Getting Organized at Home - free cleaning list!

Life just seems to be getting busier! Between work commitments (which is most of the time, what can I say love the job!), volunteer, fun with the BF, and other things I seem to lose track of time and getting things done. Life has started to go back into forgetting to clean the place and eating out way too much. So, I gained some inspiration from Honey We're Home and worked on creating a home organization book. I aimed to not spend much money, so the only out of pocket cost for me was a hole puncher which I seemed to not own anymore since the trapper keeper is no longer in style. Other items I just had on hand included a binder and file folders.


I created a quick intro page just with a pic of the house:

So my categories are right now:


Meals
Chores
Finance 
Projects 
Health


I actually use a Franklin Covey planner for my day to day activities, so unlike the one on Honey We're Home I do not have a daily list to do in this binder.


For Meals, I use Emealz to help get ideas. Since I am limited since I do not eat dairy, I pick and choose from this. When I am being really organized I cut and paste the meals I like from there, then I have a master list in excel of all the meals. To make the week I cut and paste into a document. In this case I just printed the mealz document for the week.

For Chores, I found a template on microsoft site and just changed it for the areas I want.

Here is the document I created for chores - feel free to customize it yourself!
Month Cleaning List


I am currently attempting to use the Dave Ramsey method for budgeting, so those documents are on the next tab. I have a big goal to pay off the house as soon as possible!


Finally, I made a list of projects for the house - wow it is big! Hopefully this will help me stay on track! I need to spend some time over the holidays building stuff

Home Projects

Bathrooms

Recover stools for bathroom

Bedroom

Slipcover for thrift store chair

Slipcover for side chairs

Build desk for spare bedroom

DIY curtains for big room

Build shelves

Build headboard for extra king bed

Laundry room

Beadboard for back wall

DIY curtains

Hanging rank (from Centsational Girl)

Living room

Build another console table for living room

Build TV console for living room

Dining room

Rug for formal dining

Build buffet apothecary from ana white

Tracy Anderson - new workout

I have come to realize that the best exercise is the exercise that you do - no matter what you do. As long as you move several hour a week if you run, bike, swim, lift, classes, hike etc..... it all counts. I think the key for me is variety. I have done a half marathon, marathon, and triathlon. While I have not given up on these, I did come across a new workout that I am really liking for variety from Tracy Anderson. Tracy's claim to fame is training some of the Hollywood elite including Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna.


I started with just playing around with some of her You Tube videos, so check those out just to see what they are like! What I love about this workout is that I can do it on the road when I travel for work. It used more body weight and specific movements to get the toning and cardio in. What I really like about it is that afterward I really do feel smaller - currently I just started her metamorphosis workouts after doing her 30 day workout plan from her book. I do not follow the diet, but since I already eat pretty healthy I just wanted to find out if her toning really works - and so far it is!


Here is a link to some of her best videos

I love her motto too - 

Here is the video that started it for me - the arm workout that she made for Gwyneth. A warning to you - it make look easy at first but as you keep going be prepared to feel the burn!



A workout from her would not be complete without legs, what she is really known for!

Superstition Adventure - Tony Ranch

My brother is awesome - if you knew us when we were younger you would never know we would hang out this much. So for those that have siblings that just do not get along, there is hope later! Maybe it is being so close in age or being in the same house, all I can say now it how great it is I have a built in buddy to go on any adventure with.

In this case, we may have had too much adventure for the day. Neil had been really wanting to go check out Tony Cabin in the Superstition mountains. Mind you it was Halloween weekend, and we were taking a road called Haunted Canyon. That should have been a sign, but not to us! We had been down in this area a few weeks before but not to the trailhead.


It started out gorgeous, meandering through the superstitions  it started going up over a ridge then down in a creek bed we saw beautiful leaves changing - it was actually fall in Arizona! The trail crossed over the creek bed several times. We did no intend to be out long that day, but we saw several hikers on the way there, all saying just a little farther. What they forgot to say is that just a little turned out to be an hour and a half longer! We did finally make it there to the cabin and it was worth it. It is an old cabin for a homestead that used to be there. Hikers and backpackers still leave supplies inside for others that may come by.

So happy we finally made it!

All told we think we did over 12 miles that day, next time I'll bring my gps. 


By this time it was past 2 pm, and knowing that the sun goes down at 6 pm we had to get out of there! It was an adventure getting back finding the trail over the creek - we did have one spot where it was a challenge to find the trail back up the canyon eventually we made it  - the last pic says it all, we were so tired after this hike but very worth it!


And speaking of Halloween, yes I saw bats on the way out as it was dusk.

Flagstaff hiking

These are actually from earlier this summer, but since I was behind on blogging figured why not put it up? I had this idea to hike through all of the hikes in an arizona magazine that came out. This weekend we went I intended to to do hikes up in Flagstaff AZ, but the monsoon changed that and it was muddy! We ended up hiking on trails that were more like roads, but it worked for me!

Lake Mary Wildflowers

Fall decorations - and new Trivoli PB console!

I started to get out my halloween decorations but just was not feeling it - the spiders, webs, blah blah blah. All black stuff - Loved it last year but wanted more of a fall theme this year. Maybe I will get it out the weekend of Halloween to put outside, but until then I wanted to pretend it was fall in AZ even if the leaves stay outside the same color. I could make it fall on the inside of the house.

Joann's provided the decor here - all the fall looking items and the fall fruit. A few things I had from last year.  Also....you will notice something new - I got the Trivoli console table from Pottery Barn! It just came out in the chestnut color. I had been having such a hard time finding a table for this wall (the trivoli table is 84.5 inches long if you can believe it, still does not fill the wall in my place)

Here is the pottery barn's take on it -

And here is how it turned out on my wall -

The pottery barn drink dispenser stand being put to use!

Take a close look at this runner....I did not feel like sewing today so it is just fabric from Joann's folded up to look like it was a sewn runner!

The table behind the dining table got the fall treatment as well - I saw some pics on Pinterest that had these pottery barn lanterns with pumpkins in them - brilliant!