Home Improvement: January Party

It is time for our very first Home Improvement linky party! I can’t wait to see what fantastic improvements you all have made to your homes lately!

Sometimes it is just a small thing that makes a huge improvement on your system. A tweak that leaves you thinking, “Why didn’t I ever do this before?” That was the kind of improvement I made recently that I am excited to share with you today!

I came to a moment where I felt I needed a better system. Ever been there? I had a drawer in my sewing desk full of note cards and candles {because you know, everyone stores those things together in a sewing desk} and it. was. full. Too full. And I wasn’t using the note cards….I didn’t even know half of what was in there, to be honest!

But in an effort to keep up with my goal of being a better correspondent this year - including real, hand-written notes - I determined to create a system I could use. I wanted to make it easy for myself to get those notes written, and provide good storage as well.

To begin, I emptied out a drawer in a shallow three-drawer caddy. {This was a great place to start, since I was able to find better homes for/get rid of the stuff that was cluttering up that drawer!} Then I pared down and organized the stuff I really needed, and - the fun part - filled up the drawer again in a neat, organized fashion!

Here is a little bit of what it includes:

I decided I didn’t need the whole drawer for my letter writing, so I included a few blogging-and planning-related items as well. Things I can pull out as I need, but have a good, permanent place for the rest of the time.

I popped in a stack of note cards and a stack of thank you cards, plus a pen and Sharpie so the tools I needed would be handy. The sticky notes allow me to create lists or reminders while I’m working, and I can use the sticky flags to pop notes into my planning binder or another handy place if I need to. My camera and cord did not have a permanent landing place, and needed one desperately, so this seemed perfect!

I just used a small re-purposed cup for some smaller items, and then came my most brilliant brainstorm: I used a dab of sticky tack to secure that baby so it can’t slide around. It has worked like a charm! {I promptly did the same thing in a bunch of other drawers around my room, ha!}

Now whenever I want to write a note to a friend, do some planning or blog-related work, I just pull the drawer out, plop it and me on my bed and get to work! I love the ease and simplicity of the system! It has certainly been a Home Improvement for me!

Now, I can’t wait to see what you have been doing this month to improve your home: the diy, homemaker way!

Here are the rules, so we can get this party started:

• Link up any type of post that has made an improvement to your home this month - a project, organizing effort, cleaning system, new recipe, planning or list making, or even a topical post like couponing or child-rearing.

• Feel free to link up as many posts as you’d like, as long as they are recent {we’ll say anytime in January to be fair}

• Include a link back here somewhere in your post ~ feel free to use this button if you want!

<center><a href="http://nicoleslifeafter20.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Grab this button" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/90605184@N06/8407982223/"/></a></center>

Don’t have a blog? We’d love to have you share the details of your recent home improvement in the comments!

Thanks to everyone who participates for making this a fun party!!!