Preserve Your Memories: Create a T-shirt Quilt

My Mister has one million t-shirts.

Not really. But it feels like one million.

He wears five of them.

What do we do with the other 999,995? Store them in his closet of course!

Over the past year, I’ve been cleaning out my closet bit by bit each quarter to drastically reduce the amount of clothing I own. You can read about that here, here, and here. Each time I clean out my closet, I take a few minutes to re-organize his closet. Re-organize means take out one million t-shirts. Fold one million t-shirts. Sort one million t-shirts by color. Return one million t-shirts to his closet. 

The last couple times I’ve gone through this process, I’ve tried to pull out a handful that he doesn’t wear and that don’t have sentimental value and, with his consent, have donated them to someone else’s one million t-shirt collection. But a handful at a time still leaves us with a lot of t-shirts.

A good portion of his t-shirt collection is made up of what I would call sentimental shirts. Shirts he got for running a race. Shirts he got from his high school sports teams. Shirts he got for all the different places he’s worked. Shirts he’s got on vacation. Shirts he’s got from concerts. It’s hard to get rid of these because they have some sentimental value; some meaningful memory attached to them.

So what is one to do with all that sentiment? A t-shirt quilt!

This week we are celebrating our two year wedding anniversary (Yay!). Now, I’m not an extremely traditional girl, but I think it’s fun to follow the list of traditional wedding gifts because it offers a challenge to come up with something meaningful in a specific category. When I found out year two was cotton, I was stumped. Sure, I could get him some nice lounging pants or a new dress shirt, but that’s not very romantic.

Then the light bulb went off. T-shirts!

What better way to celebrate the love I have for my mister than celebrating who he is and all that he has accomplished? So I secretly dug out a pile of his t-shirts that fell into that sentimental category and planned to put them together into a t-shirt quilt for him as his anniversary gift.

I looked online for patterns, tutorials, ideas, etc and I actually found a lady who will make the quilt for you… but I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money and I thought it would mean more if the quilt was hand made by yours truly. Now, I’m not a professional sewer by any means. My skill set falls in the very beginner level. But with the help of some great patterns and tutorials online I was able to follow the process and put a quilt together pretty easily!

A little cutting...

A little sewing...

And ta-da!

He was very excited (even though it wasn’t completely finished on our actual anniversary). He said I should have made it bigger! Now that I have one quilt under my belt, I just might venture into making a larger one. Maybe a concert t-shirt quilt or a vacation destination quilt.

If you’re interested in making your own (or having one made for you), here are the links I found most helpful:

Seams To Be You and Me - a great tutorial available online or in PDF 

Instructables - a tutorial without the sashes in between blocks

Maiden Jane - a PDF pattern you can purchase or the option to send in your shirts and have a quilt made for you


Do you have any creative ideas to contain a growing pile of t-shirts?

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Spicing Up The Spice Drawer

When I first started looking at rearranging our kitchen set-up, my spice cabinet was not something I was planning to change. My spices are kept in a handy spice rack in the cupboard next to our stove. For the most part, this storage is working. But then I saw this. The bright colors, uniform containers, and order of that spice drawer drew me in. I suddenly realized everything that was wrong with my current set-up and decided an upgrade was in order.

The spice rack in the cupboard next to the stove is actually quite handy. I like how it fits in the cupboard easily and how each shelf pulls down for easy access. I don’t like how it is not big enough to hold all of our spices and I don’t like that the spices it holds are not in any particular order. Now, I realize that only one of those things is beyond my control but the varying sizes and shapes of all of the spice bottles didn’t allow me to arrange them alphabetically. 

Research tells me that spices should be stored away from heat, light, and humidity. While my current storage is in a dark cupboard, it’s a dark cupboard right next to our stove which puts off a lot of heat and humidity. That being said, my new storage spot is in a drawer right next to our refrigerator. But, the fridge puts off a minimal amount of heat and humidity compared to our oven and stove, so I tell myself that this spot is better... 

I decided to go with 8 oz. jelly jars instead of 4 oz. like Angela. The reason was simple – my drawer was tall enough for the 8 oz. jars and most of my current spice containers were around 5.5 ounces. I actually found 11 jars at our local thrift store for a nominal price. I picked up another dozen at our local supermarket for under $8. 

