08-22-2014

Evernote for Organization

I have mentioned how I use Evernote For Blogging in the past and I finally finished (or am at least up to date) on using Evernote to organize all my articles. I am sure a lot of you are like me and you rip out articles and ideas from magazines. I used to have large binders storing all of this information in plastic sleeves. It worked but 1. took up a lot of room and 2. I had to look to find what I was looking for. Enter Evernote. I can scan in my articles using my printer and then put them into Evernote. Evernote converts them into searchable PDF’s. This is my favorite part. I can put the article in and then I can search in Evernote to find them!

These are only some of the articles I was scanning in. It took me forever. I started back in April and took a long break and finally finished up the other day. Some of these articles I had been saving for years. This was good as I was able to get rid of some of them that didn’t matter and put the recipes in my recipe binder.

Once you have everything scanned in you can go ahead and make a new Notebook. I titled mine Home, Crafts, Articles/Tips, and then Clothes/Health (basically general Me). You can always add more notebooks and change them as you scan articles in but since you can search for everything I find it a lot easier to have less notebooks and make use of searching and tags. For the one above you can see I added the tags: bedroom & Kid’s. I also have added the magazine it came from on some of them. This way I can search the tag Bedroom and all of the bedrooms will come up.

This is what it looks like when you are searching. I searched just in this folder and it was able to find the text from the picture of the article and bring it up for me. It makes it so much easier to search for things.

I even use it for some craft ideas. Granted, I have lots of different places with craft ideas and should use Evernote more to store them but when I am out and about and find something I want to recreate it is super easy to place it in Evernote. Evernote has a mobile app where I can make notes on the go.

Evernote has so many uses, blogging and organizing articles are really just the beginning. How do you use Evernote?

Filed Under: Home, Me, Organizing Tagged With: evernote, organization

04-13-2014

Some Spring Cleaning Tips

So it is that time of year again, Spring Cleaning! It isn’t on the top of my “I can’t wait” list, but it does need to be done. There are some areas in the house that have been in need of some serious cleaning since I moved in (back in November) that I just have not known how to tackle. Some overlooked areas that are neglected just because they are pretty much a pain to get to and to clean. Specifically in my house those would be 1. Ceiling Fans and 2. The tops of cabinets. Now, these were gross since I have moved in and honestly I have tried to clean them. I could not find anything that could cut through the grease that was on top of the ceiling fan in the kitchen and on top of the cabinets from cooking. Nasty, right? Enter my new favorite cleaner as I have now discovered it cuts through it!

Lysol All Purpose. This post is not sponsored in anyway. This is just the cleaner that I did purchase and had not tried yet. Now that I see how it cut through it all, I am a definite fan. I feel so accomplished in knowing that those areas are clean! Here is the embarrassing fan before. I was going to show you closer but realized you probably really don’t want to see that and can guess what it looks like.

The secret to cleaning fan blades? PILLOW CASES!! Amazing right? For the non-greasy ones (in the living room and bedroom), I sprayed a mixture of vinegar and water into the pillow case. I then wrapped the pillow case around the fan blade and pulled it out. Simple and easy. Word of caution, make sure the fan is not going to be turned out, that would not be good! For the fan in the kitchen I used my new favorite Lysol cleaner and sprayed the fan blade first. I then placed the pillow case around the blade and wiped. It came off super easy!

Now, warning. This is nasty. I have tried to clean this countless times since I moved in with absolutely NO luck. It wasn’t bothering me as you can’t see it but I knew it was there and I wanted it gone. Scroll past this photo if you don’t want to see this!

Gross, right? Spray that Lysol up there and TA DA!! I have seriously tried no less than 5 different cleaning products to clean this and nothing.

Now it was absolutely nasty and I hated cleaning it but I am so glad I did!! Much cleaner now!

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: cleaning, spring cleaning

05-08-2013

Room Organization

So what should you do when you have an absolutely jam-packed bedroom and an office? (Quick Backstory.. moved back in with mom & dad. Have my bedroom & an office. All the crafts were in the bedroom. Imagine how quickly that gets out of control!).

Here are some before pictures. Now, keep in mind since they are before pictures I made no effort to clean it up.

Bedroom. Please tell me how anyone can actually relax in here?

SO cramped!!

I didn’t even make sure the bed was made. Definitely quality before pictures. Missing is the shot of behind the door which held a white bookcase and then a shoe caddy turned craft storage.

The Office. Now the office was definitely more organized and had more space. I didn’t take as many pictures of it.

After Pictures. Much nicer, much better and SO much more organized!! Bedroom first. Definitely more relaxing.

The chaise is from my apartment. It had been downstairs in Mom’s room until I moved out but I am excited to use it now. The prints on the wall were in my closet.

I put the chair by the closet. I am really not sure if I am going to leave it there but it works for now.

I really wish I had a before of behind the door. It looks so much more spacious now.

The Office with all of the new supplies in there. The only thing that I did not move into the office was my white table that was in my room for crafts. I figured I would make my desk do double duty.

I moved the craft storage units and put them along the blank wall. The sewing machine and thread sit easily on top of it.

The white unit by the window is what was behind my door in my bedroom. It has lots of craft supplies on it.

Here is what the bed looks like with the gallery wall behind it. You can see that it doesn’t feel cramped having the storage units there. That is definitely one thing I was worried about.

I did have to rearrange the closet in the office and was able to store all four of the plastic containers that currently store my fabric. The closet also stores all my off-season clothes so I was really glad everything fit. I am definitely happy with how it all turned out and it only took a few hours.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: bedroom, cleaning, craft room, organizing