The Sunday Night Rush.

I'm totally over here weeping because my two week vacation is coming to an end. No more late nights, slow mornings, endless hours with Javi, traveling, binge-watching netflix, etc. etc. etc. Hold on -- I need to grab another tissue.

When I am working there are things that I need to do on Sunday nights to make sure the rest of the week moves along smoothly. I'm out of the house for about 12 hours a day during the work week so there's not much time to do anything after work besides the typical -- play with Javi, eat dinner, relax for a bit and go to bed on time. For me, that's key. I don't want to waste the few hours I have with Javi and Sean during the work week because I need to do things that easily could have been accomplished during the weekend -- and even then I leave most things to Sunday night. Call me crazy, but I'm motivated when my time is running out. :) Plus, I don't want to do this stuff on Saturdays!

1. Laundry -- I typically do 4 loads of laundry every Sunday -- 3 for clothes, and 1 for towels and sheets. I hate doing laundry during the week and when I don't have time on Sunday and end up doing it during the week -- well that's when I don't put it away and we end up sleeping amongst piles of clean laundry and then it falls on the floor and we have endless conversations about what's clean and what's dirty. And then we never catch up and it's a never ending cycle of scary laundry. No good.

2. Pack bags -- Javi has a bit of a confusing schedule but on the days he is with family he uses one bag and on the days he goes to school he uses a different bag. On Sunday I make sure both bags are packed accordingly with everything he needs -- so then all I have to worry about each evening is his food. I also pack my bag for work -- and make sure I have everything I need -- especially my keys! The worst thing in the world is not being able to find keys at 5AM.

3. Clean kitchen -- Including dishes. I always like to wake up to a clean kitchen but it's important to me that we have the appropriate dishware to bring lunches during the week. Some days we bring sandwiches or salads and some days we bring leftovers. But one thing I hate is when the dishes I want to use are dirty. I get so frustrated! This is also why we run the dishwasher every day. Most often it's full anyway but it's the worst when dishes are dirty.

4. Prepare food -- Everyone needs to eat! I like to make sure Javi has all his snacks and food for the next day and since his bags are already packed I just replenish every other night of the week. I also get together food for Sean and me. I need breakfast, a snack, lunch and usually another snack :). I make sure everything is ready to go so I can just grab it in the morning. Sometimes we meal plan on Sunday and we make lunches for every day, too. Those are always easier weeks. Another thing we do, regarding food, (we actually do it on Saturday) is that we buy all of our stuff for the week -- food, paper goods, cat food, etc. -- one day during the weekend (or we order it from amazon and have it delivered during the week). This helps because we plan all our dinners, portion out the meat in ziplocs and write (for example) "Monday - chicken parm" or "Tuesday - pizza". It helps so much! And there's no reason to stop anywhere after work -- we don't have time!

5. Collect trash -- Our trash day is Tuesday but it's terrible to collect trash on Monday night after putting Javi to sleep. So we try to empty most trash bins on Sunday. That way when Monday comes along we just have to do the kitchen trash (and the litter boxes because that's an every day thing -- you know what I mean if you have cats).

6. Clothes -- Always pick out clothes for the next day. I get dressed in the dark -- literally, I don't turn on the light because Sean is still asleep. I use the flashlight on my phone to be nice -- though he recently told me it shines in his eyes (here I was thinking I was being a good wife). On particularly busy weeks, I pick out all 5 outfits for the week -- I dress in layers so the weather doesn't really matter. I also put whatever shoes I plan to wear near the door. And ALWAYS match your socks when you put away laundry -- especially if you get dressed in the dark like me because all socks look the same and you'll inevitably be mismatched in the light.

7. Go to bed -- Especially on a Sunday like tonight (coming off a 2-week break) but really every Sunday, I feel a little more amped up and not necessarily like I want to go to bed. But when I do go to bed before 10PM -- I feel so much better waking up the next day. Oh, and always set your alarm before falling asleep. Because it's terrible to oversleep on a Monday morning. It throws off the whole week!

What do you do to prepare for the week?

Make a few changes, be more organized.

We're "fortunate" to have a lot of stuff. I say "fortunate" because I've come to a place where I no longer think all this "fortune" is necessary. I've started my quest to not only de-clutter but to de-own. All the organization magazines and books say that if it has a place it can stay and if it doesn't have a place it needs to go. So I've made sure: things have a place and that all the things that don't have a place are slowly making their way out the door. For instance, the other day we (and I mean Sean totally by himself because he's so sweet) lugged three bags of clothes, two bags of books and two bags of shoes to the donation bins down the street. And yet, sometimes, I just feel cluttered. Things accumulate so quickly, don't they? One minute our counters are clean and with one trip to the mailbox -- they're totally covered in flyers and bills and coupons for stores I don't even shop at. Or the bathroom -- it's totally clean but by the time I finish getting ready each day the counter is filled with lotions and potions that I don't even remember applying. And laundry? Somehow laundry makes a mess in the whole apartment. 

In the past few days, I realized that it's probably not okay to just throw away things in mass quantities. Maybe some would disagree but there were a few days there that Sean really thought he was going to come home to nothing at all in our apartment. So rather than throw away items that our money has paid for and that in lots of cases we actually use and enjoy I decided to get my fix of de-cluttering in other, slightly smaller, ways.

1. Merge email accounts and organize emails into folders: I have so many email addresses; two for personal use, one for my blog, one for ebay, one for work... I mean, seriously, why? In about two minutes I was able to merge all my email accounts (I left my work one alone), and about twenty-five minutes later (it probably could have been quicker but I got a tiny bit sidetracked by emails from Expedia) all my emails for all my accounts were organized into folders. It's great because I no longer need to log into multiple emails. They're all in one place. It helps to unsubscribe to companies that send you emails all the time but that you don't want to receive. That's my next step. 

