Bottled up

Our bottles moved up! For a while now we have had a row of wine bottles across the top of our kitchen cabinets, as you can see in the photo below.


Then there was a gap, followed by a group of vases. It was not very cohesive. And who needs this many vases?!


We also have had other bottles on top of one of our bookshelves including some antique Dr. Pepper bottles.


I decided it was finally time to make these vases and bottles more cohesive! I got rid of some of the vases, only keeping my three favorites. I also got rid of some of the less pretty wine bottles. Then I gathered the remaining bottles and vases to arrange them all together. I started by putting the taller bottles in the back, and filling in with smaller ones in the front. I also tried to spread out color and clear ones to make an attractive arrangement. Here's the result!


Here are a few close ups. Yes, I was standing on a chair to take these pics.




They look so much prettier than they used to. I think it would look even better if eventually I limit the color palette of our bottle collection. Maybe just clear, blues, and greens?

Do you save old wine bottles? I have been know to buy bottle of wine just for the label design. What kind of ordinary objects do you use to decorate with?

No more homeless papers

Thanks to simplify 101, I finally figured out what do do with all those papers that didn't have a home. You know, those papers that are on your fridge, kitchen counter, and desk because it doesn't make sense to file them away, but you can never find them when you need them. It's what the folks at simplify 101 call a Command Central Binder.

I was able to put mine together using supplies I already had lying around. I grabbed a binder, dividers, page protectors, post-it notes, a pen, and all some homeless papers from around my apartment. Types of papers that found a home in my binder include business cards, doctor appointment reminder cards, prescription information, medical information, rabies certificates, and apartment information. I would like to get some of the page protectors with little slots for business cards to add to it, but before I spend any money I want to make sure this solution works for me.


As a side note, I got really excited that I had such a cute binder and dividers that I wasn't using for anything else! I love office supplies. And having cute things makes organizing so much more fun! Well, at least it does for me. The last time we tried to get organized, we started off by getting excited and spending lots of money on stuff at Office Depot but we didn't end up doing much organizing. Did we really need a pretty, pastel rubber band ball?! Oops. Hopefully doing things the other way around this time will work much better! There's nothing like a recession and a new baby to make you count your pennies!

To start it off I made sections for each family member, as well as sections for pets, the apartment and resources. I made post it labels for now instead of writing on the tabs because I want to see what makes sense as I continue to gather and add things.


I also decided to use this basket I already had to corral our binder and newly organized coupons. It will live on our kitchen counter. Hopefully we can keep it updated and organized! If we do, it will keep our counter clear and save us the time we currently spend searching for things!


Here's the project breakdown.
Total cost: $0 for me! (approx. $10 if you need to buy supplies)
Time spent: 45 min.

For more information on how to make your very own binder and what kinds of papers you can keep in it, be sure to visit simplify 101.

Where do you keep your important reference papers? Do you share my love of cute office supplies?

Coupons: crazy to collected

Before I dive into this month's decluttering zone, I had a couple of paper clutter solutions I wanted to implement. First up... organizing coupons! I used to keep them in my purse, but after adding baby, car-seat, and diaper bag to my list of things to cart around, I treated myself to a new, smaller purse, but it doesn't have room for all my coupons. Plus, my husband is the main grocery shopper now so it doesn't do us any good to have the coupons in my purse. As a result, coupons started to take over my kitchen counter!

I decided it was time to reclaim my precious counter space and organize my coupons so that finding and using them will be quick and easy. I started off with a visit to the Dollar Spot at a Target. They usually have these great little envelopes with divider tabs for just $1! I chose a black one because it looked so much nicer and more husband friendly.

The first step was gathering all the coupons.

Next I grabbed my new coupon organizer and wrote categories on the labels that came with it. I chose grocery, restaurant, baby, pet, clothes, and other. I put the extra labels in the back of the last section in case I decide to change any of them in the future.

After my organizer was ready to go, it was time to sort the coupons into the categories. I also made sure I got rid of any expired ones. Once I sorted the coupons into categories, I also sorted them by date with the ones expiring the soonest in the front.

Here is my completed organizer, all ready to go. One of the best parts is that using just one or two coupons will pay for this project. Now when one of us is planning a trip to the store, locating coupons will be a snap! I plan on throwing away expired coupons each time I am looking through a section, which should be quick since they will all be up front.

Here's the project breakdown.

Total cost: $1.00

Time spent: 45 min.

Do you like to use coupons? How do you keep them organized?