Japan Love

I was happy to learn that there is now a Saizen store at Trinoma. I've read about all the good finds from this store and how it is much better than Japan Home. So being the shopaholic and bargain hunter, I had to visit it soon.

When the husband and I recently went to Trinoma, we made a brief stop at Saizen which is inside True Value. True Value finds will have a separate post : ) I instantly fell in love with the store because there is really so much to buy and at only P85!

Some items are kitschy -


While there are many great finds mixed in -






And what did I buy? Just one piece which is a small magnet box which can hold some pens. But what I like about it is the hook where the helpers can hang the kitchen keys instead of just placing it on top of the counters.

Updates On My Mini Projects

Whee! I can't believe that in less than a month's time, I have done more than half of my mini projects list. I am good! hahaha!

1. I had around 400 digital photos printed but arranged more than 800 photos in albums. FYI, if you have more than 100 photos printed at Kodak, expect a good discount. I saved a lot by doing this. 5 years worth of trips are now properly documented so in the event that my digicam bogs down or my laptop crashes (heaven forbid), I will not go crazy about losing precious memories. Mawala na lahat ng files ko, huwag lang ang pictures. hahaha!

2. My desk and dresser are organized and spanking clean. Everything is in its own place. Wish it stays that way from now on.

I expect to have my shelves cleared up by the coming week. But for the little girl's albums, I expect that it will take much longer. We'll see.

I guess it helped that I put small goals ahead of me, instead of just saying I'll organize our bedroom, I did it in batches. Desk first then dresser and shelves.

I'm On A Roll

I ticked off another Mini Project of mine. I got these acrylic containers for my bathroom dresser. And what I like most about these is that they're also stackable so it's a great space saver. It just doesn't come cheap at P230 per piece at Handyman. Hey, you can get those stack of 3 plastic drawers for only P150.




They're all sitting atop my dresser and now I don't have to scrounge around through all the make up to get what I need. I'm thinking of getting a couple of pieces more for extra storage for my bangles and bottles of manicure. Hmm...

1 Mini Project Down

I feel immensely pleased with myself! lol! Because of my recent trip to Dapitan, I was able to organize my desk.




I know I said I was going to do before and after shots. But I was too embarrassed to show the world my messy desk. hee hee... Better you all think of me as a domestic diva! Not!

Mini Projects

I swear that before the year ends, I will accomplish most (if not all) of my pending home projects.

1. Print pictures of all our trips and arrange them in albums. This has been on my To Do list since January this year. I considered Photo books for this project, but since I tend to have all the pictures printed, this option comes out too expensive. More so, since I want it hard bound so that it lasts through the years. I already finished one album this week, so I still have around 400 pictures (no kidding!) more to print. I’ve already gone through all the digital photos, it’s just a matter of bringing my flashdisk to Kodak for printing.
2. Same goes with my little girl’s photos. Dang, I have not updated her album since she turned 1 yo.
3. Spruce up my desk in our bedroom. It’s pretty much organized and clean, but this time, I’d like to prettify it a bit. I’ll try to do a before and after post.
4. Arrange the shelves in our bedroom. This is partly done already, I just need to get more organizing “tools.”
5. Arrange my dresser in the bathroom. No matter how I try to keep this organized, after a week or so, it acts as a repository for all sorts of things. Plus my cosmetics and creams are jumbled in a tray that most often ends up expired. You will not believe how much I threw out the last time I purged the counter. Makes me feel bad at the money I threw away too. Therefore, I will no longer buy more than 3 lipsticks (try and try).

Lately, I’ve been browsing through blogs dedicated to interior design and I’ve saved all those interesting photos in one folder in my laptop. Those are my inspiration photos when I have more time to do a full blown make over of our home. But definitely, that will not happen this year. Lol.

Never Ending Cycle

De-cluttering is a never ending and vicious cyle. I do the rounds of the house, picking up things, putting it in their proper place or dumping them into a box for further scrutiny (i.e. to keep or discard). How I wish I can keep my home looking picture perfect all the time, if that can't happen, I wish I had more closet space where I can hide all my things.

Then a sale happens and I bring in more clothes/shoes/bags/kitchen/bathroom things. You know the rule about organizing, for every 1 item you bring in, chuck 1 item out. That's never the case with me. Every once in awhile, we hold a garage sale. But the last one we had didn't do as well as the other sales. So I had to bring in all the unsold items again. And it gets to me because it's all lying scattered on the floor, although kept in boxes or bags. It's an eyesore.

