Final update to office overhaul...for now...

After I finished organizing the office and cleaning the apartment, something dawned on me. We are moving from this place in just a few short months. J and I have decided that no matter whether he gets into dental school here or not, we want to find more of a single dwelling home or town home to rent for our time in dental school. This is mostly because we know we will both be gone a lot (Me with work and J with school and studying), and we want Dexter to be able to stay outside during the day. 

Good idea, but why did I just organize the office again? Well here's a reason -- J got a J-O-B! 

So, J's dad is a doctor. He has a bunch of medical records that need to go from paper to computer. So guess what J is going to do for the next 3-4 months? Organize and scan ALL of the papers into  the electronic medical record database! Fun? Maybe not, but it pays the bills. We will be able to save up some more money before J starts school and we take out a HUGE loan to pay for it. 

That was a huge answer to prayer, so while J was at his parents house figuring out all these boxes and how he was going to transport them back here, I quickly finished organizing to give him some workspace. So here are the photos before He brings in loads of papers...

My desk/wall before

AFTER! 

J's desk/wall before 

AFTER! 

Closet wall before

AFTER!

Deer Head wall before

AFTER! 

(I even found a way to "upcycle" my old shoe shelf from college into a makeshift shelf for J's weights!!) -- well, the small red ones are mine, of course! 

I think not only does this room look better, but it is WAY more functional as a useable space (because we never really went into this room before now). Also, if I do walk in, my brain doesn't hurt as much, which is always a plus. 

Though this may be time wasted, I will have a much better idea of what we want our office space to look like wherever we live in the next chapter of our lives! 

- A

Organizing all of the yarns - (office overhaul part two)

Many of you may be thinking "What did Abby do on her sick day yesterday?"; "Maybe she slept in and watched movies with a box of tissue?"; or "What about some herbal tea?". NOPE.

So what didn't I do...haha. I DID sleep in, took some cold meds, then proceded to continue my office overhaul in the afternoon. Sometimes when I am home alone, I get stir crazy. No matter how bad or tired or whatever I feel I can't just lay there and do nothing. I think I have a disease!

So you may remember my last post on sorting all of my knitting supplies and such. Today I just have a few progress photos for you from the office. Keep in mind that I am doing this (hopefully) without buying any supplies at all! Just using stuff I have lying around the apartment, so it probably won't be as awesomely cool as someone else's office overhaul.

Here goes... (before pics)

 

Wall One

 

Wall Two

Wall Three

Wall Four

On a separate note, while I was organizing and cleaning, I made myself a strawberry-peach protein smoothie to sip on:

 
 1. 6 oz orange juice
2. 1 handful frozen strawberries and peaches
3. 1 large handful spinach
4. 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
5. 2 large spoonfuls plain, low-fat Greek yogurt

I blend mine with an immersion blender because it's easier than putting everything in the regular blender and having to clean the blender! Haha LAZY!

 

So...as I drank my smoothie I got some things organized. Here is what I have so far...

Progress on wall two

Beautiful, accessible, organization

 Cute little corkboards I found when I was cleaning out J's desk!

 Still don't really know what to do with the shipping supplies, but I at least got them somewhat under control.

More to come on this later, but right now I am home alone with J starting a job with his dad this week in Hville. Risky business? Nah. I think I'll just veg-out on the sofa and catch up on Walking Dead! Premiere Sunday Feb 10th!

- A

Organizing all of the Yarns - (Office overhaul part one)

This organizational project is WAY, WAY overdue. I have been knitting for almost seven years now, and have accumulated a lot of yarn. Maybe not a lot compared to a knitting store, but a lot for living in a 900 square-foot apartment. 

When J and I got married, we got rid of a few things, but mostly gained a lot of things. Our wedding presents included all of the normals (china, kitchen appliances, bedding, etc), but it also included most of the furniture we now own. They are hand-me-downs, but boy do we love them (well mostly the fact that we didn't have to pay for them). 

Our tiny space was filled, but there was limited space for other things, like a craft room. Thus what follows...

Somewhat close-up of the "knitting station" I created for myself once I started my Etsy shop this past fall. 

What it looks like when you are looking from the kitchen into the living area. Notice the lovely burnt orange couch, a gift from J's great aunt and uncle. 

So, after months of being annoyed by not being able to reach my yarn unless I stand on the arm of the couch, I have decided to make my "knitting station" more functional by moving it into our second bedroom, or home office (the title "home office" cracks me up because we don't even use this room, except to store things we don't always use). 

This is only the beginning of the office overhaul. My first task was to organize all of my yarn, much of which was tangled beyond belief because of a certain furry friend (Dexter). He enjoys getting into yarn when I leave it on the floor or coffee table.

Once I untangled everything and got rid of the unusable scraps, I divided yarn and supplies into these categories:

1. Full skeins of yarn

2. Partly used skeins

3. Scraps (can be used to tie tags to finished projects or for washcloths, etc.)

4. Knitting Supplies

5. Shipping 

6. Finished Projects

Now that I have everything organized, my next step is to organize the "office" to make it more knitting friendly. Stay tuned! 

-A