Organization

Streamlining Your E-mail

September 12, 2013 3 Comments

Hey there friends! Remember my what I’m reading post where I talked about wanting to read ‘One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Simplifying Your Life‘? Well, I really enjoyed the book and am completely finished with two of the projects. So far I have a get out of debt plan (project #2), I’m using the Debt Snowball from Dave Ramsey and I’ve streamlined my mail (project #8) by signing up for all the do not mail lists I could find. The kind that take your name off the ‘You’ve qualified for a Visa card’ lists. You can see a list of all 52 projects, and download the book if you’d like, I highly recommend it, here.

Anyway, the project I’m working on now is #27, stream line your email. At first I thought, oh that’s an easy one I can whip out in like an hour… Um yeah. I sat on the couch last night with my laptop for several hours deleting, unsubscribing, and cleaning out my inbox. And that was just the first email account. Wait… You don’t have more than one email account?? Oh, not me… I have several.

There was my yahoo account from back in high school. You know the days where your email address included both your basketball jersey number and the year you were going to graduate. The year that was so so far into the future back then…

Then there was my college email address, the one they set you up with the first day you log onto your college account and feel SO grown up with an .edu on the end now… 😉

After that I set up a gmail account for Truly Lovely. An account that has plagued me because I set it up quickly and didn’t choose a good email address, one that would be easy for others to remember…. But everyone knows you need an actual blog email to look legit, so once I bought the Truly Lovely domain, I made one with a @trulylovelyblog.com to look more professional.

Then… oh yes, there’s more…. I have a work email address for my day job. How many is that now… Five. That’s right. Five DIFFERENT email addresses. I’m going out on a limb here, but that’s probably not a streamlined way to do things.

So I started with my college email, because I don’t use that for anything anymore. I unsubscribed from all the newsletters and what not that meant something to me back then but not anymore. I deleted email after email, forwarded and changed the address on anything that was still relevant and now have zero emails left in that account. I’ve decided to leave it open for a few days to make sure nothing new comes through, then I can close it.

A few weeks ago, actually, I created a new yahoo account. Instead of random numbers and what not I just used my name. Easier to give out to say the church group asking to send you the weekly newsletter. And way less embarrassing than having to repeat it to them several times because who uses underscores that many times in one email address anyway…. haha. I went through and cleaned out that inbox and old folders as well. When stream lining your email watch the old account for at least two weeks. By then anything relevant will have come through so you can be sure to switch all the accounts over to the new address and close the ones that don’t matter. I can officially say that as of today I am one yahoo account down!!! Yeah… I finally parted with my high school jersey number email address. 😉 It was tough.

You’ll notice I created a new yahoo account though so still a total of five email addresses. At least the one I have now is free of junk newsletters and easier to remember. BUT I did forward or otherwise purge so that now I only need to check THREE email accounts. One google, one yahoo, one work. Hopefully you’re not in this situation and didn’t go crazy creating email addresses throughout your lifetime… haha. But if so, here’s a few tips for you if you’d like to streamline as well…

UNSUBSCRIBE – Sure, we’ve all done it, subscribed to something to enter a giveaway, or get a discount, then failed to look at that newsletter ever again. That’s what the unsubscribe button is for peeps.
PURGE – If you don’t use a specific account anymore purge everything out of, then watch it for awhile to make sure you’ve rerouted anything important being sent to it.
DELETE – It will feel amazing, I promise!

If you made it down to this point, kudos to you!!! And brownie points or something. 😉

Anyone have any other tips for streamlining your email??

Filed Under: Organization Tagged With: e-mail

Greeting Card Keepsake Book

April 3, 2013 9 Comments

Hey dolls! Happy Wednesday! This week my niece and nephew are visiting for their Spring Break. They are 11 and 9 years old, so it’s been lots of board games, fun movies, going out to eat and what not. While I’m off entertaining kiddos I have an easy but awesome organizational craft for you!!!

We all receive greeting cards for various holidays, then there’s those sweet cards you got last year for your birthday, or when you had your baby, or any other special occasion really. If you’re like me you want to save those sweet mementos from your loved ones, but there’s not a whole lot of space for that so they end up tossed in a box in the closet not to be seen until the next occasion when you add a few more… So, why not make a Greeting Card Keepsake Book and actually save those cards in an organized way!?!

