Organize the Recycling?

Thursday was recycling day for us. I started recycling when we lived in Ohio where there were drop-off places you could easily drop off your recyclables. Where we live now, there are drop-off trucks at particular sites on particular days. Recycling is fantastic for us because it means we only have one garbage can worth of garbage a week, it's good for the environment, and it's free!

We used to just drop our recyclables in an old clothes hamper we had laying around. Now, though, unlike in Ohio, we have to sort our recyclables. This wasn't a big deal for me to do when dropping everything off until it started to get cold. I'd rather just dump and go! I started sorting our recyclables in plastic grocery bags and leaving those lying on the floor of the garage. Well, dear hubby wasn't too hot on that idea. I can't say I blame him. =) That was when he came up with a free and very basic idea. Check it out:

My dear hubby labeled clothes pins so we'd know which type recyclable goes in which bag. The hamper on the floor is for our cardboard, paper, and glass items. We bag the paper and glass and leave them in the hamper because they can be so heavy. Our system isn't pretty, but it's working quite well for us. We plan at some point to pick up bins to hang in our garage, but that's way down on our priority list.

Hmmm, this gives me an idea.... Maybe instead of my coming up with ideas of how to organize everything around here, I should have the kids and my hubby come up with their own ideas. Maybe if I let them get in on the action, they'll be more likely to help me keep everything organized.

I'll have to test that theory...

Reusable Grocery Lists

Once a week I have to deal with the dreaded job of grocery shopping. I guess in some ways I don't dislike grocery shopping, just sometimes the preparation can seemingly take forever. You know what I'm talking about if you're a couponer like me - find the deals, plan your meals, make the list, clip the coupons, etc., etc., etc. The time invested is worth it to save a ton of money, but I love anything that allows me to spend less time on the prep work.

To try to streamline my grocery shopping "experience", I made a list of the major items in each aisle at the grocery store. This way, I don't have to write everything down. I can just circle or highlight most of the items I need to buy.

This may sound silly to you, but it bugs me that I am wasting two sheets of paper each week just for my grocery list. The only problem is that if it's not written down, I won't remember it. I think I might have a solution. Here's hoping that it works!

I'm going to pick up some notecards - maybe I'll color-code them - in addition to a metal ring clip and something to help me sort of laminate them. I'm going to have one card per area / aisle, leaving space to write in extra items not on the list. Then I'll laminate them, or possibly just cover them with clear packaging tape. After that, I'm going to clip them all together using the metal ring. Before each shopping trip I'll mark my needed items on the note cards using a dry-erase marker.

The only potential problem I see is the items being wiped off by accident when the dry-erase marker rubs against something else. On the plus side, though as I buy each item, I can simply wipe it off the list. With the metal ring, I'll be able to attach my shopping list / cards to the cart so I won't lose it. I may see if I can attach a pouch of some type to keep the coupons that I'm using that shopping trip together so I won't lose them. (I'll still take my regular coupon pouch with me.)

Alright! I'm ready to get started! Unfortunately I need to wait until I go to the grocery store again to make sure I have all of the items listed in the correct order. Phooey! I'll let you know how it goes and will post a photo once I have it all made.

Do you have other ideas? Please share!

Organizing, Finances, Kids, & Changes, Oh My!

When I started this blog, I did it to encourage myself to get my house and life in order. I love to organize, so I thought this would be fun. Well, while I've been enjoying writing and feeling like I have a daily "job", I'm just not really happy with the direction in which I have started taking this blog. I'm no professional organizer, just a wanna-be, so I really want to back away from the path I was starting to go down - a bossy one! =)

In addition to enjoying organizing, I really enjoy saving money and seeing how far I can stretch a buck. My husband and I currently don't carry any debt other than our mortgage. (We've both been very lucky and very strategic with our money.) At a couple of points, though, we've leaned on our main credit cards. This may sound silly, but I really got a kick out of figuring out how we'd go about paying off the credit card and how quickly we could do it. Now, we were never in debt by much, but I enjoyed the challenge that debt offered.

One other topic I like to talk about and makes me happy is my family. I love to share stories about my kids in addition to hearing stories about others' kids. Our two very different dogs provide a bit of humor from time to time as well.

I guess what I'm saying is that I may take this blog in a whole other direction than I had initially planned. I think I might try to figure out how to mix these three interests of mine. I know, good luck, huh? Unfortunately, this blog itself likely won't be very "well organized" for a while. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable to read with changing things up and me writing more in the same style that I talk.

What do you think? Anyone out there? =)