Try It Out Tuesday - Shower Caddy

Linking up with Kelly for Try It Out Tuesday!  She has an awesome post about DIY makeup remover AND homemade, reusable makeup remover pads.  


Today's TIOT is so quick and easy I'm almost embarrassed to post it.  It's one of those ideas that when you see it, you want to smack yourself in the head and say "Now, why didn't I think of that???"


You can find the pin on my Organizational Ideas board on Pinterest.  You can also follow me by clicking this link.  


The Idea: To move your hang-over-the-shower head caddy (if you have one) to the opposite wall of the shower so it doesn't interfere with the shower head (especially if you, like me, have a detachable sprayer shower head...that dumb hose catches that caddy every time!), and to keep the caddy and the items in it from getting so wet and mildewy.  The original pin called for a large coat hook mounted to the bathroom wall, and to hang the caddy from that.  Well...our bathroom has a shower surround thingie that sticks out too far for me to to that.  See: 

(that's not dirt...it's paint spatter)

Also, we rent this place, so I don't want to have to remove a coat hook and patch the hole when we move.  And, honestly, since I'm flat-ass-broke on a bit of a budget being that we only have one income...I didn't want to spend any money if I didn't really HAVE to.  


I then remembered that I had some 3M Command Hooks in the kitchen junk drawer!  

Ta-DAAAA!

All that was left was to hang the caddy from said command hook.  

VIOLA!!!  

Modifications:  Command hook stuck to the shower surround wall instead of a coat hook screwed into the bathroom wall.

Fail Factors:  None that I can think of.  It's pretty idiot proof.  Unless the adhesive strip fails and the caddy goes crashing to the floor of the tub in the middle of the night, thereby scaring the living daylights out of me.  I then may need to change my sheets.  :)

For The Win: This particular project didn't cost me anything.  Not one single red cent.  Except for the cost of the command hook, but since I already had it, I'm not counting that cost.
                     This project literally took five minutes to accomplish.  You can't get any more "winning" than that!


*"Try It Out Tuesday" is a blog hop (or blog party) created by 3 friends, and is inspired by Pinterest. We choose one, sometimes two "pins" (if you want to be labeled an overachiever, just sayin') per week, try them out, and review them on our blogs. Anyone can join in, just leave the link to your Try It Out Tuesday post in the comments and we'll add you to the list! C'mon, Try It Out!

Try It Out Tuesday - "Our Life, Organized" Binder

Linking up with Kelly from My Purple Brick Road for our weekly Try It Out Tuesday post.

Follow me on Pinterest!

Today's post is about my "Our Life Binder".  The pin I chose is HERE, and the website it links to is HERE.

You might have heard of this before.  Most people call it a "home management binder", and they're all the rage with "mommy blogger" sites.  I had a hard time finding descriptions and instructions to make a home management binder that would work with our life, i.e: I work outside the home, we have no children (living in our home full time), I don't home-school, I am the primary bread-winner (for now!), and I work crazy hours.  But, I still really wanted a way to simplify our lives, have all of our important information together in one place, and develop a system for mundane tasks like paying the bills and grocery shopping.  I haven't been the best about putting our system into practice, and the next few months I will be challenging myself to stick to using the binder on a daily basis and developing more of a routine around our home.  

What?  You HAVEN'T heard of a home  management binder??? All you need to start your own is a few easy to find items.  

Materials: 

~3-ring binder, folder, or notebook

~Page dividers

~Paper to print out your binder information sheets

This is my personal binder cover-to-cover.  All of the products I used were purchased from Wal-Mart, and cost a total of around $20.  I took a bright cheery pink 1" binder, clear sheet protectors (simply because I'm weird about liking things in sheet protectors!), and plastic tabbed dividers with pockets as the section dividers, and I bought some Sharpies and dry erase markers.  I designed most of the printed sheets from compiling information from many of the organizational/management binders I found online.  I customized the entire book to fit OUR LIFE...and you can do the same for yours! 

Cover

Labeled dividers

"at a glance" weekly calendar so we
all know who is doing what and when

Personal information, one page for each adult

Child information sheet
Customize to your specific child's needs and activities

Medical information
One for each member of the family

Medical info continued

Example of the pocket dividers for each section.
This one is the "finances" section.
Unpaid bills go in the pocket, stamps are kept handy,
and payments are logged on the "bills paid" ledger
(ledger not pictured due to personal financial information on it)

Vehicle information with make/model
license info, and insurance carrier information.

Address book

Shopping list of our usual purchases
(this one is for food, I also have one for household items/
paper products/soap/etc.

Weekly menu-at-a-glance

I also have a few pages that I didn't show, such as a section for take-out and delivery menus (which we don't use much since we're both eating healthier and losing weight), and I have sheets printed out with our lease information, individual bill/payment information along with utility account numbers and customer service phone numbers for easier reference.

There you have it.

Our Life...Organized!

(A great resource for the printable sheets for your binder is Life Your Way.  I used a few of theirs as-is and used others as templates for my own binder.)


Modifications: Heavily modified to fit our current life status.  But, that's the beauty of it, it can grow and change with your family as it and your circumstances change!

For The Win!:  Almost any and every piece of information we could possibly need regarding ourselves, our family, our finances, and our life habits are compiled in one easy to find, easy to use binder.


Fail Factors:  ~Can be time consuming to set up initially.
                     ~Does take daily use and maintenance to achieve the full benefit of the organizational system.
                     ~Almost any and every piece of information we could possibly need regarding ourselves, our family, our finances, and our life habits are compiled in one easy to find, easy to use binder.  Hmmm...    

*"Try It Out Tuesday" is a blog hop (or blog party) created by 3 friends, and is inspired by Pinterest. We choose one, sometimes two "pins" (if you want to be labeled an overachiever, just sayin') per week, try them out, and review them on our blogs. Anyone can join in, just leave the link to your Try It Out Tuesday post in the comments and we'll add you to the list! C'mon, let's Try It Out!