Canton TX – April Coker, Author

AT HOME MONDAY: *Psycho theme playing. . .*

Imagine the theme music from the movie “Psycho“–
you know. . .the part where What’s His Face
in his mother’s dress
shows up in Janet Leigh‘s motel bathroom
and slashes her to death with
a butcher knife. . .

Okay, I admit it isn’t quite that bad. . .

but my house has some pretty scary places.

My daughter and her fiance live in such a tiny trailer

that they have to store their extra stuff somewhere–

guess where? Yep, her old bedroom. . .

Meanwhile, in the guest room. . .my son’s former

closet has become my Ebay closet.

The cardboard boxes have taken over.

I have to ship stuff in something, right?

All the DIY stuff I have been collecting for my daughter’s

wedding in November is starting to clutter up my

bedroom. It’s certainly NOT the romantic haven it

is supposed to be for my husband and me. . .

After November 10 it all goes in storage for my

future Canton booth. . .

This is the master closet that seemed so huge when

we had it built along with our new master bedroom

eleven years ago. I know I could make it a lot more

inviting, but there is always something else to do.

Maybe after the wedding?

It does have potential. The suitcases and hat boxes

are a good start, and look at the cute lingerie chest

that I repainted.

I keep my jewelry in there.

It also needs a good purging.

Again, maybe after the wedding. . .

Does anyone else have hidden disaster spots in your home?

Flylady calls them “hot spots.” I think mine are

molten lava! Now stop that “Psycho” music

before somebody gets hurt. . .

Ap ril

xoxo

AT HOME MONDAY. . .organizing those files. . .

Though I pride myself on my organizational skills, it seems my kitchen counter mysteriously and spontaneously accumulates piles and piles of stuff. Where does it COME from? (I have my suspicions.) In an effort to corral the endless trail of papers, mail, keys, change, pens, pencils, I placed a pretty tray on the countertop. Of course, somebody had to then clean out the tray periodically or it became a mountain itself. And, of course, it did. Did I really mean to create yet another chore for myself?

I guess I actually thought the piles of paper would magically sort themselves into “keep,” “pay,” and “toss” stacks, but for some reason that never happened. When the pile of paper threatened to take over my kitchen I finally relented and separated the mess. Although it didn’t take as long as I had anticipated, I thought there had to be a better way to “git-r-done.”

My file cabinet is in the back of the house in a bedroom often occupied by my grown daughter when she comes home on weekends (that is another decorating issue), making filing even more inconvenient, which of course, gave me an excuse NOT to deal with the paper pile. But one day a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that I had the solution to filing, at least, right under my nose!

I collect vintage suitcases and train cases, and I just happened to have an empty train case I had recently purchased at Canton’s First Monday Trade Days. (That is another blog post, or two, or three!) I suddenly realized that file folders would fit into that little train case, and I could set it in my living room–just off the kitchen–as a decorative way to temporarily file papers until they could be

assimilated into my larger file cabinet!

The train case: I love the two-tone leather! It only set me back $20, too!

Receipts and other papers stop here before being shredded or transferred to the “big” file cabinet at the end of the year. It is so convenient to file papers when I finish paying bills now!

I haven’t gotten around to typing up nice labels yet, and I would like to get some

new patterned folders, but for now, this works! How do you tackle your paper clutter?