Goals

How very, very basic of me. Here it is, New Years Day 2015, and I'm about to publish a list of goals for the year. Which-let's be honest-is basically just a trick of wording to deny I'm making New Years resolutions.

Certain people are awesome, ready made adults. I was never one of these people. I swear I was better at adulthood at fifteen than I am now. It's depressing. And it can feel impossible to really fix your broken disaster of a life. But that's exactly what I've spent the last couple of years doing-fixing my broken life. It's never to late to get it together.

Some of these goals are carryovers from last year and some specific things I've been working on steadily over the last few months. Knowing I've been able to make and sustain these changes gives me confidence I'll be able to attack more areas of my life. And it seemed right to start documenting my attempts at being a real, functioning adult {way, way late in the game} because as I was starting the process of getting it together I kept looking for a blog detailing a similar journey. I didn't really find it {although I do love Adulting}. So why not chronicle my experiences?

These are the fifteen in fifteen I'll be working on this year. These aren't in any order of importance, by the way.

1. Read more. Everyone who knows me in real-life just laughed out loud. I'm a voracious reader. The last year, though, I've really struggled with finishing books. Part of it is a time crunch, part of it is I'm just distracted. So I'm setting a goal of reading twenty-five books this year, which sounds doable {I'm trying not to overwhelm myself}. You can follow along and make fun of my book choices at Goodreads.
2. Socialize. This is basically my life. I get up, go to work, come home, hang out with J and the furs {which I love}, go to bed, do it again. For many reasons I severely pulled back from the world but it's time to rejoin fully. My own lameness keeps me from lots of fun social things-last night my best friend texted me to come to her party, but I was already passed out at ten o'clock. On New Years Eve. Must work on this. I've joined a book club and the first meeting is in a few weeks {and a book club will also help me work on goal one. Yay for efficiency}.
3. Money, Money, Money. This is one of the goals I've already started working on. I'll do a big post soon. 
4. Cook. I love cooking. I've written before about struggling to kick the take out habit. It's time to take my own advice and reboot my kitchen habits. Eating at home will also support my money {i.e. have more of it} goal.
5. Do one new thing with J each month. Maybe it's playing a new board game, checking out a museum, trying a new cuisine, making something together...no rules, other than doing something new together monthly. 
6. Walk. Here's another area of my life where I've gotten lazy. Here's an area with a simple fix available. At least three times a week I'm going to put Emily on her leash and walk around our {wonderfully walkable and scenic} neighborhood. I want to get into better shape without making a big deal about it. This will help.
7. Drink Water at Work. I can have coffee when I get to work, but I'm giving up keeping a two-liter of Coke under my desk. Water, water, water. I'm not going to say I'm giving up soda all together, but not drinking it at work will help keep it under control. 
8. Keep on keeping on at work. I love my job. I feel lucky to have it. I actually thinking working on my other goals will help me be better at work.
9. Calendar my life. This one of those areas I'm already working on. I found a system that really works well for me. Now I need to consistently work the system throughout the year.
10. Blog weekly. This is part of the accountability factor of working on my goals, but also I actually enjoy writing and blogging and have missed it. 
11. Unf?ck our habitat. We've lived here for four years. It's amazing the amount of sheer nonsense you can accumulate in four years. Weirdly, this is one of those areas where working on our money helped our house. I'll explain more later. I've been decluttering, organizing, and scrubbing all week.
12. Make home home. Again, we've lived here four years. We're going to live here at least another year. Time to really make it work for us, and to invest in things that will work for us no matter where we live. A great kitchen cart. Matching plates. Eventually a new sofa. 
13. My poor car. I love my car, so why do I let it deteriorate into a trash heap? Yes, I have a long commute. That's not a good enough excuse. 
14. Use my degree. Yes, I love my job but I miss working on genealogy and historic preservation projects. There's a chance I might get some freelance work this year in these fields, but even if I don't I need to plan and work on some projects.
15. Remember why I'm doing this.

This is what I've learned over the last couple of years. Start where you are. Is your whole life one big mess? You can't fix it all at once. I found a great job. My self-confidence started to increase. I had more disposable income. I started working on really getting on top of my money situation. Etc. 

My life isn't perfect and even if I work hard at all these goals all year it still won't be perfect. It will be better, and it will be better for J and our beloved furs.

So. What are you working on this year?

Get Organized For Spring

This isn't a spring cleaning post (although one is probably in the offing!). This more a list of things you need to do now, while winter is still hanging over all of our heads, so you can really enjoy the warm weather that's just around the corner!

Photo From How Stuff Works

1. Clean Our Your Air Conditioner

Few things are worse than waiting to turn your a/c on until you really need it (I'm one of those people who puts it off as long as possible) and then it not actually turning on! And naturally this happened to multiple other people, so the HVAC repair people can't get out to you immediately...