I originally thought that I would buy large labels to design and print at home. Once printed, I’d cut out the circles and stick them on the lids. I decided against this idea for two reasons. First, I didn’t want to pay all the money to buy labels. Second, I wanted my labels to be colorful, but not necessarily solid colors. So I turned to my scrapbook paper stash and picked out a few pieces that matched the colors in kitchen. I printed the names of the spices on the scrapbook paper and then cut them out using a scallop punch. Then I adhered the labels onto the jar lids using some glue dots.

The next step was to transfer each spice into its own jar and seal the lid. 

Then, I arranged the jars in the drawer alphabetically so things are easy to find. I’m thinking about getting a drawer organizer like this one in hopes that it might hold the jars in place a bit better. I just have to determine if it will fit in my drawer and if the jars will fit inside. 

Here is the finished product as it stands right now.

It’s so bright and cheery and it’s incredibly easy to find what I’m looking for. Thanks Angela for your creative spice solution!

How do you store your spices?

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Perfecting the Pantry

A choir of angels sing every time I open our pantry door.

Did you hear them? The problem is that they kind of go off key when they see the mess living inside.

I'm so blessed to have an abundance of storage in the kitchen - in fact, we have several drawers and cabinets that are currently empty. (Here's where I start dodging things you're throwing my way...)

These eight drawers are great but when they are not assigned a set purpose and organized accordingly, they result in a noisy, annoying arm workout every time I need to find something. I often will buy something, put it in a drawer, and then find it months later having forgotten that it was even in there. In fact, during this cleanup project I found three complete meals inside this heavenly chest of drawers! So... time to get this pantry into shape!

Before I show you the end results, here are some before pictures of the messiness.

To start this clean up, I emptied every drawer and put all of the items on our counter.

Those drawers hold a lot of stuff, huh!? With the drawers empty, I went through and wiped them all down, removing any dust, crumbs, and other random nonsense that may have ended up in there. Once they were clean, I tackled the wealth of items on the counter. I went through each individual item and tossed anything that was expired. For any items that were a year old or more, or items I had no intention of using in the future, I put in a bag to donate. Then, I dated each item with the current date so that I would be able to keep track of how old each item was and when it might be time to get rid of it. With the items slightly pared down, it was time to start filling the drawers.

I'm short. (When organizing, it's important to be honest with yourself about your shortfalls. No pun intended.) Without a stool, I can't see into the top drawer even on my tip toes so it didn't make sense to use the top drawer for something I'd need often. I knew I'd just get frustrated and end up shoving the items into another drawer. (See, honesty.)

 I decided to put our serving bowls and platters in the top drawer. These only come out when we have a large number of guests over for dining.

The second drawer from the top is still pretty high for me, though I can see into it on my toes. I decided to put my baking pans in this drawer (bread pans, cake pans, muffin tin, etc.). I use these items maybe twice a month and getting into this drawer to get them wouldn't be too much of a hassle. 

Under the baking items went our pasta and rice. I couldn't believe how many half opened boxes of pasta we had! Previously, the pasta had been in the second drawer and, since it was hard for me to clearly look into it, I seldom checked my supplies before heading to the grocery store. I can't count on one hand the number of times I blindly reached in for a box of pasta and grabbed it from the wrong end dumping noodles all over. I'm still finding random elbow macaroni from the last incident.... Moving pasta a drawer down seemed to make sense. 

The Mister gave me that slightly disapproving look each time he pulled an empty glass jar out of the dishwasher... until he saw the new pasta drawer! I used recycled glass jars to store all the half boxes of noodles to keep them fresh. The glass also provides a clear and quick view of how much I have when I am menu planning. And thank goodness for me they have lids!

The next drawer is our snack drawer. It holds granola bars, nuts, crackers, chips, and other snacks. Having all of these items in one drawer makes it easy to see what we have so when we're perusing the kitchen for a snack, it's that much easier to pick something. It also makes the lunch making process a bit faster.

The next two drawers hold all of our storage containers. I dedicated one to glass containers and one to plastic containers. I hope to phase out all of the plastic containers and replace them with glass, but right now our budget doesn't allow that. 

The bottom two drawers hold our canned goods and baking supplies, respectively. Prior to this clean out, our onions and potatoes were kept in the bottom drawer, usually in whatever bag they came in. When I went to clean out this drawer, there were so many pieces of onion peel in that drawer; I had to wipe it out three times. I recycled a basket that wasn't being used and designated it as the onion basket. I honestly love my new onion basket.

While a pantry made of drawers is nice, each drawers contents are obscured, making it hard for others to know where to find things. Who am I kidding? It makes it hard for me to remember where I decided to put things. So, I whipped up some labels. 