2. Clean out my purse: Why am I saving receipts from Chipotle? Why can't I ever just put my debit card back into my wallet? Why is my Marc Jacobs bag a dumping ground when I'm on the go, when I want to clean out my car or even when I need to clear off all the mail from the dining room table? There's really no need for it, and when my bag is clean and organized I feel so much better. It takes a few minutes, why not do it?

3. Fold the clothes in my dresser: Whenever I go through clothes, it doesn't have to be because I'm getting rid of them. Every now and then, I like to take every single thing out of my dresser, fold it (I don't know how they're getting unfolded?) and then just put everything back in the drawers. It gives the illusion I've just thrown away a bunch of stuff but really it's all just neat and tidy.

4. Delete the DVR, just do it: I'm one of those serial recorders. When I like a show I DVR it every single time it's on... on any channel. This means that at any given time I could have over 30 episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, Boy Meets World, Chelsea Handler... the list goes on. Whenever I feel the need to clean out something but can't find trash bags -- I go straight to the DVR. I just pick a couple of random episodes, spend a few minutes deleting them rather than 30 minutes each (give or take) watching them all and just watch as the space on the DVR frees up.

5. Take out the recyclables: When all else fails, actually take things outside that you're planning to get rid of anyway. We recycle a lot. And our FOUR recycling bins (plastic, paper, glass, aluminum) are right by the door. This means they're the first things I see when I walk in, they're the last things I see before I leave and they're all right there every time I'm in the kitchen and glance down the hallway. It's hard work (and kind of annoying) trying to be green when I want a neat house and all these bottles and cans and jars and papers are constantly cluttering up my apartment. The nerve. So when it gets too much to handle, and when I feel like it's weighing me down -- I bring all the bins to the recycling center. It takes less than five minutes and feels good to know I'm getting rid of things I don't want, need or use. And sometimes, Sean does it for us. So it's even better. And five minutes later, I have empty bins by the front door and it's relaxing rather than chaotic.

So there you have it. Five quick and easy things I do to help re-organize, de-clutter and de-own. If you had 10 minutes to clean up one area, how would you spend your time?

Accessorize, organize, prioritize and moisturize.

Last year, I promised myself that I would do four things: accessorize, organize, prioritize and moisturize.

Well. In some ways I think I succeeded and in others, I think there's always more you can do.

1. Accessorize: In general, I think being able to accessorize relies heavily on your ability to organize what you have... in the first place. So, originally I attempted to organize all of my accessories so that I'd be able to see them each morning while getting ready and see if anything matched my clothes.

I bought those 3m hooks for necklaces and earrings (hanging in small pouches). Ideally I would like to 1. invest in more necklaces and 2. invest in an earring holder so they are all visible.

I found pictures on Pinterest of bracelets displayed on a paper towel holder and I thought it was a great idea. So I bought a paper towel holder for this purpose (even though my kitchen paper towels are still floating on the counter and after 11 months still don't have a holder of their own). Turns out, it's not the best idea. Because 1. they mesh together and you can't see what you have and 2. if you want a bracelet at the bottom you have to take them all off. That's way too much work. However, they are still displayed this way because I'm still trying to find something else that works.

What I was able to do was wear a couple of things each day (some more recently than others) but here goes:

I wear my wedding/engagement rings each day, of course.

I got this necklace at the beginning of December as a gift and have been wearing it ever since:

I bought myself a Pandora bracelet around my birthday. I was pretty sure I didn't want it, but a best friend told me I was wrong :)

Turns out she was right, because I do love the thing. I'm currently collecting charms:

And these are my staple earrings I wear each day. I switch off, but I think most of the year was spent in the orange ones:

So all in all, there's much to do but I think I made progress since in 2011 the only jewelry I ever wore were my rings.

2. Organize: There's so much I could show you. But I think organization is such a broad topic I could probably break the post up a bit to not overwhelm. What I will show you today, is how I organized a lot of my beauty products. Sean was always complaining that underneath the bathroom sink was always so crowded and that I needed 'to stop moving his stuff". In his defense he had like 4 things that I always found myself moving around. So I took everything out:

See? So messy. So random. I already had the bins from Target (you can get 5 of them for like $6.99) and I organized them a little differently.

Rather than just have all sorts of everything in all the bins I organized them by: hair, nails, skin, travel, extra (or things we have multiples of thus CHECK HERE before we buy anything new).



I used scrapbooking paper to make the labels and since the boxes were clear and not that nice to look at the paper spruces it all up a bit. Rather than put them back under the sink, I have them out high on top of the washing machine. Ideally, I'd like to hang a shelf on top of the washing machine and have them stacked there rather than directly on top but it's worked so far. And Sean stop complaining that I had so much stuff.

3. Prioritize: I know that we both do this very well. But again, there's always more you can do. We've tried to see family more, spend more time with friends, and obviously more time set aside for each other that doesn't just consist of watching TV. One thing we try to do each week is see our families. We live about 45 minutes away from our parents and on Sundays we try to make the rounds. It's nice to spend time and occasionally we get well-balanced meals out of the visits. :)

With friends, I've tried to set aside time to hang out, meet up or at least talk on the phone. It's nice to even meet for an hour if possible.

4. Moisturize: You can never do this enough. I'll show you my favorites:

1. Jergens Ultra Healing - body lotion

2. Cera Ve - face lotion

3. Sleep Lavendar Chamomile - hand lotion before bed

4. Nivea creme - face lotion [kept in my bag]

5. Cindy Crawford Meaningful Beauty - face lotion before bed

6. Gold Bond ultimate healing - hand lotion

7. Bath and body works, Last Kiss body butter - for anytime

Well, there you have it.

2012 is done. 2013 is here.

And I hope to continue doing all of these things in the new year!