Goal! Getter! Gurl!: Doing good on day off.

Yesterday, there was a major blizzard here pretty much all day. So, I locked myself inside and spent a lot of the day lounging in my bed. Yeah, I know. I was going to take a nap, as all of that being lazy I was doing was making me tired. Then...I decided I would be better off being productive.

I looked around me and realized this: I'm a pig. ;) Yes, overnight my place had turned into a giant disaster. Clothes stacked in piles, papers and boxes all over the floor.

Many people closest to me would realize that this isn't all that abnormal. I have quite a history of stacking clothes in piles and letting my living areas become a disarray. Usually, I clean it and get it all nice and organized and then gradually it becomes a huge mess again until I cannot stand it anymore and I have to clean it up or go insane. I chose cleaning.

Reflecting on how it had become this way, I narrowed it down to a few things. New boots arriving, Friday clothing dilemma and Saturday night costume party. Friday and Saturday, while attempting to make outfits, it led me to pull a lot of clothes out of the closet in a hurry and not put them back. My boots arriving contributed to boxes and papers being tossed all over. I also had my coupon collection in a heap next to the filing cabinet.

I got to work starting to put everything away. However, I quickly got sidetracked by another project I had thought of earlier in the week at work. A lovely woman had donated some coupons to the food shelf. Previously, I had mentioned my thoughts of offering budgeting and thrifty living classes to the food shelf. I did discuss this with my bosses, but it seemed there wasn't too much enthusiasm about it. I guess they had tried it in the past and there wasn't much interest. When the woman donated her coupons, it sparked the thought that since I am couponing anyways, why don't I bring in the coupons I am not using so others CAN use them? Perhaps if they are made more readily available to them, they would be more apt to use them. I got to work, cutting out my own coupons and the leftover coupons I wouldn't need. I arranged mine in my new coupon caddy that I had received in the mail during the week. You can find these here.

I had so many coupons for the food shelf, I needed some way to arrange them. I began searching online for other coupon caddies and I discovered a way to make a coupon caddy yourself at home. I wondered if I shouldn't have done this for myself so that I didn't spend $8.00, but I realized that I really needed something that could be kept out of the way and the one that I purchased is perfect as it sticks right on the fridge. I love it! Also, when I was clipping my coupons, guess what I found? A coupon for a FREE coffee, no purchase needed at Butter Bakery Cafe, one of my most favorite places to eat in Minneapolis. Yep, the people there know be my name. (A testament to my previous spending habits.) SCORE! May be using that this week as I need to get some work done where I'm outside of my house and not easily distracted.

For the food shelf however, this would be perfect! Thus, I began my project.

Place envelopes one after the other and glue flap.

Place following envelope on top of glued flap, ensuring it is straight and not impinging the envelopes natural fold.

Place your coupons in the different envelopes.

Label all of the envelopes in different categories

Fold the envelopes like an accordian, one up, one down, etc.

Do not glue the last envelope flap and fold that flap over the rest of the folded envelopes but don't seal. Tie together with ribbon or string. Ta dah!

Oh, and by the way...this is how my place turned out. Not perfect, but a definite improvement!