It’s really a simple project. I made mine just sitting on my couch while watching an episode of Pioneer Woman. 😉 I used the cards we received at our wedding and my bridal shower. Yes, that was nearly two years ago now… oops… I separated the cards from the envelopes and then threw the envelopes away. They take up a lot of space FYI.

Then I used a hole punch to punch two holes in each card. I purchased a set of book binder rings, found in the office section of my Wal-Mart and bound the cards together. See?! So easy! Now I have two little books from my wedding and bridal shower of sweet notes from our dearest friends and family! You know, instead of a stack of random cards just floating around in a box that nobody ever gets to enjoy!

Your turn! What do you do with your old cards? Do you stash them in a box? Toss them right away?? It took me forever to get around to doing this easy project, so trust me, I won’t judge! 😉

Linking this here and here and .

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post! If so, we’d love if !

Filed Under: Crafts, Organization, Tutorials Tagged With: Greeting Cards, keepsake idea, organizational ideas

Bloggie Bestie – Tiffany of Life with the Little Man

May 31, 2012 10 Comments

Happy Thursday dolls!!!

Today we’d like to introduce you to….

Tiffanie of Life with the Little Man!

Gotta love a girl that’s organized!!! She’s sharing a FABULOUS organization tool with you dolls today! Enjoy!
And don’t forget to leave her some bloggie lovin’ below… AND some at her place where I’m sharing today! 😉

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Hello! First I wanted to say THANK YOU to Kassi for asking me to be the Bloggie Bestie for the week!

I am sooooo excited to have the privilege to share my little blog with new people and I am excited to talk with you guys a little bit about my new bloggie love……… my Blog Binder…. sigh…….

I have a type A personality so it is important to me to keep my life in order. I thrive when someone asks me what I am doing on a date 2 months from now and I can pull out my life planner and be confident when I tell them that I am either free or available. With that being said, my life is CRAZY!!! I am always busy or feel like I always have something going on. I would go insane if I didn’t stay organized. My life planner is always jammed packed and there is barely room for extra things. (Here is a glimpse of my week last week… It was actually a good week and I wasn’t that busy)

With that being said, I love my life planner but it seemed like there was no room to add my blog stuff and I desperately needed room to keep track of my blog. Introducing…..drum roll please…..

MY BLOG BINDER

Isn’t it pretty?! Are you in love?…. Okay Okay… I may be getting ahead of myself here… perhaps you would like to know whats inside….

I have five different sections in my binder that are separated by tabs.

My Calendar: This is where I keep track of things going on with my blog. I write down when I will post certain things, when giveaways are ending, link ups that I want to participate in, and anything else that I want to be sure to do.

My To Do: I keep anything that needs to be done for my blog here. If I need to contact a company about a review, or if I needed to be sure to take pictures of something I would write it down here. Here is a link to the document that I use for my list.

My Reviews/Giveaways: This is where I keep notes about an upcoming giveaway or review I am doing for my blog. I write down the times I contact them, any important dates, and any notes about the giveaway. I love having my binder handy because when I get a product to review, I can keep all of my notes in one place so that when I go to write my review its a breeze. Here is a link to the document that I use.

My Advertising: Here I kept all of my advertising stuff. I kept track of what company had ads on my blog, the start and end times of their ads, and any other information that I needed to keep track of for my ads. Since making this binder I have recently feel in love with a site called Passionfruit and I no longer use this section. If you have never heard of them and you sell ad space on your blog…. you seriously need to check them out. Its a wonderful site that keeps track of everything for you. All you have to do it set up the ad sizes and info and paste the codes to your blog. They take care of the rest. I don’t have to worry about putting ads up on certain days or taking them down once they expire, Passionfruit takes care of it all for me! How can you argue with that? For anyone that wants to keep track of this through paper still or are just curious as to what I did, here is the link to the document that I used before switching.

My Ideas/Inspiration: Next to my calendar, this is my favorite section! I love coming here when an idea pops into my head that I don’t want to forget. I keep plain white computer paper in this section along with a clear sheet protector page. If a find a color swatch or anything that sparks my inspiration, I just stick it in the page protector so I have it whenever I want it!