Improve your odds by following these simple instructions on cleaning your window unit or central air system. Yeah, they need cleaning. Then give them a test run so you can make sure everything is ready to go!

Photo From All Natural Store

2. Find A Farmer's Market

I'm a huge farmer's market booster. During the summer season I usually go at least once a week. The vegetables are, naturally, out of this world but you can also buy local honey, meat, eggs (and even meet the chicken who laid them!), prepared food, plants...it's amazing! Use this link to find your local farmer's market.

Photo From My Lot

3. Get Your Clothes Ready

Our master bedroom boasts of one fairly small closet and one chest of drawers. So we rotate our clothes in and out, using the larger closet in the spare room to store our out of season clothes. Right now our summer stuff is in there but over the next few weeks I'll start moving sweaters and sweats into the closet and pulling our summer wear back into our bedroom

This is also a good time to go through your clothes and decide what you need. J and I both need flip flops and summer shoes. I'm digging these Hogan turquoise striped canvas thong sandals although they are WAY out of my price range.

Here's a great link with ideas for organizing out of season clothing.

4. Set Up Your Outdoor Space

Photo From 1927 Countryside

We've lived here two years and we still don't have a good space outdoors for hanging out. I'm currently digging these benches made from pallets. We have a small deck, but these would provide a LOT of seating and we could pop a small circular table like this into the space for dining.

Speaking of dining, we don't have a grill! Crazy! We are SO getting one this summer. I'm not sure if it'll be a simple charcoal grill or a fancy gas grill with side burners, but I LOVE grilling out and it is past time we created an outdoor cooking space.

Emily pondering how much she hates flea meds.

5. Get Your Pets Ready

First, lets talk flea meds. I'm so conflicted about them. I don't like the idea of these chemicals coursing through Emily's body (we haven't used them yet on Nola, but given her health issues I'm even more leery of using them on her). I don't know if you've ever gotten any of the meds on your hand, but as soon as it hits your skin you get the WORST taste in your mouth. Gross.

However. Where we live is over run with fleas (maybe because we live by the lake?). All the neighbors battle them, too. And the more natural remedies we've pursued, and even giving Emily a weekly flea bath, doesn't work during summer. So we do all the prevention stuff but if we see a flea we break out the big guns for a couple of months.

If you are planning a summer vacation that includes the pets or includes them boarding somewhere while you are gone, remember to make get copies of their medical records from their vet and make sure they are up to date on their rabies and kennel cough vaccines.

Cavalier Motel, Outerbanks

6. Plan some summer fun!

We haven't been anywhere together in FOREVER. I'm busily pinning all sorts of ideas so we can plan a little getaway. Some of my favorites? Figure out a driving route that includes all major landmarks, a list of all factory tours by state (J would love this!), and I love the idea of this website where you plug in your start and ending places and it fills in all the cool stuff you could do along the way.

I love the beach, and I love vintage-y places (J interprets this as "Tracie loves to stay in places that makes me think of the Bates Motel") and I think the Cavalier looks AWESOME.

7. How Old ARE Your Sneakers?

My current sneakers are ancient. And I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on the blog, but I have scoliosis (former Boston Brace wearers, represent!), crazy flat feet, and overpronate like CRAZY. Ergo, I'm incredibly hard on my shoes.


I've heard good things about running shoes with metal springs. I KILL the cushioning in my sneakers, and these are supposedly very durable, along with providing lots of shock absorption (which I need). I'm planning on ordering some soon.

This is a good time to think about getting new running shoes, because hopefully we are all about to be more active as warm weather hits.

Affiliate links are included in this post.

What steps are y'all taking to get ready for spring?

Share Your Story: PJ's Repurposed Suitcase

It's another edition of Share Your Story! Do you have a project, room, collection, or tip you'd like to share? Use the contact form here or email me at middleclassmodern@gmail.com and share your story!

There are few things I like better than an upcycle of a good vintage find! I admired this project when PJ posted it on her fantastic blog Planned In Pencil and was thrilled when she emailed me about sharing it with all of you.

PJ shares that she loves old, hard sided vintage suitcases. I'm with her. But what to do with them? Especially the small, overnight case suitcases?

This little blue beauty is what PJ started with (can't you just see a chic Pan Am stewardess carting this around the airport?).

And in a fit of true creativity she realized it would be perfect...

As a craft organizer! Read all about the hot gluing, pocket making and organizing of this suitcase turned craft supplier holder on PJ's original post.

I love it! I think I might steal this idea to help keep my embroidery supplies organized! I a few of them could be functional AND adorable in the linen closet, keeping smaller items together and neat.

