In today’s busy world, it takes everyone in the family helping to keep it on track and on schedule. We all have to pitch in, lend a hand, and pull our weight to keep things from getting frantic. You should expect the same thing from the hardworking surfaces in your home. Low maintenance surfaces that are easy to clean are a must. But is that enough?

Back-painted glass, like Dreamwalls Color Glass, is definitely easy to maintain and clean. The lack of grout makes a surface that doesn’t absorb stains or mildew. The smooth surface allows any food or mess to be cleaned off easily. But glass does something other surfaces do not,….it helps you stay on track and communicate better with your family,…really!

You can write directly on glass with dry erase markers. The markers won’t stain or ghost, and the backsplash is a great place to jot down grocery lists so they’re easy for everyone in the family to see or amend.

Dreamwalls Backpainted Glass Backsplash Grocery List

When backpainted glass is used as cabinet inserts, you can write reminders at eye level, so every time you reach for the coffee or cereal it’s front and center.

Dreamwalls Color Glass Back Painted Glass Message Reminder

But glass is also fantastic for recipes and checklists that can easily be erased or marked through as each step is completed. Wouldn’t it be a good way to have a chore board – so the kids can erase tasks themselves upon completion?

Dreamwalls Backpainted Glass Recipe

But who says it only has to be about tasks, chores, lists or “to-dos”? Back-painted glass can also be used for those little notes of support, gratitude and love that can mean the difference between an early start and a GREAT start to your day. And every family member can use more of that.

Dreamwalls Color Glass Backpainted Glass Note of Support

The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) is in full swing in Las Vegas this week. I have no doubt there are some amazing designs and innovations that are taking place there. Some may become paradigm shifts to the industry and I’m excited to see them. However, I am dedicating today’s blog to some good basics to consider when designing or remodeling a kitchen. These will make your kitchen more functional, and will stretch your budget a little bit more.

• drawers or pull out shelves in nearly all bottom cabinets. They’re good for multiple generations ergonomically. They’re an efficient use of the space by opening up full accessibility to all the contents. And dog-gone it, I am tired of hefting a stack of plates from the dishwasher up to eye level.
• plan for lighting; and the right kind. You need enough recessed lights in the ceiling. Pendant lights over eating areas. But be extra sure you have under-cabinet lighting anywhere you’ll be cutting or reading a recipe. Otherwise the shadows will make you crazy.
• adding an island with a beautiful top (glass is of course my vote). This creates an eye catching focal point in the room. If you have a limited budget and want an instant bit of impact, consider it. Using less expensive material elsewhere can help your budget. (see my earlier post on comparing countertop materials)
• keep your edgeworks simple. A lot of countertop fabricators can do incredible stuff. They have fanciful names like “triple waterfalls” or “double ogee”,  but a regular polished edge is usually a lovely look for a good base price.
• weigh the trends. Do you really need a wine fridge? Is it worth the space you’ll be giving up for something else? Or is it destined to be the bread machine of the future?

What is your best suggestion for value in a kitchen design?

The first week of progress on my road to organization using the book Organize Now! by Jennifer Ford Berry, has been mixed. I really haven’t been asked to physically clean or organize a thing yet. So that’s good. She’s focusing on my state-of-mind right now. Talking about setting priorities and making lists. Getting ready. Most of those sort of things I’m pretty good at already.

However, some of the things she talked about are glaring omissions from my life. I don’t journal,…unless Twitter counts. And I haven’t seen the gym in months. Thank you notes, bills, sewing dance costumes, toddler drama, doing the dishes,….just like everyone else I know, I struggle to get it all done in the time from when little ones go to bed, to my own bedtime – which seems to keep getting later and later.

So that’s the thing I’ve uncovered this week from the book. “Friend time” isn’t high on my priority list these days.  “Date night” is non-existent. And taking the time to visit with my sister out of town once a month seems like a monumental task. So I arranged a date and had coffee with an equally busy friend other day. That was huge for me. She is funny and smart and her kids are older, so I always learn something from her.

One,…okay three,….cups of coffee and some chit-chat with a friend, is not too much to ask of yourself. My office is still a wreck, but maybe I’m more relaxed (albeit a wee-bit jittery). Perhaps that’s the point.  I’m not drowning; I’m waving.

The state of my office currently

It’s time for Spring Cleaning. And so I have an announcement to make: I am not a neat person. Groovy, perhaps. Funky, occasionally. But certainly not “neat”. One might even argue that I’m a slob. 3 people specifically will come to mind with that opinion: my mother, my husband, and my college roommate.

But I don’t always like being this way. This is not the ramblings of one of those people from Hoarders. (I don’t think) I do love organization. I am great at organizing website structure. But you ask me to file something,…and I just can’t seem to do it. Even my computer desktop has everything out so I can find it.  I always seem to find so many other things to put in front of organizing. It’s not producing something new. Or, what if I file it away, and it is forgotten? (how’s that for rationalizing?)

This is my actual desktop

My downfall is paper. Trained as a graphic designer and a print art director, I love the printed page.  I sketch, doodle and draw. I clip, snip, and dog-ear. I keep every communication, so my bosses won’t have to. I tend to remember things better when I write them down. I also have become the “safe” zone for samples and swatches of unusual glass projects and frame ideas. At the end of the day, I have a lot of piles of stuff.

So, I moved into a new office at work last week. A clean slate, right? Wrong. Because now I have to make old stuff fit into new stuff, and I can’t make the original flow of “to-do’s” stop while I do it. But this is something I have to do. It’s embarrassing (these photos were not easy for me to upload), and it’s beginning to really stress me out.

Please let this be "before"

That is why I am taking a book, Organize Now! by Jennifer Ford Berry, and I’m taking it step-by-step on my road to recovery. Why did I choose this one, you ask? Honestly, because it had a cute cover and was sold at Lowe’s, where I am all the time anyway. (imagine my chagrin at seeing her newly expanded version on her website – D’oh!) I do have some trepidation in that she’s an organizer. She even starts the book with, “I have loved to organize since I was a child.” Not me! So how can she – a person to which this all comes so naturally – break habits, which to me, also come very naturally?

I’ll update you – if not every week, at least periodically on my road to bringing order to my chaos. Deep breath,…and begin.