what's in your filing cabinet?

it's been a while since i've organized any of my bills or other adult paperwork in manila folders and hanging files {hooray for digital!}, but there is still a lot of other paper things in my life. mostly in the transparently thin, giant sheets of uber fragile tissue paper variety. which also involves the attempting-to-return-them-to-their-envelopes wrestling match when i'm done with them. now, they've got room to breathe {and all of their "modification" friends too}, and i still have hair on my head.

i used to keep all of my patterns in one of those plastic drawer thingies, left over from my college days. while it worked well enough, {aka kept them upright and off the floor} i'd have to pull them alllll out and dig for what i wanted. no bueno. so now they're sorted by category {party dresses, purses, rennie, etc} and super easy to search through.

also, the printer paper, printable labels, scrapbook paper, and other flat "crafty" things i had laying around. but wait, who needs 10 different kinds of printer paper...?!? filed and organized my friends.

this is probably old new to some, but it's been 3 weeks and still blowing my organized mind. seriously, where have i been? under a rock?  {more like a giant pile of UFOs...} right now it is all housed in file crates and the awesome printer stand the FIL made, but i've got some grand plans for a big lateral file cabinet in the near future, fyi greg ;)

while this corner of the studio is now oh so neat and tidy....turn around and you find this....yikes!

coat closet, shmoat closet...

first, if you look to the right, you'll see new buttons for all of the ways to stalk me 

my social media stuff, so click and creep away! and a new pin it button on my pics!

as part of my new years resolution, this month i decided to tackle the front coat closet. the poor thing has been neglected since we moved in a year and a half ago.  here is what we started with......

i don't think it ever housed things that we actually used on a daily basis.  mostly just greg's hat collection and things to donate.

the closet isn't deep enough for hangers to hang properly, they just get squished sideways. which is annoying. so we installed some more hooks in the back, to hang the coats greg doesn't wear, but won't get rid of.....

even better are the hooks we put on the door.
the center of the closet door was too thin to hang the rack directly on it, so a leftover piece of 1x4 anchored the hooks perfectly.

scarves hang behind the coats, boots reside on the floor comfortably,

and hats and mittens go on the shelf above. along with the car wash stuff.

overall, it looks good and works well.

now to donate all of the stuff i took out.....

how are your goals going this month? leave a comment!

an easy, fast and inexpensive way to clean your microwave {without any chemicals!}

it can mean only one thing {besides the being thankful part}with thanksgiving coming up: so. many. left. overs. yayyyy! my fav part. a fridge full of yummy home cooked meals, without having to actually cook anything.

via

but the problem is, i'm not all that good about putting lids on things in the microwave. and greg isn't much better. so our microwave can get borderline toxic pretty gross sometimes....and i don't notice how bad it is until it gets really bad, then i rationalize that it can't get much worse......then it gets gross, and sometimes smells funny, yikes! {oh please don't look too closely}

so once it's gotten to that point, i pull out my handy-dandy white vinegar! in a microwave-safe mug{or small bowl} combine 1/4c white vinegar and 1/4c water and a splash of lemon juice.

put that in the microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.

when it's done, DON'T OPEN THE DOOR! i repeat, DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!! just set the timer for 2 minutes. you want all of the steamy vinegar-lemon-water to work its magic.

after your 2 minutes are up, open the door and step AWAY from the microwave. a face full of the steamy vinegar-lemon-water is not fun times. then use a potholder to {carefully} remove the hot bowl/mug.

grab your cleaning cloth, remove the spinning plate thing, and get to wiping!

look how shiny and clean! and no more weird smell, yay!

and then proceed to put a broccoli and spinach puree in there without a lid..... :/

ps, what is your favorite cleaning tip?