Now I want to hear about your upcycled ideas!

The 15/10/5/1 Cleaning Plan

As I alluded to in this organizational ideas post I'm not naturally a well-organized person. I'm also not a person whoever thinks housecleaning sounds like an awesome way to pass the afternoon.

So after many years of trial and error I've come up with the 15/10/5/1 cleaning plan. Basically, I've broken down all chores into either a fifteen, ten, five, or one minute category. By devoting thirty minutes or so a day (or, uh, every few days) it allows you to keep your house clean without having to devote all day to the task. You don't even have to do the thirty minutes all at once! Usually I end up doing a few minutes here or there throughout the day.

Oh...true confession. This doesn't cover EVERY chore. Taking out the trash and scooping/changing the kitty litter isn't on this list (changing the litter is about a ten minute chore/scooping more like 5 minutes. Neither are more rarely done chores, like windows. This is just a simple overview of most basic chores.

15 Minutes

1. Wash dishes

I don't have a dishwasher (insert sad face here). I can wash up the daily dishes and pots in about fifteen minutes. I try to do this right after dinner; usually I do it when I let Emily out for the last time before bed.

2. Vacuum A Room

3. Attack Your Personal Monster

We all have one. Right now my personal monster is our spare room. It's such a disaster that the idea of spending the day on it is both horrifying and overwhelming. Instead I devote fifteen minutes every couple of days to it. Slowly I'm seeing the light at the end of tunnel! Other Personal Monsters might be your basement, closet, whatever is a mess you aren't quite sure what to do with.

4. Scrub shower

5. Fold laundry

The worst part of doing laundry...and yet the part you can do while watching Parks and Rec.

10 Minutes

1. Sort Laundry

We don't really have room for a complicated dirty laundry system. So we toss it all into a hamper in our bedroom closet. Once a week or so I sort it into dark/lights/handwash so that when I'm ready to do the wash it's all ready.

2. Change Sheets

I know lots of people only have one set per bed...I don't understand this. We have two sets, and I'd really like another set. That way I can strip the bed, toss the dirty sheets in the hamper, and put on clean sheets all at once. The clean sheets live in the linen closet.

3. Quick Mop

Ten minutes is about right to mop either our kitchen or bathroom.

4. Organize A Trouble Spot

Trouble spots are different from personal monsters. Trouble spots are oft used areas of your home which are magnets for clutter. Our trouble spots include the dining room table and the credenza/go chair landing strip. Mail, dog accouterments, jackets, and shoes are our big clutter monsters.

5. Blitz Clean

This is sort of related to organizing a trouble spot. Blitz cleaning occurs when a room is veering slightly out of control. Grab a basket. Anything that isn't trash/dishes that doesn't belong in the room goes in the basket. Hopefully you'll be able to deal with basket in the same ten minutes. By the way, as you are putting the stuff in the basket up look for repeat offenders or things that don't really have a dedicated home. Clutter happens when things don't have a spot.

5 Minutes

1. Make Bed

2. Polish sink

I never really considered doing this until I happened across Flylady's post describing shining your sink. Now I try and do it everyday-ish. It feels like a little reward (as bizarrely Donna Reedish as that sounds) for finishing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen.

3. Dust 

It's enough time to knock out at least one major piece of furniture.

4. Clean Fridge

Anything lurking any there? Anyway, I bet it also needs a nice wipedown. 

5. Wipe Down Stove/Counters

We have an old stove with burners and eyes and everything. Just wiping it down isn't sufficient. A few times a week I need to really clean the burners and even lift it up and clean out anything that's fallen underneath. While you have your cleaner (I use diluted white vinegar and lemon) out wipe down the countertops!

1 Minute

1. Scrub toilet

Yes, in one minute. I keep a bottle of white vinegar and a toilet brush in the bathroom. Every morning toss in some vinegar and give it a quick scrub. By doing it every day the toilet doesn't ever get really dirty.

2. Reset Sofa

In my world, this means fold up the throw blanket and return the pillows to their correct positions. Instantly makes the living room look neat.

3. Wipe Down Bathroom Mirror

This is something else I do every few days. I'm incapable of NOT splashing water all over the mirror as I get ready.

4. Start Laundry

Okay, if your laundry is sorted and ready to go actually tossing it in the wash takes about a minute. It takes roughly the same amount of time to toss it in the dryer later...and then putting clean laundry in your clean laundry basket to be folded when you have the time.

5. Clear Nightstand

My nightstand is a known trouble spot. So every morning (in theory, anyway) I gather up the debris of the night before and throw away/return to actual spot.

Now I want to know how YOU do it. How do you keep your house neat?

