Once upon a time there were three little beverage containers.

They were used and loved by all the little ones in the kingdom. They held water, milk, juice, hot chocolate – all kinds of wonderful things the little ones loved to drink.

But they became dirty. Very dirty.

The King and Queen of the land didn’t know what to do to clean them because there were so many tiny parts that were hard to reach.

Well, actually the Queen knew what to do; she was pretty smart.

She used a small little brush (not the blue sponge) to reach the cracks, crevices and long parts that couldn’t be reached with anything else.

First the Queen cleaned the small thermos straw.

Then the Queen cleaned the long straw. And she wondered how her hands had gotten so red.

And finally the Queen cleaned the lid of the container using the same small brush.

The King and the rest of the kingdom rejoiced! The beverage containers were put back to use immediately and the little ones were filled with joy.

Where did the Queen get such a wonderful tool? From the cake supply section at her local craft market (store). She discovered the name of this tool and sent a proclamation out to her entire kingdom.

This, my subjects, is called a Tip Brush.

And they all lived happily ever after.

This should have been my very first post. This website has changed the way I think about the daily grind of housework; that it really is a blessing we can give to our families.

I didn’t mean to be selfish; I was just waiting for the perfect moment to share it with you. But there is no perfect moment. I know this. I’m accepting this.

So without further ado…

flylady.net

Heard of it? If you have, are you doing it? If not, go check it out! Sign up for her emails; you won’t regret it!

source: reuters.com

DVD’s everywhere…falling on the floor, getting stepped on, broken, disorganized and lost.

Not a pretty sight. Nope. Not at all.

Wouldn’t it be nicer to have this instead?

source: halfagiraffe.tv

This is a step in the right direction, but still not good enough. And, to be honest, totally not realistic if you have children of any age.

I bet we all can, in 2 seconds flat, picture in our minds how this arrangement would end up as a total disaster.

What if I told you that you could have something even better? And what if I told you that it would take up hardly any space at all?

Would you believe me? Or would you think I’ve gone off my rocker?

Want a teaser?

Hmmm. A gigantic bookshelf or a small binder? I don’t know which I’d choose. It seems like such a hard decision – total chaos or organized peace of mind. I just don’t know.

Intrigued? Moving on.

Did you get any DVD’s for Christmas this year? Are they lying all over the place? Are they spilling out onto the floor, or in a drawer that won’t open because your kids stuffed them in there so tightly that the drawer is jammed shut, never to be opened again?

Phew – that was a run on sentence.

Are you done with the mess and hassle of DVD’s? Do you want them to be organized, neatly in place and even *gasp* alphabetized?

If this sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Oh wait – it’s not.

This is one of those things that’s entirely possible. But you have to be willing to give something up.

No, not your first-born. You can keep your children; I have plenty of my own.

You have to be willing to give up something else.

source: thetechgeek.com

These.

Yes, the DVD case.

What?!

But, but, but.

I know, I know. For some reason, the case is special. It holds and protects the DVD. It’s even got a nice cover on it and a bunch of information on the back and inside that I know you’ll never read.

I know it’s precious.

But we’ve got to think outside of the box, or case, in this matter.

Take a deep breath, because if you haven’t seen this before, you’re going to love it!

Are you salivating yet? No, not over my wonderful movie choices, but over the binder!

The above picture is the first page of the inside of this:

I am so in love with this way of organizing my DVD’s and it’s not even Valentine’s Day!

This particular binder has the capacity to store 208 DVD’s!! Two hundred and eight! Can you believe that? 208. 200 + 8.

Impressive, most impressive. (name the movie)

Now that I’ve rocked your socks, let’s get right to how:

#1. Decide how you want your movies organized…

Meaning, do you want them organized by title, genre, year, etc? I choose to arrange them alphabetically. And this binder is only for my kids’ movies. They know that they’re allowed to watch anything in that binder, so there’s no worry that they’ll put something on that’s too scary or grown-up for them.

I even have a separate binder for DVD’s we’ve recorded off of TV (we have a DVD recorder).

#2. Gather your DVD’s.

We’ll use Megamind as our example. So here’s the movie, untouched and a little blurry (sorry about that).

#3. Remove cover from case.

It’s easiest if you open the case all the way up. That loosens the paper cover and it just slides right out.

OK, here they are separated. Take another deep breath. I know that was hard. It was hard for me at first, too.

#4. Cut the cover to fit.

You’ll need to measure the DVD opening in your binder to get an exact fit. Then cut it slightly smaller so it’ll slip easier into the opening.

Did you notice I cut off the title? Guess what? It’s OK to do that. Especially for kids. They’ll know what the movie is by the picture; they don’t need the title. If you can fit the title, great. But it’s not essential.

#5. Insert the cover into the DVD binder.

Megamind goes right after Mary Poppins and right before Milo and Otis. Alphabetical order is so soothing to me.

#6. Slide the DVD behind the cover.

#7. Enjoy the freedom and peace.

It’s so easy for even little children to flip the pages and pick a movie.

And it’s just as easy for them to put the movie away because they can match the movie with the picture.

#8. Take it a step further.

My sister Heidi recently did this and she laminated the DVD covers. She has a lamination machine so it was really easy. But you can take the covers to a local copy center and have it done there.

I plan on doing that because my baby likes to rip the covers. That doesn’t make me happy. Nope. Not at all.

#9. Other issues.

What do I do if I don’t have the DVD cover?
Heidi also solved this problem. She didn’t have DVD covers for some of her movies. So she used google images to bring up pictures of the movies, printed them out and used those as the DVD covers.

What if I have a 2-disc version?
I cut the front of the DVD cover to use for the main DVD – the one that has the movie on it. I cut the back of the DVD cover to use for the bonus disc that has the special features. Then I put both of them in the binder.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy a DVD binder and get rid of those cases! You’ll be totally amazed at the space you freed up for other things.

I don’t know, obviously, because I’m not there yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be. And I’m supposed to be the organized one. Ha ha.

Maybe they have help. Maybe they just have it prioritized so high that other things must fall by the wayside. I know many of them write a bunch of posts and schedule them throughout the week.

I know for some it’s their livelihood, so obviously they must take the time to do it.

Oh well. I can’t say I’m not a teensy bit jealous.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, don’t we? Mine is not in posting every day. Mine is not in a lot of things.

Oh man – I’m so horrible. I’m not good at this or that or that other thing.

** Pause **

Do you do this? Do you compare yourself to others?

Someone told me the other day that my house is always clean. She said it like it was a fact.

I laughed.  She doesn’t have a clue. She admitted to struggling with keeping her house clean. But she assumed that because my living room was clean the one time she came over that my entire house was clean. All. The. Time.

We must stop doing this to ourselves. We must stop comparing our weaknesses with others’ strengths.

I happen to love organizing. But just because I may have a knack, talent or gift for it doesn’t mean I’m perfect at it, or that my house is always clean, or that someone else is lame because they struggle with it more.

As this year closes and a new one begins, let’s start today to make a change. Let’s start now to not compare ourselves with others. We don’t need to wait until the new year (although I know it’s only a day away) to make changes.

Are you with me? Let’s do this together! And along the way we’ll help each other get more organized, too.

It’s a win-win all around. What could be better than that?

This is Google’s New Year’s Eve logo. They look like they’re having a lot of fun. They’re all different, but together they make something wonderful!

So enjoy your New Year’s Eve. Celebrate the strengths you have and the strengths others have!

Have a very, Merry Christmas!