And Welcome to Pre-Finals Week!

It's getting to be crunch time around here! Not just for finals, but to see if we can make it another week without having to do laundry. I really don't want to have pay to do laundry when I can just do it at home... 
Anyways it finally started snowing last night! It snowed quite a lot. Now it can just stop until I get home for Christmas break. Anna and I went for a walk in it. We went to go look at an apartment. 

Obviously, Anna is not prepared for white out conditions. She would blend in. But don't worry, I wore my bright orange coat just in case the wind picked up! 

I have a little (super big) obsession with Starbucks' Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. It doesn't help that it is right down the street from my building. Anna and I had to stop there on our way back after apartment looking. Which brought us to the following conversation:

             Me: I want to make a snow angel, but I have no snow pants. 

             Anna: Yeah... 

             Me: I wonder if the snow would clean my pants... I dropped a pizza roll on them. 

             Anna: Don't worry, I have Cheetos on my pants and I wore them to work. 

             Me: I think that we should try the snow angels...

See we really do not want to do our laundry! Let's face it, I'm to cheap to do do my laundry. But that's ok, I will admit it. 

Then we commentated a snowball fight out in the circle at 11:30 at night. Who ever the kid was that did a handspring over the snow pile, we have a trophy for you! It was pretty entertaining. That is college for you :) 

-Katelyn

Laundry: College Style

Everyone's has to do laundry in college. Unless you are one of those kids who goes home or visit Grandma every weekend and Mom or Grandma does your laundry. In that case, that's cheating. I will admit that I did turn my laundry blue one time. That was because I bought new jeans with a lot of indigo dye in them and I kind of forgot about it. But I now have a lovely shade of blue tank top! Anyways, we (Anna and I) do our laundry a little different than the average student. I do laundry once a week for 24 weeks during the school year. If I used two laundry machines and two dryers per week plus if I wash my sheets every two weeks that is almost 110 dollars per year on laundry. I don't know about, but I don't like that. Also the dryers here either shrink your clothes or don't dry them. If they don't get dry then I have to pay for another cycle, only increasing my laundry budget. So we came up with a new system! Let me introduce you to my system. :)

Behold! My magic laundry supplies! What we've got here is a rying rack, a hamper (from Target), and soap. I love my hamper. I got it at Target last year and it is perfect. It works as a hamper and a laundry basket. It's also sturdy and wont rip, unlike those cheap netted ones that they put in the college supply section of stores. When I take laundry home I have a few of those cheap net bags to take it home because they hold more laundry - there for I have enough clothing to last me three weeks so I can take it all home on break! Now, I bet you are thinking why in the world does she have a drying rack? Well remember my story about the dryers and the price? I decided that it wasn't worth it. I hang all of my clothes up. They last longer and it saves me money. I used to hang them up like the pictures below on my bed. But then on Thanksgiving break last year Mom and I picked this one up at Walmart for $19.99. It's big enough for my weekly load. Target has a similar one, but it is smaller and not as sturdy. We also have a rope that we tie between the lofts to hang up clothes that don't fit. I borrow Anna's when I wash my sheets so that they can be aired out more and dry faster. It usually takes about a day to dry unless we have the heat on, then it takes less time. 

My now more sophisticated way. :P

As for my soaps, that's a process. I have two different stain removers. Last year I used an OxiClean one and it didn't work. But these do perfectly fine! Our washers smell musty sometimes and that transfers to my clothes. They are used by hundreds of students so it is understandable. Enter the Downy Unstopables. I love these little things. I add about a fourth to half of a lid full to each load and it takes away the musty smell. It also makes my laundry smell great! As for softener and detergent, I just use plain old Downy and Tide. 

These are Tide bags. They can be found in the laundry isle of most stores (I got mine at Target and as a graduation gift from my cousin). They are seriously life savers. The bigger bag is for blouses and sweaters. I put my really nice shirts and cardigans in it. It saves them from being ruined in the wash and me having to do a separate load for them. The smaller one is for undergarments (coughcoughmybras). This also saves them and saves me from awkwardly washing them in the laundry sink that is full of germs and dirt and hasn't been cleaned in about five years. It fits two bras. Check them out, I love them.

I'm not going to tell you how to actually do your laundry. But I will tell you the following. Separate jeans, sweatpants, shorts, ect. from shirts, blouses, tanktops, ect. This will save your clothes! Also do not wash on warm. Wash on cold. This way you can mix colors. If you are hesitant about mixing colors, try a color guard sheet. I haven'y had a problem yet (except for the jeans... but it hasn't happened since). Untangle your clothes from each other, don't just throw them in a ball into the washer, they won't get clean. 

That's about all of my laundry knowledge. I know that hanging your clothes in your dorm or apartment seems crazy, but it has saved me a lot of money and it works better then drying my clothes on "medium" for two hours so they don't shrink. Happy Laundering! 

