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Turquoise Pantry Updated + Printable Pantry Label Love

July 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

 

I have been in love over the past couple of weeks with my updated turquoise pantry.  You know I told you I have my own pantry. Well almost. It is a second pantry because I really like having a separate place that I can keep what is needed for when I cook. Since it is separate from my main pantry which is for the kids’ snacks and cereal, etc., it allows me to find what I need and organize easier when I menu plan. Also, I keep my salad stuff in here because I love a good salad as part of lunch.  My main pantry is small and I have the room so I really like organizing my food this way. What do you think about the change? I am in love with my new baskets.

Kitchen Pantry Update

If you want to see how it looked before, you can see it here. A small change, but one I love.  Okay, now to what I purged, kept, used elsewhere, bought and made.

I purged my cooking utensils. Though we grill outside during the summer quite a bit, I didn’t need all of the cooking utensils I had. I do wash my dishes so I figured I could purge the cooking utensils and I did. I got down to one container.

Did I tell you that I use flower pots for storage? They come in way more colors than a utensil caddy, are normally cheaper and you can find them in bigger sizes. The orange chevron flower pot I found at Ross and fell in love. I used the yellow ones in my kitchen elsewhere. My clear containers are OXO. I know they are expensive but I love them because of how they all fit together. They just about make you measure and plan before you buy which is the way to do it.

But the biggest change has to be my green baskets from Hobby Lobby. The green baskets change the look and are the right size that I need. Since I use this more like a cooking pantry I was not looking for big or deep baskets. I ended up keeping the original turquoise baskets on the very bottom. I got them from Target but this is also where the Mr. keeps his protein drinks and I like to keep my cleaning stuff handy too like vinegar and napkins for the table. So it worked out better to have something bigger at the bottom.

Well I take that back, maybe the biggest change was that I finally got to label. Unless I label, a project is not finished. Remember I told you that labeling is always my last thing to do because I like to use something for a while before I label to be sure I like the lay out. Take your time when organizing and before you label to be sure you like the set up. I looked at my set up for months before I decided that I wanted different baskets.

I got the labels here for you that I used, but I am going to give them to you in two formats.

Download Pdf Copy Here.

Download Picture Format or Png Here.

One format is a pdf but the other is a  picture format because I want to show you how to fill in the labels that are PERFECT for you. You may or may not have the same items to label that I have. Also because this is my cooking pantry you may want to do your main pantry or you may need several of the same thing. So instead of me deciding your font & color like an editable pdf, I want to show you how to make your own using part of what I give you.

This tutorial is in Word because it is easy and also because a lot of us have some kind of word processing program we use.  Here it is step by step.

Open your Word Document. Copy and paste the picture file in your program after you download it from this blog post. Use the Picture Tools Format and click the picture to pull it out some and position it on your page. Get her straight on your page.

One more tip to be sure it fits, fills your page nice and is big enough on the page is to use Page Layout and change the margins to narrow. Then pull the picture by clicking on it to cover more of the page. Check the bottom of your page to be sure you are not off the page. Be sure it covers as much as it can without going off the page and you should have labels that are nice and big when you finish.

Click on the Insert Tab and insert a Text Box. I just use the simple text box. After you click on it, then use the cursor to position that box over your first label. Move it there by dragging it in place. Oh, and be sure to delete all the text in that box. Just highlight the text and hit delete.  The text should go away and your box should stay and be empty if you did it right.

Now we need to get rid of that ugly black line. Right Click on the box and go down to Format Text Box. Look for Line and click the drop down button and scroll down to No Color, Click Ok. Now we don’t have a border around the text box. It has an invisible border.

Now the fun part. Take your time to make your font and color choice. Put your cursor inside of the text box. Be sure you are on the Home Tab and click down to choose a font. I just chose the first pretty one I saw in my menu. If you need your print larger make it larger.

I chose Artistic from my fonts and I chose the color blue and typed my first label. Isn’t that pretty?

Instead of going back through all of this again to make the rest of them, just right click the first one you made and copy it. Then paste it somewhere on your page. It doesn’t matter where. Just grab the copy and place it on the next label. Type in your next name or label. Keep doing that for each label. You can create as many color combinations as you want to. I did two. You can change the color for every label. Easy, peazy, diy and you get exactly what you like.

One last thing to share with you is how to attach them. I get all my labels laminated. It doesn’t cost but a few bucks and it so worth it. You don’t want it or need it very thick so even a home laminator works fine for this. As far as attaching them I prefer to use Scotch fasteners that come in a roll. I use a roll so I can cheat. I cut off a long enough piece so that I can reposition the circle as needed to get it balanced with the rest.  In other words repositioning the circle on the container up or down using a longer piece of strip, giving it a nudge or two gets the labels close enough to looking balanced without measuring each label on the container up and across.

