The New Bag

I haven't been happy with my purse/diaper bag situation lately.  My purse isn't quite holding everything that I need, but I really dislike lugging around the diaper bag.  I mention my favorite blog often - iheartorganizing.blogspot.com - because she always has really great ideas for organizing just about everything and wouldn't you know it, just as I am thinking that I need a new bag system, I read a post on that blog about her travel tote, so I decided to create my own.  Here is what I did:

I got this bag on sale at Target:



The outside is vinyl so it can get wet without soaking everything inside.  It's big enough to hold a bunch of stuff, but not too big.  And its pretty!

Here is what I keep in it...

My portable purse that holds the wallet, keys, chapstick, and cell phone that I blogged about here:

For the baby and toddler stuff, I got this fold over frame clutch from Target:

I put wipes, a few diapers, an extra change of underwear and pants for the big girl that is being potty trained, a onsie for the baby, a bib, some poop bags that I put the dirty diapers in, and a plastic freezer bag for possible dirty clothes.

I got a notebook similar to this one from Target as well to keep in the bag:

I tabbed it with a section for to-dos (since I always think of things to do while I'm not near my computer to do list), a section for work, and a section for 2 year old B's preschool class next year because I have somehow agreed to be the parent coordinator which is going to make for a lot more work and many more things that I'm going to need to remember to write down.  I also left an extra tabbed section for a possible errand or grocery list?

I bought these decorative files from Amazon that fit perfectly in the bag:

I use 3... 1 file for papers for B and baby M (side note... I'm just realizing that baby M is almost not a baby anymore!!), 1 file for work, and 1 file for B's preschool class (since I'm the parent coordinator I'm going to be hauling around a lot of paperwork for that class too - what did I get myself into here???)

So far my bag is working out great.  There is a zipper pouch inside where I keep pens and mints and other small loose items.  The tote isn't too big, yet fits all that stuff and there is still room to throw in sweatshirts or food/snacks or toys, etc.  If I am going out without the kids, I just throw that portable purse that holds my wallet and stuff into a bigger purse and I'm good to go.  The diaper bag is still around, but I keep it downstairs as a storage place for when I need to do changings, etc. downstairs.

Oh, and I got almost everything on sale so it wasn't too expensive to put together - yay!

Office Update

Waaay back in November, I wrote a post about how I wanted to organized an area in our downstairs.  It functions as a kind of everything space and it was a disaster!  If you want to read that post, click here.

Well, it's finished - almost!  There are a few little details to be taken care of - like labeling and filing, but the majority of the work has been done.  All I have to say is thank goodness for the playroom because just about every evening for the past few weeks Nick and I have taken the girls downstairs and they have been keeping busy playing (for the most part!) while we have been organizing away.

We got the IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit and I love it!  It has just enough room to fit everything, but is small enough to force me to purge, and purge we did!  We donated, recycled, and threw away at least half of what was on the large and small bookshelves and the contents of our files.  I also moved some things around and got rid of a few pieces of furniture.

Are you ready to see what it looks like?  Here you go...

before:

after:

You'll notice there is no desk and that is because we decided that we really don't need one.  We both have desks at work, and TRY to keep our work at work.  My laptop and Nick's ipad go with us everywhere around the house so we didn't feel like we needed a place to keep them. If we need table space, we either use the dining room table or the kitchen counter.

Want another look?  Check it out...

before:

after:

I turned the back corner into a sort of bar area and since that is kind of Nick's domain, I added his replica high school helmet to give the corner a Nick feel.

Here's one more before and after...

before:

after:

Did you notice how the Keurig was on the wine fridge before?  I moved the utility cart to where the wine fridge is and made a coffee area. We keep the Keurig downstairs because we don't use it that often and it takes up too much space on the kitchen counter, but at least now there is room to make a cup of coffee when it does get used and to top it all off, there is room on the utility cart for when I need a little desk space.

Well, what do you think?  I'm loving it!  In a future post I'll explain how I organized all of the stuff we didn't purge so that I can find and file things easier, but here's a sneak peek at how I have decided to organize all the pens, notepads, paperclips, etc.

P.S. I just have to add this disgusting picture because look what I found making a home in the corner behind one of the shelves...

Yuck!!