My Pouchee

No, I don't mean pouchee as in the belly fat hanging over my pants. This is something completely different, and a lot more fun to talk about (and look at).


Okay everyone, your house isn't the only thing that needs Spring cleaning. I dare all of you out there to take a look into your purse, I bet there's a million receipts, makeup, cadburry eggs, and keys. Okay maybe the Cadburry egg is just me, but just admit it, your purse is unorganized.


I'm ashamed to say that mine was too so I did a little purse Spring cleaning with my new best friend,


The Pouchee!





Okay, check this out, the pouchee is a purse organizer where you can keep all of your purse necessities neatly organized so you can always find what you're looking for. Plus, when the mood strikes you to change your purse, the pouchee transfers easily from purse to purse.


I chose the Evening Plum Outback Pouchee, isn't it purdy?





Check out all the crap you can fit nicely into the cute little pouchee. It has a spot for everything! Plus pouchee is just really fun to say.







I could even fit a couple cadburry eggs in there too because you'll never know when you'll need a cadburry egg.


You want pouchee? Well you can havee!


Pouchee is offering their first online discount coupon that gives you 10% off your entire order, you know, because you'll probably have to buy 10 of these to share with your friends. So here is the secret code to get your savings:


poucheemom


So go check them out, they come in all sorts of colors and materials to fit any one's style.


Pouchee Purse Organizer


They even have pouchees for the consoles in your car and the pouchee plus! You can also find them on facebook where they keep you up to date on new deals and giveaways.














The nice peeps at Pouchee gave me my very own Pouchee to try out. I didn't recieve any other form of compensation and this post is based on my own opinion.

Me heart pouchee peeps.

Always Use Rubbers While Screwing

It may be snowing outside my window right now, but that doesn't mean Spring isn't around the corner. And what's so great about Spring?


Spring Cleaning!!


[Insert cheers and applause here.]


Now I've started a little early, just trying to get things organized and get rid of all the junk in my house. My latest project was the cupboard under my kitchen sink. It was organized at one point but then too much crap started accumulating until, well, it looked like this:






So, with Boomhower's help, I took everything out so I could scrub that sucker down.





I don't know what I would do without Boomhower, he made sure there were no spiders or any other deadly creepy crawly things under there. He basically risked his life for me. And he should, I'm the one that gives him his ice water every day for hell's sake.





Most of the crap under there are stains from the last 30 years the house has been in existence. I don't even want to know what that white substance is on the wall or how it found it's permanent home frozen mid drip on the cupboard underneath my sink.


All I know is that it wasn't from me....er....I mean Albert.


And don't worry, I practice safe cleaning, I always use rubbers.


Gloves people.


Rubber GLOVES sickos.


So scrubbing it didn't do much for the aesthetics but at least I know it's clean! (Yes, I cleaned it AFTER Boomhower inspected it.)


My ultimate goal is to store my cleaning supplies in the area that they are used. So I moved all the cleaners that I don't use in the kitchen to their new homes and now I have much more space and can actually find what I'm looking for.


Now, for my favorite part. I was walking through the isles of Bed Bath and Beyond when I came across this under-the-sink shelf. We had a moment when we first laid eyes on each other. All the background noise and people faded away and it was only me and shelf sharing some sort of intangible connection. I'm pretty sure I heard harps and I knew we were meant for each other. And shelf knew he was meant for me, he practically jumped in my cart, I had no choice but to bring him home.


He is expandable and the shelves are adjustable so you can custom fit him under your sink. Very cool and I did it all by myself! I used one of those doo-hickies that turns those other metal thingies into the shelf so they stay together.


Yep, I screwed all by myself!


So lets get on with it already and do a before and after.



Before:








After:




You can't really see it in the picture but now there is storage behind the shelf where I store our flower vases (because we never use them) and other things that I don't use very often. I'm thinking of putting the iron back there so I can avoid any more mishaps in the future.


And because I like things to match, I'm going to buy some mesh steel containers to replace those ugly plastic ones I'm currently using. Something like dis:













I know you're all pumped right now to go home and get to screwing so I won't take up any more of your time.


Just remember, always use your rubbers!

My Closet Has A Muffin Top

Watch out Salt Lake City, the streets are going to become one fashion disaster after another.


I donated all my clothes to the homeless.


I've never prided myself in my fashion sense, in fact I consider myself quite the opposite of fashion savvy so get out your cameras this is going to be a sight to see.


Me and the homeless go way back so I'm sure I'll run into someone wearing my outfit asking me for change and I'll have to apologize to them right away.


