Sunday, May 20, 2012

Eliminating Paper Clutter

Paper clutter is one of my worst nightmares! I have it everywhere! I'm one of those people that keeps everything "just in case"!! Thankfully, over the years I have been able to decrease the amount of papers I have in my file cabinet/house. Now, I am working on a seemingly never ending project of scanning in "keep papers" to my computer.

Years ago I had stacks and stacks of magazines to keep. Yes, stacks. One day I started going through them and pulling out articles that I wanted to keep for one reason or another. I organized those into categories (organizing tips, dream home ideas, gardening, etc) and they lived in a file cabinet for a couple years. After moving twice, I finally decided to start scanning those papers into my computer, creating a virtual file cabinet of everything I wanted to keep.

Here's one stack of papers to scan! Imagine a large box full of this!
I started by going through each folder and tossing out the pages I didn't feel I needed or wanted anymore. Then I organized them into better categories and started scanning. Each category has its own named folder and the file name of the document corresponds with the folder.


I use an HP printer & simply used the scanning option on the HP Solution Center.

My trusty HP. It's a little time consuming putting one page at a time in, but will be so worth it!!

I am more than halfway done with this project and will be so glad to get one more box out of the house when it's completely done!

Friday, May 11, 2012

The Mess of Today

(This blog post was originally written in May! We have since rearranged--again--and I'll post those pictures soon enough! Again, some images have been blurred for privacy!!)

Ok, here goes. This is the mess of today!! Hidden within this mess though, are several little things we have done to organize & put things in their place. I will be taking some snapshots and showing you those in the near future. For now, though, you hopefully have a good idea of the kind of space we have to work with and what kind of stuff we need to find a place for. Many of the boxes you see in the following pictures contain fragile items, pictures, and books. All of which will be able to be completely unpacked when we purchase some shelving of some sort. Also, this is just pictures of the downstairs living areas. I have not taken any of the upstairs but that will come, too!!

As my readers & greatest supporters, your feedback is important!! Tell me what you would do if this was your place! Tell me what you have done in your own home! Show me your organizing secrets! We learn from each other and I am by no means an expert! I would love to see your awesome ideas!!


This is what our dining room looked like...not much of a place to eat!




Media Area


 Here's our "media area"! (Images have been blurred for privacy!)
View of Living Room
 This is another view of the media area with the small couch and back door in the background. Tons of junk!!
View of Living Room
This is the other couch, the back door, mini coffee table, bookcase in the corner, and more boxes of fragile items!  It is a mess!








And that, my dear friends, is an honest glimpse into part of our house. One day....it will all have a home!!
Side note--we are considering swapping the TV and large couch and mimicking the layout we had in our one bedroom apartment back home. It seemed to work well for us and I think we may benefit from the same layout here. Still talking it over with the hubby!

We're on this dance together so I look forward to hearing your stories too!!

Are you ready??

Are you ready?? Here it comes!!! You get to peek into our MESS!!! It was such a mess after moving in and it took a long time to even get where we are today!! Part of our issue right now is the lack of funds to buy a couple bookcases and some sort of cabinet for fragile items. I've been watching Craigslist and such but it's more important to pay bills right now, so we are just waiting for the perfect opportunity!

(Some images have been blurred for privacy!)

Living Room

Living Room



Dining Room into Kitchen


Kitchen
Kitchen

 
Pantry Area in Kitchen


Second Bedroom
Hallway/Laundry Room




Master Bedroom
Upstairs Full Bath



As you can see, we had a big mess on our hands!! If you've moved before you know how long it takes to even begin to see progress!! It was so nice to finally get boxes unpacked and things in their place!!

Next up....what it looks like 4 months later....a visual of why this blog got started!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

From the beginning...


(So this post is of pictures of our new, empty home before we moved in!)

Welcome to our Home!!

I thought I would take a post and show you around our crazy household...starting with our townhome before we moved in, followed by the days after moving in!! (It might take two posts!!) We had three days to move in and out of the apartment and so our goal was just to get everything into the townhome! Then we had to empty our 5 x10 storage unit. Eventually, we had everything in our little place and began the daunting task of unpacking and finding a place for everything. Needless to say that is a never-ending task, which is why I created this blog!!

Okay enough talk, here are some pictures!! (I apologize that they are not the best quality!)

Walking in the front door.


My beautiful kitchen with stainless steel appliances, marble countertops, a huge window, and limited storage space!

View into the dining room/living room with the half bath on the left. 

Our mini patio out back!

 Master bedroom & closet. (Sorry it's crooked.)


Full bath upstairs with full mirror, drawers, and open under counter space.
 Second bedroom.
 "Laundry room." Front-loading washer & dryer.
 That is our Green Oaks house. Next post will show some of our mess!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Welcome to "Dance Thru Chaos"!!


Welcome to my blog, "Dance Thru Chaos"! 



This is my dance through the organizing of my family's day to day life! This is the life-long journey of bringing my family's day to day life into a more organized and efficient fashion so that we are better able to use our God-given time, space, and money. 

 I started this blog for two reasons. First, to inspire myself to work at getting and keeping my household into an organized fashion! Second, to share the many aspects of having an organized, efficiently run household with you in hopes that it will inspire and encourage you to do the same!! 
I'm just a simple, Southern newlywed gal working to put our house in order! I have two young stepdaughters who are four and five and are so much fun! My husband and I enjoy music, movies, and making memories! 
I'm looking forward to sharing great inspirations with you! 

Dance with me! Be inspired! Be encouraged!