While I could probably use a daily arm workout, I appreciate the lesser stress and annoyance of having to open 3 drawers before I find what I'm looking for. If you're looking to clean out your own pantry or cupboards, I highly recommend the following:

• Be honest with yourself
• Start with a clean slate
• Get rid of any expired items
• Donate anything you haven't used in the last year or know you will never use
• Date any food items before putting them back in the pantry
• Storage containers can be free. Reuse glass jars and other containers instead of throwing them into a recycling or trash bin
• Label your shelves or drawers so it's easy for you and your family to maintain your hard work

Happy pantry organizing!!

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Creating a Command Center: Writing Utensil Organization

I'm fearful my mister is a pen hoarder. I like to have a pen lying around here and there for that spontaneous idea or phone number I need to take down. But his hoarding has led to this...

I told him I was pretty sure the pen police would be coming for him soon. I told him there are pen deprived people all over this city because of him. I don't think he took me seriously...

Anyway, to continue to get our command center in order, I decided the insane amount of writing utensils stored in our house must be addressed. 

So, I gathered every writing utensil in the house that I could find. I emptied out all of our "pen holders" and also found the following: a screwdriver, a button, a couple bandaids I wouldn't dare put near an open wound, a key, a raffle ticket, two parachute men, a 2006 key chain, some coin rolls, a pig key ring, a stick of gum, three tubes of chapstick, a bobby pin, a safety pin, and some temporary cement bonding glue. Can you find all of these items below?

Next, I did what any normal person would do - I tested out every writing utensil. Yep, every.single.one. That's normal right?

I threw away anything that didn't work or was real close to not working as well as anything too gross for me to touch to test it out. Then I sorted the remaining items into three groups: work, keep, donate. Work was a distinct group of pens that the mister brings home from work. I am sure no one else in his office is able to write due to a lack of pens and a tight budget. The keep pile consisted of nice pens that I'd enjoy using, a few pencils with good erasers, and some highlighters and Sharpie markers. The rest went into the donate pile. I don't know if people buy pens from thrift stores, but I figured someone could make use of them. 

My next step was to figure out how to store everything in the keep pile. I really like these hanging bucket ideas:

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I tried to find some already-made kits but they were a little more pricey than what I was hoping to pay. I picked up a tension rod and some ribbon for about $7 at Jo-Ann Fabrics and grabbed three pencil cups at the dollar store. I used my Cricut and my home printer to create some tag labels and attached those to the pencil cups with the ribbon. 

Then I put up the tension rod across the office desk space and used a level to make sure my buckets wouldn't all slide to one end. I attached each of the three buckets to the rod using the same ribbon. The ribbon has some nylon in it, so I used a candle lighter to melt the knots of the ribbon to keep them from pulling out from the weight of the pens. I also melted the exposed ends of the ribbon to keep them from fraying. 

Finally, I put a portion of the "keep" utensils into each of the buckets. I don't think the tension rod is capable of holding everything I decided to keep. At the same time, I don't think it's necessary to even have THAT many writing utensils in the house. Nonetheless, I will store the remainders in some baskets that I'll show you later. 

I like how the project turned out and I like even more that it was only $10. 

I threatened the mister that the buckets will only hold so much weight - so he should probably be more choosy in which writing utensils he brings home. Is there a Pens Anonymous group? 

The command center is coming along nicely. I still have two or three projects left before it's "done"!

How do you store your writing utensils? Do you have a pen hoarder in your house?

Creating a Command Center: Mail Organization

I believe there should be some law or rule about not having to work on your birthday... I also believe there should be some law or rule that says it cannot snow on your birthday. Yes, today is my birthday and yes I did have to work and yes there is a lot of blowing and drifting snow outside. Alas, I am another year older and another year wiser. Thank you to everyone that has expressed warm birthday wishes and thank you especially for taking some time to read my blog. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Now... on to the organizing!

About six months ago, I purchased a hanging organizer from Thirty-One. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it, but I figured it'd help me stay organized. Unfortunately, without a specific plan in place, it has done just the opposite. I hung the organizer in our home office space off the dining room. At the time, there were random papers on the kitchen counter so I grabbed those and neatly tucked them into the hanging slots. While I successfully got the papers off the counter, there really

was no rhyme or reason to the hanging organizer. In fact, I recently went through the papers in the organizer and found that most of them were expired or no longer relevant - so ultimately my "organizer" was only encouraging me to hang on to clutter. This is a classic example of how organizing tools, when not used in a functional way, can actually encourage disorganization. So - time to get this organizer in order!