"I. AM. SO. SORRY. The fashion God's totally gypped me when bestowing their blessings, I know not what I do. But at least you're warm right?"


So this is my official apology and warning to all the people, dogs, and cats of Salt Lake City. You have been warned.




It was a big weekend for me. It was about time that I downsized our closets, they were bustin at the seams, sportin a muffin top and everything. I was so stoked to organize all of our clothes, a threw out any pack rat essence left in me and totally purged the closets.






Total Weight loss? 200,450.25 pounds. (Or somewhere close to that)



This is just the first stage in project closet organization. My goal was to get rid of all my old shit (because that's exactly what it was) that I don't wear anymore, get dividers for my dresser drawers, and rid my life of wire hangers.




(I am so in love with my new hangers)


A place for everything and everything in it's place.


I had to physically restrain myself from making a list of every single item we owned and categorizing and cross referencing them into files so that I would have documentation of every item we sent to the homeless shelter, every item we sent to the D.I., and every item we kept.



It was rough.



I did however categorized the bags so that I knew which ones went where.






Dozer was more than skeptical.






Ok, now for the before and after.


This is my closet before step one of Project Closet Organization. Remember step one is just focusing on the clothes so please ignore the junk on the shelves, those will come later.





Notice my cloth shelf barely hanging on for it's dear life? It fell to it's death a few seconds later. It is now resting peacefully in the landfill.


Okay, so here is the after photo:





I love my hangers.





Joan Crawford eat your heart out.







See what a big difference such a little change can make? All I did was get rid of some clothes, moved all my summer clothes to our storage closet and changed hangers.


Did I tell you I love my new hangers?


Oh man, if I wasn't married...*starting to day dream about marrying my hangers*....Well, now that I think of it, if Utah won't even let my gays get married, I doubt they'd allow me to marry my hangers, and I'm pretty sure polyandry is illegal anyway.


Wow. Am I seriously talking about marrying my hangers?


Ok moving on...


Now for Albert's closet. Sorry I didn't get a before picture of Al's closet, but it was CA-RAMMED!


But not anymore!






If you're not salivating right now, there is something seriously wrong with you.


Now as much as I WANTED to take a picture of my underwear drawer and post it on the internet, I thought maybe, just maybe, that wouldn't be the brightest of ideas so I'll just show you an example of what it looks like:




*applause* (Because I know you're all applauding right now)


*taking a bow while the crowd goes wild*


"I'd like to thank my mentor, Karin Katherine, for inspiration and resources, I'd like to thank my husband for letting me empty our wallets on "just silly" hangers, I'd like to thank Real Simple for their brilliant closet organization products, and last but not least I'd like to thank Gin & Tonic for the lovely celebration party."

Magazine Hell

One thing I hate and have a serious problem with is paper. I hate paper. Mail, magazines, notepads, fliers, receipts, bills, I just hate how papers make my house look, like a fricken pig sty. (If pigs rolled in magazines, ate paper, and pooped out receipts.)


So if I hate it so much then why do I let it control my life? I used to be so good at filing my papers away, up until about 4 years ago when I started my first accounting job which included filing banks statements, journal entries, and account recons. I did enough filing at work the last thing I wanted to do was file at home.


I used to get excited over filing. I loved making the new file folders using colorful markers to make decorative labels and making sure everything was in it's place. I still have a system in place but now it's just a chore.


So you think I'd try to minimize the incoming paper to my house right? Yeah I thought so too until I was offered free magazine subscriptions.


Did you see the key word there? FREE


I can't turn down anything free. I grew up going to garage sales with my dad learning the value of bartering for a bird cage just in case one day I decide to buy a bird, and if it's free?


No question, you take it.


So I jumped on that offer faster then David Letterman jumped on Stephanie Birkitt! I filled out a stupid survey (a small price to pay) and signed up for 4 free magazine subscriptions.


FOUR!


They started arriving last month. Do I read them? No. Do I save them? Yes. Will I ever read them? Probably not. So why the hell do I keep them if they are making my life miserable? Well, it's easy,


THEY WERE FREE GODDAMMIT!


Worst part is that none of the subscriptions offered were the good trashy celeb gossip kind like:















No, the 4 magazines that I am now stuck with for a WHOLE YEAR are:














They're all good right? Maybe. You know how you can tell if a magazine is good? A magazine worth taking a survey for?


If it contains crossword puzzles.


Four fricken magazines and not one crossword in sight.


What have I done?





So tell me, how do you control the paper coming into your home? What's your system?