Rustchic Living

Organization

5 Places In Your Small Space To Work From Home

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Just because you live small and work from home, doesn’t mean you don’t have a place to get business done. I have been working at home for over 20 years. My work at home space has come full circle from the beginning.

When I first started working from home, we lived in a little 800 square foot rental home with two bedrooms and one bath. I squeezed a desk into the corner of our bedroom. One day my husband came home after work and went to put on a clean t-shirt but they were not there. His shirts had been replaced by paper and office supplies.

We moved and lived in several houses over the years. The bulk of my years working from home, I had an actual dedicated room that was my office. I loved this, because I could shut the door and leave work. Aside from the giant jet bathtub of my big house, having a dedicated office space is probably what I miss the most.

However, having an entire room to work does not out way all of the benefits I love about living small. I continue to work at home doing a couple of different businesses and I have carved out five different places to work in my little house.

Please note, I have been given a free Tablemate in exchange for a review. My opinion of this product are all true and my opinion.

1. A Hallway

My laundry room is basically a finished back porch and the hallway to the backdoor. The room is only five feet wide. I removed the giant laundry sink and in its place put two filing cabinets and a top. My version happens to be repurposed from my old home office and part of the Pottery Barn Bedford collection. But, you could use any two filing cabinets with a simple board or narrow door on top.

2. The Kitchen Table

The kitchen table is an obvious choice when working from home. Even though I have a little desk in my back hallway, I sometimes will work from the kitchen table. Working from the table gives me a larger space to spread out piles when organizing or painting projects for my Etsy shop. I also find myself working here during the different seasons if my desk area is too hot or too cold.

3. The Living Room

Sometimes, I just really need to get a change of atmosphere and my behind needs something softer to sit on. I love the new cheery feel in my living room and it is just the change of pace I need to stay productive. The one thing that has made this so easy is my new Tablemate in the mocha color.

I was recently sent a Tablemate to see how I liked it. I honestly have to say, it is super handy. I can adjust the height if I want to rest my wrists low doing laptop work, or I can raise it up higher to work at a traditional height.

My husband has come to love it too, and now we fight over it. When the grandkids are over, I lower it and it transforms into an art and snack table for them. Because the Tablemate folds up, it is convenient to hide it under the couch or in the closet when not in use. It really has become one of the small house items that we use daily. This is the Tablemate I use but there are lots of other options to check out here.

4. The Washer & Dryer

I can’t tell you how stinking handy the top of the washer and dryer are for getting work done at home. I use them as a stand-up desk, take product photos for my Etsy shop on top of them, and use this surface as my packaging station. Using the washer and dryer as a workplace also keeps me on top of putting my laundry away! A double win.

5. The Kitchen Island

The other stand up area I use often is my little kitchen island which I write about here. It’s just so nice to stand up and work sometimes. My island is great for sorting paperwork, assembling products and packaging and sorting. It is also handy because it’s right in the hub of the home so I can easily multi-task while working from the kitchen island.

If you look hard enough around your home, no matter what the size, you will be able to find a place to work. Pinterest is a great place to look for inspiration. In fact, I have a board dedicated to small workplaces. You can follow me on Pinterest and check out my Workspaces board.

I would love to hear what creative places you have found to work from home.

7 Things To Do Before The Clock Falls Back

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It is that time of the year here in California when we roll the clock back one hour. This is the perfect occasion to use the bi-annual time change as a reminder to do the following seven chores.

1. Change Batteries in Your Home Detectors

Change the batteries in your home’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. As the days get cooler, it is especially important to have fresh batteries in your detectors when running heat sources and gas appliances.

2. Replace Furnace Air Filter

Keeping the air filter in your furnace clean will help it run more efficiently, save you money, and cut down on allergies.

3. Reset Candle Timers

Reset the timers on your battery operated candles so they come on earlier. Now that it gets dark an hour earlier, enjoy their warm cozy glow as you settle in for the winter.

emergency kit checklist4. Check Your Emergency Kit

You may have used your kit’s flashlight for camping this summer or borrowed a few water jugs for a picnic. Use my Basic Emergency Kit Checklist and go through your emergency kit to make sure you are ready when the time arises. Some of my favorite emergency kit items are listed in the below time change items.

5. Oil Change and Rotate Tires

If you have been putting off regular car maintenance, wait no longer. Make sure your vehicle is in good working order and ready to respond on wet, slippery roads.