                                 -Katelyn

Glitter Drawer Tower

When I first started college, my mom and dad bought me a drawer tower due to the lack of space in my dorm. It's just a plastic Sterilite tower that we got at Walmart for about $15. I really like it. It has makeup, hair stuff, laundry things, and things that simply don't have a real home. The only problem is that the drawers were clear and you could see all of the stuff hidden inside. This summer, Hobby Lobby was having a sale on spray paint. So I bought two cans of Krylon Glitter Blast for the price of one ($7). 

I took the drawers outside and sat them up so the fronts were facing up. I followed the directions on the can and sprayed 2 coats on each drawer. For my five drawers it took one can of the spray paint. I let it dry overnight and sprayed it with a clear coat to seal it in. My mom's daycare kids were more excited that the ground and the car were sparkly. 

This is the finished product. It matches our room perfectly. :P Over break I plan on doing the rest of the sides. I sorta forgot about doing those sides, but that's ok! 

-Katelyn

I Needed a Laugh

Today has been busy. I have homework to do and my mind is going to explode! Then I found this on my computer. It made me smile, I love this little gal. Hope it makes you smile too! 

                        Smile and be happy!

                                       -Katelyn

Look Mom, I Organized!

My mom will probably tell you that I can't stay organized for longer than about five minutes. When I started college my goal was to be as organized as possible. Freshman year that worked about 50% of the time. This year it's improving but I have some tricks up my sleeve. I will gladly share them with you!

These little plastic containers work wonders! I got them at Target 5/$4.99 when I was packing for school. They made packing really easy. I labeled each one with what I planned on putting in there. These ones are labeled Cords/Chargers, Dishes, Pens/Sharpies/Notecards ect., Lint Rollers/Kleenexes, Laundry, Wash Clothes. The clear and purple one on the end has all of my Scentsy bars in it and the one underneath it has craft supplies in it. I highly recommend getting a Scentsy if you live in a dorm. Most dorms don't allow candles so the Scentsy is perfect because it melts the wax and makes your room smell great! 

All of the boxes get put under my futon. I don't need them all of the time so it works perfectly. The pink Rubbermaid is my dirty dish bucket. During the week I put the RINSED dishes that I use in the bucket and wash them on the weekend. I started doing this after I realized carrying a bunch of dishes to the basement was not an easy task. The clear plastic bag on the opposite end is full of shoes. I LOVE shoes and I have a ton of them (Muwahahahahahaha!). The bag is the one that my bedding came in and it just happened to fit all of my shoes and fit under the futon. 

Meet my desk... It is a multipurpose piece of furniture. All of my notebooks, folders and most of my textbooks are in the book caddies that I got at Target and Walmart. My makeup brushes, vitamins, and Aleve are up there too, along with my iPod dock/alarm clock. The blue bag behind my desk lamp is full of post it notes (I use like a million of them in a school year!). Last year they were all over the place, this way they are all in one place. Then there are some pictures, DIY coasters, bedazzled stapler, and hole punch. For all of my pencils and pens I put them in a cute flower pot that I found on sale at our grocery store. It works awesomely! Also throw in my planner and doodle book. (Yes it is covered in gliter :D)   

Next up, my tower. I glittered the drawers so you couldn't see inside. There is a lot of stuff in there. All of my laundry, hair, more makeup/nail stuff, personal items, and random stuff that doesn't really have a home are hidden in there. In the cubbies next to it are binders and more text books that I need for class and advising. 

Here hangs a lonely calendar. I use a planner for class work and such but the calender is for big events like work, tests, and when I am going home. My shoes that don't fit in the shoe bag or that I wear often sit under my mirror. TIP: If you wear boots, roll up an old magazine and put in in your boots when you're not wearing them. This keeps them from squishing! and then there are some pretty pictures of kids I babysit and my little brother. 

My dresser is another multipurpose piece of furniture. The bags are one that I got from shopping trips. They have socks and undergarments in them. All of my perfume and body sprays are up there along with some hair stuff. My nail polish and make up are in the two makeup bags behind the hair spray. Scarfs, headbands, and necklaces are hung up on the hooks on the wall. 

My closet, like the rest of my room is small. Besides my dresser, my hamper and shoe boxes are hidden in there. They just happen to fit perfectly in there. My laundry basket, that gets used a storage for towels, along with my sweatshirts take up the shelve up above. 

This is my favorite part of our room. Miranda and I bought a TV stand at Target ($20) and a bookshelf ($20) to help organize this area. Last year it was like a black hole and sucked things up and spit out a mess! We thought that these would help us out and they are probably the best thing we have bought all year. I got the baskets from Target ($6 for the small and $8 for the big). They have food, sunglasses, controllers, remotes, and random stuff with out a home in them. The pink bucket has clean dishes in it. This space is also home to our fridge, microwave, and TV. (By the way, I was watching Cupcake wars and this girl just got voted off. Not sure why she is smiling.) 

So that is our room! I love it! All that you didn't get to see were our beds and they aren't that interesting. Living in a small space limits you to the things that you can have but organizing it helps a lot. If this helps you, great! That's all we want! And, um Mom, my room is really clean right!? :)

                                           -Katelyn