So I called up a contact of mine who carts away all the unwanted things and holds a garage sale once a year and the proceeds go to the tuition fees of needy children. It's a win-win situation.

I'm now in the process of weeding out my closet, including the little girl's closet. The little girl recently got new toys, so I need to discard some of her old ones. I've already filled up 4 huge plastic bags and there are more coming. Hopefully, I finish this mini project by this weekend. If only the husband would cooperate, as well. He's the one who's a pack rat so anything he gives would be a great help as it would free up a lot of space at home.

*image from bandelle.com

Dealing with Clutter

An assortment of books, magazines and whatnots have piled up near the wall in our room. It's such an eyesore for me, especially since it's near my side of the bed, so I decided to buy these baskets. Aside from it being an eyesore, dust was already settling on top of the piles.

Those reading materials that the little girl and I often get are stashed in the open basket. The rest of the pile are now stashed and hidden in the covered basket.

This is such an easy way of dealing with clutter. But well, yes, I realize that I eventually have to open that basket and throw away most of what I threw in there.

Resolution for 2010

This blog has been neglected way too long, and it's pretty much the same state of our home. lol.

This 2010, I only have 1 resolution which I inted to keep. Of course there are other resolutions, but if I have too many, I doubt if I'll be able to do any. My 1 resolution is to be ORGANIZED. I always, always fail here, no matter how I try to file or document anything at home. Sure, I manage to be organized for 1 week, but the rest of the time, it's complete chaos!

I realized over the holidays that I have too many documents. As if I didn't know that already! Anyhoo, I was planning to finally put all our family photos in an album. I knew I had several (close to 200 actually) printed photos lying around somewhere. When I tried to look for those photos, they were nowhere to be found. It infuriated me so! Now I need to sort through all my digital files and print another bunch, along with several hundred more photos. Argh!

Our desk, is not a desk anymore. It's piled with so many folders and envelopes. And you know those folders? Those are my attempts to organize our papers.

And that's not all. I brought out our passports for an upcoming trip this month. I also searched for my old passport to check on my US visa which is due to expire next year. I cannot find it! I turned our vault upside down and it's not there! I was planning to go to the US this year. Can you imagine the hassle? Until now, I haven't found it yet. And it's my favorite passport because it has a lot of stamps. The loss of my visa is not what bothers me, it's the sentimental value attached to the passport that I'm after.

So this year, I vow to be more organized.

Decluttering One Step At A Time

I've read all there is to read on decluttering. All the tips and tricks, but of course it all boils down to actually going through your things and setting aside what's to be thrown out and what's to be kept. And this has to be a part of your routine, otherwise clutter will just pile up again.

We're in between bazaars now and I've got a bit of free time, so here's my game plan:

1. Work one area at a time. Like last night, I worked on the foyer for around 5 minutes. I only did an initial sweep of the huge pile of bills and letters. I will be more thorough tonight.
2. Weed through all the papers and bills, throw or file the papers. Best if you have the trashcan beside you.
3. For every 1 item we bring into the house, 2 items must be thrown out.
4. Don't tackle everything in 1 day. Do some decluttering and organizing in 5, 10 or 15 minute sessions. Small steps...

Hopefully, this week, I can accomplish a lot.

Organizing In the Kitchen

In our kitchen, I used to keep scraps of paper and pens inserted among other things in one plastic basket. Then the scraps of paper started to multiply and so did the pens. It started to annoy me that when I needed a pen, I couldn't find any. It was all buried under the mess in the basket. The helper didn't even think of arranging it.

On one trip to the nearby Handyman, I saw this wire mesh. It's the right size to hold pieces of paper and some pens and pencils. It even has a magnet at the back. I decided to get it and stick it on our ref. Now, I don't have to scrounge around for pen and paper.

Our Home Office

We had this office desk made recently from a design we saw in an Ikea catalogue. It's not exactly an efficient desk. By efficient I mean that there are no drawers where I can keep supplies, papers, etc. But we love the clean lines of the desk. It's a mess right now since it's covered with various papers and the room where it's at is an even bigger mess. We'll get around to fixing everything up sooner or later.