6. Replace Burnt out Light Bulbs

You probably have at least one bulb out somewhere (I have one out in my bathroom right now.) Grab the step ladder and replace any burnt out light bulbs to brighten up the dark afternoons. Also, while you are up on the ladder, dust the cobwebs!

7. Get a New Toothbrush

Most of us get a new toothbrush every six months when we visit the dentist for a cleaning. However, dental professionals recommend changing your toothbrush every three months. With cold and flu season approaching, make sure your toothbrush is fresh and new.

Did I miss anything? What things do you make sure to get done when the time changes?

Shop My Time Change Items

This post includes some affiliate links. If you click on these and make a purchase, I earn an itsy bitsy commission but it doesn’t cost you any extra.

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kitchen clock

 

Organize Your Medicine Cabinet Like a Boss

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Do you open up your medicine cabinet and stuff just topples out? Here are a few easy steps on how to organize your medicine cabinet beautifully and keep it that way.

Medicine cabinets are little niches in our bathrooms perfect for living small. They tuck in between the walls where you can hide all kinds of goodies out of sight. But, that right there is the problem (out of sight). “Just stick it in the medicine cabinet” until one day, that little tube of chapstick makes the whole thing fall down in an avalanche of itsy bitsy bathroom crap.

opened medicine cabinet with pretty bottle and greenery on the shelves

After everything lands all over your bathroom counter, you have two choices. You can do some stacking and rearranging to make it all fit back in the cabinet until the next fall-out or you can organize it like a boss and keep it that way. Honestly, I have no idea that after you follow my steps to organizing your medicine cabinet you will actually keep it that way. But, what I do know is that if the inside of your medicine cabinet is beautiful, you are more likely to “want” to keep it that way.

medicine cabinet with black background styled with pretty bottles and greenery

Remove Everything

Take everything out of the cabinet. Everything including the shelves.

Clean the Cabinet

Get in there and give everything a nice scrubbing. Get in those nooks and crannies and clean up all that broken eyeshadow stuck in the corner.

Throw Stuff Out

Discard:

  • Items that have expired
  • That you haven’t used for 3 months or longer
  • Anything that is broken
  • Duplicates
  • The eyeliner you used once and hated how it worked – I know it’s new but toss it! I give you permission
  • Anything else you don’t need

This post includes some affiliate links. If you click on these and make a purchase, I earn an itsy bitsy commission but it doesn’t cost you any extra.

Add an Inspirational Verse or Quote

I love this verse, but for some hard-headed reason, I need to be constantly reminded of its message. Therefore, it is my daily reminder. Choose a verse or quote you love and motivates you. My verse is adhesive vinyl and I made it on my Silhouette Portrait machine. You can purchase the Jeremiah 29:11 cut file download in my shop for just a few dollars.

If you want to change up your quotes more often,  chalkboard contact paper is the bomb diggity. I used it inside the pantry in my Airstream trailer for our menu board.

medicine cabinet with a bible verse inside the door as a daily reminder

Decorate the Back

If your medicine cabinet is pretty, psychologically you are more likely to keep it organized! Begin by decorating the back of the cabinet with a pop of color or something pretty. You can paint it an accent color of your bathroom decor, use contact paper, or use wrapping paper. I just used four pieces of black cardstock that I found in my craft supplies.

Adjust the Shelves

Adjust the shelves to fit tall items and short items. You may even want to add an extra shelf to maximize your storage potential.

medicine cabinet with a black background and white shelves

Categorize Small Things in Jars

I love mason jars and use them all over the house. They are versatile and cheap so it is no surprise, that I chose 8-ounce jelly jars for organizing my medicine cabinet. I just grabbed a bunch from my stash and started categorizing. I have jars for:

  • Lips
  • Nails
  • Scrunchies
  • Hairbands
  • Bobby pins
  • Small tubes
  • Essential oil roll-ons
  • Teeth

organized medicine cabinet with a black background

Make matching bottle labels

Make pretty labels for all your bottles. Don’t stop at this step! This is the final step in organizing your medicine cabinet like a boss. These labels can easily be made with a printer and a glue stick. Custom bottle labels are the icing on the cake in your medicine cabinet! If you have an inkjet printer like me, put a piece of clear shipping tape over the printed titles of your label and it will prevent it from smearing if your hands are damp when you reach for your hair mousse.

