Organization. FAIL. Sort of.

Are you on Pinterest?

Everyone was on a kick back in January of posting home organization ideas. I would look at the pictures of perfect closets and drawers and think "I can do that!"

Yesterday I tackled the pantry closet. At 2 feet wide and 18 inches deep it is the World's Smallest Pantry Closet. We had spilled an open box of Alphabet Pasta twice in less than 48 hours.

 The top shelf (unseen) was not bad...rubbermaid boxes of candy making and few baking supplies, cupcake liners, chocolate chips and 3 boxes of cereal.

Everything on the next shelf was 2 products deep. Note the box of Jello pudding hanging onto the fire extinguisher for dear life.
  
The second shelf was a hot mess.


The third shelf was spices and baking supplies


The next shelf was canned goods.

The bottom of the closet was a box of "stuff"



I took everything out and purged some things that had come from my Mom's house (spices that expired in 2005) and organized what was left.
Here's the after shot...

Okay....now the top shelf is a hot mess!



But the rest of it is pretty beautiful!













I heaved a sigh, turned around and faced this...

oops...the canned goods.
It looks like I'll be re-organizing another cupboard to make room for this.

Molly McQuirky Eats Out

I have a "difficult" alter ego. I call her Molly McQuirky.
Molly is a real hoot when you take her to a restaurant, because she tends to be a little picky about food. This is especially so when she has little control over how it was prepared.

Beef is hardly ever ordered because her idea of "medium-well" is very particular. The middle must be an exact shade of barely pink with no visible charred black stuff on the outside.

Come along with Molly as she orders...
MEXICAN- 2 enchilladas, no jalapenos, no black olives, black beans on the inside, not the outside, low-fat cheese and sour cream, no rice on the side, NO_NO_NO hot sauce. Actually, no sauce of ANY kind. BIG Shout-out to Tijuana Flats. They make Molly's order EXACTLY right, every time :-)

PIZZA- No meat, no black olives, not too much oregano in the sauce, not too overdone (not a speck of black on the dough).

CHINESE- No white rice-just steamed brown rice, no broccoli, no dark chicken meat with visible fat ,no fried meat or seafood, no spicy sauce.

SUSHI- No large chunks of raw fish, no wasabi, no chopsticks, no pickled ginger. A couple of California rolls, some steamed and salted edamame and she's good to go.

DELI SUBS- Publix Supermarket deli, turkey on whole wheat, VERY light mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, no cheese. Every.Single.Time.

Anyone volunteer to take Molly out for lunch?

This post was inspired by Meg At The Member's Lounge and her tale of her former bosses ordering lunch

Contents Of My Brown Suede Day Planner

Back in Nov of 2007, when I was a baby blogger, I posted the Contents Of My Pink Purse.

Today I will show you the Contents Of My Brown Suede Day Planner.

• $3 off coupon for Hair Cuttery. They are affordable and 2 doors down from my workplace.
• 20% off coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond. I bought a gorgeous pillow cover from PotteryBarn, but I won't pay $24 for a pillow insert.
• 3 coupons for $10 off a $30 purchase at Bath and Body Works. That's a better deal than my employee discount. I legitimately earned the coupons with previous purchases.
• An index card with a Weight Watchers list of points for servings of fruit
• A coupon for $100 off when you hire the company to Holiday decorate your McMansion if it costs more than $1000. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh, that's just precious!
• A cheat sheet for pairing wines with your Holiday food.
• Nutritional info for Subway
• Checkbook
• Bank deposit slip for the $40 that flew from our account to Sorority Girl's account.
• A 2010 calendar from Mariah's Medical Spa. She is my doctor's daughter. All procedures done with a doctor on the premises. No, I'm not getting Botox.
• A prescription for my Very Important and Very Expensive Cymbalta The Miracle Drug.
• An order for a buttload of bloodwork to be done before Feb.
• A CVS coupon
• Costco receipt and a Winn-Dixie receipt.
• Fresh Market receipt. If I can't go to the Dekalb Farmer's Market, The Fresh Market will have to do.
• Post Office receipt means I mailed a package this morning. Hey!! It's going to BUNNY!

More Molly McQuirky

Last week I introduced you to my "difficult twin" Molly McQuirky.
There are things in Molly's house that are always done the same way, every time.
These are the things that make Molly's little OCD heart sing.

Molly does her crossword puzzles in ink. Blue ink. Starting at the lower right-hand corner and working up to the top.

When Molly makes Peanut Butter Brownies, she lays out the Crack&M's in straight rows. Now that she is looking at this picture, she thinks there's something wrong in the way that there is no rhyme or reason to the color scheme of the reds, pinks and whites. Unsettling, to say the least.

The rolling scrapbook cart. It has slots and pockets and the best part of all is the little loops to organize the Sharpie collection. Isn't is pretty?

This is how the grocery list gets made. Item, size, sale price, coupons.

The list is made on an envelope with the coupons inside.

It always looks this way. It must always look this way. If it doesn't, Molly makes it look this way.

You don't think Molly is weird, do you? Her mother does.

Taking Inventory

It was inventory day at the Barn. Counting-everything-that-didn't-walk-away Day.
I got 3 hours sleep, woke up before the crack of dawn and promptly clocked in at 5:45 AM.

I think I counted 5000 curtain rings, 200 drapes,24 sets of rod finials, 20 sets of drape holdbacks, 75 wood swatches, 50 rug swatches, 75 oil diffusers, 10 sets of diffuser sticks, 32 bottles of room spray, 75 candles, 90 picture frames, 60 pillows, 60 down pillow inserts, 16 large books, 5 large vases, 4 sets of nesting side tables, 20 woven baskets, 2 mirrors, 1 cube side table, 5 lidded wooden boxes, 6 stems of faux hydrangea.

We do KILLER pot-luck at the Barn.
I know I ate 1 square of egg and sausage casserole, 1 spoonful of cheesy potato casserole,1 slice of turkey, 2 brownies. 5 peanut butter blossom cookies.
I know I drank 2 cups of coffee, one fresca, 4 glasses of water.

I clocked out at 4:35 PM. I had a phone conversation with my daughter. I picked up the hubby at work, went to the REAL MEXICAN take-out place, (real Mexicans cook real Mexican food, open 24 hrs a day)

Any minute now I'm going to bed to read a few more chapters in Alan Alda's latest book.