Organization For The Chronically Disorganized

I am not by nature a well-organized person. (Everyone who knows me in real life just nodded in agreement.) This has been an issue my entire life. Anne Cobb, my amazing fifth grade teacher, recognized the tiny disaster she had on her hands and taught me some basics which helped me be successful at school.

Her hints, which I still use today, are the kind of thing Maxwell based Apartment Therapy on! Get your stuff together the night before. Write things down. Write things down in one place.

Now I'm a freelancer (which has its own set of organizational issues), dealing with a husband with health issues, two pets, a house full of DIY projects, and a blog. If I don't keep everything organized utter, sheer I-can't-work-like-this chaos results.

Here are the internet and real life organizational tricks I use to stay organized.

Computer/Internet Organization

1. Evernote. I don't even know what I would do without Evernote. At any moment I can be working on five freelance assignments, a month of blog posts, and my own private projects. Evernote lets me clip relevant information as I find it on the internet, and combine like things with like. I have notebooks for upcoming blog posts and each freelance assignment. It makes keeping research together super easy. It also helps nourish ideas because as I come across fragments or have thoughts I can clip or add to each note easily. 


2. Library Elf. Library Elf hooks into your library account and sends you email or text messages about what materials will be due soon, what's due now, and what's overdue. It also sends you reminders when reserved material is ready for pick-up. We are both heavy library users and this helps us avoid overdue fines.


3. E-Statements. I prefer getting bills through e-mail. As they arrive I move them to a certain folder and when payday arrives I simply open the folder and start paying. Bonus points for utilities that let you pay your bill online for free.


4. Online Prescription Ordering. Our local pharmacy has a website that lets you order your refills online. This saves me so much time in trying to call in J's refills. It also sends email reminders when you are due for another refill. Some of J's medicines are take as needed, so it doesn't always match up, but it reminds me to check so he doesn't run out of a needed med.


5. i-Calendar. Yeah, we all know about it. I use one main calendar to track due dates on assignments, bills, J's doctor appointments, pet information (like flea medicine), other assorted appointments, and DIY projects. It lets me see our month in a glance. And now that J has a smartphone, he can see the calendar even when I'm not with him.

Organization At Home

1. The Foyer. 

We have an actual foyer with a coat closet, which makes leaving/coming in a little easier. As soon as I enter the house I can hang up my coat and kick off my shoes. Speaking of coats, J taught me a great trick he learned in the Navy. When I take off my coat and gloves and slip a glove into each pocket. When I put my coat on I can just slip my hands right into the gloves.

2. The Landing Strip. 

As you walk from the foyer into the living room the credenza is immediately on your left. On the credenza is a little milk glass dish. I use this to coral my keys and sunglasses. Every time I come home I drop my keys in the dish. I used to be notorious for losing my keys. No more. The white vase is a change collector.

3. Get Out Of My House!

The small chair by the credenza serves as an outbox spot. Things I need to take with me (reusable grocery bags, library books, things to mail) get placed in this chair.

3. The Returnable Shelf. 

Library materials live on this shelf unless they are being actively read/listened to/watched. This way when I'm making a library run I know from Library Elf what's due and I know where everything is.

Blog Organization

If you don't blog you can skip this final section! I talked about how Evernote saves my sanity, but here are my other tricks for keeping Middle Class Modern updated and the behind the scenes stuff organized. I made a LOT of mistakes when I started out, which led to me stopping blogging and then blogging off and on.

1. Monthly Calendar. At the start of each month I pull up a Word Calendar template. Then I figure out a posting schedule based on the projects going on around here and anything else I know I want to blog about.  I also note on each post what special actions I need to take. For example, for this post I noted what pictures I needed to take and then I took them while I documented another project. On other posts I'll note if I need supplies for the project we don't currently have. This is also where I track things like DIY Action Squad projects and upcoming link parties I want to participate in.


2. Feed The Hopper. Life gets crazy. Sometimes I get absolutely slammed with freelance work, or J has a health crisis, or I get sick. I don't want to worry about writing a post, but I do want to consistently update my blog. So over Christmas I wrote five back-up posts. These are evergreen, stand-alone posts, not pieces of projects. Right now I have some recipe posts, a blogging post, and a couple of little DIY things. If I don't need them in the next month I'll post them in February and replace them with other evergreen backups. 


3. Schedule, Schedule, Schedule. After I had to spend pre-dawn hours finishing my first DIY Action Squad post, my beloved informed me of the utter ridiculousness of my actions. He had a point. So I now I work on the actual projects the week before. I write the posts over the weekend. For example, this weekend I worked on the curtains and making the curtain rod. I spent Sunday writing up all the posts for the week. I try to repeat this pattern each week.

So what awesome organizational tips do y'all have?

Linked up At Liz Marie's Organization Party