I hope you have enjoyed my rambling on about my binder and I hope that this has inspired you all to create a blog binder of your own (Heck… you might already have one and are thinking that I am slow on the up take!) I would love to hear any suggestions that you have for keeping your blog stuff organized or if you are using a blog binder, I would love to hear what you do.

Thanks again to the lovely ladies at Truely Lovely for having me over!

I hope to hear from ya soon!

My Blog: Life With The Little Man

My Twitter:

My Facebook:

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THANKS so much to Tiffanie for sharing her Blog Binder idea with us today!
I really need to work at getting all my blog info that organized!!

Have a lovely day dolls! Happy organizing!!!

Filed Under: Bloggie Bestie, Blogging Tips, Organization

Clever Snack Jar

May 29, 2012 12 Comments

Hey there lovelies!!!
Did you know that one of my favorite crafting supplies is vinyl!

You can add a touch of fun to just about anything with vinyl and a cutting machine or scissors!

For the project that I’m sharing today I decided to fancy up a snack jar to hold snacks at my office.
I thought and thought about a clever saying to use that would be fun but still appropriate enough to show off at work… Finally (with a little help from Kayli) I came up with this!

Funny right!?! At least I thought so… 😉
To make your own clever snack jar you’ll need a jar or other container of your choice.
Some vinyl, I used pink and turquoise for mine. And a cutting machine. I have a Silhouette SD.
If you are really talented you could trace and cut the words with scissors too!
OR even use alphabet stickers to spell out your saying! You know… just throwing a few options out there!

Since I have a Silhouette I designed my saying, “SNACKS! Hey, a Girl’s Gotta Eat!” on the computer then cut it out using my machine.

Then I used a little transfer paper to apply the vinyl onto my jar! Easy, peasy!

The last, but most important step for this craft… Filling your jar with yummy snacks!!

Hopefully yours are more creative than mine!
Maybe something like these dessert bars I made recently… 😉

Happy crafting lovelies!!!

Linking this here and here and .

P.S. We’d love if ! Thanks new friend!!

Filed Under: Crafts, Organization, Tutorials Tagged With: Office, Silhouette, Vinyl

Kassi’s Craft Cave

January 25, 2011 8 Comments

This weekend I stayed home for the first weekend in quite awhile and did some much needed house cleaning and organization!!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet… but the hubs to be and I are currently living with his dad in the house that he grew up in…

Long story short I got a job in a nearby town and it’s the perfect solution for us until we can find a place of our own…

My soon to be father-in-law has given me free rein to move furniture, clean up, organize and otherwise do as I please with most of the rooms in the house… YAY!

SO this weekend’s project was the catch all water heater ~~closet~~ tiny room. My crafting stuff and wedding stuff was pretty much starting to take over the bedroom closet and let’s be honest… the floor…

So I decided to turn the catch all room into my Craft Cave! When you see how small it is, you’ll understand the reason behind the term cave!

So here it is… Before.

This stuff shown here in the hallway was all sitting right in the middle of the floor before I emptied some if it out so I could get in there!!

See what I mean by catch all!!!
That’s a heater, air mattress, empty boot, hat and Scentsy boxes…
You get the idea…

Here you see the pile of storage boxes… That lovely water heater… and a glimpse of a real treasure…

The antique blue glass cabinet my moms-in-law discovered at a yard sale!!

NOW for the AFTERS…

I threw out some trash, broken and unrepairable items, vacuumed, etc…

And now…

You can see I moved that little vanity desk that was in that corner, hung up a little shelf I found buried in there, that sweet horse painting :)… and stacked the storage bins in one area.

Here you can see the vanity desk and chair become my sewing desk space. That cute window mirror got hung up to add a little dimension!
It’s got some real potential! I can’t wait to make it over somehow…

So what do you think of my, at least cleaned up and organized Craft Cave??

I would like to spruce it up in the future, maybe with some paint and a new rug… but this will work for now.

And how cute is this little cabinet??