I designed my custom bottle labels as .svg cut files so I can quickly print and cut a new label with my Silhouette Portrait machine when something runs out.

Now that you’ve got the steps to organize your own medicine cabinet – like a boss, comment below on your best take away and your plans to organize your medicine cabinet like a boss. Also, I love connecting with you on Instagram. Snap a picture of your medicine cabinet after you finish and tag me @urbancottageliving.

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medicine cabinet with door opened and pretty bottles on the shelf

Paperless Bill Paying Checklist

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Getting rid of piles of paperwork when you live in a small space is one of the easiest ways to declutter. Signing up for paperless bill paying and automating will save you time, eliminate stress, and most importantly declutter your desk.

When you use a monthly budget checklist, you make sure everything gets paid when it is supposed to and you stay on budget with your paperless bill paying.

We all get paid at different times of the month. The most common ways paydays land is monthly, twice a month, bi-weekly, and weekly. No matter how you get paid, you’ll want to use my easy free monthly budget checklist.

This article isn’t about how to budget. It is about how to move to paperless bill paying and how to easily keep track of your budget with a checklist based on how often you get paid.

As an example, let’s pretend you get paid on the first and the fifteenth of the month. If you get paid every week or bi-weekly then you have a bit more of a challenge and I have some helpful tips at the end of this article.

This article includes affiliate links for a couple of books I recommend. If you click on and purchase through my link, it does not cost you any extra. I do earn a small commission which helps me continue to live a big life in a small house.

Gather supplies

 Sign up for paperless bill paying

Sign up for paperless bill paying and auto pay with all the bills that give you the option. After you log into the bill’s website, you will want to make note of the day of the month the bill will be paid and the amount. You sometimes have the option when you sign up for paperless bill paying to pay the bill on the day it posts or the day the bill is due. You can choose which way works best for you and make a note of it.

Make note of the amount of the bill. Some bills are the same amount each month and some, like utilities, fluctuate each month. For the inconsistent monthly bills, look up the last 12 months amount due. Decide if you want to use the average amount in your budget or the highest month. I like to use the highest month for my monthly budget. This gives me more wiggle room in the bank account on lower months and ensures I don’t fall short on the high months.

Make a list of non-automated expenses

Now, make a list of all non-automated monthly expenses. This would include things like groceries, gasoline, dining out, entertainment, gifts, and car maintenance. Think about the things you use your debit card for.

Assign a pay period to each bill

Figure out what pay period each bill will get paid from. Using the example of the first and the fifteenth, here is how you tackle this step.

Grab a stack of post-it notes and on each individual note; write down the bill name, date paid, and the amount due. Stick them all in one place. I like to stick them on the table or countertop. However, you can stick them to the wall, the door, or the fridge.

The objective of this step is to divide your bills into two paydays. You are going to make two columns for your post-it notes. One column is for your payday on the first of the month and the other column is for your payday on the fifteenth of the month.

Start placing your post-it notes into columns using the bills with the higher amounts. Pay attention to the due dates. For most of you, your mortgage or rent as it is traditionally due on the first of the month. Place that post-it note in the first column.

Continue adding your post-it notes to the first column working most expensive bill to least expensive keeping in mind the due dates. You probably won’t be able to make your columns add up exactly to your pay periods, but you can get close. Keep moving your post-it notes back and forth until you get the amounts close to matching that of your payday.

Remember to pay attention to the automatic payment date. You’ll notice in my example below, the gym membership automatically drafts on the first of the month. However, this bill worked into my checklist for the payday on the fifteenth of the month. In this case, the funds for that bill are set aside two weeks ahead of time so it can be paid on the first of the month.

If your columns don’t add up perfectly, you need to make sure that the two columns added together do not exceed your actual monthly income. For example, if your payday on the first goes over by $20, then make sure your payday on the fifteenth is $20 less to make up for it.

Keep extra funds in your bank account

When you live paycheck to paycheck this is hard to do. However, some of the reasons you want to use the paperless bill paying system are to save time, eliminate stress, and to declutter your desk. Eliminating worry that you don’t have enough funds in your bank account to cover your bills each pay period defeats the time and stress goals, so work hard to build up the extra funds.