My house is not perfect but I enjoy it and don’t want to spend 30 minutes finding center. I take more care with how far up or vertical I go but not across. Scotch has been better over the years because they are known for being sticky and holding. So brand matters to me in this.

By using velcro too, you can switch out containers anytime you want to and use another label. I try not to label containers “permanently” unless I am for sure it will have the same content for years which is why I like velcro because I can switch containers and use it for something else.

Cut out the circles on the gray line or cut the gray line away.  The label looks cleaner when it has an outside edge that is white and the only way for me to show you that was to put a gray circle around it. That’s it, all done.

I will print another set of labels to store in my Home Management Binder so I can have them handy. Are you doing a small project or two in conjunction with updating your Home Management Binder this year? I am lovinggggggg my new pantry updo.

Hugs and love ya,

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: 2. My FREE Organizing Printables {Any topic}, Home, Organization Tagged With: organized pantry

Pantry Updo

May 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Do you know how much time I spend thinking about changing my blog description? My ideal description, I think anyway, would be happy homeschool girl who hearts homeschooling and everything about it, but also hankers to organize any time of the year and dabble in a little decorating too.

How do you say “I am a girl who loves lapbooking, notebooking, history, doing anything hands-on when it comes to learning, organizing all I can anytime whether it’s school, my home, or one drawer, creating my own printables, leading workshops and talking about every possible and conceivable subject that has to do with homeschooling and let’s not forget while I am at that I have a soft place in my heart for new homeschoolers and in between that I conjure up new color schemes and projects for decorating that one day I may be able to use in my home“?

It is has never been easy for me to reduce all the ideas and projects that are reeling around in my head to a few eloquent sounding sentences. Instead of worrying about all that, I would rather tell you about what else I have been doing. I get on maniac missions and it’s hard for me to unhinge myself from them until I complete them.

Right now, I am in a re-organizing part decorating state of mind. Maybe you have seen my pantry in some of my pictures but I am a girl in love, love, love with it.

This pantry is new and it is actually my “second pantry”. I will have to show you my first pantry too but that is another project.  I fell in love with this pretty thing because I heart turquoise but also love the look of wrought iron. It is kind of old world charm mixed with traditional things. The wrought iron look is the same design I have on my breakfast table and I have loved that look for years.

So for my spring decorating project, I have been trying to decide on what containers or bins to use in my pantry because as you can see it is open to the rest of my house, so that detail matters to me.

I have been taking my time on organizing. These turquoise containers I already had, so I put them in the pantry to see if I liked them. Well I love the bins but I think I really need a pop of some other color. Also, I need to declutter the utensil containers here that are my extras. So I have more work to do to it. I think a keeper though are the clear containers.

Don’t get in a rush about labeling your baskets and containers until you decide if they will work for you. I have to use the pantry for a while before I decide what I want to keep and get rid of. After deciding that I would keep only the clear containers, I have been on a hunt for different baskets ever since.

I have been looking for days and had to show you some of my favorite places to get baskets and if you visit the places regularly enough and watch the prices, you may hit a sale like I did today.

These bins or baskets come from Target and it is a good stand by, but Target is not always my first stop because sometimes a basket I like will have a tag indicating that it is an “in store” only purchase. I prefer to have exactly the number I need so I may look longer to buy online so I don’t have to hunt and peck at the store.

Another favorite place of mine to shop for baskets is World Market. I can’t stay out of that place and they vary what they have throughout each season.

Land of Nod has to be right up there for one of my top two places that I love to buy baskets at too. I guess people think they are just for kids room but baskets are baskets and can be used anywhere.

I just go crazy over their color selection because I can match any color scheme usually.

So if Land of Nod is one of my top runners, then Hobby Lobby has to be my other choice for a great place to look for bins and baskets.  I just can’t stay away from that place either and I finally found the bins I had to have.I just fell in love with these and the polka dots and will be changing out my pantry soon. I really couldn’t contain myself either when the baskets were marked 30% off too. I just knew I had to have them.

They have so many styles and colors too. I have ones similar to these in my bathroom.

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

The long hunt is over and I can’t wait for them to get here. Next, I will start working on labels. You know I will make my own labels too. But now that I picked out the baskets, I have some time to create labels. When it’s complete, I’ll share those pictures with you too and of course the labels.

Just remember, if you buy organizational bins to measure first or use baskets you already have for a while until you decide exactly what you want. Do you have a project that needs some updated and fresh storage bins?

Hugs and love ya,

 

 

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Home, Homeschool Tools, Storage, & Accessories, Organization

Cop an Attitude about Organization

May 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Copping an attitude is not just for our two year olds. If we want to be successful at organization we need to cop a positive attitude about it.

A positive attitude affects what we want to achieve and sticks with us longer than any negatives we keep bringing up about our lack of self discipline or lack of consistency. Until we visualize the kind of homeschooling life we desire, we won’t get motivated about it.

