Saturday, July 29, 2006

More on the household front

I love the furniture, I absolutely love it. To me, bedroom furniture and dining room furniture are things you will probably never change. So when hubby and I were looking there were items we liked, but when I asked myself the question: "Will you like it in 30 years?" More often than not the answer was no. So needless to say it took a long time to find the furniture we could both live with, and I hope hubby just didn't decide to agree so that we'd be done with it, but I am very very happy, and glad we kept looking rather than just buying something.

Last night I did something that I've been putting off for the better part of a year. I finally changed the handles on the cupboards in the kitchen. Well almost, I still have one pair of cupboards and 4 drawers to do. It actually only took me about 3 hours to drill new holes and hang the new handles. I still have to fill the old holes and repaint the cupboards, but that's a weekend job as the paint takes 24 hours to dry and I need to do both sides of the doors and all the shelves and inside and outside all the cupboards. I'm going to wait and see how long it takes hubby to notice, it might be only until he has to pull a spoon fork or knife out of the drawer, because he'll probably do that before I get the new handles on the drawers. I also found out, that using a drill is A LOT of fun, I really enjoyed it. I was a little concerned at first about getting the drill in the right spot and accidentally splitting the melamine, but hey, it was great! (Update: it took hubby on 10 minutes to notice).

I have to say though I did clean all the cupboards before putting the new handles on, and diluted liquid TSP is a wonder cleaner. You see I've painted my kitchen -- twice. And where I put the painters tape along the top of the hanging cupboards there was a little residual glue and it got quite sticky and dirty. Well that TSP removed that gunk in no time flat. I swiped the top of each door once with the sponge, then went back to the start and wiped it again and off it came. FABULOUS! Mr Clean wasn't nearly so fast. Mind you, TSP works great on that kind of stuff, but it does leave residue, so you have to wash it again with a typical non streaking cleaner (I wrote no steaking, I must be hungry, it was hard work). I also only hurt myself twice, not bad for me because I'm such a klutz. I drilled my left thigh, and stab/scraped my thumb with the screwdriver when it slipped. I like Ikea, but they never make their holes into metal big enough, just this little hole and a big screw. So annoying, but now I can fix that with the drill rather than killing my poor hands and arms trying to turn the screw.

Here are my organizational challenges for today:
In my dresser I have 2 drawers taken up by non-clothing items, I would like to be able to put clothing in there, but first I need some way to organize these things so that it's neat and not visible.

Drawer number one contains makeup, I have a small container for my everyday makeup, but my moisturizer and foundation don't fit, also I have a few more eyeshadows and eyeliners than the case can hold. There is also the nail polish. I'd like to organize this with the items I use to remove makeup and nail polist, so how can I get this neatly into my bathroom (I only have a vanity in there, so it's all below the sink storage at this point).

The other drawer contains my hair dryer, curling iron and rollers.

Actually now I'm thinking perhaps under the sink I install 3 stacked bins that can be pulled out like drawers and put it all in there. Just need to leave enough room for toilet paper and cleaning products. Anyone have better ideas?

Then Organizing Junkie says I should make a list of things I want to organize and break it out into small pieces, so here's my list:

My underwear and sock drawer
My makeup
My beauty routine accessories
My cleaning products
My clothes
My keepsakes
The filing cabinet
The pleasure reading bookcase
The technical reading bookcase
The comic books
The computer accessories
The computers
The computer storage disks
The guest bedroom (it's currently a storage area)
The kichen pantry
The kitchen pots and pans
The kitchen baking accessories
The plates and cups
The leftover food containers (for lunches)
The first aid kits and bandaids
The china and crystal
The serving dishes
The cookbooks and other recipes
The laundry room
The electrical/storage room
The under the stairs storage
The CDs, DVDs and tapes and games
The sewing and quilting

7 comments:

Julie Julie Bo Boolie said...

ohhh what is this magical TSP you blog of?

Sounds like your kitchen it going to look great when you're done! It's amazing what even just changing the handles can do!

Keep up the good work!

Hugs

Julie

odat_kim said...

That's what it's called "TSP" like "CLR".
Kim

Anonymous said...

Woof! Woof! Woof! *pant* Bark! Bark!

{translation: It stands for "Trisodium phosphate" but that's also its trade name and it's sold in hardware stores as a cleaner in concentrate and solution form}

Drake.

Laura said...

Hey well done. This is so fun for me! That is quite an impressive list but I'm here for you! So you mentioned your makeup and hair stuff. It sounded like you currently keep it in a dresser. It needs to be where you actually use it. Under the sink is the ideal location especially if you are using these products in your bathroom. The stacked bins are great but before you move your stuff into them make sure you go through and purge what you don't need. Makeup has a really short shelf life. Also baskets work great in these bins as well to divide your stuff up. So then when you have your space for these items all set up and looking pretty you know that whatever doesn't fit must go. Hope that helps. Please post pictures!

mom of 2 said...

That is a long list...but marking stuff off will feel good!

I'm going to have to get some of that tsp...sounds like it works great!

In our bathroom we only have a few drawers, so I bought some of those individual stacking drawers for under the sink. They are great for nail polish and makeup!

odat_kim said...

Eep! Are you serious "whatever doesn't fit must go"? Nice way to sneak that rule in!
Kim

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