It’s holding my sewing box, wrapping paper and a few books for the time being. Sorry I didn’t get a better picture of it… Had to crop another one to get this one…

So let me know what you think?? Any decorating suggestions that I could do on practically NO budget??

I’m linking up to Sassy Sites Operation Organization here.

Check it out and link up your organization projects before the end of January.

I’m also linking to A Home Made by Kiki’s Organization Post link up!
Check that out here.

Filed Under: Organization

Purse Organization & New Purse Ideas??

January 19, 2011 8 Comments

It’s January. Annual Organization Month… or something like that…

Mostly, I think everyone RESOLVES to be more organized and it usually only lasts through the month of January… haha!!

I’m still doing my part though! Even if only for a few weeks! 😉

This week I organized my duffel bag! I mean… my PURSE!

My mister gives me grief about hefting around a big bag… All I can say is who’s wallet is usually in there..? Or how many times does he say, “Stick this in your purse”? Often times there’s a rope glove or two floating around in there as well…

So take that mister! Without my BIG bag, you’d be hefting YOUR own stuff around. That’s right!!

Besides, it’s in my blood to carry a big purse. My Papa (grandpa) has always teased my mom about her big purses. He says she need a huge tarp to find anything in it… Meaning she has to dump the contents on the ground to dig through it to find anything.

So this is my purse of the moment!
And actually my “moment” means since LAST Christmas.
I am a pretty loyal purse user! I don’t switch them out very often…
But can you blame me? I LOVE this purse!

And this is the inside of my purse pre-organization… It’s rough, I know.

That is a grocery list floating around in there…
Lots of OLD receipts… etc, etc… OH, see that cute, upside down owl sticker?
That’s a letter from my new pen pal friend, Bethani!
Check out her blog here!!

I dumped the entire purse out on my bed…

Collected all the random papers, receipts, loose change and put them away. Meaning NOT back in my purse, but where they’re supposed to go.

I do have a matching wallet and check book holder now! Yay!
Which is also part of my denial in purchasing a new purse…
It wouldn’t match!!!

NOW, here’s a MONEY SAVING tip for you!!!

I always carry a little thing of Tylenol in my purse… The mister seems to develop a headache when we’re nowhere close to home, or a store… and inevitably, he or someone else needs a Tylenol.

Instead of carrying a full-size bottle, I purchased one of the small little tube types, and then I just refill it from the full-size bottle.

That way I get to save room in my purse, without paying the higher price for the smaller size… ‘Cause it’s cheaper per pill to buy the larger bottle!

So I refilled my little Tylenol tube…

Cleaned out the inside of my purse… Just shook out the little particles floating around in there… And then put all the necessities back in…
Wallet, checkbook, blank notepad (always needing paper to write on), a couple pens, a mini calendar, chapstick, gum, an extra pony tail holder, etc.

And wallah! Organized purse!!

I’m linking up again to the Sassy Sites’ Operation Organization! Click the button to link up your organization endeavors!!

In the meantime… Notice that my purse strap is seriously about to bust in half! Maybe, just maybe it IS time for a new purse.

Any suggestions?? I would love to see some links to some beautiful purses, ’cause I know you ladies have GREAT taste!! 😉
Maybe you can help my find my next purse?

You know I LOVE zebra… and right now I’m loving anything turqouise or pink… SO show me whatcha got!!
Oh.. And it’s gotta be a good sized bag!! Just gotta be.

And check back tomorrow for the Thursday Blog Swap with Miss Jana of Giggles, Glitz and Glam! I’ll be posting over on her blog tomorrow as well, and would love for you to drop in and say hi!!

See you then!!

Filed Under: Organization

Purse Organization & New Purse Ideas??

January 19, 2011 8 Comments

It’s January. Annual Organization Month… or something like that…

Mostly, I think everyone RESOLVES to be more organized and it usually only lasts through the month of January… haha!!

I’m still doing my part though! Even if only for a few weeks! 😉

This week I organized my duffel bag! I mean… my PURSE!

So take that mister! Without my BIG bag, you’d be hefting YOUR own stuff around. That’s right!!

And this is the inside of my purse pre-organization… It’s rough, I know.