What motivates me won’t motivate you. So how can you be determined to stay motivated? It comes from having a very clear picture of what YOU want.

In our August workshop, we encourage you to WRITE DOWN your goals and what brought you to homeschooling. Did you do that? Did you include how you do not want to be unorganized? It is your MISSION STATEMENT and your personal vision. This is different than a plan. Plans (or curricula) on how we achieve our personal vision will change, come and go and they should, but not our vision.

What you have done is set very clear expectations for your journey. You have determined your success.

So what do you really want? Do you really want to live in a chaos free household or stress free ? True, we know there are no guarantees as "life happens", but when you remind yourself daily of what you want, organization can be achieved.

Overcoming organizational hurdles like how we balance our time each day and clean our home can be reached through routine. Routine and organization do not stifle creativity, spur of the moment responses or cause boredom.

A consistent routine allows time for creativity and taking advantage of spur of the moment decisions we want to make in our day because our time and home are relatively uncluttered. Time to respond to the moment and live carefree are so much more exhilarating when we know we have kept our routine. We can savor the freedom.

Routine can be defined as "ordinary and regular". It is a blessing to have taught children and it is accomplished through "ordinary and regular" days not boring days.

Establish a routine that works for you. Teach the quality of orderliness to your children.

Blemishes are part of homeschooling. Our houses are our "hearts" and our hearts are not perfect. Strive for clutter free homes with some blemishes. That is realistic and not extreme.

No amount of articles and books on organization will be of any value unless you have attitude.

Attitude affects EVERYTHING, do you have it? :o)

©Tina Robertson

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Home, Homeschool Space, Organization Tagged With: home organization

Menu Planning – A Lifesaver!

May 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If there is anything more satisfying in your endeavor to be organized and one of the very “first steps” to the “organization road”, it has to be meal planning. It gives a satisfying “return” quickly. We all want to see a “profitable return” on our time.

Meal planning is tops on the list for that profitable return.   How so? Look at this list.

menu planning in homeschool organization

 

1. Less time is spent in the kitchen (it’s true)

2. Direction for what to fix for supper at the end of a hard day of homeschooling is a stress reliever

3. If your family has special health needs, they can be filled

4. Less time in the grocery store

5. Less money spent because we are not making several trips and we are getting everything we need

6. More variety equals more enjoyment by our family

Now, since we live in a “different world” than most folks when it comes to everyday living, I won’t share with you crazy things on how to add variety, choose foods for eye appeal, contrast and balance foods,etc. Although it is good advice to follow, when you are trying to survive in the homeschool world, those things are secondary.

In reality, my family doesn’t mind simple meals and will eat chicken two days in a row. Of course, each family is different but the most important thing is to menu plan.

 Menu Planning – A Lifesaver?

1. Start with the recipes your family enjoys the most. When I first started, I could only think of 5. So it made me start to try out different meals. My family appreciated the variety.

2. Think of a system that works for you. I prefer a 5 inch notebook with page protectors. I don’t store cookbooks, I throw them away after going through them. See, in my ideal perfect world all of my pages would look the same in my ideal perfect cookbook, you know same font, same border BUT I don’t live in that world.

So my page protectors are filled with handwritten pages, recipes on index cards, typed pages, pages torn out from recipe books and various other assorted colors. BUT it is organized and tabbed for ME and how my family eats.

Don’t wait until you have the “perfect look” as THAT is NOT organization and you won’t take the FIRST STEP. Again organization is about making it work for YOU.

Some moms prefer an online free planner or even recipes on index cards or even a Word Document that you can add to each time. Find a system for you.

3. Spend time on your Grocery List. My Grocery List is set up “Aisle by Aisle” for Kroger (The store I do most of my food shopping at). If you take time to type one Master List and then put it on the refrigerator, then ALL family members can contribute to checking off when they used the item last.

I can’t express enough how much my printed grocery list has been a huge help to me through the years. I can update it any time. It also allows my sons to shop with Dad independent of me and now that my oldest will be driving, he can shop alone as he has a list “aisle by aisle”

Too, some moms prefer to laminate their list. ME, I prefer to print off like 20, keep them in my binder and then pull one out at the end of the week and put on the refrigerator.

So when it’s time for the grocery store, your list is half done. It saves time too while you are cooking since you don’t have to stop and write, just check off on your list what you need.

4. The last tip, try menu planning for a MONTH and not a week. This doesn’t mean you can’t buy weekly and take advantage of coupons but it means you have taken the time to plan for the MONTH and have flexibility within that month if you need to change things around.

Planning weekly is exhausting as the end of the week is here before you know it and there you sit on Sunday with what to fix the next week.

Menu Planning is a KEEPER when your day is full of homeschooling, activities and children.

Don’t deprive them, take time to do it and it’s WORTH every ounce of work you put into it.

Hugs to you and WHAT’S FOR SUPPER?

©Tina Robertson

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Home, Organization Tagged With: menu planning

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