I have hmmed and hawed about whether or not to keep the organizer hung up and if so, whether to leave it where it is at. After contemplating this for a couple weeks, I decided that the organizer itself could be very useful and I feel it's hanging in the best possible spot for now. I took a random inventory of the piles on the kitchen counter to get an idea of what categories I might need storage for. I did this over the course of a couple weeks, since our paper flow fluctuates throughout the week and month. I finally decided on five categories, one for each slot of the organizer: 1.) Outgoing, 2.) To File, 3.) To Read, 4.) To Pay, and 5.) Coupons.

I knew that if I didn't label these slots, I'd forget which is what and things would end up stuck in random slots and again, not be helpful. So I used Microsoft Excel to design some simple labels.

I printed out each label on regular white printer paper and used some packaging tape to make them a bit more sturdy. I've really got to invest in a laminating machine! That'd be a great birthday present idea... ;)

As you probably noticed, the final labels look a bit different than the labels shown in Excel. When I printed a test label, I realized the labels would be too big for the slot, especially when paper would be stuffed into each one. I modified the size just a tad and they work perfectly now. 

I didn't want the label to be permanent in anyway because I want to use this system for awhile and be able to make adjustments if necessary. For that reason, I just used small binder clips we had in our office supplies to attach each label to it's own mail slot.

Next, I went through all the papers that had been in the organizer and all the papers that had accumulated on the counter and sorted them accordingly. Everything seemed to fit into a category relatively easily.

The organizer is a little more bright and cheery and, with its new labels, it appears to be a bit more functional as well. I'm excited to put this great tool to good use!

Do you have an organizing tool that is hurting more than helping? How about a general birthday rule you think should be in effect?

Dog Treat Storage + a Bonus Treat Recipe

Like many pet owners, our puppy, Mando, is like a member of our family. I continue to call him a puppy even though he's 16 months old... but to me, he's still a maturing boy. :) While the Mister and I don't adhere to an organic or all natural diet all the time, we do try to watch what we eat and attempt to limit the amount of processed foods we consume. Because Mando is a full-fledged family member, I try to limit his intake of processed or unhealthy foods as much I can as well.

The main way I regulate this is by making his dog treats myself. They are super easy, less expensive, he loves them, and I know exactly what is in them. Up until now, I've stored his treats in a variety of ways including a paper bag, a plastic zip-lock bag, and an airtight storage container. The airtight container allowed them to grow mold rather quickly because it locked in all their moisture. The paper bag seems to regulate the mold growth a little better but a paper or plastic bag on the counter is blah. Besides, Mando deserves a cute treat container to go with his awesome dog food container, don't you think?!

I thought I'd share my easy project of creating a treat container for his yummy treats, and why not include the recipe in case any of you are looking for easy, natural treats for your furry family members as well.

I've made two different versions of dog treats, but this one shared by Dog-Milk.com is by far the easiest.

• 2 Cups 100% organic whole wheat flour (I use brown rice flour which makes them a bit more crunchy and promotes healthy digestion in dogs)
• 8 oz. of pureed natural or organic baby food (beef, sweet potato, chicken, etc).

That's it! Combine the flour and the baby food to create a thick dough. 

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. 

Use cookie cutters to cut out specific shapes or a pizza cutter to make cubes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and add the treats. They can be pretty close together as they don't expand much. 

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.Allow them to cool before putting them in your chosen storage container. An airtight container will keep them softer but will allow mold growth within a short time period. This recipe made me about 7 dozen 1-inch square treats. I like to keep the bulk of the treats in the freezer leaving only enough for about a week out on the counter. This extends their shelf life by a lot. And sometimes, Mando likes a nice frozen treat too.

The flavor possibilities of these treats are endless and you could mix and match flavors to switch it up even more. Just be sure that the baby food you use doesn't contain any ingredients harmful to dogs like onion, garlic, etc. For a list of foods toxic to dogs, check here. 

As for my storage project, I found this cute little jar at the Salvation Army for $1.99.

With a good washing, it was good as new. I cut out some vinyl letters on my Cricut using two different fonts and adhered them to the glass container. 

Then I filled it with treats and let it sit out on the counter. Cute, simple, and effective. That's how I like to organize!

Do you have a recipe for your pet's treats? How about a cute storage solution?