I dumped the entire purse out on my bed…

Collected all the random papers, receipts, loose change and put them away. Meaning NOT back in my purse, but where they’re supposed to go.

I do have a matching wallet and check book holder now! Yay!
Which is also part of my denial in purchasing a new purse…
It wouldn’t match!!!

NOW, here’s a MONEY SAVING tip for you!!!

I always carry a little thing of Tylenol in my purse… The mister seems to develop a headache when we’re nowhere close to home, or a store… and inevitably, he or someone else needs a Tylenol.

Instead of carrying a full-size bottle, I purchased one of the small little tube types, and then I just refill it from the full-size bottle.

That way I get to save room in my purse, without paying the higher price for the smaller size… ‘Cause it’s cheaper per pill to buy the larger bottle!

So I refilled my little Tylenol tube…

And wallah! Organized purse!!

I’m linking up again to the Sassy Sites’ Operation Organization! Click the button to link up your organization endeavors!!

In the meantime… Notice that my purse strap is seriously about to bust in half! Maybe, just maybe it IS time for a new purse.

Any suggestions?? I would love to see some links to some beautiful purses, ’cause I know you ladies have GREAT taste!! 😉
Maybe you can help my find my next purse?

You know I LOVE zebra… and right now I’m loving anything turqouise or pink… SO show me whatcha got!!
Oh.. And it’s gotta be a good sized bag!! Just gotta be.

And check back tomorrow for the Thursday Blog Swap with Miss Jana of Giggles, Glitz and Glam! I’ll be posting over on her blog tomorrow as well, and would love for you to drop in and say hi!!

See you then!!

Filed Under: Organization

Organization at the Office

January 14, 2011 7 Comments

I’ve been seeing lots of organization posts, parties, ideas, etc. all over the blog world since the start of the New Year.

It seems like everyone really breaks out their organization best at this time.

Which is perfect for me! Gives me lots of inspiration to get organized…

Since I spend 90% of my time at my office, I decided that would be the best place to start!

I’m a little embarrassed to show how bad it looked to begin with… but that’s part of the process, right?! So here we go…

This is my “lovely” little corner. Notice the sarcasm when I say “lovely”…

My office really isn’t lovely… But before I can really work on adding some lovely, it’s gotta get cleaned up and organized!

I have an office in the very back room of a building with several other uses… Luckily though, my little corner is far enough back that it stays pretty quiet.

Yep, that’s my zebra purse sitting on my desk.
Yes, that’s stacks and stacks of unorganized papers…
You get the point.

An up close view of some of my piles and yep, my purse.
Don’t you love my HUGE dinosaur of a calculator there!
I inherited some beauties from the last owner of said corner…

Here’s the left side of my desk. Home to my Scentsy (that’s a start to some lovely!) and my ever present bottle of water!
(Half your body weight in ounces ladies! Everyday!)

And yes, more piles. Oh… that IS a Taco Bell bag sitting there…
What??
I live 45 minutes from work, it’s not like I can go home for lunch everyday…

The shelves above my desk… Some more inherited JUNK.

Seeing the “lovely” I was talking about earlier..? So that’s it…

With a few strategic trash can donations, a little dusting, and some serious organization of the piles and piles of papers… THAT mess became…

A little bit nicer!

There WAS a desk under there!

Still have my water bottle! Did you notice my lovely coaster?!

The benefit of those funky cubicle looking walls is that you CAN stick push pins in them!

So what do think? An improvement??
Anyone have any ideas for adding some REAL loveliness to my space?
Things that are only semi-permanent please.

OH and did you notice my sweet desktop background for January?

You can download this as well as several other desktop selections for FREE from Leelou Blogs!

I’m linking up over at Sassy Sites’ Operation Organization. You should too!

Happy Organizing!!!

P.S. Don’t forget to link up to Fancy This Fridays!!

Filed Under: Organization

Streamlining Your E-mail

Greeting Card Keepsake Book

Bloggie Bestie – Tiffany of Life with the Little Man

Tiffanie of Life with the Little Man!

Clever Snack Jar

Kassi’s Craft Cave

Purse Organization & New Purse Ideas??

Purse Organization & New Purse Ideas??

Organization at the Office

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