to get a good system on how to organize them...this is a start.

So that is a quick tip from the Poland household on a fast, easy and most importantly CHEAP way to organize some frequently used items.

jewelry hanger

Anybody out there discovered pinterest yet?...I love it! I've gotten so many ideas from it which is where I was inspired for my latest project. Here is what gave me the idea and then I just did my own version of it at home.

I first started with a frame from Hobby Lobby..half price of course. And just a tip...if you have a smart phone, they do accept their 40% off coupon (online...click here) directly from your phone if you pull it up and show it at the register.

All you need for this project are the items pictured below...

• a frame without a back
• a roll of screen (got that from Lowe's)
• staple gun (extra staples)
• wire cutters

And then you cut the screen the size of the frame..I left a little extra on the sides so I could staple it easily and then trimmed the extra when I was done.


Use the staple gun to staple the screen onto the frame, like so...


The frame I purchased didn't have any brackets or anything to hang it with. So, I got my hunky handyman husband to drill holes in the back for the nails to go in when I (he) hung it.


And then I wanted to show a size scale of my finished product. This is Briggs 5 1/2 months old...so as you can see...the frame is pretty large. Isn't that baby cute! Of course, you could always do something smaller or a couple small frames...I just opted for a larger one.


And here is my finished product...


I'm really pleased with the finished product. It's a cute way to display your earrings and makes it easier to use what you have, when you can see it better. More to come from these DIY projects. I'm working on a necklace hanger now...can't wait to share that one..gonna be cute!