Dave Ramsey, financial expert and author of The Total Money Makeover and creator of Financial Peace University, recommends having $1000 emergency fund as baby step number one in achieving financial peace. If you don’t have funds to keep any extra in your bank account, keep your emergency fund there. Don’t misunderstand me. This isn’t for you to spend. It’s just sort of an invisible insurance policy if an automatic bill drafts a day or two before a payday.

You will want to work your way up in your paperless bill paying system to be one paycheck ahead and then one month ahead in your bank account. Reaching this spot in your paperless bill paying, it really does become stress-free.

Organize your checklist

Download your free monthly budget checklist. You will find a budget checklist in the Urban Cottage Resource library for getting paid monthly, twice a month, weekly, or bi-weekly. No matter how you get paid, there is a budget checklist for you.

Your budget checklist is a fillable PDF so you can do this all digitally. A paperless desk is a clutter-free desk! If you like a pen and paper, print it out, you can do that too.

After you download your list, rename it with the word “master” attached to it. For example, you may want to name it “2018 Monthly Budget Checklist Master.” Each month make a copy of the budget checklist master and name it for that month. An example would be “August Budget Checklist.”Track your spending

Choose a time each week, to check in on your bank account and track your spending. Access your bank account and compare your budgeted amount to the actual amount. Make sure you are staying on track and that your automatic payments draft when they are supposed to.

Tips for weekly, bi-weekly paydays

Because our calendar months aren’t perfectly four weeks, monthly budgeting becomes more of a puzzle when you are paid weekly or bi-weekly. If this is the case for you, you will want to make your budget as if the month is only four weeks.

My husband gets paid bi-weekly which is every two weeks. Our monthly budget is based on him getting paid twice a month. I use the pay period latest in the month as his “payday #1” and then two weeks later that pay period is “payday #2.” Twice per year, he ends up with an extra payday.

Similarly, when you are paid weekly, then four times per year you will have an extra payday.

Using these extra pay periods is a really easy way to build savings to reach the goal of keeping extra funds in your bank account. Once you are a month ahead in your bank account, then use your extra pay periods to build up your savings.

Here is an example of how to fill out your monthly budget checklist.

 

 

 

 

DIY Rustic Hat Rack

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I’m a hat girl. John is a hat guy. Hats take up a lot of space! Long gone are the days of our walk-in closet the size of a bedroom to store all of our hats. When downsizing you need to let go of a lot of things. Apparently, we both think our hats are important enough to keep around.

When we first moved into our house, we were renters (you can read more about that here) and didn’t know we were going to end up buying our little house. I threw together this rustic hat rack as a temporary solution. Part storage and part just something to hang on the wall.

Now that we own the house, it has ended up being the inspiration piece for my upcoming bedroom renovation. I even plan to make a second one soon–because there are still more hats that to be hung!

Supplies:

  • 3 boards – I used a couple six-foot boards salvaged from an old fence
  • 12 2-inch wood screws
  • 6 coat hooks

Tools:

  • Measuring Tape
  • Saw – I used a chop saw
  • Drill with a screw bit
  • Screwdriver
  • Pencil or chalk

Wash

If you are using salvaged boards like I did, make sure you wash them really well. I scrubbed mine with a firm brush using dish soap and water. Allow them to completely dry. Note: my boards are not dry in the following pictures. Do as I say, not as I do.

 

Cut to Size

You can adjust the size to fit your space or around the size of the boards you use. If you need exact measurements, these are mine to copy.

2 boards at 45 inches long

3 boards at 24 inches long

Put Together

Lay the two longer boards parallel on a flat surface. Be sure to lay the side of the board that you want to be the front facing down. I chose the most beat upside to enhance the rustic look.

From the top measure 5.25 inches down.  Draw a line where you will attach the first board going across. Then from the top measure 21.25 down and draw your line for the middle board. For the bottom board, measure 5.25 inches from the bottom up.

Line your boards up to the chalk marks. Stand back and make sure everything looks even. Once, you’ve got all your boards where you want them, attach using screws.

Add the Coat Hooks

Flip the boards over. Using the measuring tape, find the center of your boards and mark where your coat hooks will go. Attach the hooks using a screwdriver. These hooks are a discontinued style from Ikea. So bummed–if you see them there again, let me know!

Hang on the Wall

I screwed my hat rack directly into the wall. Heavy-duty picture hangers on the back of the hat rack and molly screws in the wall will also do the job.

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